Terminal Moraine

kold weather I can't speak for the rest of the country but in my own back yard the mean annual rainfall over the last 25 years is 15% higher than it was between 1964 and 1999. In the last 5 years ( 2019-2023 ) the mean annual rainfall of 1256 mm is higher than the individual wettest year between 1964 and 1999 ( 1229 mm in 1998 ). It's perhaps too early to say if this is a permanent change but it's certainly significant.

A dry night with long clear periods. A sunny start to this morning but it's become cloudy since 0900. At 0900 Temp; 8.2c 24 hr max; 14.2 24 hr ,min; 4.2c Grass min; 1.2c Rainfall in 24 hrs ending 0900; 1.0 mm Mean wind speed; 18 mph SW 7 oktas St, Sc and Ac Vis; 30 miles

Overnight rain cleared by 1000 and the afternoon was dry, apart from a few spots of showery rain around 1700, with sunny intervals. At 1800 Temp; 10.1c Max today; 14.2c Min last night; 6.1c Grass min; 6.1c Rainfall from 0900-1800; 1.0 mm Sunshine today; 1.2 hrs Mean wind speed; 16 mph W/SW Highest gust today; 26 mph S at 0841 1 okta Cu Vis; more than 50 miles

Those figures do seem too high. Perhaps it was an over liberal interpretation of what constituted a burn mark on the Campbell Stokes sunshine recorder card. I remember reading many years ago of the competition for the highest sunshine totals between different seaside resorts and how this resulted in some observers measuring the faintest scorch mark on the sunshine card and including it in the total. Buxton recorded 1553 hours of sunshine in 1893, a figure not exceeded until 1995 ( 1635 hrs) so it was obviously a very sunny year. The totals for 1894 and 1895 were 1114 hrs and 1365 hrs respectively. Kew recorded 1685 hours in 1893 so even allowing for Morecambe's seaside location it does seem a long stretch to reach 2526 hrs. Record annual sunshine totals are not easy to find, short of going through old volumes of the weekly weather report and adding up the weekly amounts, but somewhere around 2100 hours seems to be in the right area, ie Bognor Regis's total of 2066 hrs in 1933. I'd have thought with Morecambe's north westerly location around 1800 hrs would be the upper limit. Just found a bit more data relating to this. Between 1941 and 1970 the highest annual sunshine total at Morecambe was 1742 hrs, though it doesn't state which year. The highest annual totals I can find for this period are; Brighton 2068 hrs, Eastbourne 2153 hrs. Worthing2129 hrs, Ventnor; 2172 hrs; Sandown 2256 hrs; Jersey 2291 hrs and Guernsey 2263 hrs. Is seems very unlikely that any year at Morecambe would record around 300 hrs more sunshine than the sunniest years on the south coast or the Channel Islands even allowing for the different time period.

A mild and cloudy/foggy night with a spell of moderate rain until 2030 yesterday evening and moderate-heavy rain from about 0400 today. At 0900 Temp; 9.4c 24 hr max; 9.4c 24 hr min; 6.1c Grass min; 6.1c Rainfall in 24 hrs ending 0900; 21.4 mm Mean wind speed; 18 mph S 8 oktas Ns and St Vis; 1300 yds ( fog above 300 mts ) Continuous moderate rain

A clear, sunny start followed by increasing cloud from late morning with intermittent rain during the afternoon. At 1800 Temp; 6.5c Max today; 8.9c Min last night; 1.4c Grass min; -2.1c Rainfall from 0900-1800; 1.5 mm Sunshine today; 3.7 hrs Mean wind speed; 16 mph S/SE Highest gust today; 26 mph S at 1130 8 oktas Ns Vis; 25 miles Continuous light rain

With half the month gone the sunshine total now stands at 13.2 hrs, that's 29% of the average for the first half of March and 8.7 hrs less than the first half of last March which ended up being the second dullest on record.

