SummerShower

I'm going to have to bottle my 8.1 guess. Thought it would be record breakingly mild. Guessing 5.8 now. Think it will be mostly mild but a couple of colder periods likely. Rain unchanged 33mm

Mine would be as follows: 2000. Autumn. As someone who finds stormy weather exciting this was a great season. I would of course had picked summer had this been better. 2001. Summer. June wasn't great, but July and August had some good hot spells and were very thundery here. 2002. Autumn. September was very pleasant after the 1st week, and there were some good stormy periods through October and November. 2003. Summer. Needs no explanation, though spring and autumn were good too. 2004. Summer. June was OK, apart from the last third. July not great until the last 10 days but August 2004 is one of my favourite ever months, for its combination of heat, humidity and storms. We need another month like this one! 2005. Summer. A tougher one to pick but there were some good warm spells and storms. A bit like 2001. 2006. Summer. No explanation needed, just wish August wasn't such a let down. Autumn was good too this year though. 2007. Spring. March was good, April was great, and may was interesting how it suddenly flipped. 2008. The toughest to pick as this wasn't a great year at all, but spring, as March had a bit of stormy weather and snow. April had a good snow event. I was away for the 1st half of May but had I been here I would have probably enjoyed that spell. 2009. Winter. For the great snow event in February. Again a tough one to pick as Summer wasn't bad either and the winter wasn't ALL good, and the autumn was quite interesting with warmth and a few windstorms.

8.1 and 33mm.

Am happy for warmer days in 2nd half of February, eg 2019 but equally happy for cold snaps, if they deliver snow around this period. The novelty wears off though after a day or 2. After mid march snow is pointless (excepting 2013 in northern areas). At the other end of the year, happy for warm and sunny, with thundery episodes right the way to early October. Last 2 autumn's have been good for that. Warmth and storms not really possible at all after about mid October.

My ideal spring would be, and hopes for 2024 pan out something like this: 1-3 March 2018 4-6 March 2007 7-12 March 2008 13-15 March 1993 16-21 March 2009 22-29 March 2012 30-31 March 2021 1-4 April 1994 5-6 April 2008 7-11 April 2011 12-15 April 2007 16-17 April 2003 17-21 April 2018 22-23 April 2011 24-29 April 200 30 april-1 may 2005 2-3 may 2007 4 May 2006 5-13 May 2000 but with storm of 10th, 2001. Rest of May 1992, but then 26/27th May 2017 and 28th to 31 May 2018.

And probably record breaking for sunshine too. April 2021 was just as sunny as eg April 2020 here.

I feel this coming storm is looking a bit like Feb 2020's Ciara quite a bit in all of shape, structure, windspeeds and areas affected. Widespread gusts around 60mph inland, but not much more, but covering pretty much the whole country. A notable cold front with potential squall line harbouring the strongest winds as well. Also. Will be quite a long lasting system, despite it being later in the day.

I think the trend overall is for milder winters. I do think though this is primarily because we get more 'silly' mild spells nowadays, where the CET is at 9 or 10C+ for days on end. When the pattern gets in the right place we still get the very low temperatures. Think about December 2022, when the CET was just above freezing for the first 17 days, but then there was a lot of this 'silly' mild weather in the 2nd half. Had it just been 'normal' mild, say 5 to 8C days, we could have come off with a notably cold month. It's these very mild spells that mean we don't get remarkably cold CET months anymore which in turn add up to milder winters. Other months this has been notable are February 2021, which included the lowest February temperature since 1955 but had a silly mild 2nd half. January 23 to some degree had silly mild to start, then a cold 2nd half. Both months had 5.something CETs I.e. unremarkable, despite some good cold weather in them. I do find that when the Atlantic is in charge (which yes, that is the default UK winter pattern), we tend to have more south-westerlies thanks to the Azores high being more prevalent. What I feel is missing from our winters now are spells of colder zonality, which help to keep temperatures down somewhat, when the Atlantic is in charge. I feel this is the reason our winters are milder, rather than becuase our cold spells becoming less intense (which they aren't). So the warming world is causing a pattern change to some degree here. So, overall yes winters are milder now, and the above is the reason for it I believe.

2014 is another contender, for a fan of stormy winters. Realise I might be in a minority here. 1990 also. If we can't have snowy January's, give me a 2014 or 1990 (minus the flooding).

Feb 2013 was 3.3, using the new system

I've noticed the actual value for the 3rd hasn't updated, though must be somewhere between 8.1-8.3 to give the 8.2 average.

