hillbilly

An absolute cracking spring day today,down to my t shirt,a far cry from yesterday with 10 layers and big wooly hat on although I think this season may have some more wintery stuff to come before real spring arrives .

You can easy work it out,same number of days from the solstice,more accurate with a calendar but roughly 3 months till june 21 so equiv to sept 21 within a day or two anyway .

Cloudy with lots of sunny spells but a cool wind,max 9 deg,min 6 deg

A cloudy day with a little drizzle,a cool breeze,max 8 deg,min 5 deg

A little cloudy clearing to give a dry ,sunny day just spoilt by the wind,max 9 deg,min 3 deg

A dry ,calm and mainly sunny day,max10 deg,min 6 deg

A dry and mainly cloudy day with a little hazy sunshine in the morning,max 10 deg,min 2 deg

Dry,calm after a groundfrost with some hazy sunshine,max 8 deg.min 2 deg

Cloudy and dry all day,max 6 deg,min 2 deg

Persistant rain the entire day,easing about 6 pm,max 5 deg,min 3 deg

Both 1986 and 1947 gave subzero Februarys and both were cloudy affairs where it was the very low Maxima and not the minima that made it so cold.1947 also gave the coldest March in this area beating 2013 and 1962 but am not too sure how dull it was .

A frosty start leaving a cloudy mainly dry day with a little drizzle,still some patchy snow on high ground ,max 7 deg,min -1 deg

A frosty start leaving a cold but sunny day,max 5 deg,min -1 deg still white above 300m

A cold dry day with just a snow flurry in the morning enough to make it almost white.Still remaining white on high ground,,calm,max 4 deg,min 0 deg

I saw something many years ago at night that I thought could be ball lightening but there was no storm.Have struggled to find anything on youtube etc that can explain it but I now think it was a meteorite about to hit ground,i can only describe it as being not far away moving across the sky heading down buy looked just like a ball of fire with a flame like tail !Amazing will probably never see anything like it again .

We have had a couple of wintery spells in recent years Aprils as that of 2013 and 2012.Another one I remember was the snowfall of 1999.I also recall the very cold and wintery 1986 with frequent snow and the coldest in 100 years,there has not been a colder one since.All these are put to one side compared to April 1981,although nothing special earlier in the month was unbelievable towards the end.The last week of the month gave snow with blizzard like conditions to give enormous drifts only seen in the worst of winters .To see this at the end of April has no comparison in the 20th century.It melted quickly with rain causing severe flooding !

A cold day with an odd light snowshower early afternoon,snow melted here but remaining white on higher ground,max 5 deg,min 1 deg

Snow overnight giving a couple of inch of wet snow but snowing all morning leaving 2 to 3 inch at low levels as it was also melting but 4 to5 inches higher up .Spells of rain and sleet in the afternoon and evening two inch of wet snow remaining.Max 3 deg,min 1 deg

Frosty to start giving a day of showers,some sleet and dry spells with sunshine.Still white over high ground from yesterdays snow,max 5 deg,min 0 deg

A spell of sleet then snow this morning to give a couple of inches even down to low levels which melted within a few hours except high ground.Drier afternoon with some sun and snow showers,max 4 deg,min 1 deg

Rain in the morning becoming showery,windy,drier later and milder,max 10 deg,min 3 deg

A cold dry day after a frosty start with a chilly breeze in the afternoon,max 5 deg ,min -1 deg

A dry day with plenty of sunshine,cold,max 7 deg,min 1 deg

Yes ,brought back memories of winters I grew up in from the mid 70's to the late 80's,great to have snow back on the ground for more than a few days that we were all getting used to .Such a shame the wind couldn't get up to produce bigger drifts which would have been memorable but beaten into second place in recent winters by march 2013 which had less snow but what drifts !

I was fortunate enough to witness December 1981 which in this area was colder [average -1 deg][local met office data] had more snow and unlike December 2010 had enormous drifts !