Showers during the early part of last night but it was dry before midnight and the remaining cloud dispersed during the early hours to give a clear and sunny start to this morning. At 0900 Temp; 6.8c 24 hr max; 13.0c 24 hr min; 1.4c Grass min; -2.1c Rainfall in 24 hrs ending 0900; 2.0 mm Mean wind speed; 8 mph S 1 okta Ci and Sc Vis; 40 miles

Mainly cloudy. Drizzly showers in the morning .Dry and mild with a few sunny intervals early p.m followed by showers. At 1800 Temp; 6.5c Max today; 13.0c Min last night; 8.4c Grass min; 6.8c Rainfall from 0900-1800; 1.0 mm Sunshine today; 0.3 hrs Mean wind speed; 16 mph W Highest gust today; 38 mph W at 1544 7 oktas Sc Vis; 40 miles

A mild and cloudy night with intermittent light-moderate rain. Dry with a few glimpses of weak sunshine at the moment. At 0900 Temp; 9.4c 24 hr max; 11.4c 24 hr min; 8.4c Grass min; 6.8c Rainfall in 24 hrs ending 0900; 4.4 mm Mean wind speed; 20 mph SW 8 oktas St Vis; 20 miles

A mild and cloudy day with intermittent light-moderate rain. At 1800 Temp; 10.7c Max today; 11.4c Min last night; 8.5c Grass min; 8.1c Rainfall from 0900-1800; 0.9 mm Sunshine today; 0.0 hrs Mean wind speed; 21 mph S Highest gust today; 33 mph S at 1728 8 oktas Ns Vis; 15 miles Continuous light rain

A mild and cloudy night with light rain arriving from the west by 0630. At 0900 Temp; 8.8c 24hr max; 11.2c 24 hr min; 8.5c Grass min; 8.1c Rainfall in 24 hrs ending 0900; 1.6 mm Mean wind speed; 18 mph S 8 oktas Ns Vis; 12 miles Continuous light rain

Cloudy and dry in the morning then intermittent light-moderate rain in the afternoon. At 1800 Temp; 10.1c Max today; 11.2c Min last night; 8.8c Grass min; 7.3c Rainfall from 0900-1800; 0.7 mm Sunshine today; 0.0 hrs Mean wind speed; 24 mph SW Highest gust today; 42 mph SW at 1157 8 oktas Ns Vis; 10 miles Intermittent moderate rain

Yesterday evening's drizzle soon cleared to leave a dry, mild and cloudy night. No change to that so far this morning. At 0900 Temp; 9.5c 24 hr max; 11.4c 24 hr min; 5.3c Overnight min; 8.8c Grass min; 7.3c Rainfall in 24 hrs ending 0900; 2.1 mm Mean wind speed; 27 mph SW 8 oktas St Vis; more than 50 miles

Moderate rain at first this morning became light by mid morning and then gave way to intermittent moderate drizzle from late morning onward. Thick fog until 1145. At 1800 Temp; 10.7c Max today; 11.4c Min last night; 4.0c Grass min; 1.9c Rainfall from 0900-1800; 2.0 mm Sunshine today; 0.1 hrs Mean wind speed; 19 mph SW Highest gust today; 32 mph SW at 1705 8 oktas St Vis; 8 miles Intermittent moderate drizzle

A cloudy night with rain and thick fog by 0430 after a dry first half. At 0900 Temp; 5.3c 24 hr max; 6.0c 24 hr min; 4.0c Grass min; 1.9c Rainfall in 24 hrs ending 0900; 6.5 mm Mean wind speed; 17 mp hSE Sky obscured by fog Vis; 90 yds Continuous moderate rain

A cloudy day with light drizzle during the morning and a dry afternoon. At 1800 Temp; 4.3c Max today; 6.0c Min last night; 4.0c Grass min; 4.1c Rainfall from 0900-1800; 0.1 mm Sunshine today; 0.0 hrs Mean wind speed; 5 mph NW Highest gust today; 32 mph NE at 0600 7 oktas Sc Vis; 25 miles