Don't think I've seen continuous rain for this long, this intense in winter before. Usually reserved for the warmer seasons. The roads are flooded everywhere. Certainly been an interesting start to the year here, with Tuesdays storm as well.

2011. The most boring year out of these. Apart from April, and the autumn heatwaves, and 4th November. Seasonwise, this summer was very boring. 2014. Spring was quite boring that year. No March snow or may warmth. Though the drying March was welcome after that winter. 2015. Relatively boring year. Summer especially so, apart from 30 June, 1 July and 22 August. Although, the fact these individual days exceeded 30C meant this year recorded 30C in each summer month is quite notable.. could this point temper the boringness somewhat? 2017 had many boring spells, but interspersed with interesting periods: Winter 16/17 bland as hell Spring 2017 I found boring until the last week of may. Especially April, i recall was very dry, but dull with only average temperatures, dissappointing given how much high pressure there was. Autumn 2017 was not the most interesting either from memory. Autumn 2018, after an incredible first 8 months (arguably 7 and a half, ie up until mid august), and December of that year really let the rest of the year down from a weather enthusiast perspective. Finally, Spring 2019 outside of the Easter period was a bit bland.

Yes, I do wonder if either Jul 19 to June 20, or Apr 19 to Mar 20 would have beaten 2012. One of the wettest 12m periods ever recorded has to be in this date range somewhere.

March 2023 was comparable to April 2012, July 2023 was comparable to July 2007, October was one of the wettest in the EWP series. Its not surprising this year is right up there tbh. The only sub 10mm month in this area was February. I find it very unusual in this increasing world of extremes, to have just 1 sub 10mm month.

Beautiful squall.. more like that please. Best squall line of the year that one! It might be mild and Atlantic driven, but if the weather pulls off some dramatic beauties like that, it can be worth it.. Nowhere near as windy as the south coast must be right now though

5.0C and 115mm Cold and mild spells alternating. Wettest in the south, southerly tracking jetstream quite prevalent.

Ah I actually meant March 03, the best that i recall, but yes March 22 was sunny as well. March 23... no! That was a horrendous month for sun IIRC. Mistyped there lol

I thought it has been a dark month and this confirms why for this region. If we can get March 23, April 21 and May 20 sunshine levels this coming spring that will make up for it.

I remember snow falling here on Tuesday and Wednesday 4th and 5th April but not laying. I also remember 2 really good storms on the afternoon of July 6th (homegrown) and overnight into the 7th (think from a plume). Maybe a forgotten event this one, might have just been a local occurrence.

2015 also, came in at bang on 8C mean. One of the coolest days of that month!

As someone who likes either cold/wintry or stormy in the winter, there are a few that stick out. 1995. Even down in the south, it was very cold. No snow but it felt very seasonable, and the cold wasn't at the same level as further north so could be enjoyed. The buzz of knowing snow wasn't far away was great. The will it, won't it scenario.. it didn't here, of course! 1996 was probably better here as there was an official white Christmas from what my eyes saw. Lasted into the new year, with many (mostly minor) snowfalls. I seem to recall a beautiful gale on Christmas eve 1989, and it was very stormy beforehand as well. Both 2009 and 2010 were cold and seasonable with snow on the ground. I remember I kept slipping over on my way back from the pub on Xmas eve 2009. It didn't have the same feel as those of 95 or 96 and I think this is because I knew those cold spells were fading at the time (though 09/10 came back less than a week later). 2013 was awesome as well. Most focused on the night into xmas eve, though it deserves a mention. Tree damage, and flooding in places. Would certainly have been a named storm had it occurred now. Oh how I love a southerly gale, ahead of the main cold front - they seem to have more oomph in this area. I have to say that I feel an xmas with frost and freezing fog would be very seasonal too, but I've never actually experienced one!. Maybe in the early 90s there was 1 but memories then are quite hazy as I was a child then.

The other target to reach, which I don't think will be too far off, is our first 20C CET month. In theory we just need a period in 1976,1995 or 2018 to align perfectly with the calendar.

Highlights for me are 1. The hot June. Getting married on 9th June in perfect conditions. Then seeing a decent homegrown storm 2 days later. 2. A decent homegrown storm on 9th May. This area is usually devoid of homegrown efforts, relying mostly on plumes. Not a bad year in that respect 3. That beautiful heatwave in September. 4. March 8th snowfall. Even this far south it was decent. However it was gone the next day. 5. Some notable October rainfall events. Not the most interesting year for weather it has to be said. The one thing that has stood out is a complete lack of winds from between east and north throughout the entire year.. don't think I've known that before.

That could be Rostherne. That's often one of the warmest NW England stations.