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Spring 2021: Moans, Groans, Ramps and Banter.


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Posted
  • Location: Manchester
  • Location: Manchester
3 minutes ago, Alderc said:

Horridly cold this morning, temp was down to at least -5C at Bournemouth Airport (record for April is -5.7C) with temp being below freezing for nearly 7hrs, someone on this thread scoffed a couple of days back when I suggested -5C and 6-8hrs below freezing, well there you go! That's a brutal frost for April and especially the gardens and with many more nights like that even covered plants crops wont survive. 

GFS now has temps not getting above 5-7C the entire coming weekend, dreadfully really and nothing close to average of 15C right through the entire run. ECM has another straight northerly at day 10 its just dreadful. 

If you're referring to me, I stand by what I said. Your post wasn't just referring to one night of local temps that low- you were implying widespread temps of that magnitude for several nights.

In my area it wasn't that cold last night and in any case last night will be as cold as it gets for this month.

Not denying it is notably cold for April though. This weather needs to do one.

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33 minutes ago, Bradley in Kent said:

I think our sense of what April should be has been massively warped in the last few years starting in 2007. Out of all the months April has seen the biggest step change in temperatures where it used to be normal to see cold weather.

Also April 1968 was cold.  Not that it actually means anything, just that we've had a few hot days in March followed by a cold April!

Agreed! It’s not the cold April weather that’s unusual, in fact cold winds, frost and even snow are common in early April. It’s the ridiculously high day time temperatures in March (some 10-14C above normal) that many people  (even model-watchers) seem to whoop and cheer for, that cause carnage in gardens and for wildlife. In a normal April, wildlife and gardens could cope with blasts of cold.  Pressing a fast forward button early in the season, on what should be a slow, gradual unfolding of nature is the real problem, not relatively common April chill. Extreme heat in late winter and early Spring is a climate change issue that none of us should welcome.  

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Posted
  • Location: London
  • Location: London

The April step change started in 1987, with many warm days and sunny weather. The gradual shift from a colder climate to a milder one, started to take affect in 1987. 

Cold snowy January spell, following some colder winters. Cold March, warm April, the hurricane in October, and the very mild Christmas period, which at the time was the warmest on record.

Recent years have seen colder and warmer weather in April, but 1987 is where the early changes took place.

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

I'd agree more with the suggestion of April 2007.  The warming of April in the period 1987-2006 relative to earlier periods was modest compared with the first three months of the year, and the Aprils of the 1940s were on average warmer than those of the 1990s.  But since then, we've had two Aprils in 2007 and 2011 that smashed all records.  The 1991-2020 average for April is 1.1C higher than the 1961-1990 average.

But I don't think it's primarily a case of recent warm Aprils skewing perceptions.  It's more that seemingly the majority of people on Netweather flip from "winter mode" to "summer mode" sometime between late February and early April, and then get disappointed when the warmth of summer sets in slowly and erratically during the spring months.  It was at least as noticeable around 2005 as it is today.  I remember the Aprils of 2005 and 2006 and May 2005 being widely panned on this forum despite the CET being a little above the 1961-1990 and 1971-2000 averages and many areas of the UK being sunnier than average.

Damaging frosts are a problem in the spring months, but for instance I recall that in 1990 we had very damaging frosts in early April following a very mild winter and March, and that in 1995 there were damaging frosts around 18-21 April and 12-14 May, but in both cases the negative impacts of these were dwarfed by the negative impacts of heat and/or drought in the summers that followed.  Yet lengthy settled spells in spring and summer are usually welcomed by a large majority on this forum.  Thus, I reckon that the observation that damaging frosts in spring get more attention in this space than damaging droughts arises mainly because people who are in summer mode by a certain point of the year don't want to see repeated northerlies rather than the relative magnitude of the impacts.

Edited by Thundery wintry showers
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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
26 minutes ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

Thus, I reckon that the observation that damaging frosts in spring get more attention in this space than damaging droughts arises mainly because people who are in summer mode by a certain point of the year don't want to see repeated northerlies rather than the relative magnitude of the impacts.

Probably also that a damaging frost only takes one night to occur, whereas drought conditions take months to take hold and are far less likely in this country than the former. It is after all possible to have a good summer without a drought.

 

Back to the here and now - all I can say is what an uninspiring outlook. Signs later in the GFS runs that the second half of the month will gradually warm under a migrating high pressure but still a long way off.

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Posted
  • Location: Manchester
  • Location: Manchester
57 minutes ago, MP-R said:

 

Back to the here and now - all I can say is what an uninspiring outlook. Signs later in the GFS runs that the second half of the month will gradually warm under a migrating high pressure but still a long way off.

Yes a bit of a depressing outlook with restrictions being lifted over the next few weeks.

The one thing I would say is that at least GFS is showing the possibility of high pressure. The ensembles may still be cool but that doesn't tell the whole story. In the strong April sun we could be looking at double figures in the afternoons with -5C 850 hPa temps.

I would certainly take a sunny 10C right now!

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

-2.4c low at Heathrow this morning. The April record is -2.6c.

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Posted
  • Location: Liphook
  • Location: Liphook
1 minute ago, B87 said:

-2.4c low at Heathrow this morning. The April record is -2.6c.

I think that goes a little way to proving that this cold shot is a step above the usual northerly type airflow. Its not all that common to drag the sort of 850hpa profile this far south, even for the southern parts of the country yesterday's snow wasn't even marginal in the end.

As for April's being a step change, there have been quite a few impressive ones in the last 15 years. April 2020 will probably get overlooked due to the pandemic but that was an awesome month, huge sunshine levels and also pretty warm at times as well.

