Worryingly Wet & Worryingly Sunless

[danm]

 In Absence of True Seasons was heaving in the City over the last couple of days. With temperatures of 17-18c with sunny spells at times it's been pretty nice. Large crowds standing with their drinks outside the pubs and bars. 

Gloomy today though. 

[In Absence of True Seasons]

 danm  

I've been working from home the last couple days so in Essex, yesterday was mostly cloudy with some sunny spells in the morning in my garden.

Day before (Wednesday) was decent though. Definitely one of the first properly spring days. I'm assuming that it reached 18c on the Wednesday afternoon at some spots in London? I recorded 17c in my garden.

[danm]

 In Absence of True Seasons yep around that figure, 18c or so. Lot's of sunny spells in London yesterday too, people out and about, eating outdoors, drinking outdoors. Was nice, Back to reality today though. 

[danm]

Don’t be surprised when March leaves you out in the cold

WWW.THETIMES.CO.UK

---

Plus: the weather forecast where you are

A reminder of the topsy turvy nature of the weather in March.

[B87]

I have a feeling that we won't see a dry or sunny month now until August or September.

[*Stormforce~beka*]

 In Absence of True Seasons Last March dear ... Stop undoing the trauma we have all suffered lol

[In Absence of True Seasons]

 *Stormforce~beka* it's been sunny for weeks now! You're imagining things, I think you have claggification of the brain. Also known as dullitis/ cloudpoxia.

I've got it too.

Edited March 22 by In Absence of True Seasons

[*Stormforce~beka*]

 In Absence of True Seasons Institutionalisation did that to me

[CryoraptorA303]

Okay, so today was back to the dullness as scheduled. It has rained on and off, however it's been very light so I'm seeing this as an improvement over the torrential downpours we were having non-stop until mid-March. Hopefully this means those nasty fronts have a lot less bite now...

Unrelated note: I don't really like Peroni and I don't get why so many people like it, Moretti and Poretti are much better Italian lagers. Just had to get that out of my system

[CryoraptorA303]

In a very unexpected twist, I'm now seeing the sunniest conditions all month this afternoon. I hope this is a good sign...

[WYorksWeather]

It's been reasonably sunny here as well. Far too cold though with a chilly breeze to really feel properly spring-like except if you're stood in direct sunlight all the time.

[In Absence of True Seasons]

 CryoraptorA303 Peroni hype is weird.  IMO, most "upper end" mass produced lagers are better. Birra Moretti obviously, also Pravha, Staropramen, Madri, Camden Hells, Paulaner, the list goes on...

I think I'd even order an Amstel over a Peroni. It's one of those lagers that seems way over-carbonated and has that metallic twang the further you get through the pint. 

Pilsner Urquell is my favourite though. Can't beat a proper Czech pils imo.

This topic is liquid-related so it's still relevant to the "worryingly wet" discussion via association lol.

[saintkip]

 CryoraptorA303 Agree Peroni is rank  and you have to drink it from an awful glass, I think it’s a look at me I’m loaded drink which actually makes me think look at me I’m a cockle. 
Amstel all day long over that rubbish 

[SunSean]

Never ceases to amaze me at just how quickly a clear sky gets overtaken & diseased by clouds. Oh well, we got our 1 hour of sun for the week lol.

[A Face like Thunder]

Thank goodness it's not 23rd March 2020, the first day of lockdown!

[B87]

 A Face like Thunder If it was, we would just be starting a week of almost unbroken sunshine, and it wouldn't rain again until 17th April.

[CryoraptorA303]

 In Absence of True Seasons Never managed to try Pravha or Paulaner, most pubs barely have any variety anymore and have only one or two decent lagers, so I'm reliant on shops near me having anything decent. Madri is probably my least favourite on that list but I'd still have it over peroni.

Totally agree about it being overcarbonated, it just tastes like a mix between sparkling water and cardboard and it's quite unpleasant. A wedding last year when it was either peroni or grolsch is when I had about five pints of grolsch to wash the two or three peronis away, and it's not like grolsch is the best lager itself 

 saintkip Agree about it being a posh drink as well, it's what places like Prezzos serve. Luckily they've dropped peroni recently though and they now serve poretti instead Finally a beer with actual flavour.

