Sky Full

I think the last of the organised rain associated with the trailing front has passed over us now, and although still cloudy it’s definitely brightening up here. The high pressure should now start to take effect and I’m looking forward to a few days of dry and settled weather even if the sun isn’t shining all the time. I tend to look the weather as it affects the garden and know that I can very soon begin to start planting for the summer.

Quite nice today with many sunny periods between the clouds. Only had one brief sleety shower so far but the wind is still strong and pretty chilly, too. The wind is expected to increase overnight again but not as bad as Thursday night, then gradually easing until next week, when we could have another spell of settled weather. No heatwave in sight, yet, though......

Morning! Still here but that was a bad night. Didn’t get much sleep to start with and then at 2:15am the power went out. The guys at Western Power had it back on by 3:00am so my thanks to whoever had to come out in that weather and make repairs..... but by then I couldn’t go back to sleep so had to sit and listen to the racket outside. I think the MetOffice got this wrong - it should have been an amber warning and a name would have made people more aware of the strength of the winds. Maybe it’s because it didn’t affect England too much, I don’t know. I’ve had a look around outside and no real damage, thankfully, but I’ve got one of those large ‘store it out’ boxes full of garden tools, hose, and other bits and pieces - pretty heavy. This was lifted bodily off its base and turned on its side, then blown several feet across the ground. Must have been one massive gust to achieve that..... I hope your caravan is OK! Live Met Office and weather updates as power cuts, flood warnings and 86mph winds hit Wales - Wales Online WWW.WALESONLINE.CO.UK Thousands of homes are without power and a Met Office weather warning is in place until later today

I think sustained wind speeds would need to be over 50mph more widely and gusts of over 80mph maybe inland rather than just around the coast and hills. They say it’s dependent on the likelihood of damage and disruption so storms in summer and autumn especially where they affect more densely populated areas get named more often because of the increased chance of falling trees. Even so, this one must be near the mark by the sound of the wind outside now. I’m probably not going to get a good nights sleep tonight.

MetO now showing 50mph sustained wind speeds here for an hour or two around 3:00am Thursday, with gusts up to 75mph. Not quite serious enough to be given a name though..... Once this has passed things should gradually quieten down until the weekend, after which it looks like another settled period is on the way, although not yet what I would call ‘warm’. Maybe we’ll get some properly warm sunny weather in April.

Yes - looks like a double whammy for Porthmadog - lots of rain and wind!

A consensus between the models indicates that the worst of the windy conditions will arrive in Wales after midnight on Wednesday, peaking around 3:00am to 4:00am Thursday morning, before gradually subsiding up to midday Thursday. This chart shows peak wind gusts forecast by the ECM for 3:00am Thursday: ....and this is expected rainfall totals for Wales for the 24 hours from Wednesday midnight: We’ve all seen worse, it’s true, but let’s hope this is the last such Atlantic storm we have to face before next Autumn.

Beat me to it! MetO has 67mph maximum gusts forecast for here, too, and 62mph on the coast at Fishguard and Aberystwyth, for example. It’s difficult to see this downgrading much now but I’m hoping it doesn’t get any worse. Surely the storm will be named by tomorrow, especially as there’s 40mm of rain predicted for this location over Wednesday and Thursday?

ECM thinks it’ll be a bit breezy in many places next Thursday morning... Other models are also showing a similar picture at present.

Nooo! Please don’t! It’d probably reach me from there! If you thought that looked windy, this is what the ECM now shows for 6:00am next Thursday (wind gusts km/hr).... So, it has changed. For the worse . I’m sure it won’t be as apocalyptic as this, though, come the day.... Other models are not quite so pessimistic, at this stage anyway.

Maximum wind gusts for Wales either side of 9:00pm next Wednesday as predicted by the ECM this morning...... This is bound to change as we get nearer the middle of next week so one to watch.

Yes. Hope you’ve got it well screwed down! Looking forward to hearing how it performs as I need to get something here too.

