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I installed a solar powered fan which helped in bright sunshine. However I think the amount of light in the box could be reduced although no direct rays are entering. Any ideas how without restricting ventilation too much? Maybe painting inside black would work after all as heat from the light would be absorbed by the box rather than being reflected onto the sensor (I painted the inside white since my last post) I considered making a bigger box but I assume greater mass means there's more to be heated!

Not sure what happened at the Writtle MetO station today - no 1pm record, 21.5C at 2pm, 20C at 3pm and then way down to 15C at 4pm. Doesn't tie in with other local stations, including mine, which recorded a steady rise to around 20C by late afternoon! Something similarly weird happened at the Andrewsfield station yesterday - there was a rogue midday value of nearly 20C (which I don't think was right) following a missing record.

Is that based on a hunch or something more? There seems to be mixed and contradictory signals coming from the facts at the moment - such as the solar cycle issue which is counteracted by 1995, 2003 and 2006!

Thanks for that. Are there any others out there which offer a higher zoom level?

Does anyone know where I can view satellite images (IR or visible) which a.) can be zoomed in to at least regional level and b.) you can view the last few hours of images? I know there's a viewer here on Netweather but it seems to only show the most recent image. Thanks!

Totally agree. I think May is my favourite month for that reason, although it was marred by the prospect of forthcoming exams when I was at school!

The photo of London in the snow with the caption "Commuters in London will face a horrid journey to work in the cold weather" is pushing the boat out even for the Express!

Where did you go on the weatheronline.co.uk website to get that map?

Oh dear, not a great forecast. How accurate have previous WFI forecasts been? There can still be very warm spells in cool summers though - I think even 2012 reached 30c in the south east. How much cooler than average was summer 2012 in the end?

My weather station hit 20C at 2pm - the first this year. This year's beaten last year as I didn't get my first 20C until 16 May in 2014. I ended up recording a max of 22.3C today; the warmest day for me since 19 Sept!

Air con is commonplace in the USA but not in the UK though, so warm summer nights in the UK are often more unpleasant for sleeping.

It's swings and roundabouts though. The south might enjoy more heat extremes in spring/summer, but the north generally gets more snow/ice events in the winter.

WeatherPro now sticking its neck out and going for 20C!

Hopefully this predicted warm spell will properly come off, unlike the others recently! I know Scotland reached 20.7C on Monday but, like most of the UK, I'm still waiting to get near that (max I've had so far is 17.5C). From my point of view, current forecast temps for Chelmsford on Friday are: 19C - WeatherPro, Metcheck BBC (TV) and ITV (TV) 17C - Metcheck, BBC (online) and EssexWeather (but they tweeted that 19/20C is possible somewhere in Essex). Bit of variation so it'll be interesting to see how those forecast temps vary in the coming days and who gets it right.

It's worth noting that official MetO max for Aboyne yesterday was 20.7C.

Looks like stewfox is the winner then. Now........ where will the first 20C occur in England, and Wales?

BBC Weather just confirmed on Twitter that it's 19C at Aboyne in Aberdeenshire, making today the hottest day of 2015 so far.

Thanks for the link.Just had a quick look and it seems there's a reasonable chance of average or above average temperatures for the summer, but a lesser chance of below average temperatures. A long way off but it's nice to see.

It'll be interesting to see what CFS comes up with for this summer then. When is best to view CFS for the summer months? Is there a 'reliable' timeframe for them?

I'm cautious of the warm spells that keep showing up on the models as there have been three or four now and only one's come to fruition. A week ago we were looking at temps of 17C for today in the south-east, possibly even 20C on Wednesday... not likely now!

What were similar forecasts predicting for the summers of 2013 and 2014?

I posted this in the model ramps thread the other day but it's probably better placed in here: Are there any meaningful signals yet as to what summer could hold? (And I stress "could"!) I've read a few things about the type of summer that often follows a type of spring, the number of bad/good summers there are in a row, etc... but I'm not convinced those are meaningful indicators because they seem to cancel each other out depending on the evidence you use. I believe El Nino could be weakening the Azores high at the moment - is that likely to remain true during the summer months?

It ended up warmer and drier than was being predicted - almost no rain and a high of just under 15C.

I love the fortnight before the clocks go forward, because early evenings start to become properly usable as it doesn't get dark until around 6:30pm - a sign that Spring (and Summer) is well on its way. It's also a tantalising sneak preview of what's to come from Sunday. It doesn't seem likely we'll get GMT+1 in the winter any time soon, but shifting the clock change to end of Feb would be a nice compromise which would allow many people to take better advantage of the days getting longer at this time of year.

Are there any meaningful signals yet as to what summer could hold? (And I stress "could"!) I've read a few things about the type of summer that often follows a type of spring, the number of bad/good summers there are in a row, etc... but I'm not convinced those are meaningful indicators because they seem to cancel each other out depending on the evidence you use. I believe El Nino could be weakening the Azores high at the moment - is that likely to remain true during the summer months?