Sun Chaser

Just saw this, I can't even imagine... congratulations on becoming a dad but it must feel so bittersweet rest in peace to your father. Hope you are okay, wishing you all the best.

An unexpectedly totally glorious week so far. This is the spring I know!! Yes the breeze is quite chilly by the sea but it's April after all, find a sheltered spot and it's beautiful. Not so warm today at only 14c but earlier this week we had 18c which was amazing. And things look to be getting warmer around a week from now (not tempting fate again of course). Feeling a lot more optimistic about the weather now!

Now you know how we feel... vivid memories of May last year when the SE was having clear blue skies and 25C while we were stuck with drizzle and 18...

Not bad at all today. Sun was out basically all afternoon, appreciating any mild dry days with sun we can get these days! Noticed a lot of forecasts for some horrible looking days about 4 days out, only for the day itself to actually end up being quite pleasant! This April is unfairly hated so far imo

A better trend for temperatures as we head past day 7? 20C possible on majority of those members surely. Not that I want to hype anything up after last week

This April's been a weird one. It's either been pretty nice, with a fair amount of sunny, dry days and above average temperatures for the first half of April, or absolutely freezing cold, miserable and chucking it down with rain/even hail, and flipped between the two very quickly. I'd say 4th, 6th-9th, 15th-18th fit in the first category, with some lovely days, while 5th, 10th-14th (and presumably 22nd onwards) have been some of the worst April days I've ever known. A strange case for sure, not sure I can remember one like it - shades of 2014 though that month was distinctly divided into thirds

I saw it on a newspaper in a corner shop stand and thought... did they accidentally leave a paper from last August in there or something?? Because a hosepipe ban after the wettest start to spring in over 40 years is...incredible. Our infrastructure is a joke.

Not so sure about SW England. Having said that today was lovely, a maximum of 16C and almost clear skies until about 4pm. Made sure to make the most of as much of it as I could, spent lunch break sunbathing and it did genuinely feel summery! Makes me excited for if the weather ever switches

Any link where I can access the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data?

Also just a fun fact I find interesting, not a single day of this spring here so far has had a maximum higher than 13th November last year! And it certainly looks like that won't change for a while, unless tomorrow manages it.

April 2021 was actually a very calm month due to the nearby high pressure, even less windy than 2020 in fact! It's a month I remember fondly, I just remember day after day of stunning crystal clear skies and 13-18c highs, not exactly poor April weather. I remember a lot of time spent outside with my friends in the dry sunny weather after coming out of lockdown, and not thinking it was especially cold in the daytime, only the 5th/6th were. Also notable for the fact there was ZERO precipitation recorded here all month - until, frustratingly, 10pm on the 30th

At least we're not having a monsoon every 10 minutes like last month I guess...? That's about the only good thing I can say. I don't envy how awful it must have been to live through spring 1986 or 1996 because they make this one look tropical lol

October felt a lot more springlike than March, that's for sure! Had this April followed on from a March like 2022 I would have no problem. It's not been awful so far, we had a good spell at Easter and a good couple of days seem to be coming up. However after what we just had last month, plus the uninspiring outlook, plus the constant downgrades in the models, and the fact that I won't really benefit from a good May or June for personal reasons, makes this difficulty in finding any warmth very frustrating. Don't like to moan but there's not much to cheer about weather-wise at the moment. This spring better be rewarded with the driest, sunniest July in all of history

That month has always been underrated. Second half of April 2021 was essentially clear blue skies all the way through. I think April '23 will end up with a lower average max here

Had a lovely 4 night stay in Krakow in February for about £250 per head including flights, accommodation, food etc. Which is about the same price as getting the train up to London and staying one night in a Travelodge lol Back on topic, finally the rain is leaving us for a decent amount of time! Temperatures around average for now but skies are blue this morning so I'm not at all complaining. This upcoming spell of weather seems a lot like the second half of April 2021, although being a different setup - but sunny for the west, cloudier for the east, temperatures not too warm but pleasant and some windy days. And almost completely dry!

The worst part is I can't even take the train because it's so expensive... looking at £200 return to London! I can get flights to almost anywhere in Europe this summer for less than that. 13 years of severe underinvestment added to an already broken system run by a mess of greedy companies.

Surprised April 2013 got to 20C but not 2014! If this April can't do it then how on earth did 2013? Average max of below 11C here. Last properly poor April was seven years ago, this one isn't great but it's a far cry from 12/13/16.