An unsettled and possibly stormy look to the weather next week, as referred to by Knocker above, but at 10 days out (+240hrs) there is a hint of a possible return to more settled weather again (emphasis on the word ‘possible’ at this distance): +144hr +240hr ECM GFS GEM Overall, temperatures should be near average under these conditions so growers will be pleased that no hard frosts are in the charts for the next two weeks.

Well, I’m guessing it’ll be one of these two possibilities..... . ......and while we wait for the ECM to complete its roll out, here’s how the GFS and GEM see the situation at +198hrs (Thursday 11th March): These charts look Atlantic dominated to me. Windy, frequently wet, but probably average temperatures.

A beautiful sunny morning here - pretty warm in sheltered spots already. Just been watching a peacock butterfly feeding on an early hyacinth flower. And it’s still February. That’s pretty unusual, I would say. We had a frost last night but it quickly lifted as the sun rose. Probably will be more of these cold starts while the high pressure hangs around. I’m not complaining, though.

We’ve had a clear, cold, starry night with not a breath of wind, followed by a frosty start this morning but not as foggy. A little misty but the sun is already lifting it so should be a nice day, with clear skies. Several lumps of frogspawn have appeared on the pond in the last two days so perhaps the wildlife is sensing that the worst of the winter is over now? At least this Spring we can hopefully look forward to a better year all round, compared to this time last year.

Don’t think we got below freezing here because the cloud level dropped and we now have fog. It’s trying to lift but it’s definitely not as warm as yesterday yet....

Yes - as above. At this stage it could be an extended period of settled weather or it could fizzle out and the westerlies return. We’ll have to keep our eyes on the models.... High pressure at this time year is likely to bring overnight frosts although not so much right on the coast (not likely at Strumble Head but not impossible! ). I can handle a few light frosts in March and April but I would prefer to avoid another extreme cold event or any named storms bringing heavy rain and gales. We do live in the west and it’s our fate to get this sort of weather now and again but, on other hand, who could possibly want to live anywhere else.

At last. The rain has passed on. The wind has dropped. I can see the sky again! Looking forward to a calm, possibly even sunny, day so the fields can begin to dry out and the river levels drop. The next few days also looks promising for some Spring like weather. Although I like snow in Winter, I do hope that we don’t get a late Spring return to freezing cold winter weather just as the plants are starting to grow.

I have every sympathy, mate. My sister-in-law died in March 2019 after two years in care with increasingly serious dementia. My wife, as only living relative, had to deal with the estate (no will, no power of attorney), overcoming enormous incompetence from the Court of Protection, eventually got everything sorted out before Christmas 2019. Then came covid. We are very grateful that she didn’t have to face that while living in a care home (no disrespect to them as they were brilliant), and that we didn’t have to deal with the estate during a pandemic, living 200 miles away as we do. It sounds like you’ve had all of this double or treble and I hope you get it all sorted this summer so you can get your life back again. What we all need is a lovely settled, warm Spring to cheer us all up and let the ground dry up, finally.

No surprises this morning....it’s still raining steadily here. Also, the wind is picking up again. Not a good day for going out, then. Oh, I forgot. We’re not allowed to go out, anyway. This is getting very depressing now. How I am longing for some dry, sunny, warm weather to cheer us up again.

Rain still lashing down here - that’s at least 15 hours non-stop now, not including anything before 6:00am, when I got up. Could continue all night and most of tomorrow - I’ll let you know if it’s still tipping don in the morning. Pity I haven’t got a rain gauge....maybe have to get one soon.

Driving rain continues to pile in here. Amounts must be building up now. And for tomorrow, these are the maximum gusts expected by the GEM for three hours either side of 6:00pm. Other models show similar wind speeds. Not sure why this hasn’t been given a ‘name’ because if it was London and the South East affected they would be all of a dither....

At least the computer models are all agreed on one thing - a lot of rain for nearly all of Wales over the next 48 hours. These are the totals until Sunday midnight as forecast by the UKMO, GEM and GFS respectively.... Not what many of us want to see with saturated ground and swollen rivers. After that things should dry up a little with even some sunshine for us in the week ahead.

It’s just started raining here - and not expected to stop until tomorrow! High winds again tonight, as well. Oh well, Springs not far off now.