reef

The dry spell well and truly broke today for us with those thunderstorms. 18.6mm in total and the hail is still melting in the rain gauge.

Not the best of pictures due to the low light, but these are currently 60-65 miles away to the north-west of Ripon/Harrogate:

That's the one! It's the most impressive storm I've seen here for years. Hopefully it's the starter for a good summer for it. Last year was utterly dire.

Just had an amazing storm here with frequent lightning, heavy pea-sized hail and a rain rate of 82mm/hr. Quite an impressive drop in temperature too, down to 7.4c now.

Serious thunder and lightning here at the moment!

Changed topic title to be consistent with previous ones

As mentioned in the other thread, it has been a notably dry last 12 months here. However, at the same time, its been an unusually sunny period aswell. Here's my figures: May 2018: 280hrs (139%) Jun 2018: 241hrs (131%) Jul 2018: 267hrs (135%) Aug 2018: 190hrs (103%) Sep 2018: 158hrs (109%) Oct 2018: 144hrs (133%) Nov 2018: 79hrs (116%) Dec 2018: 63hrs (121%) Jan 2019: 74hrs (130%) Feb 2019: 137hrs (171%) Mar 2019: 155hrs (138%) Apr 2019: 179hrs (144%) to the 24th. Every single month has been above the 1981-2010 average for sunshine hours. We're on a rolling 12 month period (25th April 2018 - 24th April 2019) of 1985hrs at the moment, which is 128% of average and significantly higher than the record sunniest calendar year which was 2003 on 1842hrs. In fact, only 1989, 1995, 2003, 2006 and 2018 managed above 1700hrs. There's an outside chance of 2000hrs rolling over the next few days, something I never thought I would see in this area. Its pretty much the average in northern Spain and central southern France. Are others seeing similar? I would be particularly interested in the values people in the south-east have reached. Lowestoft for example has a rolling 12 month total from April 2018 - March 2019 of 2046hrs, a figure which will likely rise after this month.

Today failed to produce any rain here at all so we've now had only 10.4mm in the last 38 days.

Another ground frost this morning with a min of 1.5C and fog patches. Now clear and sunny and up to 16.4C.

A cold and chilly start with thick fog and another ground frost gave way to a clear, very warm and breezy day. The 18.3C diurnal range today was the highest in my records back to 1980, beating the previous 18.2C set on 23rd April 2011. Humidity was very low in the afternoon aswell, dropping to 35% - the lowest in April for 4 years. Max Temp: 20.0C Min Temp: 1.7C Mean Wind: 16mph SE Max Gust: 21mph Sunshine: 10.2hrs (so far) Rainfall: None Currently Clear and sunny with a temp of 17.1C and 45% humidity.

The last couple of nights have actually been well below average here with thick fog and ground frosts. Yesterday we had a min of 1.6C and today 1.7C. Its quite strange having to scrape the car in the morning but it being 20C in the afternoon. Almost unheard of in these parts. We went from 1.7C to 20.0C today, a diurnal range of 18.3C. That's actually a record back to 1980, beating the 18.2C range set on 23rd April 2011.

A cold and misty start with a ground frost gave way to a very warm, clear and sunny day throughout. It was the warmest day of the year so far and had the 3rd highest diurnal range of any day in nearly 40 years. Max Temp: 19.4C Min Temp: 1.6C Mean Wind: 11mph E Max Gust: 14mph Sunshine: 11.8hrs (so far) Rainfall: None Currently partly cloudy with a temp of 14.0C and 71% humidity.

Quite the diurnal range here today. After a min temp of 1.6C it is now 19.4C - a range of 17.8C. In 40 years the highest is 18.2C set on 23rd April 2011.

After early cloud it was mostly clear and sunny with a light north-easterly breeze. Max Temp: 15.2C Min Temp: 4.3C Mean Wind: 11mph NE Max Gust: 15mph Sunshine: 10.8hrs (so far) Rainfall: None Currently sunny with a temp of 10.8C and 82% humidity.

Is there anyone else having a prolonged dry spell at the moment? We've only had 109mm (56%) since 23rd December (nearly 4 months!) and have a rolling 12 month total of 453.6mm (68%). Anything below 450mm in a rolling 12 month period is very unusual in this area. It has only happened in ten 12 month rolling periods since 1980 in three distinct dry spells. The first was August - November 1989, the second February - June 1992 (May was just above this) and most recently in February and March 2012. Certainly in 2019 useful rainfall has been pretty rare (just 20 days with >1mm so far and only 9 of those were >3mm) and following on from 2018 it is certainly getting even those not usually interested in the weather talking. How much rain have you seen in your area?

I can't say I'm thrilled with the outlook at the moment. We've just had some turf put down on Monday and haven't had a drop of rain since. The GFS suggests a whole 1mm between now and the 27th. The ground was like dust when we had it rotivated. Anyone else worried we'll pay for this in summer?

We've just had the 15th warmest February and 17th warmest March in the CET series. Both months were well above average for sunshine and although March was wet, this fell almost exclusively in the first half of the month. The second half was bone dry. We might be getting 12C now but that's around average for the time of year - temperatures of 20C very much aren't. I'm actually astonished there's so much moaning. I can only speak for here, but the last 12 months have truly been exceptional for how mild, dry and sunny they have been overall. We haven't had a single month wetter than average, duller than average or cooler than average since last April!

Slightly cooler and wetter than average: 7.8C and 75mm

Its turning into quite a sunny March here. We're already at 146hrs for the month compared to the average of 112hrs. What's even more astonishing is that every one of the last 11 months has had above average sunshine here. The rolling 12 month average is at 1902hrs compared to the 1981-2010 average of 1546hrs per year. April only had 123 hours of sunshine in 2018 aswell, so that rolling figure is likely to go higher before May arrives.

Yes, vast areas of the Arctic are well above normal. We're at what should be the coldest point of the year up there and the lack of cold away from Greenland is astonishing. You have to go over 1000km north of Alaska to find a 2M temperature of -6C or below and there's little below -15C in all of Siberia.

It's actually turning to sleet here now. I'm surprised as it's not particularly cold at 2.7C.

Apologies for the late-reply! It is an Xerox photcopier drum fan by Adda (AD0912US-A79GL). It slots into the Davis perfectly and is held in place by cable ties. I have it wired up to a 12v DC adaptor but run it at 9v as it provides enough airflow. It has been running 24/7 like this since January 2015 without any issues. They're quite hard to find these days compared to back in 2015 unfortunately, but superior in every way to the standard Davis fans of which I went through 4 in a year when running 24/7!

Or perhaps, more plausibly, when solar input is constant, months affected more by retained heat show a higher bias towards warmer than average conditions in a warming world which takes longer to cool in Autumn/winter. Temperatures in the summer half on the other hand, are more affected by solar input so retained heat from the previous season is not as notable a factor.

It flew by because we didn't have one! February finishing on a CET of 6.7C means the winter mean was 5.87C - the 17th warmest in the CET series. Here it was another shocker with only three days of snow lying at 0900, though these were only half covers. We now haven't had more than 0.5cm for over 6 years. Utterly abysmal. The only positive was it was extremely dry and sunny. As much as I enjoy the cold the last couple of weeks have been amazing.

Another day of maximum sunshine here today. The total for the month stands at 140hrs which has blitzed the previous record of 126hrs in 2008. The 1981-2010 average is 80hrs so we're already at 175% with a day remaining. An exceptional month.