Spring 2020 | Moans, Ramps & Chat

[Scorcher]

1 hour ago, al78 said:

Looks like the summer-like weather will last into the first half of the Easter bank holiday, then a significant cool down from Monday back to near average temperatures. Still no sign of rain in my area, fortunately I haven't got any transplanted seedlings on my allotment that need watering (yet).

Looking more like one cool day (Monday) and then warming up again for Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

Wednesday could be as warm as anything this week if the latest GFS run is on the money.

[B87]

1 hour ago, cheeky_monkey said:

1980 wasn't a dire summer..its was one of those cool dry summers

It was an awful summer. Every month in London was cooler, wetter and cloudier than average. July in particular was freezing!

June: 19.8c/10.9c, 106.2mm, 188.8 sun hrs

July: 19.7c/11.9c, 59.3mm, 163.7 sun hrs

August: 21.9c/13.3c, 52.3mm, 173.4 sun hrs

 

 

[mb018538]

This is one of the best starts to April I can ever remember. A really long stretch of temperatures that wouldn’t be out of place in late May or June. I’d happily bottle this for the rest of the summer, low 20s is feeling fantastic.

[Stabilo19]

19 minutes ago, mb018538 said:

This is one of the best starts to April I can ever remember. A really long stretch of temperatures that wouldn’t be out of place in late May or June. I’d happily bottle this for the rest of the summer, low 20s is feeling fantastic.

Agreed, it's a lovely spell of weather for early April. (if you're not in NE England or Scotland!)

Widely low 20s across Southern England at the moment. 

 

 

[Sunny76]

16 hours ago, B87 said:

It was an awful summer. Every month in London was cooler, wetter and cloudier than average. July in particular was freezing!

June: 19.8c/10.9c, 106.2mm, 188.8 sun hrs

July: 19.7c/11.9c, 59.3mm, 163.7 sun hrs

August: 21.9c/13.3c, 52.3mm, 173.4 sun hrs

 

 

My uncle remembers it well. I was only 4 at the time, but from what my family tell me, May was warm to hot at times, and early june was also hot. 

We were on a narrow boat break up in Broxbourne to Bishop Stortford. The weather was very warm and humid, followed by thunderstorms. Again, this is what my folks tell me, so have no proof.

Then it became cooler for the rest of the summer.

[Sunny76]

3 hours ago, mb018538 said:

This is one of the best starts to April I can ever remember. A really long stretch of temperatures that wouldn’t be out of place in late May or June. I’d happily bottle this for the rest of the summer, low 20s is feeling fantastic.

Yes, even 2019 and 2018 were still cold during the early April period, although i would argue its only been warm since last weekend.

The last two days have been the first days where i didn't need to wear a light jacket, as opposed to last week when it still felt cold in the shade or in the breeze. Obviously, the warmer air and less of the northerlies makes a difference.

[Stabilo19]

Very nice temperatures for April 11th. And some on that eastern coast will be going from 8-9 degrees today to 22 degrees Saturday. 

Feels like April temperatures are getting warmer. Just 2 years ago it reached 29 degrees on 19th April.

[Sunny76]

40 minutes ago, Stabilo19 said:

Very nice temperatures for April 11th. And some on that eastern coast will be going from 8-9 degrees today to 22 degrees Saturday. 

Feels like April temperatures are getting warmer. Just 2 years ago it reached 29 degrees on 19th April.

I would say it’s a mixed month and always has been. I remember cold and showery periods in April, followed by, or even replaced by warm days.

The one April that still stand out as warm to hot is 2011, and some of 2017. 2018 and 19 also had some really warm weather.

[cheeky_monkey]

20 hours ago, B87 said:

It was an awful summer. Every month in London was cooler, wetter and cloudier than average. July in particular was freezing!

June: 19.8c/10.9c, 106.2mm, 188.8 sun hrs

July: 19.7c/11.9c, 59.3mm, 163.7 sun hrs

August: 21.9c/13.3c, 52.3mm, 173.4 sun hrs

 

 

what is interesting here is that i was a school boy in 1980 and thought maybe my memory of that summer had faded over the years but hey ho i pulled the records from the met office archives for that summer..i was living in Exeter at the time..and i wasn't far wrong..indeed June looks pretty poor but the July and August during summer hols is as i remember..

June -0.8c 200% rainfall  69% sunshine

July -1.4c 70% rainfall  80% sunshine

August +0.5c 46% rainfall  79% sunshine 

so outside of June it was relatively dry, cloudy and cool

[Scorcher]

2 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

I would say it’s a mixed month and always has been. I remember cold and showery periods in April, followed by, or even replaced by warm days.

The one April that still stand out as warm to hot is 2011, and some of 2017. 2018 and 19 also had some really warm weather.

The recent trend is certainly for warmer Aprils though- the warm Aprils have far outweighed the cooler ones. In the last 13 years we've had the 2 warmest Aprils on record- and by some distance. They have been overwhelmingly above average on the whole. It also seems to be the norm to see 20C+ temperatures across the country- historically it's not been that rare to go through the whole of April without reaching 20C. 

 

[damianslaw]

11 minutes ago, Scorcher said:

The recent trend is certainly for warmer Aprils though- the warm Aprils have far outweighed the cooler ones. In the last 13 years we've had the 2 warmest Aprils on record- and by some distance. They have been overwhelmingly above average on the whole. It also seems to be the norm to see 20C+ temperatures across the country- historically it's not been that rare to go through the whole of April without reaching 20C. 

 

Yes April 2011 was warm throughout and very dry for many.  April 2019 also brought lots of warm weather, and 2018 (later on). April 2007 also very warm very similar to 2011. Warmth has been more of a feature than cold in many recent Aprils.

