Moans, ramps and banter

[cheeky_monkey]

 Froze were the Days TBF the average max in February for London and much of southern England is around 9c

[raz.org.rain]

 JoeShmoe fortunately there's growing signs for something warmer and drier on the horizon, fingers crossed it translates into our first heatwave of the year

[*Stormforce~beka*]

 East Lancs Rain I can't even look at it or click your pictures. It's too traumatising for me

[cheese]

Wasn't today supposed to be wet? The sun is currently shining and it's 13C.

[TwisterGirl81]

 In Absence of True Seasons  yes I was going to post a comment saying the same thing but was on my short tea break so had to be quick….You’re totally correct about the great months for sun bumping up the annual figures to average for some of us when it felt predominantly a duller year at least for these parts, fingers crossed we have a better overall spring and summer, so ready for warmth and clear blue skies 

[TwisterGirl81]

 East Lancs Rain it’s probably because it’s usually windier up north so umbrellas don’t help

Edited February 20 by TwisterGirl81

[MP-R]

 cheese Yes it’s actually brighter today than yesterday here. Can see the rain on the radar edging closer though.

[Froze were the Days]

 cheeky_monkey Not a chance...certainly not towards the south east, the beeb presenter (forget who it was) was talking as a whole for the UK and this was before mid-month.

[Racer]

 On Sunday I went an early morning Porsche club run to a breakfast meet, we drove across part of Dartmoor looping into N.Devon and briefly into Cornwall before breakfast at Strawberry Fields Lifton. It wasn't cold but was horrendously wet and misty, a bit like speedboating but enjoyable nonetheless especially as there's no salt on the roads unlike during the misery months of December and January

Yesterday and today we had two gorgeous dry, sunny and almost warm days, so both cars are now clean and shiny for next time

No threat of snow now, unlike the absolute trauma of this week in 1978, so I should be driving up to Race Retro on Friday but sadly it's been so wet that the show's been cancelled because of floods in Stoneleigh.

Looking on the bright side, all this rain means the reservoirs have filled up so the hosepipe bans shouldn't reoccur this year

Still the nights are pulling out, the birds are singing and spring is rapidly approaching, hopefully warm and dry leading to a long and hot summer

[East Lancs Rain]

8 hours ago, Polaris said:

You know this winter is bad when Stav on Latest beeb forecast refers to 10c in London and 8c in Edinburgh as 'COLD'. Other countries must laugh at us

Maybe cold if you go outside in just a T-shirt! 10C in London and 8C in Edinburgh in February would be around a degree above average.

7 hours ago, Froze were the Days said:

BBC forecasters should bow their heads in embarrassment at the their lack of knowing what max temperatures should be for the time of year country wide as an approximate, a week or so back they were saying that 9c was the average at the time...hhmmmm no.

To be fair we’ve gotten so used to mild winters these days that I think people have forgotten what cold weather is. 9C would be about average for a London day in February, I’m guessing they were probably from darn sarf.

[WYorksWeather]

Yep, I notice it a lot now. People see charts with even a -5C isotherm on them and think it's cold for February. It really isn't - the long term mean at this time of year is around -2C. It barely even merits a mention really historically.

When you look at the extremes it just makes it so obvious. How often do we get the +8C isotherm in winter? All the time, to the point that it isn't even that notable any more. How often do we get the equivalent on the cold side, which would be a -12C isotherm? Very rarely, to the point that each event is very memorable.

[raz.org.rain]

It's really telling when the forecasted polar maritime colder spell struggles to bring temperatures below normal for the time of year and guarantees a whole shed load of rain.

[raz.org.rain]

Needless to say, if any droughts or hosepipe bans get announced this year, there'll probably be riots!

[*Stormforce~beka*]

 raz.org.rain I won't follow it!

[SunSean]

Imagine my shock when I woke up to yet more rain & grey skies this morning!

Apart from a couple of Spring like days, this month has been woeful.

[MattStoke]

The cloud (and rain) helping to contribute towards the (potentially) record breaking warm February in terms of mean temperature as it's meant very few cold nights.

[danm]

Hoping this SSW in early March doesn’t lead to a cold Spring, as it helped to do last year. Hopefully any blocking sets up the right place to bring us warmth. 

[SussexSnowman]

And just what the doctor didn't order, more chuffing rain. I imagine the UK resembles something like a wet sponge right now. Truly abysmal last 5 months of weather. 

[Summer8906]

 baddie Not good, though you do offer some hope of a slightly drier than average March. If May is the next dry month that could be 10 wet months on the trot: July 2023 to April 2024. That is certainly unprecedented in my lifetime, I believe the longest run I remember so far is 8 wet months from Sep 2000 to April 2021. So even if March is wet and April is dry, that would be the first instance of a run of 9 wet months since, AFAIK, at least the mid-70s. September 1976 to April 1977 was I believe another run of 8 wet months, but May 1977 was dry.

I wonder what the odds are now on July 2023 to June 2024 being the wettest mid-year to mid-year on record? Tempted to place a bet (if anyone takes such bets).

Edited February 21 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

47 minutes ago, SussexSnowman said:

Truly abysmal last 5 months of weather

Make that last 8 months! Last time we had any sustained good weather was June.

[Summer8906]

1 hour ago, danm said:

Hoping this SSW in early March doesn’t lead to a cold Spring, as it helped to do last year. Hopefully any blocking sets up the right place to bring us warmth. 

I wouldn't mind a cold spring (particularly the first half) as long was it was dry!

(In fact I'd prefer a cool spring to a warm one - flowering is already around 3 weeks ahead of schedule, it needs to slow down so we can enjoy mid- and late-spring properly).

This is the "medicine" I'd prescribe the UK for the next 6 months to counteract the last 8 (figures for southern England):

March: mean max 9, mean min 0, 20% rainfall, 150% sunshine

April: mean max 14, mean min 2, 5% rainfall, 200% sunshine

May: mean max 17, mean min 5, 30% rainfall, 150% sunshine

June: mean max 22, mean min 10, 5% rainfall, 200% sunshine

July: mean max 27, mean min 15, 20% rainfall, 150% sunshine

August: mean max 26, mean min 15, 20% rainfall, 200% sunshine

Should just about normalise things!

What we need more than anything else is dry, dry, dry. My wish would be for the driest spring and summer combined on record. The rainfall can go to the Mediterranean where it might actually do some good, it's doing no good whatsoever here. Persistent late May-June 2023 synoptics would be useful, I feel.

Edited February 21 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

 raz.org.rain Heatwave? Not so sure. As I said what nature needs is cool and dry. Excessive warmth in March risks completely disrupting spring flowering, and we'll all regret it come late April and May.

 

21 hours ago, Polaris said:

You know this winter is bad when Stav on Latest beeb forecast refers to 10c in London and 8c in Edinburgh as 'COLD'. Other countries must laugh at us

Indeed. 10C in Feb is mild; in March it's average and only in April will it be cold.

Edited February 21 by Summer8906

[SussexSnowman]

 Summer8906 Ouch! Now you say that, even more depressing! 

[Summer8906]

 SussexSnowman Which post?

[SussexSnowman]

 Summer8906  ah your reply to mine about it being 8 months of abysmal weather rather than 5. I put a bit of extra stock in that week in September that was unusually warm.