Evening thunder

The thunder last weekend went around (and mainly east of here), had some rumbles from several miles away though. 13.8mm of rain on Friday, cloudy all of yesterday and today, and feeling chilly (11.2C max yesterday and 10.1C so far today but about 9C atm). Tomorrow just looks mostly cloudy and breezy and reaching 10-12C here now.

Well I was just posting my observations and thoughts not sure why that's a problem. It's an interesting topic though, I live in Devon but spent 3 years near SW London, and have never known trees in general to be coming into leaf in mid March. Later April into early May is when things usually green up fastest in my memory, you do get some earlier varieties but I'm talking about the predominant Oak, Beech, Ash etc. Hawthorn and sometimes Willow can start to show leaves in March though. And of course you might have a predominance of early varieties, or non-native street/garden trees around you depending on where you live. Last year was unusual here because some trees e.g Poplar, and a few Oaks started actually did start leafing in March which is earlier than even 2011, I remember looking at photos I've taken over the years and comparing different years, I will have to look through again when I have time. This year was late though it's really catching up here recently, not surprising as April is running 2C above average here.. I remember some days earlier in the month where eastern/central parts had overcast weather with single figure temps and we had some sunshine and up to 15C, so maybe it's earlier down here.

I'm not really sure where to obtain an average of tree leafing dates over the years, but I thought this year might be more normal than last year which was very early at least until the late April cold snap. Later than at least the recent norm, although it's come on a lot over the warm spell we've just had, many trees coming into leaf here now. A little bit more 'continental style' perhaps, following the weather contrast between mid March and mid April. Trees in general never come into leaf by the middle of March, apart from a few things like Hawthorn in early springs perhaps.

23.6C today at 13:23 before the sea breeze arrived and briefly dropped it below 20C, however it was 20-22C for much of the afternoon. That's just 0.2C short of my station record in April 2011. I wonder how high it would have got without the coastal influences. This day 1 month ago I woke to over 15cm of snow!

What a difference yesterday's 100% sunshine was to Tuesday's 100% cloud and drizzle/rain after lunch giving 7.6mm Reached 19.4C, kind of surprising with how brisk the wind was from the SE (9C SST's just a few miles away). Although Plymouth got 21.2C as the wind went more easterly (coming across S Devon) there, often seems to happen for some reason. Some paths in the fields and sand by the river were already dry by the end of the day. Down to 4.9C earlier, should make 20C today.

People in the Home Counties (and some other areas) shouldn't be too unhappy with the last 5 years based on these: 2017 Ok it was a little wetter in terms of rainfall totals (day of rain would be better but isn't available on seasonal maps) 2016 Ok it was a little duller than normal for the Home Counties 2015 2014 2013 Looks like an average set, and I have more reason to complain down here based on those sunshine maps, but summers haven't felt too bad since 2012 (though l didn't really like 2015). August has often been a bit naff though which could affect the lasting impression of the summer, and harvest etc. Of course I'm talking generally rather than one specific station which has apparently had a persistent duller anomaly for 13 years.. oddly enough since an equipment change

Talking about 30C, as I'm 3 miles from the south coast it hasn't reached 30C at all here in my 10 years of records. I've had 29.2C twice (July 2013 and June 2017). A few miles further inland got 30/31C though and it has happened here before on occasion. All years have given 26C+ here apart from 2015 which didn't reach 25C! That year the 30th June gave 24.7C with a wind off the sea, and the 1st July gave 24.5C in a brief sunny interval as the hot plume was shifting east (When Heathrow got the July record). However, it was 23.7C at about 3am! and here's a quirk, a nearby station on a hillside recorded its highest temperature of the whole year at about 3am! As for last summer I thought the first half was decent here with more 25C+ days than many recent years managed, but variable with cooler/wetter days too.

I guess the reason why the southern Met Office warning stayed yellow despite medium impacts was due to lower likelihood/confidence, same on the EA flood outlook with 'possible' rather than 'expected' flooding. Looks like that was a wise decision (I might have gone 'amber' and been more wrong lol). We did have 27.6mm here so my Davis wasn't actually over-reading much. The River Otter didn't get too high, with half that amount upstream. Many rivers around here rise/fall within a day so need about an inch from a single event to flood no matter how wet the ground is.. Though the lower Clyst and Culm drain a little slower, these and the Exe and Axe have been at minor flooding level today (the first 3 on Saturday too).

Well that was a bit of a fail in some ways. Over 25mm here, but a lot less upstream. Even the heavier stuff kept weakening for that area (seems a bit of a rain shadow from Dartmoor even though the surface flow was SE-S) The river's not that high and has already started dropping. It's cleared here but it's barely been raining since 2am anyway, not the continuous 'heavy rain' symbols until late morning.

Thanks you! 18.8mm here so far according to my station.. Although I feel that might be over-reading especially looking at nearby stations. It under-read the other day. Always struggled to get the Davis to be consistently accurate with rain, not sure what it is (even accounting for wind) Will have to see what the manual gauge says in the morning.

