A Winter's Tale

The latest shower was pretty intense with some hail and a few fumbles of thunder.

Just had thunder which sounded like a shotgun. I wonder how far away that lightning strike was.

A stunning summer’s day with almost cloudless skies. Perhaps a little too hot with a maximum of 28C at Glasgow airport where it’s still 26C. Some of the weather in recent days of 22-25C with lots of sunshine, blue sky and a slight breeze is probably the most enjoyable summer weather. I wonder if Glasgow and other parts of Scotland could see 29 or 30C in the next couple of days. I doubt we’ll see a met office extreme heat warning which has been issued in Northern Ireland where there could be further record breaking temperatures. It’s not been a bad summer so far with some decent spells of weather without any heat or prolonged warmth of note until this week’s heatwave which wouldn’t look out of place in 06, 13 or 18.

I heard a rumble of thunder a few minutes ago. Interesting looking cloud - is it a shelf cloud.

The last few days have been fantastic with some seasonal weather at long last. May is normally one of the best months of the year for weather but this month was more like October with pretty cool, damp, dull and unsettled weather. Hopefully this summer is more like 2018, 2013 or 2006 and it’d be nice to have some decent weather for the football.

The last month of weather has been very unusual. The heaviest graupel shower I’ve experienced rattled through about 10 mins ago. The atmosphere does have a bit of a thundery vibe and like early last month it’s weird to see wintry precipitation from convective showers generated inland. April is when the transition from winter to summer is most apparent with a mix of rather cold and warm temperatures but despite potent cold and snow being difficult to achieve as the sun gets stronger last month was notably cold. Glasgow airport had 19 air frosts - more than February and March combined - and saw -5C recorded on the latest date. A bit like 2013 and 2018 vegetation growth was delayed until the end of the month and although the daylight hours are now more akin to summer than winter the cold there continues. Monday had the coldest May maximum at Glasgow airport since 1996 with a high of 7C. With the exception of the second half of February and March it has been pretty cold since Christmas and and 2021 has been pretty dry aswell. Hopefully this weather doesn’t persist for too long and we end up with some seasonal warmth.

Just had a brief snow flurry after nearly two months without seeing snow. It’s always a nice bonus seeing snow falling in non-winter months. I’ve never had lying snow in April and I suspect this year won’t be any different but further north there could be some pretty decent falls of snow during this spell.

I can say there’s also a mix of snow and graupel here. It sounds different from normal snow. All surfaces covered with fresh snow.

Another very cold day with some light snow earlier. The past week has been pretty memorable and certainly the highlight of the winter. Although this winter generally hasn’t been as severe as 2010 the period since Christmas has been very unusual for the dominance of cold weather with very few mild days. It’s a shame the cold couldn’t persist for another week as we could have seen a sub zero mean for February. Instead we might end up with some pretty mild weather which might push the mean temperature closer to average. It’s very noticeable how different it looks and feels compared to December with longer abs brighter days and the sun higher in the sky. Despite all the the sunshine over the past few days most surfaces have retained decent snow cover with around 5cm in the shade. Yesterday only saw snow depth reduced by 1cm despite being higher temperatures. Sometimes I think it helps for snow to melt a little then freeze which seems to make the snow more compact. I think we’ll see cold and snow return at some point in the next few weeks but I don’t think this week will be topped. As edo says it would be great if we could have a week like this every year. Widespread snow cover, many areas with more than 4 inches, some more than a foot of snow, lying snow for up to a week, daytime temperature struggling to get above freezing, some widespread very low temperatures and plenty of sunshine. Had the cold persisted at least a week longer and the snow been more widespread then this spell would most likely be mentioned in the same breath as 2010 - in some areas I’d imagine this past week was comparable to some of the best cold spells of the past. I hope for those who have missed out so far will see something to remember this winter for in the coming weeks.

Another lovely morning. It has been fantastic to have sunshine and blue sky during the day and clear, starry sky at night. Snow cover has reduced to 6.5cm probably due to wind and sunshine though most surfaces exposed to sunlight have retained decent snow cover better than I expected. This week has seen here and in my places the second largest snowfall since 2010 and the coldest temperatures aswell - making it probably the most significant spell of cold and snow since December 2010. It’s a shame this spell couldn’t last another week which would put Feb 2021 in the same category as Dec 2009-Jan 2010 and Nov-Dec 2010 as sustained period of significant cold and snow. However this has been an excellent and memorable cold spell probably comparable to late Dec 2000 and Feb/Mar 2001 which were short but fairly notable cold spells. It’s a relief 2020/21 has delivered some significant snow and low temperatures on the back of a notably cold January. We’d been pretty unlucky in recent weeks to miss out on some promising Synoptics for cold and snow but thankfully we’ve not ended up like 2018/19 - if we had more luck 2020/21 could have been a classic, exceptional winter. This winter has felt unique - it hasn’t been as exceptional or severe as 09/10 or 10/11 but it has been colder than 00/01 and 08/09. The 1980s winters were before I was born but I’d imagine this year has been a bit of a throwback.