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Spring 2020 | Moans, Ramps & Chat


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Posted
  • Location: Leeds
  • Weather Preferences: snow, heat, thunderstorms
  • Location: Leeds
2 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

It wasn’t poor, but it wasn’t a great summer either. I remember lots of cloudy days in late July and most of August was poor. June was also quite cool at times.

I think the London area had about 3-4 weeks of warm hot sunny weather between June and August combined. The last weekend in June, the hot spell in July, and a few warm sunny days in early mid August with the late August hot spell. 
 

It was still usable, but also many days of miserable cloudy weather. 
 

2019 was better compared to 2016, 15, but it wasn’t as good as 2013, or 14. The only other two decent summers of the decade alongside 2018 in my opinion.

 

Well luckily there is a lot of scope between ‘poor’ and ‘great’. I’m not sure anyone called it a great summer. In my back yard it was firmly above average but clearly a step below 2013 or 2018 (the latter of which was obviously exceptional and if you’re going to compare every summer to that then you’ll be disappointed virtually every year).

Edited by cheese
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Posted
  • Location: Skirlaugh, East Yorkshire
  • Location: Skirlaugh, East Yorkshire

One thing that is becoming apparent in the models is that the first two months of this spring are looking very dry indeed. Since 1st March we've had just 20.2mm of rain, but a look at the accumulated rainfall on the 12z GFS shows this:

image.thumb.png.e35e8d7bc2f40bdcc54233b14e40b1c0.png

Just 1mm more for the remainder of the month. That would make March and April combined the 2nd driest behind 2011 (13.2mm) in the last 40 years here.

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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
11 minutes ago, reef said:

One thing that is becoming apparent in the models is that the first two months of this spring are looking very dry indeed. Since 1st March we've had just 20.2mm of rain, but a look at the accumulated rainfall on the 12z GFS shows this:

image.thumb.png.e35e8d7bc2f40bdcc54233b14e40b1c0.png

Just 1mm more for the remainder of the month. That would make March and April combined the 2nd driest behind 2011 (13.2mm) in the last 40 years here.

Yes whilst March started with average rainfall here, since the middle of March, we've had just a small douse or two, nothing sustained. The last wet day here I think was the 17th March, losing track of time - which also happened to coincide with the day we had to start working from home. The outlook for here looks predominantly dry which will return a very dry 6 weeks, nothing too unusual at this time of year and we are far from drought conditions thanks to the excessive rainfall of the autumn and winter - I suspect ground levels are very healthy, plus we have not quite yet hit the time of year when evaporation takes hold - though plants and trees are now starting to get water hungry and will store whatever rain they can get. 

The last very dry March-April combo was 2011 I think, 1997 also, and going further back 1984. 

 

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Posted
  • Location: Ski Amade / Pongau Region. Somtimes Skipton UK
  • Weather Preferences: Northeasterly Blizzard and sub zero temperatures.
  • Location: Ski Amade / Pongau Region. Somtimes Skipton UK

Looking at the UK weather observations this past few weeks , would I assume the British Isles is having a rather nice April even though temps have seen big fluctuations ? Seems April is trending to be the nicest month of the calendar year, weatherwise.

C

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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset

No danger of a really dry spring here... YET! The first 20 days of March were just shy of 100mm here, and it continued into the final third in the same way, would’ve been wetter than each of the winter months...

Will have to see how May pans out but I have yet to record a dry May after a dry April.

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Posted
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine and 15-25c
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
19 hours ago, cheese said:

Well luckily there is a lot of scope between ‘poor’ and ‘great’. I’m not sure anyone called it a great summer. In my back yard it was firmly above average but clearly a step below 2013 or 2018 (the latter of which was obviously exceptional and if you’re going to compare every summer to that then you’ll be disappointed virtually every year).

yep for some people on here unless its wall to wall sunshine everyday and plus 25c temps then its a poor summer..same with winter unless its cold and snowy then its a poor winter..even i don't get those conditions every year..where here most of our summers are warm and sunny and most winters are very cold and snowy. 

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Posted
  • Location: Sheffield
  • Weather Preferences: Sunny and dry, thunderstorms, mild temps (13-22°C).
  • Location: Sheffield

Excellent day today - long may this weather continue.

