alr1970

There's a disctictly autumnal feel to the weather in Manchetser this morning, with a cool NWerly flow over the warm Irish Sea producing lots of showers over the region. Some sharp ones but all very brief as thery blow through.

Well I'm away in Bedfordshire overnight so missed all the fun. My local weather underground station reports 32mm in total which is the most rain from a single event all year, so great for my parched garden. Hope I didn't miss too much t&l, would be just my luck! Now hoping to see something exciting on the way back.

if you run the 24 hour loop on meteox.com, the places that are getting hammered now were getting hammered 24 hours ago. it's almost a perfect loop.

Wow! We camped a week at the centre of that blob last August. Didn't see a drop of rain all week.

Hmmm, from last night's forecasted "heavy rain", we got all of 0.8mm in south Manchester. The near-drought continues. Now on 277mm for the year so far, compared to over a metre for all of last year.

Just started raining, big drops. Very uniform grey sky to my SE.

Getting very dark in Trafford Park, no rain yet or anything. I keep hearing rumbles but that's just container trucks trundling past the office.

Are they having a laugh at our expense?

Well, that was a nice appetiser. Half an hour of moderate to heavy rain with occasional thunder. Dried up now. Here's hoping we get some more later, because 3mm of rain isn't going to make much of a dent in the deficit here.

Woken not by thunder, but the wind blasting through the bedroom windows that have been open for the last 2 weeks. Now heavy rain, not yet torrential. I'm only seeing/hearing t&l from within 2 miles due to cloud and the rain but it's every minute or so. Just seen the radar, wonder if that white patch is coming this way?

A glorious morning and it was hot already by 9am. Looking back, I see that today is the anniversary of 32C at MAN airport in 2006, the hottest day of that spell. I wonder if we'll make those levels again this year?

What were you saying when it was showing -17c uppers in the spring? I found those hard to believe, and yet they verified. I know, it's way off in FI on the Manchester chart at least. But I've felt there's a parallel between these two situations: a sustained, significantly off-average period has been forecast several days in advance and it has come to pass.

It seems God is a City fan, it's currently hailing hard with strong winds and occasional lightning at Old Trafford. I think I saw a CG strike on Beecham Tower in the city centre from my desk in Trafford Park. So far I've counted more thunder than I heard in this location in the whole of last year. There's a reasonable accumulation of hail on the ground too. Temperature dropped from 10.5 to 5C in 10 minutes.

It's brightening up here now. I think we may have had a whole 1mm of rain so far!

Bone dry still here, the passing front produced a very little light rain that didn't even wet the ground. The warm wind will help dry it further. Here's hoping for some proper rain over the next couple of days.

Here in south Manchester we have had barely half average rainfall so far this year. Here are the figures from my closest wunderground station. Sadly there's no official station in the Manchester urban area. Rain Ave Days > 10mm Ave Days > 1mm Ave Jan 41.1 72.3 1 2.5 8 13.1 Feb 40.4 51.4 1 1 8 9.7 Mar 24.6 61.2 0 1.5 6 12.3 Apr 15.7 54 0 1.5 5 11.2 Totals 121.8 238.9 2 6.5 27 46.3 http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/averages/19812010/sites/manchester_airport.html http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate/#?tab=climateMaps http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=IENGLAND340 As a gardener I can say that I can see this in the soil, it's very dry to any depth I dig. Admittedly I'm on very well-drained sandy soil. There was a lot of wind during the March cold spell which added to the problem, and if we don't get any real rain soon the warmer conditions will cause real problems for growers. Coming on top of the delayed start due to cold I can see this being a year that stands out in the tree rings in centuries to come. But the builders on a site adjacent to my office have benefited. They had to shift several hundred truckloads of soil from the site before building could start. Due to the dryness it was gone in a few weeks and there was never a quagmire or a serious mud-on-road situation that would surely have arisen if rainfall had been average. It did lead to a lot of dust blowing about though. This is the pattern of the last few years locally. Dry in spring then soggy all summer long.

I know it's hard for those in other areas to believe, but here in south Manchester we have had barely half average rainfall so far this year. Here are the figures from my closest wunderground station. Sadly there's no official station in the Manchester urban area. Rain Ave Days > 10mm Ave Days > 1mm Ave Jan 41.1 72.3 1 2.5 8 13.1 Feb 40.4 51.4 1 1 8 9.7 Mar 24.6 61.2 0 1.5 6 12.3 Apr 15.7 54 0 1.5 5 11.2 Totals 121.8 238.9 2 6.5 27 46.3 http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/averages/19812010/sites/manchester_airport.html http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate/#?tab=climateMaps http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=IENGLAND340 As a gardener I can say that I can see this in the soil, it's very dry to any depth I dig. Admittedly I'm on very well-drained sandy soil. There was a lot of wind during the March cold spell which added to the problem, and if we don't get any real rain soon the warmer conditions will cause real problems for growers. Coming on top of the delayed start due to cold I can see this being a year that stands out in the tree rings in centuries to come. But the builders on a site adjacent to my office have benefited. They had to shift several hundred truckloads of soil from the site before building could start. Due to the dryness it was gone in a few weeks and there was never a quagmire or a serious mud-on-road situation that would surely have arisen if rainfall had been average. It did lead to a lot of dust blowing about though. This is the pattern of the last few years locally. Dry in spring then soggy all summer long

A scattering of snowflakes in the garden this morning, then a brief shower of drizzle around 8. Looking forward to a warm up, and the garden needs some rain now.

I can see a few snowflakes blowing about here in the wind. Wasn't expecting that. From the forecast I was expecting a horrible cold, windy overcast day, but it's actually quite sunny, which makes all the difference. And I have the can't use the return key problem.

Funny, it's been dry here since about 1pm and the pavements are now dry. Currently the radar shows us under 0.5-1mm/h, i.e. not the lightest that it detects. but there's not a flake to be seen. Considering that Manchester drizzle can sometimes be quite heavy but not show on the radar, I am confused!

But when I look at the local forecast, issued at 1100, it shows an amber warning from 1500 today, next to a weather forecast of overcast.

It certainly does. There were quite a few occasions last year when rainmageddon approached only to leave light rain in ours parts. It's the reason why it drizzles so much here.

Bit of light sleet here now.

Snowing again here... This really is remarkable weather for low-lying parts of Manchester. I can't remember the last time that an easterly airflow produced so much precipitation. It must be down to the extremely low 850 temperatures, causing convection aplenty. We're going from sunny to looming cloud to the east, to small flakes, to heavy big flakes, near whiteout conditions with visibility < 200m, then the sun comes out - buit it's still snowing, then it stops. 5 minutes later everything has melted in sunny spots but the shady places are white. Quite entertaining for someone stuck behind a desk all day.