Weather-history

Short sharp hail shower.

Wettest April-May periods on record for England and Wales 1782: 281.4 2000: 240.6 1983: 225.9 1843: 222.5 1932: 212.6 1773: 206.2 1830: 195.5 1924: 195.3 1818: 191.5 1920: 191.1 2012: ~190 (up to 13th)

Mid April to mid May is going to turn out chilly. 16th April-15th May 1996 CET: 9.0C 16th April-15th May 2010 CET: 8.8C 16th April-13th May 2012 CET: 8.7C (provisionally)

It was largely due to the last 3 days of May 1996 that it warmed up. The May CET up to the 28th was just 8.4C, very close to breaking a record, it was the last 3 days that sunk it.

Wettest April-May periods on record for England and Wales 1782: 281.4 2000: 240.6 1983: 225.9 1843: 222.5 1932: 212.6 1773: 206.2 1830: 195.5 1924: 195.3 1818: 191.5 1920: 191.1 1979: 189.0 1967: 188.3 2012: 188 (up to 10th)

If May comes in under 10.4 then it will be the coolest April-May period since 1986

Its fascinating watching satelitte images of thunderstorms exploding "Cirrus canopy above a huge cumulonimbus cloud". Great description by Ian McCaskill

A very short time, you wouldn't even notice it.

Wettest April-May periods on record for England and Wales 1782: 281.4 2000: 240.6 1983: 225.9 1843: 222.5 1932: 212.6 1773: 206.2 1830: 195.5 1924: 195.3 1818: 191.5 1920: 191.1 1979: 189.0 1967: 188.3 1931: 187.3 1878: 186.8 1792: 184.4 1993: 184.0 2012: ~183

Snow ahead of thunderstorms. Thunderstorms have been marked by their absence in the last 30 odd months

Thanks for your replies. I wonder how many times this has happened in the last 100 years?

April 2012 has been officially recorded as 149.0mm, the wettest April for England and Wales since at least 1766

Maybe the experts can use this example and explain on how you can have such high pressures and yet can have heavy thundery rain?

Minima will be the key, its true in what you say but in that scenario you will get cold nights. A maximum of 16C and a minimum of 0C will give a mean of 8.0C. So although maxima is not that low the minima will drag it down.

But BBC NW does, so how do you explain this though?

Its the 100th anniversary this year of the worst summer month of them all: August 1912, It was the coldest, wettest and dullest August on record, a triple whammy.

The Isle of Man gets the worst coverage for me, its in the middle of the Irish Sea and yet it gets coverage by the local networks (Granada and BBC NW), virtually never by the national network.

Not quite as spectacular as what was going to happen 2 years later but early May 1995 saw a heatwave one day and then a week later, wintry showers. On the 5th and 6th May, the heatwave reached its peak with maxima as high as 28.6C at Cheltenham http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1995/Rrea00219950505.gif Typically as approached the Bank Holiday Monday which was VE Day that year to celebrate the 50th annversary of the end of the war in Europe, the weather became cooler. http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1995/Rrea00219950508.gif By the end of that week, it became even colder with night frosts and some places even reporting snow. http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1995/Rrea00219950512.gif

Wettest Aprils on record for England and Wales(mm) ~146 2012 142.6 2000 139.0 1782

The biggest astronomical event of the year occurs on the 5th/6th June 2012 when the Tranist of Venus occurs, the last realistic chance of any human being seeing this as the next occasion won't be until the 11th December 2117 In 2004, the UK was superbly placed to see this and we saw the whole event but this time we are only going to see the closing stages at sunrise on the morning of the 6th June. http://astro.ukho.go...2012/index.html The further north and east you are in the UK, the longer you will have chance to witness this very rare event. Lets hope the dawn skies are clear on the 6th of June 2012 or wherever you are in world where this phenomenon is visible. Will anyone be still alive in 2117 who can claim they have witnessed a Transit of Venus?

A -1.1C difference between March and April. That is some difference, the largest -ve difference is -1.5C between March and April 1938

SNAP!!!!!!!!

Wettest Aprils on record for England and Wales(mm) 142.6 2000 139.0 1782 ~138 2012 (up to the 29th) We'll have to wait for the data to go through the quality control wash but yet another month that has tended to the extreme

This thread seems to have died. Here's the temperature graphs for the 2011-12 season http://wekuw.met.fu-berlin.de/~Aktuell/strat-www/wdiag/ts.php?plot=temps&alert=1&lng=eng