Spring 2020 | Moans, Ramps & Chat

[Sunny76]

12 hours ago, Mapantz said:

Well, you mentioned about last April being cold, it may well have been where you are, but you're generalising the month for everybody. Unless you specifically log weather data, like a few us do, you cannot call it like that.

April last year was a beaut here. Sunshine hours I recorded were above average, and temperature was way above average. Only 1 frost day at the beginning of the month. 

I only remember April 2019 as being chilly and quite cold in the first half. I remember having to cancel an outside job, because it was too windy and cold.

The Easter weekend was nice and warm and it did improve for a little while, but April 2019 just felt like a typical April for me.

London was quite damp and cool on and off, even into May it felt cold at times.

[Sunny76]

10 hours ago, Don said:

I do, just to get another period of cold winters!  However, it will become less and less likely moving forward, albeit still possible but the odds are in your favour!

No thanks. We have too much damp miserable weather, and this past winter was proof of that.

I wouldn’t want to endure 2-3 years of terrible summers, just to get couple of cold snowy winters. 
 

I would love another Feb 2018, March 2013, December 2010, Feb 2009, Feb 91, January 1987 etc, but it seems in order to get those we have to go through a period of poor summer weather to achieve it.

I think this is just the misfortune of living on an island. I don’t know if we would be longing for the cold so much if we lived where Cheeky Monkey is, and he’s in Edmonton. Sounds like they are having a permanent winter over there.

Longer periods of cooler weather is depressing for the mind, but I only speak for myself. I love the sun and warmth, but also love snow. If I want to sacrifice one of the other, it’s definitely the snow, because I had enough snow experiences in my life, and don’t really enjoy the cold when it’s close to or below freezing.

Maybe I went off again on a long pointless rant, but I understand if people are hoping for a cooler summer, which then can lead to a colder winter, but it’s not always the case.

1980, and 1987 had cool summers and winters that followed were mild, especially in the south of England. 
 

2011 was the same, in the period of 2007-12 of colder winters and poor summers, but 2011-12 was the mild one out of the bunch. Sometimes this happens.

[Earthshine]

39 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

No thanks. We have too much damp miserable weather, and this past winter was proof of that.

I wouldn’t want to endure 2-3 years of terrible summers, just to get couple of cold snowy winters. 
 

I would love another Feb 2018, March 2013, December 2010, Feb 2009, Feb 91, January 1987 etc, but it seems in order to get those we have to go through a period of poor summer weather to achieve it.

I think this is just the misfortune of living on an island. I don’t know if we would be longing for the cold so much if we lived where Cheeky Monkey is, and he’s in Edmonton. Sounds like they are having a permanent winter over there.

Longer periods of cooler weather is depressing for the mind, but I only speak for myself. I love the sun and warmth, but also love snow. If I want to sacrifice one of the other, it’s definitely the snow, because I had enough snow experiences in my life, and don’t really enjoy the cold when it’s close to or below freezing.

Maybe I went off again on a long pointless rant, but I understand if people are hoping for a cooler summer, which then can lead to a colder winter, but it’s not always the case.

1980, and 1987 had cool summers and winters that followed were mild, especially in the south of England. 
 

2011 was the same, in the period of 2007-12 of colder winters and poor summers, but 2011-12 was the mild one out of the bunch. Sometimes this happens.

I completely agree with you.  Bright sunshine and warmth really does make me feel more energised and productive.  I adore waking up to a bright sunny morning.  I wouldn't even mind a summer with pretty unremarkable temperatures (say around 18-23C) so long as it meant we had plenty of sunny and dry weather (with the odd shower to keep the plants green).  The current spell of warm and sunny weather we are having here down south really is perfection.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Earthshine

[Sunny76]

41 minutes ago, Earthshine said:

I completely agree with you.  Bright sunshine and warmth really does make me feel more energised and productive.  I adore waking up to a bright sunny morning.  I wouldn't even mind a summer with pretty unremarkable temperatures (say around 18-23C) so long as it meant we had plenty of sunny and dry weather (with the odd shower to keep the plants green).  The current spell of warm and sunny weather we are having here down south really is perfection.

