Southeast England & East Anglia, Weather Chat...July 1st 2015...

[stainesbloke]

Another crap 'summer' day here after a lovely, promising sunny start, masses of cloud has swept in on a howling cool wind. Still dry and 'usable' though but not at all pleasant.

[seaside 60]

Hello Ben,

I think there have been two problems this summer as far as my area is concerned. Firstly much of the rain has been convective in nature and therefore very much hit or miss as to one area receives any precipitation whereas another a few miles down the road receives a real soaking. In the main we have missed most of the showers/storms and any frontal rain has diminished on its way across Essex. This is a common occurrence for us and Shoeburyness is often quoted as the driest place in Britain receiving less rain than Tel Aviv and some other Middle East locations.

The other factor this year has been the number of windy days. This year has had the highest number of non-calm days since the 1950's. This dries out the soil greatly. Add to this the fact that much of Essex is situated on heavy clay as a result of the last Ice Age you will appreciate that dried out clay is the least manageable of soil to deal with.

Kind Regards

Dave

Yes Dave, the number of windy days, I didnt realise there were that many, I knew it was high.

Part of the reason I think is this constant south westerly wind pattern which I hate in the summer, as it produces high humidity most of the time.

 

I have chatted with many friends about it in my line of work.

The other factor is the total lack of sea breezes yet again this summer.

We normally get the high over us or to the north/south east of us.

This creates calm days, which heat up and bring sea breezes just to the coasts.

Which is why many people have been moaning about the windy days, its normally just the coasts that get them in the summer.

 

Yes Ben, this area must be 50/80% down on rainfall this summer, most grass areas are like deserts  and yes we can and do use watering cans hoses buckets and whatever.

HOwever its just not the same as that lovely acidic pollutant filled natural stuff that comes from the sky.

[alexisj9]

It's quite windy here other than that it's lovely out.

[chrisbell-nottheweatherman]

My dad let our cat in around 4 a.m. and was convinced he heard thunder - I presume all the sferics were over the North Sea?

[Blessed Weather]

Disappointing 24 hours coming up with cloud and outbreaks of patchy rain which will only be heavy enough to be a nuisance. I was hoping for a little bit of sun first thing this morning before the cloud rolled in, but it's already grey. On the positive side, at least that damn wind shouldn't be a problem today. Currently 16.2C.

[NO LONGER POSTING]

Disappointing 24 hours coming up with cloud and outbreaks of patchy rain which will only be heavy enough to be a nuisance. I was hoping for a little bit of sun first thing this morning before the cloud rolled in, but it's already grey. On the positive side, at least that damn wind shouldn't be a problem today. Currently 16.2C.

 

Could be a few sharp showers later perhaps the odd clap of thunder to.. 

[alexisj9]

Disappointing 24 hours coming up with cloud and outbreaks of patchy rain which will only be heavy enough to be a nuisance. I was hoping for a little bit of sun first thing this morning before the cloud rolled in, but it's already grey. On the positive side, at least that damn wind shouldn't be a problem today. Currently 16.2C.

Some sun here, but also signs it will cloud over soon though.

[Rain123]

The radar is saying that it will rain soon. I don't think it'll be that heavy, but I'm going to go and get the washing in.

[alexisj9]

Those signs it might cloud over have burned away and it is not a nice sunny cloudless sky with less wind than yesterday around, lovely.

[lassie23]

Hazy sunshine here 24.5c! Winter is over by the way, even before it has began.  The problem is that sea surfaces temperatures in the Med are 6c higher than normal and there is a huge body of warm water off the west coast of Spain too, whilst the north atlantic is colder than it should be. This set up is ideal for high pressure to form to the south and low pressure to develop to the north. This would strengthen the jet and bring it slap bang over the UK and is predicted to do so, especially from October to January, bringing with it a stormy, mild winter with flooding. I hope this early prediction is wrong as another winter like 2013-2014 would be a disaster for this country. Unfortunately the sea surface temperatures don't look like they are going to change in the near future. 

Edited August 5, 2015 by lassie23

[seaside 60]

The med like the north sea can change pretty quickly given the right synoptic's.

However the Atlantic is a different body of water to change.

[Bogman]

Raining.

[Rain123]

Its been raining here for the past hour and a bit, mostly quite light, but some moderate bursts though.

[seaside 60]

Looks like the rain missed us again despite all promises.

[Ste Lee]

Big heavy blobby rain here in Barkingside (Nr Ilford) 

[NO LONGER POSTING]

Lightning in the channel..

[Ben Lewis]

The rain just missing me to the SE pushing North East.

Good job as well. Don't need/want anymore rain for my location, fields still muddy and bogged in shady areas!

Very green here, no 'dust bowl' conditions as some seem to describe in their area.

May get a brief shower in the next hr though.

Edit: it's now raining moderately, just what my area doesn't need :-(

Edited August 5, 2015 by Ben Lewis

[stainesbloke]

Yet another poor day with loads of cloud, drizzly rain and a 'high' of 20C. Whoopee! The sun and warmth just over the Channel is staying there by the looks of it.

[Biggin]

Just had some thunder and lightning here

[wintrywend]

Dark clouds approaching and just heard thunder!

[Mark wheeler]

A couple of fork lightning strikes in the distance with one rumbling boom

[nicol@]

One flash and rumble in East London. Now a rainbow.

[HammerJack]

A rumble here as I type

[Blessed Weather]

Well well. The "disappointing day" I thought we would endure has actually turned out to be very interesting. The Met Off forecast on the BBC this morning had no mention of any thunder & lightning for our patch today, but there's currently storms heading into Essex and also Sussex/Surrey. And the "mostly light patchy rain" has been heavy up towards the Wash.

 

Rainfall 20.15  Lightning 20.30 

[alexisj9]

Been a lovely sunny day here today, some ac cas moved over while the storms were over sussex, now a clear humid night.