Completely agree. In Plymouth our benchmarks are even lower - 30C wasn't breached even once from 2007-2015, 19 July 2016 being the first time in exactly a decade, to the day. Since then we've achieved 30C in most years, 2022 having the most (six times!!) followed by 2021 and 2020 both on three times. Scary how much more common it's become in such a short space of time. I don't expect a 30C every year but I definitely do expect at least a short spell of high twenties! 25C signifies to me a great summer's day as it's only really a handful of days every year that can achieve this. I understand it's probably different in the SE but it really makes you want to make the most of any warmth that does come your way. A little disappointed at the downgrade in warmth for next week, however in the grand scheme of things 16-17C with plenty of sun at this time of year is pretty decent and I won't be complaining! Other than Sunday which looks grim. I feel sorry for those on the east coast who will be having a lot more cloud, but I'm sure you can cope when summer comes around and you're having much warmer weather than us as usual Optimistic for the longer term, having seen what some of the op runs have suggested recently we're not too far away from some proper warmth! I can't wait haha

May 2020 was far sunnier in the west, almost by 100 hours - that's not to say May 2018 wasn't already very sunny with a lot of clear blue skies that month! Both were identical in terms of temperature. As much as I loved May 2018, May 2020 was something truly exceptional that I don't think I'll ever see again - 15 completely cloudless days that month in fact

Definitely rare here. The maximum ended up being 8.7C, the latest in the year such a low maximum has been achieved stretching back to 2011 at my local station. Anything that came close also didn't have the same heavy rain that we had yesterday, except 23/4/2012. So a mix of such horrible temperatures and heavy rain is indeed rare in mid April, in fact it's even rare in January when these conditions are often accompanied by 9-12C instead.

May 2020 was far more than decent. Possibly one of my favourite months ever considering it was the sunniest month of all time full stop in England (or at least since 1909?? I'm not sure someone correct me if I'm wrong). So May 2020 was golden and everything May then seems to be punishing us, at least in terms of sunshine. May 2021 was rotten until around the 26th, which switched from freezing and cloudy in the morning to warm and sunny in the afternoon, and set the tone for most of June. May 27th was then absolutely glorious. I remember it well because May 2021 was the month in which I did my GCSEs, I spent all month hoping that the summer wasn't going to start in the same way, and thankfully my last day there, on the 27th, finally gave us sunny weather. Then we had a nice warm spell of weather from 28 May - 1 June. However the month was horrible overall. May 2022, very forgettable, somehow even duller than 2021 here(!!!). Lots of Atlantic drizzle and low cloud, however quite warm airmasses so the days when the sun came out ended being quite nice - five days overall I think. The month actually got cooler as it went on and the second half of May was rather grim.

I really don't enjoy it but it still piques my interest in a kind of "this is so bad I'll always remember it" way. Other low afternoon temps I remember are 11C on 21st June 2021, or 9C on 6th June 2020, both days that heralded a change to prolonged wet and dull weather. 11th June 2019 being another one I'm sure, I just don't remember it well.

I still remember being amazed on 18th April 2018 that it was 25c while exactly a month before it had been snowing

5.4C currently. At 1pm. In the middle of April. It's hailing outside. This would be terrible even for January! I don't think I've ever seen anything like this in the middle of April - it's akin to the late May bank holiday in 2007 or 23 April 2012 for how unseasonable it is but even colder. I'm kind of enjoying how extraordinary these temperatures are - as miserable as it is. Not sure how it's been passing under the radar so far today

I remember some extremely mild weather on November 12th-13th: 17C in mid November was actually very nice to experience, given that it was also mostly sunny and dry! However it wasn't the same as the kind of weather where you can relax outside and enjoy it for long periods of time. The ground was already saturated by then and I was in Newquay that weekend which was very windy. Having said that, 13 November 2022 might be my favourite November day I can remember. I quite enjoyed last autumn, as although we had our fair share of grey mild dross (as with every year), in between those days we had some clear, sunny days that felt decidedly warm at times. October especially had some lasting warmth in the second half of the month without being too wet, and was also quite sunny. We got some thunder on 23rd October as well, not severe thunderstorms like you but not bad considering we get less thunderstorms here anyway. I remember that day mostly as a traditional English mix of sunshine and showers. It's weird, some of our most infamous storms down here (8 Sept 2021, 27 May 2017, 29 Dec 2017 etc) resulted in almost nothing in the rest of the country!