Spring 2024

[damianslaw]

 summer blizzard Mmm not sure, spring growth appears well advanced, aided by the very mild minima and little frost more so than sunshine. Expecting many trees to burst open their leaves fully in next couple of weeks, about 2-3 weeks earlier than usual. Bluebells have been out in sheltered southern aspects for a week now.. gone is the wait until the end of April now. 

[summer blizzard]

 damianslaw It may be a local bias however while growth was advanced, most trees appear to have stalled. It is the grass and flowers that are proceeding at pace. 

[LetItSnow!]

Spring growth seems well advanced locally. Many trees are into their early leaf stage with a definite green look coming into life for most trees. Blossom and daffodils are all fading fast. If we get any very warm weather this month then I feel a very early summer look. Wouldn’t be surprised to have full growth by May if these anomalies persist. And yet somehow it still feels like November.  

[MP-R]

A spell of sun will speed things along. There’s a definite shade of green appearing but the trees are not there yet here. 

[richie3846]

Spring is advanced in this area also. Looking at SunSean's sunshine tally, we've not done that badly for sunshine locally, and of course it's been mild. Horse chestnut coming into full leaf, hazel already in full leaf, and many other trees are now turning green. With the warm spell coming up, I'd expect most trees to be in full leaf by mid April. 

I'm no botanist but I'm not convinced that the initial coming into leaf is affected by sunshine. The buds form from energy stored in the previous season. It's warmth in the soil that's most important to get things going.

[B87]

Leaf did start early though has stalled. Still plenty of bare trees and I'd expect in a typical year for the vast majority to leaf out around mid-April, with everything fully leafed out by around 20-25th April. 

 

[reef]

 summer blizzard This is almost certainly due to the dull weather as maxima have been well above average, just as much as the minima:

January: Min +0.7C, Max +0.9C
February: Min +3.8C, Max +4.0C
March: Min +2.6C, Max +2.5C

(Figures from Hadley)

[WYorksWeather]

 reef I think what is giving many people the feeling of lower maxima is the lack of sun. It's the only thing that explains it - it's really not been a year with an overt bias towards milder minima. It's just been mild throughout.

I suppose that is another point as well - a March with a cold and dry start followed by a warm and sunny end with the same average temperature would probably have felt warmer, because a cold early March is soon forgotten, and the sunshine totals would have been far higher overall.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

Fingers crossed that this settled warmish spell comes off and that there is also some sun. 

[kold weather]

I suspect we've just become accustomed to the milder temperatures. Bar mid Jsnuary we've basically had 4-5 months of CET averaging somewhere between 6-8c.

So despite mild temperatures at the moment, I think we probably aren't feeling the benefits of staying above average.

A similar thing happened in summer of 2018. Literally acclimatised to the warm temperatures so by the end 28c really wasn't that warm, despite it being objectively warm.

[richie3846]

I've got a late blossoming tree in my back garden, and I started keeping track of when it approximately comes into full blossom. Last year it was well blossomed by the 19th April:

Compare with today, so 2 weeks before the pictures last year:

I think it's a couple days off the same openness as last year, but it's nearly there, and is quite a bit earlier than last year. In 2022 it was around the 17th to reach the full blossom stage. 

[MattStoke]

Temperature holding up at 16°C or just above in parts of London this morning/overnight. Challenging the UK highest minimum temperature record for April of 15.9°C. However, I’m not sure it would count as an official record due to the 09:00 - 09:00 reporting period, with temperatures early yesterday having been lower than 15.9°C.

 

Edit: Actually, it was colder late last night so it won’t be a record, anyway. Still, an impressively mild start to the day.

Edited April 6 by MattStoke

[Weather Enthusiast91]

 MattStoke As much as I am looking forward to some spring warmth and summer heat, it would be nice if we could start challenging some more cold records during autumn and winter. We are forever challenging warm records these days.

Edited April 6 by Weather Enthusiast91

[Weather Enthusiast91]

 richie3846 Love cherry blossoms. 

[TwisterGirl81]

 Weather Enthusiast91 I must have missed when it’s felt warm? Winter has been and gone, I’d like some sunshine records broken and not ‘the dullest’

[raz.org.rain]

First 20° recorded today, more or less bang on average for first 20°c of the year.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

 TwisterGirl81 Yes, winter has been and gone, but it would still be nice to challenge some more cold records at some point in the near future. 

Edited April 6 by Weather Enthusiast91

[TwisterGirl81]

 Weather Enthusiast91  well yes, in winter, it’s time for sun and warmth now, wish it would hurry and get here

[Weather Enthusiast91]

1 minute ago, TwisterGirl81 said:

 well yes, in winter

Exactly my point.  

I would like some sun and warmth now also, now that we are well into spring. We are certainly long overdue a long spell of settled weather.

[ChannelThunder]

A mild one, but I recorded only my second-highest max since having my station from the start of the year. 16.1 today. 16.2 on 20th March 

[TwisterGirl81]

 Weather Enthusiast91 I’d like to live in a climate with proper seasons too.

we are so overdue but I think asking for 9 months of above average sunshine from here on out might be too much to ask but I hope for all our sakes we do have a nice end to spring, a sunny warm summer and sunny warm first half of autumn to make up for the weather we’ve endured since last autumn 

[B87]

A few pictures from a mostly cloudy day at Kew Gardens today, showing the current foliage situation. Not sure where this talk of heavily advanced leaf out is coming from, still plenty of bare trees around. Generally speaking, the only fully/majority leafed out trees at the moment are evergreen species, cherries/plums and horse chestnut.

 

Edited April 6 by B87

[Scorcher]

Some absolutely ridiculous temperatures on the continent today. Perhaps the most remarkable is the 30C at Freiburg in Germany. In the first week of April.

As so often seems to happen, the UK has just missed out on something truly remarkable.

[WYorksWeather]

 Scorcher And only really the surface conditions preventing something equally anomalous here, which would be 27-28C. When the sun did come out today it felt very warm for the time of year - the warm upper air temperatures making their presence felt.

Imagine if we had bright sunshine and clear blue skies from 6am to 4pm. 25C or higher would have been achieved, easily.

[LetItSnow!]

3 hours ago, B87 said:

Not sure where this talk of heavily advanced leaf out is coming from, still plenty of bare trees around

Goes to show the local variation. A lot of trees locally are doing quite well around here. Advanced leaves on the street off this one as well. Helping with removing the grey feel. 

Edited April 6 by LetItSnow!