Metwatch

20240407_194527.mp4 Evening all from Castle Crag! Probably gusting in excess of 50mph up here.

Blowing a hoolie here in Keswick at the moment, few heavy showers racing through as well. Think it's a tad windier than yesterday.

20240406_131841~2.mp4 20240406_124338~2.mp4 Storm Kathleen up here in the Lake District yesterday afternoon. Here for another 2 days. Certainly quite windy, but it was mostly dry & very mild so that didn't stop myself and a few dozen other hikers enjoying their walks! A lot of water on paths which are like streams!

Only just got signal (Still in the Lake District with no signal since Friday night but back in town currently) looks like @rwtwm was closest with the April 4 the guess. Fairly happy with my April 10th punt as well. Onto the first 25°C now!

Out in the Lake District through the rest of this week, mostly a camping trip with 3 other guys. So far Tuesday and Thursday was nice, with today being okish and Wednesday being the worst day. Camped near Helvellyn for 2 nights at 700m elevation, stuck all day in tent Wednesday but I think it was worth it to get to near helvellyn yesterday and take some lovely photos Tuesday evening and Thursday. Decided to stay in hotel back in Penrith last night for a little comfort, off to a campsite later today. Got up to the Penrith Beacon this afternoon, some light intermittent rain but wasn't too bad, quite mild. 20240405_120254.mp4 2 shots back on Wednesday at 700m, not a great day at all near constant drizzle or moderate rain. My first ever wildcamp so I think I did pretty well Imo (leaving no trace behind as always). Then to compare Tuesday night with pleasant conditions for climbing, and the sun coming out by late afternoon. Got a lot more photos to eventually go through from Tuesday and Thursday so will post them soon enough. Have a lovely weekend all!

Catacol I wouldn't even bother. Denies that Spain is becoming drier and warmer this week so that says enough. The ignore button works wonders

April 2011 I feel is another that tends to be less remembered about given Aprils have warmed up a fair bit. If April 2007 wasn't that warm, 2011 would have been the warmest April by 1.3C above the current third warmest which is 1865, followed by 2020. A bigger gap than between the 2 warmest Mays! The CET of April 2011 is virtually identical to the coldest June in modern times which was in 1972, and over a degree warmer than the coldest September in modern times which was in 1952.

Some quite threatening skies despite the showers not amounting to much. Always something to capture! Also dropped to 10C here in the shower. YouCut_20240401_165616633~2.mp4 Some showers in the distance developing: Loking north to the Derby / Nottingham cells right now:

Few showers closing in from the south, but not expecting any thunder. Been a nice afternoon so far, 14°C and mostly sunny up until now.

Very mild first week on the cards, with potentially the CET reaching close to 12C by the start of next week. I wonder what the rolling mean daily records are for April @Roger J Smith? I see that up to the 7th April 2011, that had a mean of 11.6C.

Oh dear they're already at it again. That's a wet summer guaranteed then! UK at risk of summer water shortages and hosepipe bans, scientists warn | Water | The Guardian WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM Hot and dry conditions could force measures despite country experiencing wettest 18 months since records began

Models have drastically flipped and are now showing a strong signal for high pressure over the country starting this weekend, the end of the near eternal wet spell is in sight!

Another year where March recorded a lower highest temperature than February here. I do wonder if it's becoming common... since the mid 1980s In recent decades this seems to have happened in: 2023, 2019, 2008, 1996 and 1987.

9.6C and 108mm Very wet first 7-10 days, and likely up to mid month, second half probably drier but not completely while staying near average. Have not gone for a CET of anything >10C as it's almost impossible to get an April CET of >10C while also being very wet. There is the first time for everything though so might happen this April! The scatter graph below showcases this nicely; typically the wetter an April is, the chillier it will be with the warmest ones often the driest with very few that can be classed as mild while being wet.

An interesting paper on how radar was developed in the UK in the mid 20th century. It's a long read but if you Control F some terms such as hail, thunderstorm, various years in the 1940s and 50s, (1955 57, 58, 59 etc) and flick through, there are some interesting snippets for thunderstorms! https://www.rmets.org/sites/default/files/hist14.pdf UK weather radar history 1940-1965.pdf

From the guy who manages the station in Coventry this morning: The October - March 91-2020 average for reference is 348.4mm. That is more than ridiculous now.

