stainesbloke

Gorgeous start to the day here with blue skies, light winds and 16C currently. Yesterday's nasty clag seems to have gone. Should be a lovely 3-4 days coming up, hopefully some decent weather over the weekend too though we could see some showers or thunderstorms on Sat night if the fax charts are to be believed.

The breakdown was modelled to occur generally over the weekend, some models have tended towards the middle and some towards the end. Latest fax charts are showing a fairly slow moving cold front across the far W at lunchtime on Sat, then having cleared the E coast by the same time on Sun. So Saturday still has the potential to be a very nice and hot, sunny day across much of the UK away from the SW which will see more cloud, cooler temperatures and showers. Sunday could also be very pleasant as the front has cleared into the near continent. Of course, if the front makes speedier progress then the forecast will change but models may well slow it down again, it is only Wednesday.

It's very strange, this poster has been banging on about breakdown this, breakdown that....I'll be the first to moan if the weather goes bad but it's looking good for a good 4 days, possibly more. Like you say, just enjoy it!

Ok, can you post the latest fax when it appears please?

Do you work for the Met Office and have secret information that we don't? It's probably wise in the UK to expect the worst, for sure, but I certainly don't blindly believe the GFS.

Again, I don't agree. I've not looked at the GEM but the UKMO chart for Saturday shows most of the country very warm or hot with fronts barely touching the W. Might well be cooler and possibly thundery for the SW and your area though, with that trough edging in.

Absolute rubbish. You've been spouting your negativity for a couple of days now. So, one run of a model that is renowned for being too progressive and it's all over? The latest BBC forecast I saw was still showing possibly 30C for the weekend and the fax charts are not showing a rapid breakdown at all, with only the far W affected by showers or storms until Sunday. I'm not saying a quicker breakdown won't happen but the 12z GFS isn't really supported by other main models at the moment...

Vile grey grot here after a beautiful day yesterday. Hopefully just a one day blip before the sunny skies return tomorrow.

The GFS 12Z is a cool outlier and not supported. No need to start the doom mongering just yet as we know how keen the GFS is to bring in the Atlantic. Fingers crossed the ECM is correct as it would deliver a lovely spell of weather including much of the BH weekend.

Wow, your Italian garden sounds amazing!! How come you have land there? Who looks after it? If I had a garden there, I'd be there all the time lol. That frost affected much of Europe, I know France suffered with many vineyards getting hit and places like the Czech Republic had all their fruit crops wiped out. Very disheartening! But it's nature I suppose. Your Dad would be pleased that you took on growing stuff, I'm sure. Sounds like you already have green fingers. I've had my allotments 4 years now and love it there. Bought John Harrison's book, 'The Essential Allotment Guide' when I started and that has been a constant companion, it gives advice on how best to grow most veg and some fruit, very good. Google is great too. Have learnt so much! The main thing I took from it all was not to be scared to try something and just grow stuff you actually like. Big Boy is a good giant tomato, should be able to get it in a garden or DIY centre. There are better varieties though and one of the fun bits of growing your own is the vast range of seeds available. Hope you have a successful growing season this year

Allotment is doing well thank you. Had some painful losses from that stupid frost the week before last, lost most of my greengages, apricots and plums. The trees were loaded with fruitlets, I could have cried lol! Otherwise, everything coming on well, am going to put the tomatoes and winter squash out a week or two early as the forecast is warm. All the brassicas are out and growing fast. Beans next. That rain last week did wonders. Sounds like you are doing well, do you have a plot or are you growing in the garden? Don't know much about rhubarb, it does seem to grow fast here.

Increasingly sunny today here with lighter winds at last and feeling pleasant at 20C currently. This coming week looks like an absolute belter with some hot sunshine developing and then possible severe thunderstorms from Sunday. Couldn't get much better! Fingers firmly crossed

Not too bad a day here, avoided most of the showers and had a bit of sun. Plenty of cloud though and the vile wind is back. Next week looking very nice if model output is to be believed, lovely warmth and sunshine, then thunderstorm risk increasing.

GFS is clearly underestimating max temperatures again, by a good 3-4C. Happens regularly.

Perfect summer conditions, nice and warm by day and great for some dining outside in the evening. Quite warm for the bedroom but with the fan on, no issue. 3 months of that and I'd be very happy My main hope for summer here is higher than average sunshine. Doesn't have to be a constant heatwave but at least plenty of warm spells.

Yes, not quite so hideous for next week and some promising charts for after that, though I won't believe them until T24!

13C at lunchtime is very poor for here at this time of the year. No sun yet, but some sharp showers to the S of London now.

Haha, if only! Once it starts raining here, it does tend to go on a bit. There are tentative signs in some models, ECM in particular, that it could warm up significantly in a week-10 days. Way too far out for me to take seriously but next weekend at least looks less hideous. Here it is a very grey, cool and dreary morning so far but dry after a lot more rain yesterday and overnight. Just 12C, brrr. Need much more sunshine, the rain has been great but May so far has been a cloud-fest, tedious.

That is the kind of chart I want to see many times over a summer. 10 days away though, so of course we are all treating such charts as merely 'of interest', and won't have a massive tantrum when they change completely as time goes on, just like in winter. Aren't we?

Chucking it down here, relaxing to listen to though could be warmer, just 11C now.

Yes, some warmth would definitely be welcome. Don't mind the rain, as long as we get warm sunshine too. Unfortunately, since 2007 it seems, the weather tends to get stuck in long very dry or very wet periods. I wonder what happened to our changeable weather, where we might get some frontal rainfall once a week, a few showers/storms with ridges giving fine weather in between?

My seedlings are very slow with all the cloud we've had in May. Very glad of the rain but need more sun too.

Quite dark here now

Didn't think so, all looks a bit messy and it isn't warm at all. If it was 10C warmer then could be a very different story.

Met Office forecast was well out today lol, said fine and warm until late....er, no.