Warsteiner is my all time favourite, but pilsner urquell really does live up to the mantle of the first mass-produced pilsner in the world. Unfortunately I have to go into town to get it or warsteiner as no one locally stocks it 

Camden hells is a weird one, I've had good and bad experiences with it. If you've ever been to Austria and tried genuine Austrian Helles then it doesn't compare but overall compared to the market here its decent enough. I never see it anywhere though anymore and I only have it at pubs now when its between Camden and a dumpster beer like Fosters.

Speaking of amstel, it's really the only light beer that doesn't taste like total garbage imo. It's not a serious beer but it's the best option if you just want a cheap can or ten.

Fosters and carling are obviously totally avoid, they're both absolute bathwater. Peroni must surely not be much better than them in all honesty. If we still had bottled carling/fosters to give them a fair competition against peroni, I think it'd be close. Race to the bottom and all.

12 hours ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

This topic is liquid-related so it's still relevant to the "worryingly wet" discussion via association lol.

Now that I've talked about it, I am eagerly awaiting having a nice pint or ten after work in couple hours 

Edited March 23 by CryoraptorA303
I'm definitely not an alcoholic or anything...

[raz.org.rain]

Promising signs of changes going into April in some of the outputs. Could we see our first true plume of the year? God, I hope so. The ensembles do seem keen on pulling a southerly influence in after this current low pressure mess passes through, let's just hope that the jet stream has been disturbed enough for it to permanently shift to our north for a while.

[Froze were the Days]

 A Face like Thunder Well you could look at it like this...the weather that followed was a lot of wall to wall sunshine from what I can remember from April to July and fairly warm.

[CryoraptorA303]

 raz.org.rain

Today has been one of the most bizarre spring days I have ever experienced and would be better placed in October. The day started with wall to wall sunshine, the sunniest conditions since mid-February, and then around midday it started clouding over. The Sun came out once again for another hour or so before a torrential hailstorm hit us, oh my god I've never seen anything like it at this time of year. Now we're back to wall-to-wall sunshine. What a rollercoaster.

While today may be discouraging to some, "may" I remind you all that we saw hailstorms in early May 2023, and then shortly after conditions significantly improved. While I probably need rehab for hopium at this point, it seems like there is overdue turbulence in the regime right now. I have decently high hopes that April can be significantly better than what we've seen so far and the first average or dry month since June 2023. In terms of temperatures, if we get any southerly activity then we will automatically be seeing warm temperatures at the moment between Iberia being in a drought and the extremely high global temps.

Raz showed me a graph yesterday of the current ocean temps, there is a cold blob materialising in the Atlantic and the temp anomaly would be very conducive to repeatedly shoving the Azores high into Europe. Assuming that continues, that will be our source of warm air. The question after that is if the jet stream plays ball; too far south or not far enough north with this setup will just mean repeated thundery breakdowns and very humid conditions after a few days of uncomfortably humid warmth at a time. The best case scenario would be a completely cut off jet which leads to the Azores high being captured as a southern Scandi high with persistent SElies, but that is August 1995/April 2011 level hopium at this point.

[SunSean]

Amazingly, today has turned out pretty OK overall. Not wall to wall sunshine but lots of sun spread throughout the day and a mix of everything from sun, wind, rain & dark cloud. Rather days like this than the infinite grey & monotone sheet.

[Metwatch]

Some minor good news; central and northern England look to be clear of any flooding issues. Still some small issues in southern areas, and depending on how wet next week, could bring up some more flooding again.

But the higher evaportation rates, due to the stronger sun and longer daylength despite March still not being dry is becoming evident now. Various surfaces have dried up in just hours following hail showers and a breeze.

Latest GFS continuing with that west|east split until end of March:

[CryoraptorA303]

19 minutes ago, Metwatch said:

But the higher evaportation rates, due to the stronger sun and longer daylength despite March still not being dry is becoming evident now. Various surfaces have dried up in just hours following hail showers and a breeze.

Yeah, it's not taking as much now. With the absence of rain for a week or so the surfaces here have already become significantly less waterlogged and any new rain provided it isn't too extreme will mostly dry up before it can settle - Still much progress to be made though. Some very high temperatures in April would be ideal, although not for too long as we don't want to repeat the cycle again.

Edited March 23 by CryoraptorA303

[CryoraptorA303]

Not going to lie, I don't want to jinx it but this does feel an awful lot like the prelude to April 2020... I feel a big change in our fortunes coming.

[raz.org.rain]

 CryoraptorA303 2020 was a great spring and a meh summer. The spring was mostly fantastic, the summer was dull and wet although it was warm and recorded one of our hottest days.