Yes, a summer of 20-23 with the odd sprinkle of 26-29c days would be nice with long sunny periods, and the odd couple of rainy days. 
 

A cloudy warm summer is just as unappealing as a cloudy cool summer, because even if it’s 24c on most days, if there’s no sunshine to go with it, then it kind of defeats the object. 

2004 summer was horrible, and I remember cool and cloudy, with also some warm and cloudy weather. 

[summer blizzard]

On 10/04/2020 at 12:06, reef said:

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.

Not actually that abnormal. 2007 for example saw a flip to dry for Autumn, 2006 saw a flip to wet.

More abnormal if it persists longer than three months.

[hillbilly]

10 minutes ago, summer blizzard said:

Not actually that abnormal. 2007 for example saw a flip to dry for Autumn, 2006 saw a flip to wet.

More abnormal if it persists longer than three months.

The very wet period ending January 2016 was followed by 3 and a half year very dry period ending  summer 2019.No doubt after 7 to 8 months of rain we may be in for another relatively dry few years.

[AFC Snow]

My favourite type of weather is and probably always will be cold and snow however my least favourite is cloudy, wet and windy winter weather. This leaves me rapidly starting to prefer summer as we experience a record breaking snow drought in my location.

[Met.]

20 hours ago, reef said:

Except April is a warming month, so 'average' is lower at the beginning compared to the end. In a month with an average max of 14C, a day with a high of 14C would be mild at the start and cool by the end. 

Either way, regardless of how it 'felt' April 2019 was above average.

It wasn't me talking about how April 2019 felt, that was Sunny76.

However, mean temperature doesn't necessarily give a good indication of how a month really is though.

Modal temperature would actually be far more indicative - that number which is the most frequently occuring within a range of values - mode also being a form of average, one can argue a month with an above average mean, can also be below average by modal measure. April 2019 was such a month.

The C.E.T and met office use mean values, which is a standard way to keep things simple and consistent.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Thundershine

[MP-R]

4 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

I only remember April 2019 as being chilly and quite cold in the first half. I remember having to cancel an outside job, because it was too windy and cold.

The Easter weekend was nice and warm and it did improve for a little while, but April 2019 just felt like a typical April for me.

London was quite damp and cool on and off, even into May it felt cold at times.

It had its chilly moments for sure. I helped a friend move out on the second weekend of April and, although bright, it was quite bracing. The final weekend of the month was also cold and very windy as Storm (forgot the name) moved through.

Here are my temps for the first 15 days:

01st 14.0C / 02.9C

02nd 10.0C / 02.4C

03rd 07.8C / -0.7C

04th 09.3C / 02.9C

05th 08.3C / 04.7C

06th 13.2C / 06.3C

07th 14.6C / 07.3C

08th 14.3C / 08.4C

09th 09.5C / 06.5C

10th 13.3C / 03.9C

11th 13.1C / -0.3C

12th 12.5C / 03.5C

13th 12.3C / 00.6C

14th 10.5C / 00.8C

15th 15.3C / 05.1C

It got milder after that.

[Fourty Point Three Degrees]

rubbish day today just 16C here.

[Scorcher]

18 minutes ago, 38.7°C said:

rubbish day today just 16C here.

Your profile says you're in Manchester- 19.5C at Rostherne this afternoon which is the closest weather station.

So considerably warmer than 16C- unless you're a few thousand feet up!

[Sunny76]

1 hour ago, MP-R said:

It had its chilly moments for sure. I helped a friend move out on the second weekend of April and, although bright, it was quite bracing. The final weekend of the month was also cold and very windy as Storm (forgot the name) moved through.

