Sky Full

Looks like it could be a nice weekend with plenty of sunshine. Then a couple of cloudy wet days followed by a long period of increasingly sunny and warm weather through the middle of the month. Very very welcome if it happens, and may we enjoy plenty of warm sunny weather throughout June, July and August to please all the holidaymakers making Wales their destination this summer.

The post at the top of this page mentions snow in Cardiff at the end of March and now we are enjoying a lovely settled spell, with above average temperatures, light winds and an almost perfect combination of sun and rain to boost the growing season. How things can change in four or five weeks! That’s why I’m fascinated by the weather - it really is a challenge to predict.

Couldn’t agree more. Bonus early this morning as I heard a cuckoo calling in the woods across the valley - first time for a long long time and maybe also signs of climate changes?

Two things I’ve never heard before - ‘sprummer’ and ‘leg pelts’. . Love it! Will have to find a use for those myself! In the meantime, lovely day here and throughout Pembs as we had a visit to Broad Haven in the sunshine but a cool breeze took the edge off if you weren’t behind a wall! Some nice sunny weather to come this week and not a lot of rain which I agree has dried the ground out a lot. Loads of tadpoles in the pond basking on the sunniest side so Spring has definitely arrived. Happy days!

Not too bad here the last couple of days, with some sunshine and a little warmth too. No heatwave, but at least it’s a bit more like Spring. Now waiting for for this rain band to move through later today and tonight - the wind is getting up and it’s getting very hazy overhead - it’s not as warm as yesterday but still very pleasant. Better than the usual Easter weekend washout any day!

Looking enviously at the clear sunny skies you guys in the east are enjoying while we are having to endure a full overcast with low cloud base, a cool breeze and even some drizzle. Ugh!

Wales have beaten Austria in the World Cup play offs! Now they must wait until June to see who wins the game between Scotland and …..Ukraine!

2 minutes to go. Please don’t let Austria score in injury time……..

A lovely start to the day as forecast. Sunny, cloudless skies and a light breeze only. A proper Spring day, with maybe four or five more to follow! I’m not counting my chickens yet, though, because there’s some hint of a colder spell in early April and we have known snow in April, haven’t we? I don’t want the warm weather to bring on all the tender plants and then the frost to knock them back again….. We’ll have to keep an eye on it.

…..and the wind has dropped! Yay!

The heavy rain and wind last night have eased although we still have strong gusts at the moment. It should gradually ease up today and tomorrow looks brighter and drier. I’m really hoping we will see a warmer, calmer and sunnier spell of weather towards the end of the month.

Some sort of intense line of rain and wind moving across just now which is really torrential. Rain and wind hitting the windows and roof with a constant roar and I’d be surprised if I haven’t had a few leaks in the loft. I’m not going to take a look tonight. The radar says the rain should pass over shortly but I really hate this combination of relentless rain and wind - it’s the worst kind of weather for me. There are bound to be a few minor roads awash tonight in this area.

Single figures daytime temperatures forecast for this location for the next seven days, it seems, with the possibility of ground frost on a couple of nights. Come on, Spring, get your act together and waft some warm sunshine this way, please….

Looks like are in for a lively weekend with stormy conditions in South Wales on Saturday and western extremities having strong gales on Sunday. MetOffice have weather warnings out for strong winds on Saturday and Sunday but only affecting the south coast and parts of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Llyn Peninsula and Anglesey. Hopefully the weather will turn more settled for a time next week but currently there are differences between the models - some showing high pressure becoming influential but others showing the return of low pressure. March remains changeable for the time being.

Sounds like you’ve done all you can. All electric water heating might account for much of the expense but electric showers are generally pretty efficient for low water usage and so less heating needed. Guess you also had the insulation put in when the house was done up? Good luck with the bills - hope he can find a way to get them down a a bit, Anyway, I’m hoping that the weathers going to warm up pretty soon because I want to turn the heating off! We haven’t really had one warm day this year yet - it’s been mostly cold wind and rain. We have a couple of solar water heating panels in the roof which normally provide all the hot water we need in the summer months but they’re useless when it’s cloudy. Heating oil has certainly gone through the roof recently but it’s not just oil - we cook with a gas hob and so we have a couple of gas bottles outside - just had two 47kg bottles delivered and the price was £40 each! Used to pay that for 90kg.

