spring 2014 Spring 2014 Discussion

[Summer Sun]

Aviemore has recorded the highest UK temperature of 2014 so far today hitting 22.0°C

[Richard2901]

April has been another awful month dominated by horrible south easterly winds bringing a continuation of the detested pattern of the last 7 months i.e. ridiculously mild nights and subdued daytime maxima with an extreme lack of both warmth and cold

 

Both my location and Aviemore average a mean max of 10.9C in April. However this year the excessive amount of  SE'ly winds has given Aviemore a mean max 3C above average at 13.9C, with an impressive monthly max of 22.0C, whereas here the mean max has been a near average 11.3C with an absolutely pathetic monthly max of 15.8C. It's the first time since the 1970s that three successive Aprils have failed to hit 17C.

 

Here my mean min was 1.9C above average at 5.4C resulting in one of the lowest average diurnal ranges on record for April. Almost the same mean min as 2007 and 2011 but with maxima over 3C lower. Even the clearer spell mid-month failed to produce much in the way of cold nights with just one lame frost of -0.1C.

 

The first week and last 9 days have been up there with the most revolting spring spells I've experienced and really only the outstandingly sunny easter weekend and another couple of unusually clear and sunny days saved this month from being as bad as April 2012 - the dullest since 1941.

 

These 6 days alone accounted for over half the sunshine total of a month otherwise full of gloomy miserable days, featureless stratus, fog and drizzle. 7 days with no sunshine at all which is even more than in April 2012. It's been just like the winter sunshine pattern rather than the mix of cumulus, sunny spells, sun/showers etc we should be getting at this time of year.

 

Really find it difficult to put into words just how much I have despised the synoptics of the past 7 months which have given an extreme lack of everything that could be considered desirable and an abundance of everything I detest the most

[reef]

I can well believe it has been a poor month in Aberdeen as even here there have been 10 days with fog this April and a similar amount of sunshine to what we got in March.

 

The mean min here has been 6.4C and only five days saw temps below 5C.

[Jax]

Foggy mornings but the days have been rather good and warm.

[picog]

Everything around here seems to be about average for spring — average weather, plants and wildlife seem to be doing their stuff about the right time, and so on.

[Summer of 95]

First April without air frost I can remember. Yet again a real lack of temperature variation: every day had a max between 10 and 18C. 

 

An amazing statistic: the temperature range here in the last 6 months has been just 21.5C (-3.5 to +18). It's not uncommon for March and April to record 23-25C ranges, the winter months can do it too if there's a mix of mild and cold spells.

[Summer Sun]

UK lows at 6am

 

Aboyne -4C

Banbury -3C

Northallerton -2C

Oxford -1C

York, Coventry & Rochdale 0C

Kew Gardens 1C

[Summer of 95]

Didn't get below 2C here last night even though it cleared about 3am- how could ultra-urban Kew get colder? No air frost since March.

[Summer Sun]

Didn't get below 2C here last night even though it cleared about 3am- how could ultra-urban Kew get colder? No air frost since March.

 

Clear sky for longer probably will have allowed the temperature to fall quicker hence the lower temps at Kew Gardens

 

3am is quite late now though given the sun is rising between 5am and 5:45am

Edited May 3, 2014 by Summer Sun

[Costa Del Fal]

Didn't get below 2C here last night even though it cleared about 3am- how could ultra-urban Kew get colder? No air frost since March.

3am is pretty late these days when it's getting light again by 5-6am now!

[Summer of 95]

3am is pretty late these days when it's getting light again by 5-6am now!

Yes it did surprise me a bit when I woke up to bright sunshine and it was only 6.10- not long now till the 4am dawns.

[Summer Sun]

Piers Corbyn's quote in the express today

 

Piers Corbyn, forecaster for Weather-Action, said Britain could be even in for an "exceptional" hot spell towards the end of the month. He said: "There is a considerable improvement on the way, turning hot towards the middle of the week and into next weekend. "Then right through until the end of the month, it could edge towards heatwave conditions, the next bank holiday is looking exceptionally good. "After that, there are signs it could break down into spectacular thunderstorms."

 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/475365/Summer-is-coming-Britain-s-wet-weather-makes-way-for-mini-heatwave

 

That will be part of the "WOW" May he said in his long range forecast

[Costa Del Fal]

So far and regrettably not much support for Piers so far!

[boywonder]

Maximum temperature in 24h. 05/14/2014 at 21:00 UTC

 

 

1 Solent M. R. S. C. (United Kingdom) 19.9 °C
2 Boscombe Down (United Kingdom) 19.5 °C
3 London / Heathrow Airport (United Kingdom) 19.5 °C
4 London, St James Park (United Kingdom) 19.3 °C
5 Shoreham Airport (United Kingdom) 19.2 °C

 

Minimum temperature in 24h. 05/14/2014 at 21:00 UTC

 

 1. Altnaharra (United Kingdom) -3.0 °C

 2.Loch Glascarnoch (United Kingdom) -2.1 °C
 3. Tulloch Bridge (United Kingdom) -1.4 °C
 4. Tain Range (United Kingdom) -0.1 °C
 5.Aviemore (United Kingdom) 0.3 °C

Edited May 15, 2014 by boywonder

[summer blizzard]

16C here though there's a fair amount of cloud. I'm hoping the sun comes out for the evening.

