Obese John

I wouldn't pick any month where there was more than 10 days without any rain. I have enough watering to do as it is without adding to the difficulties. I prefer the rain to fall overnight, but am not averse to a few showers in the day. Daytime temperatures above 27C are no use to me, as I can't keep cool without getting Brahms & Liszt - which is not advised in hot weather, and then I can't sleep at night. A couple of weeks of cold snowy weather in winter will do me fine; other than that it can do what it likes within the parameter given in my first sentence.

Here in my Somerset back garden I am looking at an April mean temperature of around 9.5, which is a little below average; but not as bad as some years - such as 2013 when it was 8, although cold nights do skew the mean at this time of year. The GFS for this area over the Bank Holiday weekend is not too bad, giving us 16/17 most days, which tends to equate to 18 in my sheltered space. The Camborne ascent for midnight is showing some signs of subsidence, so I'm still optimistic for the plants to grow, given the 110mm of rain we have had this month so far. The dahlias are appearing already, although they are in tubs which tend to warm up more quickly. Stay positive.

Just had a look at the updated alpha version. Thanks for the zoom in/out buttons, although using Safari on my Macbook I found that three fingers on the trackpad did the job as well. I would like to see an option to step through the frames every 6 or 12 hours (assuming there isn't one or I've missed it - not an impossible scenario in my senior years), because once I get the gist of a pressure/pptn pattern it is nice to skip a few frames rather than wait for the software to draw the graphics for the intermediate hours. I can press the forward button rapidly which has a similar effect, but this is more for my personal convenience. But overall, I can fault it. Well done to all involved.

Oh wow! This will ruin my future plans, as I can sit and play with the model output all day, and across the globe. Marvellous stuff. My wife will now be a Netweather widow.