Blessed Weather

Hi PIT. Take a look at these images. The write up by the Woodlands Trust (also see image) is worth reading. The link: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/white-willow/?gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4NujBhC5ARIsAF4Iv6c-Ir0-80yy-mZm7oLOW6zKWw7vWpa5MT7YKcikqXtsLgr-dgJVCQ0aAvXlEALw_wcB Hope you get to the bottom of it. Let us know.

Yes, the White Willow trees near me shed fluffy, cotton wool like seeds and when 3 or 4 of them are in full swing the grass verges start to look as if they've had a dusting of snow.

Yet another disappointingly grey and cool day. The GFS 06z run this morning was still going for clear skies for most of us by 11.00, whilst a glance out of the window showed reality. Bearing in mind many phone apps use GFS data (as it's free) you can see why many apps have been useless today. GFS for 11.00 (black is clear) Satellite still cloudy at 14.45

Funny old day here near the east coast of Suffolk. The analogy I've come up with is that it felt a bit like a poorly made sandwich, with some lovely blue sky either side but the filling in the middle was disappointing as - for a time - thick cloud (and cool breeze) moved in off the North Sea. Temp followed suit with it shooting up to 15C by 10.00 but then dropping a degree or two as the cloud moved in. Late afteroon/evening a yo yo as cloud came and went, the satellite image capturing the clear/cloudy scenario. 19.40

A lovely day here with plenty of sunshine and only a very light breeze. The temp has just reached 16C at 12.45. From the latest satellite image it looks like most of the Region is similar. More please! 12.45

Oh dear, not good Freeze. Met Office reporting a high of 14C for you today which is very disappointing. Unfortunately I think sea breezes developed for many coastal parts of the Region once the sun broke out and warmed things up inland. For info here's the Top 6 temps for today, courtesy of Netweather: 21.2°c 17:00 BST Heathrow 20.5°c 15:00 BST Pershore 20.4°c 15:00 BST Charlwood 20.4°c 15:00 BST Northolt 20°c 16:00 BST Fairford Royal Air Force Base 20°c 16:00 BST Bournemouth Airport Source: https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/daily-top-20/maxt

Finally! I think everyone who's been shivering under the murk all weekend deserves this wonderful afternoon of warm sunshine. 14.05

Oh ye of little patience! It's burning back nicely now and I reckon London, indeed most of us, will soon be bathed in sunshine. Earlier at 08.50 Latest at 11.25

Imby the cloud broke eventually yesterday to give some sunny spells around 17.00, but overall a poor performance from the hi-res models and the forecasting organisations. I looked at several models in the morning and they were all forecasting the clag pushed back to the coast of Norfolk by early afternoon. It would be interesting to understand the 'technical' reason for the failure to clear. I'm more optimistic about some warm sunshine today for the simple reason that the wind is backing around from N'ly at 08.00 to NW'ly by 11.00 and to a W'ly by 14.00. That should hopefully ensure the clag is pushed away by early afternoon for most. It may not be completely clear blue sky as high cloud ahead of the cold front moving in from the west shows its hand. But even if sunshine is hazy, at this time of year and without the cold wind off the North Sea, it should feel very pleasant out later. Change of wind direction:

A dull and cold start thanks to a slab of low cloud moving down the cold North Sea on the stiff NE'ly. But already some signs of the cloud breaking near the South Coast. Arpege cloud cover animation 07.00 thru to 17.00 suggesting all but the extreme coastline of Norfolk clear by the afternoon.

Yuck! Back to a chilly NE'ly off the North Sea and the rain has set in. Currently 10.8C imby but feeling colder in the gusty wind. 09.50

The earlier wannabes certainly did develop and this one gave a decent storm just to the east of Hadleigh at around 12.35:

No storms in this location yesterday, but today's sky now filling with wannabe storms that will hopefully perform later. 11 ish

What a terrific radar image.... and we haven't yet got to the 'peak' time expected for activity this afternoon/evening. 16.50

This tweet from Nick F. For storm lovers hopefully the "60% risk" zone is on the money as it suggests more of the Region might see some action later:

Late afternoon/evening today could be very interesting. Here's the forecast from Arome for 19.00, suggesting most of the heavy showers will be north of the M4 line: And homing in on East Anglia, this from Dan Holley, Weatherquest:

Interesting research article TN, thanks. The SciTechDaily website is a bit of a nightmare wrt to ads and pop-ups so I found the Cambridge University Research summary article here and the full research paper here (which I've also added to the Netweather Research Library here where there are other research papers on the AMOC).

Really muggy this morning with the temp up to 16C by 10 am. But it then plateaued and didn't get any higher as the sky clouded over, although today's rain band did a great job of fizzling out as it moved across the Region. Despite the radar saying there should be some light rain, nothing reached the ground here and in fact its just starting to brighten up a bit. Looking at the radar there's an impressive area of rain in the western approaches which is forecast to give us some heavy overnight rainfall tonight. Radar 14.25

Confirmation that Sunday 7th May was the warmest day of the year so far. That's the latest it's been since 1983:

Hopefully you reached a higher temp later on Freeze. As the cloud melted away here this afternoon the temp shot up and reached 20C at 18.00. Finally it felt like May. To be checked, but I believe that may be the latest date for us to reach 20C since 1983.

Hi Alexis. There isn't a cloud specific chart, but of course the rainfall and sunshine charts a good indicator of cloud amounts, so here's a little bit more analysis of each chart for Kent: Rainfall - this shows all of Kent with at least 125% of normal rainfall and with a very soggy western Kent at 200% (twice as much) rainfall as normal (i.e. versus the April average over the period 1991-2020). Taken at face value this chart would suggest a rather cloudy month overall for Kent, but of course it could mask a few days of heavy rain with otherwise plenty of sunshine during the month: Sunshine - probably the more appropriate chart, this shows your neck of the woods (eastern Kent) with average sunshine amounts which suggests average cloud cover over the month. Eastern Kent experienced slightly below average sunshine, in line with experiencing more rainfall: The only other chart showing blue over Kent was for the mean temperature which has eastern Kent as experiencing below average temps: Hope that helps.

April 2023 Following a wet March, April 2023 has also been wetter than the long-term average for most of the Region, particularly wet for parts of Kent, although parts of Essex and Hertfordshire around average rainfall. Otherwise a month with near average sunshine and temperatures. The Met Office anomaly maps versus the 1991-2020 average: Rain Sunshine Temps Source: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-actual-and-anomaly-maps For East Anglia, Dan Holley of Weatherquest reporting that April was: Slightly cooler than average (-0.4°C) Slightly sunnier than average (+8%) Notably wetter than average (+35%) Source: Dan Holley, Weatherquest. Twitter @ danholley_

The day that just kept giving here. Yet another storm with plenty of lightning and torrential rain, even some pea size hail. This radar grab at 18.50 has my location somewhere under the storm (the big one to the right):

No, looking like Kent will be a storm-free zone today. Never mind, it's making up for all the times I've looked with jealously as you guys enjoy imported storms from France that never make it as far as here.

Nice storm going through atm with frequent lightning and heavy rain. EA doing well with several organised areas of activity. 12.10