Crepuscular Ray

From the southwestern tip of the Brecon Beacons, activity is definitely picking up to to my east and north. The few attempts at towers have faded rapidly, but they are getting more vigorous.

I can report a massive thunderstorm earlier over Mynydd Dhu/the Black Mountain, although - to my great frustration - it went a couple of miles north-east of me. It sounded good from a distance, but all I got was 0.2 mm of rain.

There was something in the news a day or so ago about it being a bumper year for swarms because of the earlier wet, cold spell. That said, apart from on the aliums, my garden is lacking in honey bees, although I am rescuing bumblebees from the greenhouse at regular intervals. On the subject of insects, I disturbed this moth while doing the watering. A bit of research shows that it is a Gold Spot. Beautiful little thing.

I hope I haven’t destroyed the summer by putting up a hammock in the garden…

Sorry to rub salt in the wound, Snefug, but this bit of Bannau Brycheiniog has been dry all day (despite a fair amount of looming cloud this morning) and a gloriously sunny 18.6 °C this afternoon. Not only did I finish weatherproofing the raised veggie beds, but I got 20 feet of flowerbed weeded, several shrubs planted and some overdue bulbs in. To top it all, while I was relaxing with a cuppa after all that, I saw my first house martin of the year, closely followed by my first red admiral. Even the queen wasp, nettle stings and prospect of tomorrow’s aching muscles have failed to peeve me. Feel free to call me a smug cow if you wish.

Yes, it definitely feels like time for spring now. The oak tree at the top of the hill, and the grazing areas on the mountainsides, are flushed with green and I am waking up to a dawn chorus. After a grim few years, this is my first spring ever having my own garden to nurture; I am gradually discovering what all the plants are and enjoying watching things both in it and the surrounding area burst into life.

332 mm here for me.

Only about half an inch of lying snow here, and air temps already above freezing.

Well, I wasn’t expecting a relatively mild (7.1 C) afternoon with almost cloudless skies, but I am not going to complain.

Not so far at the very western tip, as far as I can see through the cloud. The council hasn’t yet gritted the road in the village, but I expect that they did the mountain road overnight.

My brother’s dog, and those of his neighbour, went a bit bonkers at that time, about 25 miles to the west of the epicentre.

Thank you. Sadly, it was cloudy here on Wednesday evening. Yes, Venus and Jupiter.

Slightly blurry, but pretty, and flipping cold.

The birds round here think it’s spring and have started singing their heads off.

It looks like Diamond Dust (wikipedia’s explanation is quite good), although I wouldn’t have thought it was anywhere near cold enough for it.

If I say so myself, wow!

The Black Mountain is somewhere in there, honest. In the village, there’s about 5 cm of laying snow, but it’s now 1.7 °C and gently drizzling. The council is still gritting the Mountain Road: Gareth Spreadwards went past heading that way a few minutes ago.

-1.8 in Lower Brynamman

Some big flakes in the western Beacons, trying to settle, but yet as good as Snefug’s.

If the pellets were a bit squishy, rather than hard like hail, it could be graupel. https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/hail/types/

I can’t remember where I heard it, and it might be a load of tosh, but have a vague recollection that there are restrictions on what they can share, and when, because some of it is based on information from other national weather services from around the world and is subject to copyright.

The air temperature is rising about 2 degrees an hour here; it’s currently 11.1 ºC in the garden.

Brief light snowall in Lower Brynamman, with hail/graupel (I never can remember the difference) thrown in. Jackdaws and a robin have found the bird feeders.

And heading a couple of miles south of me.

-4.7 for me. It’s a glorious-looking day out, but I think I’ll let it warm up a touch more before hanging out the new birdfeeder.