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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
7 hours ago, MP-R said:

No danger of a really dry spring here... YET! The first 20 days of March were just shy of 100mm here, and it continued into the final third in the same way, would’ve been wetter than each of the winter months...

Will have to see how May pans out but I have yet to record a dry May after a dry April.

Yes in recent years can't think of many cases when a dry April has been followed by a dry May, but quite possibly 2018, May was very dry, April from memory wasn't that wet, though quite cool.

The very dry April's of 2007 and 2011 were followed by preety wet Mays. 

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Posted
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, storms and other extremes
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire
On 14/04/2020 at 08:53, Scorcher said:

What did CFS predict for this winter and last winter?

Winter just gone it predicted a +NAO. The winter previous it also predicted a +NAO.

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Posted
  • Location: Birmingham, West Midlands
  • Weather Preferences: Heat, sun and thunderstorms in summer. Cold sunny days and snow in winter
  • Location: Birmingham, West Midlands

This prolonged dry warm sunny weather has been lovely. However, as someone who enjoys having a variety of many different things in life including the weather, as well as being a keen gardener, I am actually beginning to get bored of this weather now. As previously mentioned, it has been great but I get bored of any weather type which lingers on for weeks. I feel as if it's now time for something a little different. Even good things can very well become boring after a while.

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Posted
  • Location: Brentwood, Essex
  • Location: Brentwood, Essex
12 minutes ago, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

This prolonged dry warm sunny weather has been lovely. However, as someone who enjoys having a variety of many different things in life including the weather, as well as being a keen gardener, I am actually beginning to get bored of this weather now. As previously mentioned, it has been great but I get bored of any weather type which lingers on for weeks. I feel as if it's now time for something a little different. Even good things can very well become boring after a while.

I'm just surprised at how we started odd the year with southwesterlies and now it's just Northeasterlies and Easterlies. Longest dry and sunny period I remember for a while 

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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
1 hour ago, qwertyK said:

I'm just surprised at how we started odd the year with southwesterlies and now it's just Northeasterlies and Easterlies. Longest dry and sunny period I remember for a while 

Northerlies and easterly airstreams often descend on the UK in spring and can hard to shake off, all quite normal.. plenty of similar examples. Start of the year traditionally sees westerly airstreams in ascendancy. Late March to late may sees the Atlantic takes its annual hibernation I.e. it is at its quietest now. 

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Posted
  • Location: Brentwood, Essex
  • Location: Brentwood, Essex
31 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

Northerlies and easterly airstreams often descend on the UK in spring and can hard to shake off, all quite normal.. plenty of similar examples. Start of the year traditionally sees westerly airstreams in ascendancy. Late March to late may sees the Atlantic takes its annual hibernation I.e. it is at its quietest now. 

I know, but it was so persistent thought it would take longer to shake off. I hope these continue into autumn and winter, though I don't believe summer will be up to much. If anything seems to be the case these days, autumn weather starts in August! Really a naff month barring a handful of warm days 

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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
Just now, qwertyK said:

I know, but it was so persistent thought it would take longer to shake off. I hope these continue into autumn and winter, though I don't believe summer will be up to much. If anything seems to be the case these days, autumn weather starts in August! Really a naff month barring a handful of warm days 

It's as if things have been running 1-2 months behind. February was more westerly than a normal December, March transitioned from westerly to more easterly later as January can do, and April has seen the persistent dryness that February normally delivers.

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Posted
  • Location: Brentwood, Essex
  • Location: Brentwood, Essex
1 minute ago, MP-R said:

It's as if things have been running 1-2 months behind. February was more westerly than a normal December, March transitioned from westerly to more easterly later as January can do, and April has seen the persistent dryness that February normally delivers.

Hmm maybe but it is a lot warmer than usual, and march was also very dry. November was pretty cold though, more of December or even a milder than average January at times, and October was also colder than average. I tjinkt his summer will be cloudy, cool and maybe wet at times 

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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
2 minutes ago, qwertyK said:

Hmm maybe but it is a lot warmer than usual, and march was also very dry. November was pretty cold though, more of December or even a milder than average January at times, and October was also colder than average. I tjinkt his summer will be cloudy, cool and maybe wet at times 

Well yes, adjusted to time of year. The synoptics we've seen this month and in the latter third of March would bring colder weather in the winter months. The nights were still cold in March after all.