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Posted
  • Location: Ashtead, nr Epsom Surrey
  • Weather Preferences: Hot Summer, Cold/Snowy Winter! Just SEASONAL!!
  • Location: Ashtead, nr Epsom Surrey

Really interesting reading about people's theories on the changes in April and the historical knowledge some of you have of past seasons!

I can admit to being one of those who looks for Spring warmth sunshine by mid Feb! But obviously this does have to be balanced with some rain and cooler days to stay in tune with nature and its wildlife and growing plants/food etc. I guess random frosts will get more attention due to the sudden damage they can cause in just one night - even last Spring, in all its glorious sunny warmth, that late frost in the 3rd week of May happened just after I'd put out my tomatoes and cucumbers! Thankfully, despite lots of frost-burnt leaves, thankfully I only lost one plant! My potato plants looked awful but I decided to leave them and see and thankfully they grew back and didn't suffer too badly!

I have always worried when I see plant budding early, even sometimes in late winter and knowing we could still have snow and severe frosts that could wipe them out....

I know nature is very adaptive but obviously it's still a concern

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

Hopefully after the horror show of April 2021 ends, we get a year resembling 1989 rather than 1986 (the other 2 horror show Aprils).

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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
1 hour ago, Scorcher said:

Yes a bit of a depressing outlook with restrictions being lifted over the next few weeks.

The one thing I would say is that at least GFS is showing the possibility of high pressure. The ensembles may still be cool but that doesn't tell the whole story. In the strong April sun we could be looking at double figures in the afternoons with -5C 850 hPa temps.

I would certainly take a sunny 10C right now!

One positive is that, thanks to the ludicrous idea to have gyms closed for 3 months, I'm well out of shape compared to normal so I almost welcome not having weather conducive to wearing less just yet lol.

Other than that - I agree, sunshine would go a long way to lessen the effect of the cold spell.

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Posted
  • Location: Welwyn Garden City
  • Weather Preferences: Seasonal and interesting weather including summer storms and winter snow
  • Location: Welwyn Garden City

IMG-20210407-WA0002.thumb.jpg.f54d8ed2041e6458dde6de0e340fad00.jpg

Well, after all this time.....

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Posted
  • Location: uxbridge middlesex(- also Bampton oxfordshire
  • Weather Preferences: blizzard conditions. ice days
  • Location: uxbridge middlesex(- also Bampton oxfordshire
14 minutes ago, minus10 said:

IMG-20210407-WA0002.thumb.jpg.f54d8ed2041e6458dde6de0e340fad00.jpg

Well, after all this time.....

.. given current data- pneumonia /hypothermia could be the issue over covid in coming days!!!.. .. but I’ll risk it☝️

Edited by tight isobar
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Posted
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

Well that was fun. I went for a walk in the forest when it was 7C and sunny. Almost immediately the sky turned dark, it started teaming with graupel and the temperature dropped to 2C. I also had my first thunder of the year.

There's another intense squall passing through now turning everything white.

IMG_20210407_174951.thumb.jpg.9b94fb49d5f5b8d9f4c2042d4c896648.jpg

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Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam
8 hours ago, Scorcher said:

 

In my area it wasn't that cold last night and in any case last night will be as cold as it gets for this month.

 

It was cold enough -5.3C for my location, Manchester Airport -4C. I can only assume you weren't in the Manchester area last night?

 

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

Never mind turning white, it's a proper winter wonderland out there now! Essentially blizzard conditions. Just had a brilliant purple flash of lightning too. 

IMG_20210407_180851.thumb.jpg.f39abff3df08175496be2018aa10a37c.jpgIMG_20210407_180857.thumb.jpg.16180c0438b9c4766a947c916c294dde.jpg

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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
3 hours ago, MP-R said:

One positive is that, thanks to the ludicrous idea to have gyms closed for 3 months, I'm well out of shape compared to normal so I almost welcome not having weather conducive to wearing less just yet lol.

Other than that - I agree, sunshine would go a long way to lessen the effect of the cold spell.

I can certainly relate to that. I have gained a few pounds over the last few months, not only was it Christmas a few months back but we have also been in lockdown which makes it worse. Whilst I am currently dieting and working out at home as a way to shed those extra unwanted pounds, I am in a way glad that the weather is currently the way it is. Every cloud has a silver lining as they say. 

Edited by Weather Enthusiast91
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Posted
  • Location: Manchester
  • Location: Manchester
1 hour ago, Weather-history said:

It was cold enough -5.3C for my location, Manchester Airport -4C. I can only assume you weren't in the Manchester area last night?

 

Yes it was cold but not quite as cold as in Bournemouth by the sounds of it- I believe that was a rounded -4C at the airport as well. Minimum of -3C at Rostherne which is probably the closest station to me.

Edited by Scorcher
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Posted
  • Location: Hounslow, London
  • Weather Preferences: Csa/Csb
  • Location: Hounslow, London
1 hour ago, Britneyfan said:

Just seen the met office update a gradual rise in temps next week back to average nothing fantastic but I will take average over this, noticed the gfs and ensembles do show a slow growth in temps after the weekend 

Nothing in London above about 10-12c, which is poor for April when the average is 15c.

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Posted
  • Location: Hounslow, London
  • Weather Preferences: Csa/Csb
  • Location: Hounslow, London
Just now, Britneyfan said:

10 to 12 degrees in any April sunshine will feel better than this week I’m sure hospitality would be happier too 

12c is still far too cold to comfortably sit outside if there is even the slightest hint of a breeze. 15c-16c and up would be much nicer at this time of year.

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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

Hard to believe that just this time last week saw the warmest March day since 1968. Last week seems like a distant memory now. But the erratic weather is what I like about Spring so I am not really complaining that much.

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