Spring 2021: Moans, Groans, Ramps and Banter.

[TheOgre]

I think Spring 2021 has been a strange one and has been regressive. The best weather was at the end of March and the worst now.

April was poor but not awful, the first half was horribly cold and felt like winter. The second half was cool, sunny and dry with a mild week which makes it better than this May.

May so far is the worst month with cold and rain, you can’t go out! And looks not much better in the foreseeable future.

[sarahng]

Awful, awful weather, and soooo cold!  I haven't given up wearing a coat as a matter of course yet, and my kitchen was so cold on Monday I sat there with it on (and the heating!).  What really concerns me is that the vegetables and other plants I have put in are doing precisely nothing - in fact some have just shrivelled up and died (and that is in a sheltered, covered position).  I had to go out and buy more this morning, but will be keeping them in the garage until it warms up!

[B87]

A low of 1.6c overnight is the coldest May temperature since 1997, the 4th coldest since 1982 and the 11th coldest of all time (1979 takes up quite a lot of the top places).

[B87]

27 minutes ago, magicpatch said:

I concur with the other posts, it seems there's a lot of 'well it will be warmer this weekend for you in the SE', that might be true but Saturday looks a washout and now Sunday seems to be trending towards it being 18-20c but we've now got a risk for some heavy showers/thunder in the afternoon, which with the current level of restrictions makes planning and doing things difficult as we're not allowed to dash inside to avoid the rain, or if we sit out in it we get absolutely drenched! The trend for next week is seemingly similar with it being warmer, yes, but with some heavy showers appearing from mid-afternoon onwards for most of the week, oh and don't mention the 40mph gusts of wind that are seemingly in the forecast for Monday too! 

Shows how bad it has been when people are hoping for a single day with average or slightly above average temps and rain. Zero sign of any settled conditions like is normal in May. A week of 20-24c temps and partly cloudy skies is not much to ask for. It'll be July before we see that at this rate.

Edited May 6, 2021 by B87

[Weather Enthusiast91]

22 minutes ago, sarahng said:

Awful, awful weather, and soooo cold!  I haven't given up wearing a coat as a matter of course yet, and my kitchen was so cold on Monday I sat there with it on (and the heating!).  What really concerns me is that the vegetables and other plants I have put in are doing precisely nothing - in fact some have just shrivelled up and died (and that is in a sheltered, covered position).  I had to go out and buy more this morning, but will be keeping them in the garage until it warms up!

I have been wearing a wooly hat when going out in the mornings, along with my winter coat which I thought I wouldn't be using again until late October. I too have been having problems with growing vegetables as well as flowers; the sprouts on my seed potatoes (which I planted in mid April) still haven't appeared above the ground yet. I am not too concerned about it though, as just like you mentioned, if the worst comes to the worst then I could get some more seed potatoes. Most of my flower seeds have not germinated yet either.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Weather Enthusiast91

[Thundery wintry showers]

41 minutes ago, TheOgre said:

I think Spring 2021 has been a strange one and has been regressive. The best weather was at the end of March and the worst now.

April was poor but not awful, the first half was horribly cold and felt like winter. The second half was cool, sunny and dry with a mild week which makes it better than this May.

May so far is the worst month with cold and rain, you can’t go out! And looks not much better in the foreseeable future.

I was thinking quite recently that in England and Wales (but not Scotland or Ireland), 1994 was quite a good example of a "regressive" spring.  March was warm and windy, April had close to average temperatures and May was cool, and it was mainly the second half of May that was dull, unusually cool, and wet for much of central, southern and eastern England. 

Then there was 1981, when March was warm (albeit dull and very wet), the first half of April was warm, and then the second half of April had an exceptional northerly outbreak with lying snow to low levels even in places like Exeter.  May 1981 started cold, then turned quite warm but very changeable, not dissimilar to the synoptics that we've got on offer right now.

I guess that towards the end of April 1989 perceptions of that spring would've been similar, but things then turned around dramatically in early May that year.  1998 and 2000 also had a warm March followed by a fairly cool and at times wintry April, but again in both cases it warmed up somewhat in early May.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Thundery wintry showers

[al78]

2 hours ago, Scorcher said:

I wouldn't agree with the whole spring being horrific around these parts. April was very sunny here and most of the month was reasonably warm in the afternoons, although ridiculously cold at night.

The last 10 days or so though could definitely be put in the 'horrific' category though. I certainly can't remember a more disastrous start to May and no sign of any major improvements- truly depressing after what we've all been through over the past year.

