Andy Bown

Said cell has backbuilt, turned pink on the radar and is now producing thunder, 2 rumbles in the last 2 minutes!

Got my eye on a discrete heavy cell which has popped up directly South of Warminster, currently looking at the best convection of the week in this immediate area.

First shower has gone up in the Bath area, expecting it to develop rapidly. Pleasantly warm with sunny spells among Cumulus, Altocumulus and some Stratocumulus which is residual from the earlier mist/fog.

26mm in Warminster from 17.00 yesterday until half an hour ago! That takes this month's total to 48mm which is already twice as much as the entire month of April last year!! Brightening up now with hazy sunshine but already signs of convection occurring. Interestingly given a front has slid SE-NW across the region and now cleared to the N is that the clouds are moving NW-SE.

And as if by magic it is completely different here with heavy rain since about 06.45! Calm though. The rain band developed extremely quickly, if you zoom to BA12 on the radar and view the 5 minute slides from 05.30 onwards you'll see what I mean as a finger of rain formed and pulsed SE-NW. Similar development at the leading edge has occurred across Dorset-Somerset in the last half an hour. Anybody know what is making these fingers of torrential rain form pulsing SE-NW on the leading edge?

Conversely it's a glorious though increasingly windy morning in West Wiltshire, some Cirrus but plenty of blue sky. Minimum was 0.1c with a lot of frost, 6.1c now.

I must find the time to look at Mapantz' website! My new weather station arrived late afternoon yesterday and I've got it up and running with the sensor in a different position to the previous one, it's currently reading 12.9c on an overcast though bright at times with sunny spells afternoon so that seems reasonably accurate to me. When I watched Countryfile on Sunday I thought this would prove to be a pretty wet week, however apart from 4 hours of heavy rain on Monday (10mm) there's only been a few showers and the front coming in later looks weak.

Hey that's a beauty Mike! Have you sent it to Ian Fergusson to be put on Points West? Ideal conditions today with slack LOW pressure drifting across the region. We went to Salisbury today where there was one brief downpour around midday and some light rain either side, rather surprised to get home and find 10mm in the gauge but radar review shows the reasons why.

First plume of 2016 and it is NOT a Kent clipper or hogged by France/Belgium! 1-0 to the UK!

Fascinating driving home from the Bristol area early yesterday evening ; crystal blue sky overhead and stretching in a wide band roughly SW - NE, frontal cloud to the NW and SE from the 2 frontal systems. My weather station's sensor is knackered, got a new station on order. Fine morning with hazy sunshine and all manner of mid-high level cloud types.

Genuinely perfect Spring day and the first day for ages with proper clean convection (last Sunday had far messier skies) although no more than a few scattered light or sharp showers resulting. Kind of wishing it was at least a month later with the synoptics of offer this weekend into early next week with warm air, LOW pressure and at least one warm front heading North.

Temp still dropping here at -0.3c, was -0.1c 15 mins ago. Crystal clear too.

24 hour rainfall total of 39mm! Neat hail shower to round off an hour or so ago and now fine, bright/breezy with washing on the line as well as rubbish back in the bin lol.

Yes some wonderful cloudscapes this afternoon . Recently had a covering of hail in Warminster , bright warm sunshine again now.

Bog standard Saturday weather for November-February has returned after several weeks off ; windy, showery rain/drizzle, mild.

I think it shows how dry the atmosphere is with much of the rain evaporating before reaching ground level, it happens quite often after long dry spells with subsequent rain events being much heavier.

Sunday definitely, could well be the first day this year with showers streaming SW-NE with areas in between quite pleasant and sunny. Not so sure about Monday, the lunchtime national forecast hinted at a potential deep LOW affecting the South, however at this range it's more than likely to go into France or run through the Channel and leave us with frontal cloud that inhibits convection.

It's been a fortnight now without meaningful rain, just a few drizzly mornings thanks to weak fronts. The ground has really dried out and I hope we don't get enough rain to waterlog everything again. One thing is that we're now into the time of year when the sun is stronger so things will dry out better in between. Hopefully a spell of changeable weather like what seems likely the next 4 days (fine then rain tomorrow, fine all day Friday, wet/windy Saturday, sun and showers Sunday) rather than a washout. Beautiful today and far more sunshine than any forecast suggested, even the 13.45 Points West forecast.

After 3 chilly dull days yesterday and today have brought a lot of sunshine, almost unbroken all day yesterday and the same again since lunch time today. Temperatures on both days have just snuck into the teens so properly pleasant Spring conditions.

In similar effect to Mapantz's graph and to further illustrate how poor the winter was, today's 6.3c maximum was only lowered on 8 days throughout November until today!

Judging by the satellite there must be a stark contrast across Somerset with areas to the East rather grim and to the West glorious! Disappointing to be on the grim side with thick fog, Stratocumulus and even invizdriz in the air while it's only 4.4c too.

Lol, sheltered South facing garden plus sun reflecting off the patio door behind me, didn't put a thermometer on the table out there but would probably have been at least 20c in direct sun.

Wonderful day with total blue sky and therefore unbroken sunshine. Think my town has been benefitting from something of a fohn effect with the Easterly off Salisbury Plain helping the temperature to 12.1c and that, added to having a sheltered South facing garden made for a lovely hour sat out in t-shirt and shorts!

Lovely day now after a dull start with thick drizzle, has anyone noticed how Wednesday has been the worst day of the week so frequently recently? Working backwards ... Today ; dull and drizzly start (the only rain for this week) Last Wednesday ; stormy wind/rain/sleet and briefly wet snow (mostly dry week otherwise) Fortnight ago ; thundery and wintry troughs (the most rainfall of that week) 3 weeks ago ; anomaly as was a fine day 4 weeks ago ; persistent rain all day

Having driven from home to the Corsham area at 07.00 and back to Warminster an hour ago there is a stark difference visible in this region between gloomy conditions and bright warm sunshine. It was -1.9c when I left home which was quite a surprise but the Warm Front cloud was already encroaching from the East. It seemed to come and go a few times through the morning, allowing an hour of warm sun where I was, but now has covered much of this area while it is visibly clear towards the South coast.