[Summer Sun]

Warmest day of the year today with Pershore in Worcestershire recording 22.1c earlier this afternoon that is likely to be broken again once all of today's data is in

 

EDIT has has indeed gone up

 

23.1°C recorded at Pershore

Edited May 16, 2014 by Summer Sun

[reef]

It could well be this area is the warmest today, Leconfield was 22.2C at 16:00.

 

We were 21.8C at the same time and reached a max of 22.6C. Very respectable for mid-May.

[Summer Sun]

The highest temperature of the year so far has moved to Santon Downham in Suffolk with 23.9C

 

Should hit the mid 20's tomorrow and Monday in the south wouldn't be surprised if we hit 26c by Monday afternoon in the south

Edited May 17, 2014 by Summer Sun

[Snowyowl9]

Next week looking very interesting as the models look,won`t predict nothing as it probably won`t happen,thundery/thunderstorms showers but they seem very limited lately,but a nice SE-ly is normally ideal where the low is situated just to the SW,warm humid plume.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/Rtavn481.html

May 2007 was excellent in that respect.

[Summer Sun]

London now holds the hottest day of the year so far with 24c recorded this afternoon

 

Should reach 25 or 26c in the south as the warmth reaches its peak

[Richard2901]

Back from a trip to a chilly autumnal Prague to endure yet another dire weekend ruined by fronts delivering cloudy garbage to the whole of Scotland instead of just the NW and Northern Isles as happened before 1998.

 

Rotten Spring so far that just keeps getting worse with weekend after weekend of write-off dross. This will be the 5th weekend out of 8 with less than 5 hours sun in total, a period over which the average should range from 8-13 hours. Incredulously the Easter Weekend has been the only sunny and dry weekend of the whole lousy year so far.

 

Depressingly, there continues to be no end in sight to the exceptionally revolting synoptics which have prevailed, since the end of September, giving a continuous autumn. Average pressure for the first 4 months of 2014 was over 2.5mb lower than in any other year of the past 150 years and May is on track to further increase this differential.

 

Sunshine here only 84.1 hours or 79% of average for the first 17 days of May and only 6 dry days. With spectacularly awful charts like the one posted above, alongside the oxymoron “nice SE-lyâ€, this can only got worse and it’s looking highly likely that this will end up as the dullest May since 1993 and a good chance of being only the third in 40 years, along with 1983 and 1993, to record fewer than 150 hours of sun. In Southern Scotland it must be headed for the worst May on record with Prestwick, Edinburgh and Glasgow all having shockingly poor and disgusting sunshine totals of just 35-55 hours so far when monthly averages are 180-200 hours.

 

The latest horror month in an era where record-breakingly awful months occur with alarming regularity and are never balanced out with equivalent months from the good end of the spectrum

 

[laserguy]

 

 

 

Rotten Spring so far that just keeps getting worse with weekend after weekend of write-off dross. This will be the 5th weekend out of 8 with less than 5 hours sun in total, a period over which the average should range from 8-13 hours. Incredulously the Easter Weekend has been the only sunny and dry weekend of the whole lousy year so far.

 

Depressingly, there continues to be no end in sight to the exceptionally revolting synoptics which have prevailed, since the end of September, giving a continuous autumn.

 

Think yourself lucky - pavements are probably cracking again around here, judging by the utterly relentless sun. I feel cack just being alive and surviving it indoors, never mind going out in it. No doubt we'll miss any thundery fun on offer this week,too.

[damianslaw]

This is turning into quite a pleasant spring in the main - never particularly wet for any length of time and consistently mild with only shortlived cooler blips which have tended to coincide with drier settled conditions. Its been a marked contrast to last spring which was consistently cool and cloudy and the one before which saw a very unusually warm dry sunny March followed by a chill very wet April and May. Spring is always our most varied season, and often sees very different conditions from one year to the next, but once again May has managed to deliver a spell of summer weather (away from the Far NW - but it has been a very fine line..).

Edited May 18, 2014 by damianslaw

[Summer Sun]

Official data from yesterday shows it was the hottest day of the year so far with 24.5°C recorded at St James's Park (London)

 

Could hit 26c today as the warmth reaches its peak

[cheeky_monkey]

What does Summer hold though. It's quite concerning because decent Springs are often followed by dreadfully cool and wet summers. Hopefully this warmth is just an early taste of what's to come later...

May 1989 and particularly May 1990 were glorious followed by 2 very decent summers indeed. I think May 1995 was none too shabby either.

Edited May 19, 2014 by cheeky_monkey