Summer8906

No, it wasn't terrible. Just a little below par. (Location south Hampshire) June was unsettled, dull and cool for the first two weeks but then, following a warm, humid weekend, became mostly dry and bright for the rest of the month, but slightly cool at times. There was a short wet interlude on the 21st and it then turned wet again on the 30th. July was similarly unsettled, dull and cool for the first 12 days before becoming warm on the 13th. It was sunny until the 18th, then more changeable but still rather dry until about the 25th. Then a brief hot spell followed by a thundery end to the month, and on the warm side still. August started with a week of warm, showery weather with a slack low, and some sun at times. It was then very cool and dull for a short period from the 8th-11th before becoming much warmer with variable cloud, eventually hot on the 17th/18th. Then around a week of slack pressure conditions, warmish with some showers, and finally cooler with a northeasterly setting in but still mostly dry. The final day of the month featured a strong anticyclone (though with some Sc sheets around the middle of the day), which gave a foretaste of September's typical conditions. So not the most terrible summer, and it helped that none of the three months were truly dire. Just a little bit below par for the 1989-2006 period. First half could be considered poorish (but 2nd half of June still OK), second half was persistently warm though not always sunny and not always bone-dry. August was unseasonably blocked with little in the way of Atlantic W-lies: slack pressure patterns were frequent. From 1989 onwards, I'd place it above 1992, 1993, 1998, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023.

Still doesn't look bad to me next week. Maybe a bit breezy and showery on Mon/Tues (not unlike the weekend of March 23/24), but after that we're at worst on the eastern edge of the high. After thtat I guess it'll either be sunny; dry with some "infill" Sc developing during the day; or bright with scattered, possibly wintry showers, depending on how close the high is. Compared to what we've had, none of these outcomes are too bad.

I remember this month well. The first 8 days or so were actually unusually southwesterly, hence mostly mild and dull (1st, 2nd and 9th warm and sunny) - not too dissimilar to this year but less wet as the low track was further north. The change took place via two cold fronts, IIRC, an initial one overnight 9th-10th which brought a chilly NW-ly for a couple of days and then another one overnight on Sun 11th-Mon 12th which brought in the full northerly. Mon 12 was a breezy day with hail showers. The airmass remained in situ until May 19th though the wind lessened and eventually the northerly became very slack. There were several days with sunny starts with showers of hail and snow developing during the day. One day I was in the Bath area and a general area of snow came through in the morning, with a cover - this was probably Wed 14th or Thurs 15th. This meant I experienced lying snow in April for three years on the trot, as I was in the northwest over Easter 1998 and experienced another bout of lying snow in Bath in the first week of April 2000. (Lying snow in April has become really rare in recent years - last time I encountered it was in 2008). I remember being in London on Sun 18th and I think it was the day of the London Marathon. By then the showers had died out though the cold bright airmass remained in place. Mon 19th was sunny but sadly I remember a mass of cloud advancing from the SW into the evening, I distinctly recall the clear air retreating northeastwards that evening. The 20th-23rd was very dull and wet with cyclonic SW-lies and a southerly tracking jetstream but something of a ridge produced a drier and rather warm weekend, and then a further transition occurred on the 25th/26th with the last Atlantic low in the sequence slipping southeastwards into France, producing thunder on the evening of the 26th as it did so - but then setting up a warm anticyclonic easterly to produce a very warm and sunny final four days of the month. So a very mixed month. An unusually high frequency of dull SWlies (3rd-8th and 20th-23rd) but also a notable cold and notable warm spell.

Cheshire Freeze Just hope that doesn't happen, it would be quite ridiculous if we then flipped into yet another extreme wet period before the end of the month. (Surprised the amount of rainfall would increase that much going into May compared to now, as heavy non-thundery rainfall always seems to be a late summer/autumn/early winter thing - i.e. the season when SSTs are highest).

CryoraptorA303 Will need the synoptics to be right though. If we are getting W, NW or N airmasses for the rest of the month it will likely be a little above average at best.

AWD I'd agree there although to be fair the afternoon was better than the morning - still mostly cloudy but bright. Very humid and muggy - much more like late summer or early autumn than April. Sun tried to come out between 3 and 4 but probably no more than 20-30 mins accumulated today, so the very cloudy first half of April continues.