On 07/03/2022 at 19:03, snefnug said: Two shocks today. I’m down to two bars on my oil reader, so 200 litres left, which is normally refill time, except that most of the local oil providers haven’t got any stocks, irrespective of the sky high price. ………….. Shock 2. Trying to sort out my brothers electric bill. He lives on his own, doesn’t use the electric radiators, works outdoors all day, heats part of house with wood burner and his leccy bill is averaging £120 a month. Only thing on All day is fridge freezer, under sink water heater, radio to keep dog company. Realistically £120 month is about £4.00 a day which is not horrendous but still…. Hi snefnug. Your brothers electricity bill sounds very high if he is single and not heating the house very much. Electric heating can be extremely expensive when used to heat a whole house so that’s the first place to look. The electric radiators (storage heaters?) should not be taking electricity during the day (charging usually happens between midnight and 7:00am) so check the electric meter to see if it’s still spinning fast during the day. I would next check the daily standing charge which he is paying because some tariffs can be cheaper on the price of electricity but expensive on the amount charged every day whether you use electric or not. Not sure what choice of other tariffs would be available now, though. I managed to get some oil last week at .72p a litre plus VAT - that’s a huge increase on the last delivery but at least it’ll last until the winter, I hope!

Will post a reply in the new thread……!

Another named storm for us to look forward to on the 12/13th March (according to ICON)? Also features in some other models including UKMO:

A wet and miserable end to February, then. A fitting last day for a pretty awful month which saw damaging winds over several days and higher than average rainfall but next to no proper winter weather. I think we had a couple of mornings at 0c here and a few wintry showers of sleet and wet snow, but nothing remotely threatening lying snow. I will be glad to see the back of February 2022 for so many reasons and hope that March and the advent of Spring brings more settled weather as well as happier news on other matters as well.

Early heavy rain now giving way to broken cloud and blue sky is visible again! Might get some more welcome sunshine today to help dry things out. Glad to see the back of the stormy conditions for the time being, and there are hopeful signs of more settled weather in the long range charts for March, although these are notoriously unreliable, of course!

Awful night for sleep. Wind roaring constantly around the roof and windows and every now and again a more violent gust lifting slates and flapping them around - don’t know how they stayed on the roof. I don’t mind wind storms during the day but at night I lay awake wondering if there’s going to be damage in the morning. Mad. Hoping it’s all going to calm down a bit for a few days but there’s no guarantee the jet streams is going to leave our part of the world for a while yet.

That was an exhausting night. Almost constant roaring from the wind across the roof made it difficult to sleep and this was made worse by stronger gusts every 10 minutes or so which lifted slates here and there and caused a noisy flapping sound. Since this is directly above my head I found it hard to sleep for any length of time. I’m actually glad to be up and about now. I like all the variations of British weather but I’m fed up with the wind now. We need a nice calm week to recover.

What a nasty day of weather. Don’t know why this came as a bit of surprise to me but I imagine I thought Eunice was the last of the stormy weather. Yesterday was windy too, but today we’ve had stronger gales, gusting almost as violent as Eunice delivered, but accompanied by heavy, almost continuous rain. There was a break in the rain before sunset followed by some hefty hail showers, but the wind hasn’t let up at all. I can hear it rumbling around the roof and testing the windows and I believe it’s going to continue all night. Lovely. The jet stream can do one, now please.

Still very strong gales here - didn’t ease up at all after the squall line passed over. Don’t know why I wasn’t expecting this - probably didn’t look any further ahead than Eunice and didn’t think we’d get three on the trot…. However, it’s definitely brightening to my north and I think the rain has finally stopped! The worst of the storm may be now moving away but the wind is forecast to remain strong overnight and for most of tomorrow.

After another very wet and stormy day, I think I can finally see the back edge of the rain to my north. The sky is black to the south as the heaviest rain moves away at last, but unfortunately the wind is forecast to remain strong and gusty through the night and for most of tomorrow. What a week of weather. February has certainly made up for the generally benign and settled January many of enjoyed.