Yesterday's rain cleared to the west by late evening and the rest of the night, and so far this morning, was overcast with intermittent drizzle. At 0900 Temp; 4.3c 24 hr max; 5.9c 24 hr min; 4.0c Grass min; 4.1c Rainfall in 24 hrs ending 0900; 14.8 mm Mean wind speed; 14 mph NE 8 oktas St Vis; 1.5 miles Intermittent light drizzle

After the second dullest February on record here ( since 2000) March has continued the very dull weather with just 12.9 hrs of sunshine in the first 10 days; the average is 32.2 hrs for the first 10 days. 2005 was the dullest March on record with 46.6 hrs during the whole month and the first 10 days managed 25.4 hrs. 2023 was the second dullest with 48.3 hrs and the first 10 days were comparable with this year with 12.2 hrs recorded.

An overcast day with continuous light-moderate rain. Thick fog until 1130, then misty. At 1800 Temp; 5.0c Max today; 5.9c Min last night; 4.8c Grass min; 4.6c Rainfall from 0900-1800; 9.7 mm Mean wind speed; 21 mph NE Highest gust today; 35 mph E at 0656 8 oktas Ns Vis; 1.5 miles Continuous moderate rain

In the 47 years I've been recording at this site the average date for the last frost in spring is April 13th. The earliest last frost was February 12th in 2014 but that was in a league of its own as there have been only 7 other years with a last frost in March. 1980 on March 23rd, 1987 on March 29th, 1993 on March 27th, 2004 on March 13th, 2009 on March 29th, 2011 on March 8th and 2015 on March 26th. It should be borne in mind that living high on the east facing slopes of a moor this area is not prone to early or late frosts as in those situations where the valleys experience frosts due to nocturnal radiation all the cold air drains away to lower ground leaving it several degrees warmer here.

A cloudy night with light-moderate rain. Foggy with light rain at the moment. At 0900 Temp; 5.9c 24 hr max; 9.5c 24 hr min; 4.0c Overnight min; 4.8c Grass min; 4.6c Rainfall in 24 hrs ending 0900; 8.2 mm Mean wind speed; 15 mph E 8 oktas Ns and St Vis; 250 yds Continuous light rain

Sunny intervals during early to mid afternoon but the rest of the day was dry and cloudy. At 1800 Temp; 6.3c Max today; 9.5c Min last night; 3.0c Grass min; 0.7c Rainfall from 0900-1800; 0.0 mm Sunshine today; 0.9 hrs Mean wind speed; 19 mph E Highest gust today; 32 mph E at 1624 8 oktas St Vis; 8 miles

Following on from the discussion about the 0900-0900 meteorological day, and how a few cold early mornings can influence the monthly mean, I checked my own data for February. The mean 0900-0900 minimum here was 3.5c, the highest on record for February, but the mean overnight minimum ( 1800-0900 ) was 4.0c. When we're talking in terms of the possibility of monthly records being broken by a few hundredths of a degree, or even a tenth of a degree, this is a significant difference. Not that it makes any difference to the CET as long as it continues to be based on the 0900-0900 day but it does illustrate what a large can of worms it would open up, particularly between November and March, if it were ever to be changed to midnight to midnight to fit in with automatic weather stations. It's much less of an issue between April and October although I can think of a few occasions where a particularly cold day in summer is negated by a clear and sunny start to the following day with the result that the temperature at 0900 is higher than the maximum on the previous day.

A dry and cloudy night with intermittent light rain or drizzle arriving from the south around dawn. Dry, dull and misty at the moment. At 0900 Temp; 4.0c 24 hr max' 5.7c 24 hr min; 3.0c Grass min; 0.7c Rainfall in 24 hrs ending 0900; Trace Mean wind speed; 15 mph E 8 oktas St Vis; 1500 yds