Scotland/Alba Regional Weather Discussion 23/04/17 onwards

[Hairy Celt]

7 hours ago, CatchMyDrift said:

A warm week ahead with 20C+ looking likely for much of the week.

I'll have to fish out the mankini.... 

I'm an obsessive digger at this time of year so was out this evening with the spade and found that (on average) the top 12cm of soil is now nicely damp and a few worms were wriggling their way back up.  With the temperature set to rise so much in the next few days, I wonder how long today's rain will last.... Not long, I guess, especially if there's a greedy, leafy crop respiring.

[Hairy Celt]

3 hours ago, CatchMyDrift said:

Unless we get some more downpours during the week it'll dry out quickly with temps like this. A real blast of summer if these temps are correct:

 

Yeah but those are maximums - average temps are much more reliable for coastal places, so a good couple of degrees lower. A few warm days coming up. I'll be happy to eat my hat though! 

[Ravelin]

Pretty much wet all day here yesterday until 7pm or thereabouts. The only thing that really varied was the type and intensity of the rain. A much better day today so far with broken sunshine but not feeling overly warm. 

Going to be busy later I expect extracting honey as I went and took 33 pretty much full frames worth off the bees this morning. Not sure how much that will yield but believe me, it was pretty heavy carrying them to the car. It'll be more than we got in any one session last year, that's for sure. 

[NUT]

Wet currently. Might be about the same tomorrow or heavy showers at least then the fun and games begin afterwards

[mardatha]

Wind and rain here but not cold.

[Hairy Celt]

We just got a few annoying little piddly drizzly spells today, mainly when me and Ms HC were locked into outdoors stuff.  Tip of the day: don't buy gardening stuff from B&Q, it's crap.  Certainly looking forward to some warmth this week, although tempered somewhat by having to earn a crust.

Right. Off out with a torch to molest some molluscs.

[Ravelin]

OK, after 4hrs of the wife and I spent extracting honey the tally is in... <drum roll>... over 65lbs.

To put that into context, last year, our first year, we got less than 30lbs for the whole year. OK so last year we split the hive around July which will have reduced production but it means we've benefitted from having two hives this year. The 'daughter' hive as we call it seems to be a much better producer than the 'mother' hive too. If the weather holds who knows how much more we'll get before the rape stops flowering. 

Right, sleep, I'm knackered. 

[Northernlights]

4 minutes ago, Ravelin said:

OK, after 4hrs of the wife and I spent extracting honey the tally is in... <drum roll>... over 65lbs.

To put that into context, last year, our first year, we got less than 30lbs for the whole year. OK so last year we split the hive around July which will have reduced production but it means we've benefitted from having two hives this year. The 'daughter' hive as we call it seems to be a much better producer than the 'mother' hive too. If the weather holds who knows how much more we'll get before the rape stops flowering. 

Right, sleep, I'm knackered. 

Much better May on the farm this year warmer and with much more sunshine, birds really singing every morning with more food in terms of insects. Good to hear your bees are doing well. Cattle more content at grass with the warmth and sunshine with better grass growth as well.. Stopped feeding them silage a week ago. Most of veg have germinated in garden with rain yesterday and strawberries in full flower a bit behind Aurora Storm in Edinburgh who has green berries already.

[Hairy Celt]

4 minutes ago, Northernlights said:

Much better May on the farm this year warmer and with much more sunshine, birds really singing every morning with more food in terms of insects. Good to hear your bees are doing well. Cattle more content at grass with the warmth and sunshine with better grass growth as well.. Stopped feeding them silage a week ago. Most of veg have germinated in garden with rain yesterday and strawberries in full flower a bit behind Aurora Storm in Edinburgh who has green berries already.

I'd say that so far this has been the best May for many years, from the veg gardening point of view because I can get out and water stuff as needed.  I'm also seeing a good number of insects recently, although nowhere near how it was 40 or 50 years ago. 

What has happened to insect populations? The numbers have just collapsed in the last 30 or 40 years, even in places well away from the effect of farm insecticides.  I can drive from here to the south of France in midsummer and barely have to do more than use the wipers and some wash - in the 70s, there'd be 'curse and scrape' stops a couple of times a day.  And I remember having to wash my visor (motobike helmet) repeatedly in the 80s to get rid of bugsplat - when I stopped biking 15 years ago, this was never a problem.  SOMETHING CHANGED.

[Ravelin]

Just short of 13C in Dyce at 9am but cloudy. It should stay dry for the kids school sports day though, which if it does will be the first time they've managed it at the first attempt for a few years I think.

As to the garden at the moment, if my veg start growing much quicker I'll wake up one morning to find it a no-go zone, taken over by mutant radishes and runner beans. Not that I'm complaining as it's been the opposite problem the last couple of years, it's just that I might need to keep a machete handy by the back door.

[mardatha]

Warm here but steady pouring rain. Seriously not amused. Relapse of cabin fever as husband won't take the damn car out in the rain in case it gets dirty!!

[Glaswegianblizzard]

One hefty shower about to hit us in Glasgow - went dark outside and I swear there's been some lightning.

[Sunshineandshowers84]

Dark skies now and ready to hit us..

[Glaswegianblizzard]

Actually not started raining. Just seems to be very very dark cloud. The lightning might have been my imagination.

 

[Sunshineandshowers84]

Torriental rain here but just walked into a pub..

[NUT]

Getting darker and breezier this rain might be a bit intense when it hits (maybe the last rain tho to the end of the week at least)

[NUT]

And it's hit us. Going to be rather wet for a while me thinks 

[Glaswegianblizzard]

Been quite heavy rain here for about 25 minutes - started just after I posted that there was no rain.

[Ross Andrew Hemphill]

Nice wee blast of warmth for us this week! I'm going for 27C somewhere in the Central Belt or the borders, just hope to God we join in with the fireworks in the breakdown!

[Richard Taylor]

1 hour ago, Sunshineandshowers84 said:

Torriental rain here but just walked into a pub..

Sounds like the start of a joke! 

Here, mod/heavy rain, some sferics have shown up offshore to our SE, but no thunder heard, at least not by me. TCU/CB in area, airport TAF has the storm possibility to 2300hrs. 

 

Edited May 22, 2017 by Richard Taylor

[Northernlights]

Very wet evening with heavy bursts of rain.Sowed about a quarter of neeps this afternoon before rain.Should mean they are through the ground within a week. Currently 10c

[Norrance]

Very heavy squally shower just passed by here. Blew garden furniture over. Easing now. Radar showed lightning just North of here a short time ago.

[Scottish-Irish Skier]

Absolutely lashing down here.

Will give the garden a decent water before taps aff week starts.

Looking like a crackin early summer spell. I'm already planning BBQs and major gardening sessions for the weekend.

Just to jinx things like.

[Norrance]

Guaranteed 25C, maybe 30C for me later in the week,

Flying to Tenerife on Wednesday.

[ciel]

Well, I wasn''t expecting an electrical storm this evening.  Lots of flashes and bangs with torrential rain just now.