Spring 2020 | Moans, Ramps & Chat

[Sunny76]

1 hour ago, Stabilo19 said:

What a difference a day makes, quite an unusual temperature drop for the UK.

From 25°C to a wind chill of 3°C in 24 hrs. It's bitterly cold out there. 

Yes it is, and last night felt quite warm. One of the first evenings where the warmth of the day remained into the evening. 
 

I wonder why we didn’t get a storm from this. Hot and cold air mixed together usually provides storm activity.

[damianslaw]

An odd day for May, warmest temp was recorded at 6am this morning 11 degrees, cloud than enveloped us, temp dropped to 8 degrees, the sun came out and it only climbed to 9 degrees, falling to 8 degrees by late afternoon. Tonight an air frost with a wind - indicative of the cold air source.

[Guest]

If ECM did T276/300/324 charts you would see one stonking hot late May bank holiday weekend. 

[matt111]

Should’ve resurrected the winter thread for today.  

[reef]

9 minutes ago, matt111 said:

Should’ve resurrected the winter thread for today.  

Dont be silly, we've had wintry precipitation today, that wouldnt ever happen in winter! 

[damianslaw]

Cold day, hovering around 8 degrees early afternoon, though temps did climb by late afternoon thanks to clear skies and sunshine, 12 degrees max, had the sun not come out, then we probably would have equalled yesterday's high max of 9 degrees. Another couple of very chilly days ahead. 

[Mr Frost]

Few records tumbled up here (Scotland) yesterday and overnight.

Even managed a grass frost here on the West Coast at sea level - not bad for May 11th! 

Another snow risk up in the North/North East tomorrow.

 

Edited May 11, 2020 by Mr Frost

[Britneyfan]

Looking forward to a good winter holiday this year instead! If we can get a wonderful summer here, when it gets cold January time I’m out of here lol

[Bradowl]

Weren't sure where to post this, decided this spot might be best. 

Last month we had some showers that left cars coated in Saharan dust, I wasn't surprised by this because we had winds blowing from South. 

Now today I've gone out to car and once again it's covered in spots of dust from yesterday's showers, thing I can't work out is that these showers came from far North so why the dust in atmos? 

[matt111]

Lots of dust on the cars here too but we haven't had any rain at all here. 

[carinthian]

It may be late spring but posted this fantastic picture shown on( Severe weather Europe site )  taken in Faroe Islands today. Amazing really and not that far from British Waters !

c

[chrisbell-nottheweatherman]

Drought ramping in full low in the Model thread I see.  Norfolk has turned brown the past two summers - in fact, in 2018, the drought was so bad that grass actually turned an off-white/pale grey shade, so I'm afraid I cannot get excited by the prospect of a third straight summer of being surrounded by dead vegetation.  I really don't think we need water shortages and wildfires in addition to the virus, but I've been the heretic who has been moderated and berated for a couple of years for daring to suggest that endless dry heat until the 22nd century or whenever might have some downsides, so I soberly accept my status for summer 2020 as the social outcast of Netweather and prepare to vanish from the forum (unless we get storms) until autumn arrives and puts and end to an otherwise unchallenged love fest for heat.

Edited May 12, 2020 by chrisbell-nottheweatherman

[knocker]

Well you are not alone being a social outcast in this forum Chris

[chrisbell-nottheweatherman]

3 minutes ago, knocker said:

Well you are not alone being a social outcast in this forum Chris

I thought of you as I typed those words, Malcolm.

Edited May 12, 2020 by chrisbell-nottheweatherman

[knocker]

7 minutes ago, chrisbell-nottheweatherman said:

I thought of you as I typed those words, Malcolm.

And looking at many of the posts this evening it's time for me to take a long break

Edited May 12, 2020 by knocker

[chrisbell-nottheweatherman]

5 minutes ago, knocker said:

And looking at many of the posts this evening it's time for me to take long break

Same here.  I'll lurk on the model thread to get an idea of the likely direction of travel, but I know whose posts are worth reading and whose are mere ramps or wishful thinking.

[damianslaw]

1 hour ago, carinthian said:

It may be late spring but posted this fantastic picture shown on( Severe weather Europe site )  taken in Faroe Islands today. Amazing really and not that far from British Waters !

c

A symptom of all that bottled up cold over the arctic that has been stored for an age and finally been released to our shores, had the current spell happened a month earlier than a fair bit of UK could have seen some snow cover, alas rather late for that, reserved for highest ground in far north only, as well as lowland parts in the very extreme north. Indeed the synoptics since mid March would in winter I imagine have brought a prolonged very cold spell, lots of blocked cold anticyclonic weather - exceptional cold at night probably, and some snow at times thanks to southerly displaced low pressure, weak frontal features crashing into high pressure (cold air), northerly and easterly interludes as well. Once again Spring is giving us our most abnormal weather patterns, atlantic shuts down for its annual slumber, reawakening in the summer... Spring is fast becoming our dry season.

Edited May 12, 2020 by damianslaw

[Mr Frost]

19 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

Spring is fast becoming our dry season.

I would say both seasons of Spring and Autumn are dry seasons nowadays up here in the West. (Autumn is our cold season also in Scotland )

Anyways - it has been a stunning spring so far with above average sunshine, below average rainfall, pleasant/warm days and cool/chilly nights with plenty of frosts.

Glorious stuff.

