Metwatch

Merry easter folks p.s @*Stormforce~beka* can add sunday nights to the list too

A snippet from the Met Office snow survey for this month: Chart for the 17th: Met office have done these surveys from 1953 to the start of 90s: Snow Survey of Great Britain | Met Office UA DIGITAL.NMLA.METOFFICE.GOV.UK METDLA/6/1/5

Lovely day for a cycle / walk. Up to 12°C and that nagging wind had virtually died down. Still ever so slightly nippy when the sun goes behind cloud and you're standing still but when moving plenty warm enough. You really have to cherish these days amid a horrid period for sunshine and settled conditions in general of recent. They stand out so much!

Ah I was going to start a thread for this some point next month but beat me to it! I was in the Canarias during the whole heatwave as with majority of parts of Augusts in the last 10 or so years with August 2023 the first August I spent start to finish at home. But with this one my dad stayed back home during this heatwave and though he does like warm and sunny weather he did mention it was getting a bit too much. Can't blame him when houses in the country are designed to store heat, although if nights are particularly warm and it doesn't cool down much indoors I would just camp in the garden! I thought this was a cool comparison, 16th August 2022 versus 19th August 2023 coventry airport:

Seems like most of the rainfall has fallen in central and southern parts of Fuerteventura as the webcam I check regularly in the north has stayed largely dry up to this afternoon. Some photos from Fuerteventura recently: Drone footage of a town in southern Fuerteventura, barranco or dried river bed in full flow: Tuineje, central south Fuerteventura: Morro jable south Fuerteventura:

Talking about mild winters and although mild usually means wet it's not always the case. February 2023 one of the best ones of recent, and probably up there with one of my favourite snowless winter months due to how dry it was while still being mild. Still it would have been much nicee to have had that in April instead. February 2019 another good one with 21c in London and high teens widely last few days. Also some snow at the start of that month in the south. Seems to be most common to get mild and dry in February rather than earlier in the winter, athough still possible in December such as 1988 / 2016 or January with 1989 / 2022. Winter 1988-89 of course a great winter for those who don't want cold while dry which is understandable. Back to today and it's a nice day despite airmass not being that warm, it's reaching 12C on the surface, the stronger sun doing wonders. Depending on what part of England, 2020 was sunnier by like 10-30 hours: http://starlingsroost.ddns.net/weather/ukobs/ukgraphs.php?type=monthlyregional&field=year&param=Sunshine&region=England&month=4&anom=

It's always on a Friday or Saturday night, nearly always

Hmm not sure how I feel about most det runs showing a northerly heading into April now. If it means dry and sunny April 2021 style but cool, I think I would still be fine with that, but it would have to be properly dry and not those silly lows coming under the block and bringing more washouts. Damian mentioned it earlier, and it's been in my head for a while, but April 1998 seemed like a good analogue given ENSO has some similarites to current, and that was abysmal with horrific flooding for central areas near mid month. Obviously not expecting a repeat of that next month, but nothing can be discounted. May of 1998 looked decent though.

Some minor good news; central and northern England look to be clear of any flooding issues. Still some small issues in southern areas, and depending on how wet next week, could bring up some more flooding again. But the higher evaportation rates, due to the stronger sun and longer daylength despite March still not being dry is becoming evident now. Various surfaces have dried up in just hours following hail showers and a breeze. Latest GFS continuing with that west|east split until end of March:

Today's selection: YouCut_20240323_134748863~2.mp4 Hail mixed in a few of them, but couldn't spot any mammatus clouds surprisngly; seen a few photos of some stunners in the south east elsewhere. Dropped to 4.5°C at 11:30 during one of the showers. Feels like winter when the sun dissappears in the clouds / showers!

Heading to the end of March now so it will be a struggle to lower the CET by much, even with a coolish airmass, the sun does have some real strength to it now. Very likely it won't be colder than February which is a bit of shame but can't do anything about that. Last few days may see a milder airmass return. Thinking the final value will be in the 7.9C - 8.2C range. Modelled precip charts look to be hinting on a bit of a west |east split, but a rough guesstimate is for an extra 20-30mm, concentrated from next Weds, so EWP will likely reach and exceed 90mm.

Been monitoring the system myself and yes DANA is just another term for an upper level cold pool / cut-off low which can generate some quite heavy rainfall and snowfall in the mountains above 1500-2000m. I was lucky (or unlucky but it's always something I wanted to see after dozens of trips to the island in the last 6-7 years) to experience one myself back on the 22nd December, and it was quite fun. Had a few showers in the morning, but decided to walk to the volcanoes in the following early afternoon. The showers started to rapidly develop, even capturing the volcanic crater and a distant shower on the drone. Made it back in time back to the car an hour later and it lashed it down properly, leading to some flash flooding and temperatures dropping to the low teens. A few loud rumbles in the mix just as the storms arrived. The next day it was sunny, 21C as if nothing happened with just a few large puddles remaining. In some ways similar to last june back in England. I thought it was very cool to see standing water like this a few days later but with crystal clear blue skies, not something that is often seen! All the photos and clips of that event I documented:

A taste of winter when those showers blow in, dropping to 4.5°C at one moment. Coleshill has had about 25 air frosts, but in Walsall there may have been a few less due to the urban heat island effect.

5-6th June 2020 and 22nd June 2021

Something similar happened early March 2021, on the 3rd, with a similar setup to the May 1993 case. A very weak low within a high moved slowly northward and brought some patches of quite heavy rain which I remember fairly well. The rain fell through low level cloud as well as shown on the satellite:

List of deepest snow depths for Coventry: January 2013 is the deepest i've seen here, followed closely by 13-14cm on 10th December 2017. December 1990 is the deepest in recent decdes with a soild foot. In recent years have had depths of 6-8cm such as 24th january 2021 and early March 2018 / 2023, but that seems to be getting less common.

Decent day as the cold front cleared away a few hours ago. Bit of a breeze and a lowish humidity of 50% (lowest of the year so far) does make it feel a little nippy in the shade, but in the sunshine quite lovely. Looks like the rain is back early next week, so any benefit from the drier few days of recent will be undone once again. The front looks quite neat on satellite, and ahead of it widely into the low 20s across central France, I certainly wouldn't mind some of that warmth right now!

2018 I'd say, but it fell off by August and into Autumn. The Rolling period of September 2017 to August 2018 is how I would put it as my favourite i've experienced. 1911, 1921, 1947 or 1959, If there was a repeat of those 4 years in modern times, those would be by far my picks. Maybe 1947 out of those for the most variety between winter and summer.

More like Charlie, markyo, slimshady and Solihull olly.

A very good chance now that 20°C won't be seen this month as mild air is on its way out in the next 24 hours, and not much recovery expected for the next 7-10 days. Charlwood in Surrey reached 18.8°C yesterday, which is highest of the year for England. Scotland still had the 19.9°C back in January. All the 20°C entries:

Mid next week seems to be catching my eye on some recent output. Very low heights / pressure shown, much stronger sun strength, upper level cold pool giving some large lapse rates, and I think that could be quite conducive to some April style showers and even some storms popping off. Still a while away at this stage but a sub 960mb low I would have thought would be record breaking a few days from April if it reaches somewhere into Ireland or Wales.

Same here, have spent hours in the early summer sunshine and don't remember getting burnt. However Spain and particularly Canary Islands, it's no joke, especially between March and September. In winter the sun there is equivalent to March or September in the UK so not needed and is quite nice.

Interestingly that was also cancelled in Coventry

And after saying that the heaviest shower of the year forms out of nowhere just west of here (I presume due to convergence as the cold front slowly moves through) and goes over my location