Metwatch Thanks, never knew this Snow Survey existed. Looks like it gives good insight into exactly where snow occurred with a lot of detail.

I don't remember this at all, and I have pretty good memories of 1989. FWIW I remember the warm sunny conditions on the 1st and the sudden, almost overnight, change to a very cold NE-ly with snow showers which persisted through the 1st week. I remember the weekend of the 8th/9th as being bright and the following week fairly changeable but no details other than one day which was bright with occasional showers and a W-ly wind. All I really recall is that the snowy spell was replaced by less remarkable weather. It does look like it was the only active low that week according to the archive charts, the rest of the week being showery-looking winds between W and N. Then Sat 15th was sunny, Sun 16th was wet, there were two or three sunny days the following week, Sun 23rd reasonably bright, and the end of the month was cold with occasional wet days.

B87 Yes, I remember reading that about 1961, when looking for possible other occasions with a long run of wet months. March 1961 terminated an 8-month run, we then regressed in April before a 2-month fine spell in May/June. The summer overall was a typical early 1960s cool, dull but not especially wet one, I think. Are we really on a par with 1959? I thought 1959 was one of those years when just about every month was fine, until October when a transition to a much wetter regime took place. Alderc 2.0 Ah fair enough, wasn't sure where in Devon. Alderc 2.0 I'd be quite happy to see the temp drop a bit if only the sun would come out!

damianslaw I agree about the switches though would probably adjust the dates, and there was quite a lengthy period when it didn't seem especially dry or wet. The first notable dry spell was from around September 1988 to June 1992. Then mostly wet from July 1992 to Feb 1995 as you say. Then mostly dry until Oct 1997. I see the dry-to-wet transition in 1997 as taking place at the start of Nov, as May, July, September and October 1997 were rather dry and only June was notably wet. The wet spell then continued to April 2001, with it turning drier in May 2001 as you say continuing until around August 2006. After that, from 2007-14 only 2012 and 2014 seemed notably wet as calendar years: the 2007-09 period seemed to be marked by wet summers rather than prolonged wet weather. 2010 and much of 2011 (except the summer) was dry. 2015-18 didn't seem especially wet but again had some poor summer periods. The next wet spell I would set the date of onset as June 2019 rather than late 2018, as early 2019 was rather dry. This continued all the way until around October 2021. There was then a brief dry spell from Nov 21-Aug 22. Agree that the current wet spell set in around September 2022 and is probably the most marked since the turn-of-the-millennium wet spell. In fact the past few years seem to have been notably wet: aside from the 9 months or so from Nov 21-Aug 22 there seems to have been a very strong emphasis on wet conditions since mid-2019.

damianslaw I would completely agree. A dominance of dull and damp cyclonic SW-lies almost unseen in any other year. Other years had mild/wet Jan/Feb but those years tended to have a warm and sunny March. Not a nice combination. Would have preferred cold, dull and wet to be honest. The problem with mild, dull and wet is that spring flowering still takes place, and the result could now be we end up with a very short spring - perhaps just three weeks or so, up to the May day holiday - though if we do get some cold snaps in the next two weeks, that will help extend it further into May.

TwisterGirl81 Interesting Devon is so sunny at the moment, I'd have expected the dull to be even more intense than here!

B87 Ah, the dreaded 1961, which has been mentioned before as being a similar combination of mild and wet (a rare combination for April). No surprises there though interesting to note the concentration in the 60s and 70s, as you say. Interesting 1983 is not on the list, as I recall that being very dull. But there was I think about 5 days of fine weather just before mid-month, so I guess that made all the difference. 1998 completely lacked any sustained sunny spell (which has been rare since 1980), so I can see why 1998 might be duller than 1983. Scorcher The joys of being in the Welsh rain-shadow I guess. I've noticed SW-lies are a good deal less dull in northwestern England than down here in the south.