Well I forgot to post but I didn't expect to see this on a local hill on Friday! (This is East Hill at about 240m asl, the long hill in the last pic) 2-3 inches on the grass/surfaces in open areas.. A few miles from there at about 160m there was almost nothing, though 0.5 miles from home at 100m there was about 1cm on the grass etc. It turned to sleety wet snow at home for a while (25m). As for today, light rain arrived by 4pm, and has turned persistently moderate-heavy. Already at 6.8mm, it will be interesting to see how much we get and the rivers will be high in the morning.. after this I'm ready for something warmer and drier though. 196mm in March.. can see how wet the field is in that picture.

An increasing number of flakes now in the moderate sleet, even here at just 25m asl. Someone that wasn't looking closely might even say 'it's snowing!' Temp 2.1C. The top of a nearby hill about 2 miles away and 200m is obscured now. I reckon the intense radar echoes around Tiverton are 'bright banding' due to wet snowflakes.. Preip doesn't seem that heavy on weather stations and the radar overestimated the intensity here earlier.

A rather miserable day, light rain has gradually got more moderate. In fact now there's occasional but definite traces of sleet on the window, temp 4.1C but going down. These webcams http://www.dsgc.co.uk/what-is-happening-now/webcam suggest it's turning to sleet/wet snow on the Blackdowns with a temp of 1.4C at 280m Met Office forecast update also shows snow up there and even sleet at 1C down here at 4pm now.

Would have to be more like 100-200mm in a few hours to cause that in the north Cornwall flashy catchments, very unlikely in this cool airmass thankfully None the less those totals would cause some flooding issues after a wet month (very wet here with 180mm of rain and snow so far!) No warnings from the Met Office though, and their latest precip map forecast shows hardly anything for that area...so we will see lol. An air frost overnight here with a min of -0.9C, light rain has started now and it's currently 4.5C.

Yesterday was a really dull dampish one... better today with some sun but also some cloud around at the moment. 10.8C at present. The models appear fairly wet or showery, already 153mm of precipitation this month (including snow water content).

A bit late but we had an additional 8cm or so of powdery snow by Monday morning, bringing the depth on one car to 18cm, possibly slightly from blowing off roofs but it was at least 15-16cm on the coldest surfaces. It was surprising how much it reduced in the sunshine on Monday though.. and yesterday it mostly went apart from drifts/shaded remnants. It actually seemed to drift more than the 1st March locally (though it had a bit longer without the freezing rain), I didn't see it being whipped up off the fields at home then like it was on Monday Morning for a while. Here are some pictures I've got round to sorting. The 1st pic is the start of the main snow on a local hill, at which point I decided it was a good idea to go home. Pictures 2-5 are at home on Sunday/Monday, and picture 6 is drifts on the same local hill later on Monday. Also it was nice beach weather at Sidmouth I'd say this event gave more snow than the 1st March on the best surfaces (but showed the difference with warmer ground/road temps at lower levels) Min of -3.4C yesterday and today with the ground nice and cold now lol.

Sounds lush.. the neighbours can go away with that quite often but don't think they've used it in winter/snow lol I should really go to bed with my reduced sleep last night, maybe after this heavier bit.

Just messing about.. Then a load of snow blew off the roof

Getting heavier again here, niiice Blimey I assume this is weather related

Nice moderate snow although back to light-moderate atm. The heavier line did seem to weaken/thin for here, and then immediately widen again as it had passed though

Light snow has given pehaps 1-2cm of fresh powdery snow since late afternoon, some blowing off roofs etc really easily in the breeze. Settling on some of the lane too.. temp -1.5C. Radar looks nice indeed, pepping up at the front and about to hit! Hopefully it's more reflective of how the radar looks than this afternoon was here, or I'll probably get 0.5cm tonight

Snow has managed to become a slightly heavier sort of 'light' over the last hour or so, gradually adding about 0.5cm on the exposed part of a bonnet where the snow slid off slightly. Seen heavier snow that showed up considerably lighter on the radar though. Temp dropped to -0.7C from -0.1C earlier, so settling slightly more on some of the marginal tarmac surfaces again. We're sheltered from the NE, but there's powdery snow blowing of roofs in the slight gusts we are getting now, like with Beast 1.0.

Well we had some proper heavy snow earlier from around 11:00-12:00 Heavier intensity than 'Emma' although not quite as much on the ground. Covered the lane but has turned slushy since so can tell the road temps are higher. Best depth I can find is 10-11cm on one of our cars, and a few plant posts, and 8-9cm on the lawn. It got lighter after that and has been a light/very light snow all afternoon.. Actually looks better on radar than reality.. Much heavier on the Dartmoor webcam even though radar shows it just as heavy/heavier here..Possibly because it's kind of grainy snow here, or it's drifting with the wind before it reaches the ground. Also a heavier line has been sat about 2 miles to my SW for a while now lol.

Just realising how much melt a bit of weak sun and the temp reaching +0.3C has caused to my delicate 2cm. A shame really as that's a potential (going by the forecast) ice day gone. Ah well, best make the most of today and hope the next lot is heavy enough to overcome any warmth that added to the ground

About 2cm here (apart from on paths/roads that are a bit warm) which looks quite pretty. Didn't sleep too well and probably got 3-4 hours, despite/because I was thinking that I should sleep to recharge for today. Could have slept this morning, but I've been reading the forum and watching that band make painfully slow progress towards here lol. It had better get here soon though, hazy sun here with the temp up to +0.3C (not forecast) and the snow is starting to melt off some cars etc. Finally seems to be a bit more movement on it.