The wet first two thirds of March kinda felt like a mild January.

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Posted
  • Location: Brentwood, Essex
  • Location: Brentwood, Essex
1 minute ago, MP-R said:

Well yes, adjusted to time of year. The synoptics we've seen this month and in the latter third of March would bring colder weather in the winter months. The nights were still cold in March after all.

The wet first two thirds of March kinda felt like a mild January.

Yep, more frost in march (and November for that matter) than January and feb. Coldest night of the year for me here in Essex was not in winter ..but on the first day of April, with a low of -3C. We had some snow along with everyone else in February but it didn't settle, but I think it was the 28th of march, the first day of BST when it begun snowing along with hail and it didn't make it above 5 or 6C

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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
4 minutes ago, qwertyK said:

Yep, more frost in march (and November for that matter) than January and feb. Coldest night of the year for me here in Essex was not in winter ..but on the first day of April, with a low of -3C. We had some snow along with everyone else in February but it didn't settle, but I think it was the 28th of march, the first day of BST when it begun snowing along with hail and it didn't make it above 5 or 6C

Gosh, that's pretty low for April, especially somewhere like Essex. Imagine that same setup in winter... I'd have probably also registered more frost outside of winter if not for the cold frosty spell in mid January.

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Posted
  • Location: Brentwood, Essex
  • Location: Brentwood, Essex
25 minutes ago, MP-R said:

Gosh, that's pretty low for April, especially somewhere like Essex. Imagine that same setup in winter... I'd have probably also registered more frost outside of winter if not for the cold frosty spell in mid January.

That said, the frost had always cleared early because it was sunny and there were large dirunal variations. That said there were some days where subzero temps were recorded yet no frost.

There is a fair bit of variation in temperatures in Essex. I live in Shenfield, a mile from Brentwood, and it appears that Shenfield always appears to have s slightly warmer climate by as much as s degree or so some days. I have no idea what causes this variation for such a short distance. My only guess can be that I'm not far from a major road with lots of traffic and so maybe UHI? The town about 4 miles west is s degree or two warmer, but in summer it can actually be hotter in Essex than in London . 

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Posted
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet

With rain no longer forecast this weekend we will surpass the two week mark in Leeds, if we make it to the end of next weekend we may even beat the longest streak since 2013.

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Posted
  • Location: Hounslow, London
  • Weather Preferences: Csa/Csb
  • Location: Hounslow, London

Was March really that dry? Heathrow recorded about 43mm of rain. The long term average is 42mm. Just because it all occurred in the first 2 weeks, with another 2 weeks of dry weather, doesn't make it a dry month.

Edited by B87
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Posted
  • Location: Brentwood, Essex
  • Location: Brentwood, Essex
Just now, B87 said:

Was March really that dry? Heathrow recorded about 43mm of rain. The long term average is 42mm.

Well compared to the months before and in recent years rainfall has increased.

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Posted
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

Certainly a very dry first half of spring here despite a wet first three days. 35.3mm since 1st March, 15.2mm since 4th March, 5.4mm since 14th March and 1.5mm since 22nd March. 

There's a bit of rain forecast for Sunday morning but nothing after that. I'm actually more interested in finding sunshine stats, which I imagine have been exceptional for the last month or so.

Edited by AderynCoch
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Posted
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet

After the GFS turned to no rain, it did end up raining so we’ve had stretches of 10 and 13 days.

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Posted
  • Location: Horsham
  • Weather Preferences: Anything non-disruptive, and some variety
  • Location: Horsham
On 15/04/2020 at 22:21, damianslaw said:

Yes in recent years can't think of many cases when a dry April has been followed by a dry May, but quite possibly 2018, May was very dry, April from memory wasn't that wet, though quite cool.

2018 had a wet April, followed by a drier than normal May (May 2019 was even drier). I remember it being extremely dry in my location (Horsham), I only remember it raining once or twice in the whole month. That was that first of three consecutive months with high pressure anchored right over the UK.

1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1995, 2010, 2011, 2019

These years had negative rainfall anomalies in April and May relative to 1981-2010 climatology, HadUKP England+Wales dataset. It is not that common. It is also uncommon to get both April and May wet, which suggests that locked in weather patterns for weeks at a time are rare in Spring.

Edited by al78
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