Time to place bets on the dullest first half of April on record, I wonder? Met Office forecast is more optimistic though for the weekend and next week. Just need to get rid of this damp, gloomy Tm grot. Active warm fronts are almost never followed by sunny weather, as I said yesterday.

baddie I don't remember May 2019 being especially spartan, the first half in particular had good flowering. But aside from the Easter weekend, April 2019 was frequently cool, IIRC (the end of April was not warm here, as soon as the Easter warm spell ended it was mostly cool and breezy), and the first half of March was also relatively cool if I remember right.

baddie My thoughts there was that in 2018 we had a couple of sunny days on the 5th and 6th, and the 7th was partly sunny. So far this month we've had a moderately sunny day on the 1st, sunshine at times on the 6th but also cloudy periods, and an often sunny afternoon on the 9th. Very little else apart from fleeting glances here and there, so I'd expect things to be below 2018 here. 2018 had another sunny day on the 14th; this year I expect tomorrow and Friday to be completely cloudy but the weekend might offer sunny periods at times as the cold front clears out the clag and replaces it with a clear and fresher NW-ly.

Don To play the devil's advocate, though, 1976 still remains the clear leader in prolonged warm, sunny and settled conditions AFAIK. I'm not old enough to remember it but looking at reports and synoptic charts, few other years since have matched it. 1989 and 1995 are the only real candidates. 2003, 2006, 2018 and 2022 each featured one changeable month (July, August, August and June respectively).

baddie 2020 was a bit of a blur due to lockdown, but yes, I think May was more spartan than normal. I do remember that everything looked a bit "washed out" on the (small number of) dull, damp days that month, and June looked very "washed out", not helped by the cloudy conditions for much of the month. I guess this year is the first time we're experiencing it in "normal" times. Perhaps 2007 was like this also (exceedingly mild, and dull Jan; very mild and dull Feb, warm and sunny March and April)? My interest in the state of nature wasn't quite as strong then, though, it's been since around 2009 or so that I've been really noticing it. Regarding 2013, yes spring was almost too late, but when it came, it was spectacular. I'd probably rate 2010 and 2013 as the most beautiful springs aesthetically in recent years, and both came off the backs of cold winters. Oh well, hoping 2025 is better. Perhaps we will get that well-overdue cold February next year.

ANYWEATHER Given I'm likely to be abroad for much of July and Aug, but here during the other months, that would be an optimal solution if we have to have two more changeable months over the summer...

Must be on course to achieve one of the dullest first halves of April on record. Duller than 2012 I suspect, and probably somewhat duller than 2018. SunSean Surprisingly "sunny" at Portsmouth, not too far from me. 96 hours isn't great but still means more than 3 hours per day, which seems sunnier than it actually was.

In Absence of True Seasons There is a difference, there's something about really gloomy weather which affects your mood, I find. Today is probably one of the worst days of the month so far, thanks to the lucky coincidence of most of the other frontal systems passing through during the evening and night. (Tuesday 2nd was the other worst day of the month so far as it too featured the frontal system arriving during daytime). Which is why even if we don't see the sun until the weekend, the next couple of days are likely to be significantly less bad.

MP-R Though this normally requires NW-lies or N-lies, which produce mostly below average temps. Tm and rPm SW-lies generally produce overcast or dull conditions, as we've seen this month so far. The only real exception is if we have a very slack low to the west, where the wind isn't strong enough to blow clag in from the channel (e.g. opening days of August 2012, not April I know...)

In Absence of True Seasons Better than here, at least it looks bright-ish!

Damp with light rain today, wouldn't surprise me if this supposedly weaker system gives more rain than "Kathleen". There is a general pattern that applies 9 times out of 10: if a warm front produces rain, the following mild air is very unlikely to produce significant sunshine. This suggests my prediction that we're unlikely to see the sun until the weekend when the following cold front clears southeastwards may be correct. Depressingly dull today too: April reverts to type, for now. However due to a pressure rise I suspect tomorrow and Friday will be merely cloudy rather than dull.

Looking at the rest of April 1946 it looks mostly anticyclonic overall (albeit with mostly W or NW winds, so not especially warm), before a cold and wet cyclonic type, with often N-ly or NE-ly winds, took over for the final week. Presumably the CET would have been higher had it not been for the final week. In fact spring-summer 1946 as a whole had a very 2007-12 look about it. An easterly May with alternating fine and wet spells then seemed to lead into a mostly cool, dull, wet, cyclonic summer with the jetstream moving a little north - very similar to what happened in the 07-12 period.