Horrific is an overstatement but despite the sunshine it has not felt like spring at all. One of my sisters in Salford has frequently been complaining of the cold, so Gtr Manchester has not escaped. It has been a very bad spring from a gardening perspective. When you can't grow a staple crop like potatoes in southern England in April, something is very wrong.

This morning the temperature was 14C in my house, at the end of the first week of May in SE England.

[Britneyfan]

Been fairly cool start to May but actually temps have only been slightly below average here, each day I’ve recorded 14° degrees, the average for May is 16° Here, so it’s not a complete disaster but compared to spring last year when it was 24° obviously a huge difference, however it looks like could reach 21° here on Sunday which will be a huge welcome, and I also welcome thunderstorms too, I love warm unstable weather! And even next week temps will around average too so should feel warm in sunny spells, 16 or 17 degrees, and with warm upper air won’t have that cool nip, speaking just for my location in south Essex, have no idea about up north 

[Britneyfan]

Also on May 24th 2013 Heathrow only recoded a high of 9.9° and that’s the end of May!!! So it could be cooler

[B87]

3 minutes ago, Britneyfan said:

Also on May 24th 2013 Heathrow only recoded a high of 9.9° and that’s the end of May!!! So it could be cooler

May 2013 also had 10 days above 18c+ though, while this May has 1 such day in the forecast for the forseeable future. I expect May 2021 will end up cooler than May 2013.

[MP-R]

Much sunnier than expected here today. The moment the sun goes behind a cloud it's cold but as long as it's out,  and out of the breeze, it feels lovely! I just hope tomorrow's sunny day doesn't now turn out cloudier than expected...

[Scorcher]

1 hour ago, al78 said:

Horrific is an overstatement but despite the sunshine it has not felt like spring at all. One of my sisters in Salford has frequently been complaining of the cold, so Gtr Manchester has not escaped. It has been a very bad spring from a gardening perspective. When you can't grow a staple crop like potatoes in southern England in April, something is very wrong.

This morning the temperature was 14C in my house, at the end of the first week of May in SE England.

I sat outside on multiple occasions in April with a t-shirt on. It seems it was considerably sunnier up here for much of the month than it was further south.

We had a lot of days in the 13-16C range after the first week, which was genuinely cold. 15C+ was reached on 8 days in April here and there were three 18C days.

Not cracking the flags but it wasn't cold by any means by day here. In the shelter in my garden it felt genuinely warm on a lot of days.

Overnight was a different story though.

 

[B87]

6 minutes ago, Scorcher said:

I sat outside on multiple occasions in April with a t-shirt on. It seems it was considerably sunnier up here for much of the month than it was further south.

We had a lot of days in the 13-16C range after the first week, which was genuinely cold. 15C+ was reached on 8 days in April here and there were three 18C days.

Not cracking the flags but it wasn't cold by any means by day here. In the shelter in my garden it felt genuinely warm on a lot of days.

Overnight was a different story though.

 

Here's April 2021 at Heathrow. Apart from a handful of days between 19th-24th, it was too cold to sit outside unless you were in direct sun with no breeze. Even on the days that were acceptable, it got so cold in the evenings that it quickly became uncomfortable after about 5-6pm. Only 8 days had highs average or above, and only 4 days didn't fall below the average min (15.0/6.0c for 1991-2020).

Meteociel - Climatologie mensuelle de London / Heathrow (UK) ( United Kingdom )

WWW.METEOCIEL.FR

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Résumé mensuel des observations météo ( températures minimales et maximales, précipitations et ensoleillement) de la station London / Heathrow (UK) ( United Kingdom )

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by B87

[Thundery wintry showers]

I recall that at one point during April (sometime between the 20th and 25th) Lincoln got up to 17-18C on a couple of days with sunshine, although the minima were still close to freezing.  Yes, the Met Office map doesn't lie, for many parts of the UK mean maxima were close to or even just above the 1961-1990 normal, and not far below that for 1991-2020 - only in East Anglia and the SE were maxima notably low.  (This does, though, bear out comments from London that the maxima were low).  It was the minima that were exceptionally low nationwide.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Thundery wintry showers

[al78]

4 minutes ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

I recall that at one point during April (sometime between the 20th and 25th) Lincoln got up to 17-18C on a couple of days with sunshine, although the minima were still close to freezing.  Yes, the Met Office map doesn't lie, for many parts of the UK mean maxima were close to or even just above the 1961-1990 normal, and not far below that for 1991-2020 - only in East Anglia and the SE were maxima notably low.  (This does, though, bear out comments from London that the maxima were low).  It was the minima that were exceptionally low nationwide.