Edited May 12, 2020 by Mr Frost

[damianslaw]

2 minutes ago, Mr Frost said:

I would say both seasons of Spring and Autumn are dry seasons nowadays in the West. (Autumn is our cold season also in Scotland )

Anyways - it has been a stunning spring so far with above average sunshine, below average rainfall, pleasant/warm days and cool/chilly nights with plenty of frosts.

Glorious stuff.

Autumns have been quite dry at times in recent years, especially the first half. Novembers have also been very mixed some very wet ones 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 - especially so, but also quite a few colder drier ones such as 2010, 2016, 2017 and 2019. 

Shame we can't describe our summers as the dry season, mid July to end August especially so have been mostly wet or very wet. 

Mid March - Mid June - dry sunny mild season

Mid June - late Aug - warm wet season

Early Sept - late Oct - dry mild season

Late Oct - mid Feb - very wet mild season

Mid Feb - Mid March - briefly cold dryish season

[Thundery wintry showers]

On 10/05/2020 at 12:05, Summer of 95 said:

This is so similar to the VE day weekend in 1995, except there was no thunder or rain on the cool down then. Warm Saturday, airmass change Sunday, damn chilly on the Monday (which was the BH that time, if it had been the Friday would have been much nicer weather).

I still remember that weekend in Tyneside, it was very warm and sunny the preceding Thursday (25C - aided by a south-westerly breeze which kept the usual sea breezes away), sunny and a bit cooler but still warm (~20C) on the Friday & Saturday, cloudy and a bit cooler again on Sunday, and then on the Monday the North East had frequent showers from a north-westerly (it was probably rather less showery Shrewsbury way). 

I don't have any specific memories of the weather on the 1995 VE Day, but my weather diary notes that the sun came out for a stormy-looking red sunset, and I remember remarking to my father that evening that we seemed to get more potent showers off a NW'ly than off a NE'ly (I was only ten at the time, and had experienced the showery NW'lys of 18-21 April 1995, but the observation does hold for the North East as a NW'ly in the summer half-year sometimes generates covergence lines near the coast, a showery NE'ly tends not to give the coast many showers, although it can give the coast plenty of low cloud).

Easter 1995 was pretty similar, a warm sunny Good Friday, more ordinary Saturday/Sunday, a grey wet Monday and then snow showers on the following Tuesday!

Regarding the question about the -10C 850hPa isotherm in May, it did indeed flirt with the far north around 13 May 1995, but there was a more recent example which also saw a similar switch-around over a Bank Holiday weekend.  Many parts were very warm and sunny leading up to the 1997 early May Bank Holiday, but things broke down over the weekend, there was a grey wet Monday and then snow showers the following Tuesday, and on Tuesday 6 May 1997 the -10 isotherm again just made it into northern Scotland:

Edited May 12, 2020 by Thundery wintry showers

[damianslaw]

7 minutes ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

I still remember that weekend in Tyneside, it was very warm and sunny the preceding Thursday (25C - aided by a south-westerly breeze which kept the usual sea breezes away), sunny and a bit cooler but still warm (~20C) on the Friday & Saturday, cloudy and a bit cooler again on Sunday, and then on the Monday the North East had frequent showers from a north-westerly (it was probably rather less showery Shrewsbury way). 

I don't have any specific memories of the weather on the 1995 VE Day, but my weather diary notes that the sun came out for a stormy-looking red sunset, and I remember remarking to my father that evening that we seemed to get more potent showers off a NW'ly than off a NE'ly (I was only ten at the time, and had experienced the showery NW'lys of 18-21 April 1995, but the observation does hold for the North East as a NW'ly in the summer half-year sometimes generates covergence lines near the coast, a showery NE'ly tends not to give the coast many showers, although it can give the coast plenty of low cloud).

Easter 1995 was pretty similar, a warm sunny Good Friday, more ordinary Saturday/Sunday, a grey wet Monday and then snow showers on the following Tuesday!

Regarding the question about the -10C 850hPa isotherm in May, it did indeed flirt with the far north around 13 May 1995, but there was a more recent example which also saw a similar switch-around over a Bank Holiday weekend.  Many parts were very warm and sunny leading up to the 1997 early May Bank Holiday, but things broke down over the weekend, there was a grey wet Monday and then snow showers the following Tuesday, and on Tuesday 6 May 1997 the -10 isotherm again just made it into northern Scotland:

Remember it well, a light dusting of snow covering the ground first thing, clearing around 9am.

[Guest]

Its interesting times, I'd love to see how the cold pool in the north Atlantic compares to May 2018/19/20 and the generalised synoptics over the summer of 18/19, I'm theorising this after quite a lot of wine however thinking an aggregation of the of the general synoptics for 18/19 would lead to an almost perfect summer. Don't know why but I can this happening during 2020. 

[B87]

London might get a 300 sun hour May this year, looking at the forecast! Would be the 2nd sunniest May on record if ut happened.

[Met.]

I certainly can't wait until this disgraceful misery of a week to end. I for one don't care for drizzly 10 degree bullcrap in May. But to each their own and all that.

Edited May 12, 2020 by Thundershine

[AderynCoch]

14 hours ago, Thundershine said:

I certainly can't wait until this disgraceful misery of a week to end. I for one don't care for drizzly 10 degree bullcrap in May. But to each their own and all that.

Yes, a May snowfall for example would at least be interesting but this is just nuisance cold. I suppose it's not so unusual in May even here but it does take the biscuit seeing headlines such as "Intense Arctic cold" (from Severe Weather Europe, not the Daily Express) after such a hopeless "winter" which delivered nothing remotely resembling Arctic cold.