Certainly changed my expectations of May following May 2020, but it was sort of overdue given several Mays in the latter part of the 2010s were decent. However a fairly convective month too as it was very cyclonic with the sun being quite strong by this month. Here I only remember a day or 2 with thunder, but a lot of convective cloudscapes in the mix. 10th, 17th and 18th stand out looking back on my gallery and lightning strike archive on Meteociel. Things did settle down in the final few days though. The Lake District, parts of Scotland even fairly low down, and some higher parts in Wales got some settling snow early in the month. How unusual is snow in May? WWW.BBC.CO.UK What's behind the recent wintry spell of weather - and how often do we see snow in May? Ffair-Rhos, Ceredigion, Wales, UK. 05th May 2021 UK Weather: Residents awake to snow in the rural village of Ffair-Rhos in Ceredigion after overnight and continuing snowfall this morning. © Ian Jones/Alamy Live News Stock Photo - Alamy WWW.ALAMY.COM Download this stock image: Ffair-Rhos, Ceredigion, Wales, UK. 05th May 2021 UK Weather: Residents awake to snow in the rural village of Ffair-Rhos in Ceredigion after overnight and continuing snowfall this... Dalwhinnie, Scotland, UK. 6 May 2021. Aerial view of snow covered landscape in the high altitude Drumochter Pass at Dalwhinnie in the Scottish highlands. Pic; The A9 highway winds its way north through a snow covered Drumochter Pass. Iain Masterton/Alamy Live News Stock Photo - Alamy WWW.ALAMY.COM Download this stock image: Dalwhinnie, Scotland, UK. 6 May 2021. Aerial view of snow covered landscape in the high altitude Drumochter Pass at Dalwhinnie in the Scottish highlands. Pic; The A9 highway...

Intense hail shower today just north of Stirling this afternoon Wanted to share a few shots from Jack in North Warwickshire from yesterday, also some stunning mammatus and cloudscapes too: Some more mammatus yesterday, wonder if it's been a record of some sorts for so many sightings in a single month!

I know this is the Daily Mail but there are some really interesting drone comparisons between mid August 2022 and the same time last August. So much year to year variability even for a wet climate like ours! England's green and pleasant land (thanks to a washout summer): Drone shots compare verdant UK to dustbowl Britain during roasting 2022 heatwave | Daily Mail Online WWW.DAILYMAIL.CO.UK Incredible aerial photos have revealed England's green and pleasant land this year thanks to washout summer a year after Britain was turned into a dustbowl during a record breaking heatwave.

I was going to ask this in here, but which July did everyone despised / liked more, 2020 or 2023? I missed both second halves of them, but I would say 2023 was the worse one despite being a little more convective. Both had a lack of warmth, but 2020 at least was drier, I think just after I left there were a few days of no rain. The first week or July 2023 however was also mostly dry.

I suppose today isn't far off the wonderful end of March 2021; sunny calm nice sunny spells, not as warm but still good in the sunshine, but the difference is this time in 2021 we were heading into a very dry and sunny April. Not so much now. The strength of the Greenland blocking in the upcoming week is just sickening!

The showers continued into sunset and produced some brilliant colours. Mammatus properly made an appearance at last! Superb day and unusual for Coventry to see so much in a day as showers / thunderstorms have a tendency to avoid the city but not in recent days dji_fly_20240329_182442_271_1711738195040_video~2.mp4

Lost count of which shower this is, but my brother got caught under it in a park a few miles east of Coventry and said it had hail, certainly looked like it! The hole in the clouds here caught my eye: Not sure if it's just me but anyone see a sad face with this one? Seen several more photos of mammatus around Birmingham, so I reckon this is the anvil it was on: A nice full rainbow to finish off!

This is getting a bit too much for me now. Another shower bypassing just east of here. Tried its best to produce some mammatus but couldn't quite get there. A short clip just before it went on to give a rainbow segment dji_fly_20240329_163328_246_1711731009634_video~2.mp4 More stuff coming In from the south west as well though looks to have weakened on radar in the last half hour.

One of the most photogenic showers I've seen consistently from start to end in quite a while. It almost reminded me of that famous photo of that microburst in Arizona. Superb back end with the Cb revealing itself completely. The shower falling under the sunshine as well, perfect! YouCut_20240329_155111031.mp4