Perhaps not too surprising given high pressure has a far greater chance of holding off the atlantic in April than any other month of the year, and despite the phrase April showers, convection doesn't usually kick in until May and more so June, so clear skies have greater chance of holding sway rather than cloud invading during the afternoon.

April is always a month of fine margins, significant warmth and notable cold can quickly build, classic switcharounds occur as expected this Easter period, it makes it the most interesting month synoptic wise, northerlies exchanged for southerlies in less than 24 hrs and vice versa, cyclonic lows taking unusual tracks, heights retrogressing into Greenland with ease, scandi highs holding firm for ages, heights holding firm over the UK, atlantic suddenly coming to a halt. Always expect sudden changes in April, and equally things not to change for ages as well.

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by damianslaw

[Met.]

Around 'ere Aprils have gotten warmer and Oct/Nov has been getting colder in recent years, but especially November. However it's funny how most Aprils have been warmer than October in recent years.

[Don]

5 hours ago, Stabilo19 said:

Very nice temperatures for April 11th. And some on that eastern coast will be going from 8-9 degrees today to 22 degrees Saturday. 

Feels like April temperatures are getting warmer. Just 2 years ago it reached 29 degrees on 19th April.

All month's temperatures fell like they're getting warmer!

Edited April 9, 2020 by Don

[summer blizzard]

April 07 was better than April 11 in my opinion however I admit the first third of this month has been exceptional. Should be looking at 200+ sunshine hours here in Leeds and so far less than 10mm rain.

[B87]

All of the warm, dry and sunny (200+ hours) Aprils have ended up with poor summers. 2007, 2010, 2011 were poor, and to a lesser extent 2002 and 2015 come to mind.

2002 was probably the best of those summers, which says a lot.

Edited April 9, 2020 by B87

[virtualsphere]

10 hours ago, B87 said:

All of the warm, dry and sunny (200+ hours) Aprils have ended up with poor summers. 2007, 2010, 2011 were poor, and to a lesser extent 2002 and 2015 come to mind.

2002 was probably the best of those summers, which says a lot.

If you take all 3 months of meteorological summer then 2010 wasn't that bad here. June was fantastic, probably one of the best Junes in recent memory along with 2018. Unfortunately the weather went downhill in July and August but there was at least a decent fine summer month unlike the other years you mention.

[reef]

This is turning into quite a prolonged dry spell here now. After the wettest Autumn on record by some way, followed by the wettest February on record and wettest winter for 10 years we have now only had 20.0mm in the last 41 days.

The dry weather is welcome after the constant rain of the preceding months, but the ground is like dust already.

It would be nice if we could just get normal weather and not drought, flood, drought, flood. Its not good for growth, the farmers field out the front of us is a good 6 weeks behind last year already.

[AderynCoch]

Glorious spring weather here recently. I haven't seen a single cloud for well over a week now.

No rain since 21st March either. Come to think of it, that's the only day it's rained since most places got shut down by coronavirus restrictions (nearly a month now). Typical really!

[Sunny76]

1 hour ago, virtualsphere said:

If you take all 3 months of meteorological summer then 2010 wasn't that bad here. June was fantastic, probably one of the best Junes in recent memory along with 2018. Unfortunately the weather went downhill in July and August but there was at least a decent fine summer month unlike the other years you mention.

Yes 2010, was part of the run of poor summers in the 2007-12 period, but I remember it being similar to summer 2009. Both were the best of of those poor summers, they started off well with warm or hot sunny with in both Junes.

Unfortunately, July and August in both years were disappointing, July was quite thundery and cool at times during 2009, the august was cloudy and cool at times, mixed with warm sunny days. July 2010 was warmish, but went downhill, and August that year was one of the coolest since 1993.

[Sunny76]

I'm not knocking the dry weather. We had way too much damp, windy and chilly periods between October and March.

I'm all for warmth now until late september, hopefully with thunderstorms. It shouldn't be too long before we start encountering those. My guess is a thundery June for some reason.

[ManiaMuse]

So after the notably wet 7 months from from August 2019 to February 2020, could we finally be in for a sustained period of dry weather and a decent summer that is more than just a couple of brief heatwaves followed by grey skies and rain?

Sorry I've probably just cursed it for daring to believe...

[B87]

3 hours ago, virtualsphere said:

If you take all 3 months of meteorological summer then 2010 wasn't that bad here. June was fantastic, probably one of the best Junes in recent memory along with 2018. Unfortunately the weather went downhill in July and August but there was at least a decent fine summer month unlike the other years you mention.

June 2010 was one of the few sunny summer months between August 2006 and July 2013. It was a good month, but 1 good month and 2 bad months is still a poor summer.

Summer 2002, while being poor, was still useable. Like a more stable version of 1998.

Edited April 10, 2020 by B87

[cheese]

Another beautiful day with a high of 21C. Monday looks cool but then it’s back to above-average temperatures afterwards.

What a lovely spring it’s been,

Edited April 10, 2020 by cheese

[B87]

3 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

Yes 2010, was part of the run of poor summers in the 2007-12 period, but I remember it being similar to summer 2009. Both were the best of of those poor summers, they started off well with warm or hot sunny with in both Junes.

Unfortunately, July and August in both years were disappointing, July was quite thundery and cool at times during 2009, the august was cloudy and cool at times, mixed with warm sunny days. July 2010 was warmish, but went downhill, and August that year was one of the coolest since 1993.

I worked out the Manchester summer index for London for the years 2000-2019, and the years with warm and sunny Aprils are as follows.

2002: 272

2007: 244

2010: 279

2011: 247

2015: 276

An average London summer would have an index of 289, for comparison.

[qwertyK]

Hasn't rained in here in at least a week. Non stop sunshine. Though of course , my birthday on Monday would just happen to be one of the coldest and cloudiest days of the month