alr1970

I'd say the airport are right, given that's the text forecast for the whole NW. Rainfall at low elevation will be minimal and patchy. Beyond that, I'd say the GFS is overestimating precipitation as it always does 5 days out and the "pattern change" will result in a slightly cooler version of what we've experienced for the last 4 weeks. Which is a shame as the soil in my area is getting very dry. Local weather station on Wunderground shows no rain at all since last Wednesday, and less than 25mm in the 3 weeks prior to that. That's less than half the average for May. Luckily there's a water leak outside my house that I can catch and use to water the garden a bucketful at a time but some natural watering would be most welcome.

Other than a 30 second downpour last Sunday, it's been bone dry here all week. I'd love to see a chart of the rain across the country since then. I reckon it would show great stripes of heavy rain, interspersed with holes where the showers have missed all week. One of them over south Manchester and my patched garden!

Cor, that storm in Belgium is...half the size of Belgium. I wonder if any will make it across the North Sea?

Warmer and more humid this morning. It looks like the muggy murk will hang around all day, with the sun peeping through occasionally and the outside chance of a shower.

It seems the death toll in Puerto Rico may have been in the thousands, rather than the official 64. Puerto Rico: Thousands more died from hurricane than official toll, study finds https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/29/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-death-toll-study-official-estimate?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

For the deprived, some lightning porn.

If I'm not mistaken, parts of the GM area are under the Estofex level 2 warming area tomorrow. Bring it on!

It looks like the best of the rain is going slide past us to the south. That's a shame, my garden needs it. With the warm temps forecast, it would make for some strong growth.

Well, that was a beautiful day. A trifle fresh at first, but warm enough as the day wore on. Cool enough at lunchtime to sit out in the sun, whereas yesterday I sought the shade.

Back home, only 3 miles away, it's barely rained at all.

Chucking it down in the city centre, and I left my coat at home this morning. The proportion of folks going into Piccadilly with an umbrella is much lower than usual too. Lots of scurrying commuters.

Wow, that's bubbled up from nowhere over Middleton in just 30 mins.

Ait quality is pretty poor though. Seen this? https://earth.nullschool.net/#2018/05/16/1200Z/chem/surface/level/anim=off/overlay=so2smass/orthographic=-158.38,26.67 SO2 levels overlaid on the globe, using the same UI as the famous swirling wind display. Then spin it to the UK and think: "we're not doing too badly".

Chilly overnight, MAN recorded just 1C at 0400. It warmed up fast though, up to 10C by 0800.

https://xkcd.com/1985/

From the city centre it appears that the showers are dropping white stuff on the tops of the Peak. Around Dovestone in particular right now.

I think it's because the ground is not very cold, so when the wind drops the snow melts to slush. Then the freezing wind picks up and it freezes again.

Which is, btw, the best we've had this winter/spring.

Not here! The best I have is a couple of inches on a table on the patio, which is very sheltered from the east. The road was covered at 8, but it's all melted off now, there's no depth of cold in the ground to sustain it. Still nice and white in the garden.

Frequent showers here, some of them are heavy. They don't last more than 5 minutes each, though, and the sun melts any accumulations in between. Temp is just above freezing.

That's lake effect snow over the Irish Sea. Cold air passing over the relatively warm water. The east cost of Ireland is getting plastered as a result.

The combination of spring tides and an easterly is having the usual effect on the Dart line just north of Dun Laoghaire: I've also seen a video on FB of folks swimming in Sandycove harbour, the sea is near the top of the harbour wall, I've never seen that before.

There's not a single crane operating in Manchester city centre right now because of the wind. They're all parked. Just a few flakes blowing around now.

Here's the result of snow all night down here: I think it's all blowing off the frozen surfaces until it reaches a gritted road, where it sticks and melts.

Same here, but we've still only got a couple of cms.