Makes sense. I think here in the east and SE we were plagued with persistent chilly winds coming off the north sea, which is cold in mid spring. The notable thing about April here in W Sussex is pretty much a complete absence of warm, or even mild air masses, and the only time I recall it feeling like proper spring was when I was reccying a walk on the last weekend of the month and I felt warm in short sleeves, it was like walking in summer. It was comparable to the one day we got here at the end of March when it was warm and sunny, a few days before Easter.

[Scorcher]

1 hour ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

I recall that at one point during April (sometime between the 20th and 25th) Lincoln got up to 17-18C on a couple of days with sunshine, although the minima were still close to freezing.  Yes, the Met Office map doesn't lie, for many parts of the UK mean maxima were close to or even just above the 1961-1990 normal, and not far below that for 1991-2020 - only in East Anglia and the SE were maxima notably low.  (This does, though, bear out comments from London that the maxima were low).  It was the minima that were exceptionally low nationwide.

The statistics certainly prove that it was exceptionally sunny around these parts- my local official station Rostherne recorded 223.9 hours of sunshine during April. I believe the average is around 147 hours so that really is quite something. Only 10 hours less than April last year.

This probably explains why daytime maxima were higher here relative to average than further south and east- cloud generally wasn't an issue here.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Scorcher

[stainesbloke]

A very windy few days here and feeling decidedly chilly again today, just 11°C currently. Sunday to Tuesday are looking much warmer, possibly reaching 27°C on Monday, can’t wait. This cold is unpleasant.

[Frigid]

If you were to go outside right now you'd think it's the middle of winter. Proper baltic out there, temperature plummeted to 5c here an hour ago accompanied with strong winds. Strange spring this one has been, wouldn't be surprised if the warm spell we had in March will be the only one this season. 

[Thundery wintry showers]

It's a right mixed bag here, feels springlike in the sun and out of the wind, then feels wintry when the showers come over and the wind gets up.  I haven't noticed any sleet or snow yet during this spell, Lincoln appears to have been a little too far south for that, but there's definitely been snow to low levels in Scotland and parts of the north-east of England.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Thundery wintry showers

[Earthshine]

When we hit that first 20C day it's going to be truly blazing!

[I remember Atlantic 252]

16 degrees on Sunday modeled? very mild that

[Frost HoIIow]

4 hours ago, al78 said:

Horrific is an overstatement but despite the sunshine it has not felt like spring at all. One of my sisters in Salford has frequently been complaining of the cold, so Gtr Manchester has not escaped. It has been a very bad spring from a gardening perspective. When you can't grow a staple crop like potatoes in southern England in April, something is very wrong.

This morning the temperature was 14C in my house, at the end of the first week of May in SE England.

Yes heating has been needed most days. I record indoor temps too and it's not been above 22C upstairs yet this year. At the end of March was when it hit 22C during that very brief warm spell but since then it's stayed below that value and often hovers in the low teens some mornings before rising to 16 or 17 if the sun comes out so it's chilly to sit around in just a tshirt or whatever so inevitably have to turn the heating on at some point. Just shows how chilly it's been by both day and night throughout April and so far May.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Frost HoIIow

[reef]

2 hours ago, Scorcher said:

The statistics certainly prove that it was exceptionally sunny around these parts- my local official station Rostherne recorded 223.9 hours of sunshine during April. I believe the average is around 147 hours so that really is quite something. Only 10 hours less than April last year.

This probably explains why daytime maxima were higher here relative to average than further south and east- cloud generally wasn't an issue here.

It was the sunniest April on record here too with 248 hours (151%) so it wasn't an east/west thing but more a case of southern areas being on the periphery of the high centred further north dragging in more cloud and a stronger wind which suppressed maxima more relative to average.

April 2021 holds the bizarre record of being the sunniest on record but also the coldest in this location, quite an odd mix!

[Arctic Hare]

Went outside a few minutes ago to check something in the garden and was surprised by how warm the sun felt. A useful reminder that, in spite of the chilly weather, we're only 6 weeks from the solstice and so when the sun is shining it has a lot of power now. (UV forecast is 6 here for lunchtime tomorrow.)

[al78]

The one thing (aside from the daylight hours) that stops it being an extension of winter now is the strength of the sun. Even if the air temperature is well below average, if the sun is out and there is little to no breeze, it soon feels much warmer than it is, especially if you are wearing dark clothing.