Here are my temps for the first 15 days:

01st 14.0C / 02.9C

02nd 10.0C / 02.4C

03rd 07.8C / -0.7C

04th 09.3C / 02.9C

05th 08.3C / 04.7C

06th 13.2C / 06.3C

07th 14.6C / 07.3C

08th 14.3C / 08.4C

09th 09.5C / 06.5C

10th 13.3C / 03.9C

11th 13.1C / -0.3C

12th 12.5C / 03.5C

13th 12.3C / 00.6C

14th 10.5C / 00.8C

15th 15.3C / 05.1C

It got milder after that.

Yes I remember jet washing the patio on the second weekend, granted it wasn’t as bad, when the sun came out, but with cloud cover or a strong wind, it can feel quite cold when temps are south of 16c.

[Sunny76]

7 minutes ago, Scorcher said:

Your profile says you're in Manchester- 19.5C at Rostherne this afternoon which is the closest weather station.

So considerably warmer than 16C- unless you're a few thousand feet up!

Sometimes 19 will feel like 16 under cloud and wind. 

[Scorcher]

1 hour ago, Sunny76 said:

Sometimes 19 will feel like 16 under cloud and wind. 

That's irrelevant from a meteorology perspective, and it certainly felt warmer than 16C where I was this afternoon

[mb018538]

3 hours ago, 38.7°C said:

rubbish day today just 16C here.

Considering the average for early April is 12-13c, complaining that it’s only 4c above average is quite funny  

[Fourty Point Three Degrees]

2 hours ago, mb018538 said:

Considering the average for early April is 12-13c, complaining that it’s only 4c above average is quite funny  

16C is still rubbish compared to the Londoners getting a taste of mid July

[Thundery wintry showers]

Oddly it felt quite warm in Exeter when I went out for a walk at about 5pm despite it "only" being 14-15C, compared with 22-23C yesterday afternoon.  It must have been because the northerly wind hasn't yet reached the South West - it will tomorrow though.

[Thundery wintry showers]

21 hours ago, Don said:

I wonder what caused this to occur, considering this was before the record breaking low Arctic sea ice of 2007 and 2012?

I think the sea ice must have dropped to a low enough level in 2005 to trigger some sort of "tipping point" into a warmer climatic base state.  Although not as exceptional as the 2007 minimum, the September 2005 minimum was a new record low at that time, and the sea ice extent for winter 2004/05 also fell to record lows after the turn of the year.  It was particularly low in the Barents and Kara seas (corresponding to the Norwegian and Russian Arctic) which had persistent south-westerly winds.  I remember that winter for how unusually far north the jet stream often tracked as it headed towards Scandinavia.

I have seen scientific research papers discussing the changes of Svalbard's climate, noting that much of the relatively sluggish warming at Svalbard between 1989 and 2004 could be explained synoptically, whereas the stronger warming from 2005 onwards was more down to sea ice feedbacks.  Svalbard, and some nearby sites such as Vize Island and Franz Josef Land, saw an unusually cold winter in 2003/04, making 2005 an especially big step change for those regions.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Thundery wintry showers

[weathermadbarnsleylad]

Is it me or does this year feel. Like a 2018 again on its way.???? 

[Sunny76]

5 hours ago, weathermadbarnsleylad said:

Is it me or does this year feel. Like a 2018 again on its way.???? 

No, I’m not getting that impression.

I feel like we are having a good spell of early spring weather, which will be replaced by more average or poor summer weather.

[mb018538]

10 hours ago, 38.7°C said:

16C is still rubbish compared to the Londoners getting a taste of mid July

That happens all the time though. Even in summer it’s often 5-10c warmer in the south east. Can’t have it all eh! I never get any cold or snow here in the winter, so swings and roundabouts!

[cheeky_monkey]

Fingers crossed today will be the last ice day of the season..few sleety snowy days to get through but finally looks like above 10c days by the weekend 

[Kirkcaldy Weather]

Looks to be a cold night tonight especially down in the SW 

[Cheshire Freeze]

Latest GLOSEA has flipped to a trough dominated summer, quite chilly too I would have thought

[qwertyK]

Not even joking it felt so cold out today. I know it was only 10/11C but it felt like about 1C at times because of how warm it's been . A 13C drop in temps.