Bottesford

Clear skies this morning and this evening - wow what a change! No rain either and we managed a sizzling (!) 13.6c. Much nicer day than of late and more useful for getting outside in.

I do hope so but I don't think so...

Ermm not quite sure what's going on but I can't see any clouds... well at least from this angle anyway! A sunny start for first time in ages. Down to 6.1c overnight currently 8.2c. Suspect this sun won't last...

I'm sure things will catch up again at some point. But later it is the lower the crop yields will be. A cool, cloudy summer would be terrible for food production I'm sure. Dry start to year slowing early growth then cool afterwards slowing things more. A warm, sunny summer with decent rainfall is what we need.

More of the same... bit of cloud, bits of brightness and more drizzly yuck. Feels cool but not cold but certainly not warm. Currently 12.4c.

Yes it really isn't good for gardeners. As my first year doing gardening 'properly' (well almost) it is most depressing to see how growth has slowed to a crawl and everything is getting water logged. Also found my entire crop of rocket seedlings have been eaten by slugs this morning. Flaming things - need some hot sun to get rid of them! Although we can't see any improvement now in the models remember it was only 4 or so weeks ago we were locked into an unending drought with no sign of much change. I don't subscribe to the springs over camp and certainly not the summers over one!

Yes very noticable how spring has slowed right down and after seeing bees & ladybirds everywhere they've all but gone now (or are very sluggish). Things in my garden are crawling along after the burst in March. The rain has been good for it and we've had some sun at times too. What it needs is some warmth to get things going again. Sadly no sign of that at the moment but I'm sure it'll all catch up again when we finally get another warm spell.

Which means another 14-15 weeks more of them being this long or longer! Wonderful - the best time of year is here! (but booo to the rain haha)

Sunshine at last to start the day! 5.9c the low now 12.6c and partly cloudy.

Eeek that must add up! Here we can loose it once daytime temps go near or above room temperature (21c) and night temps above 10c. So far only that hasn't happened - only one or the other! Ugh hope we can get some decent May weather -it can be a lovely month with so much daylight to play with. Just want to be outside lots - after starting to connect with my garden in March it has now resumed its winter role as the passage from the house to the street!

Yes a cold May is unlikely to turn into December 2010 again! It would probably be as Mr D just described - cloudy with vile cold winds off the North Sea. Don't know about you, but I fancy turning the heating off and using that money for something more fun than keeping warm!

Well we're certainly into this manky pattern now - northern blocking and endless low pressure over the UK. We do need the rain and I for one don't begrudge us getting some. But can't say its enjoyable for the most part. The sunshine & hefty showers last week was great - it got some moisture into the ground but you still had sun too. Good growing weather. This past few days has been dire though- I really struggle to understand how folk enjoy it. Just so restrictive and makes day to day getting around so difficult. Last night the roads were gridlocked with alot of angry drivers doing lots of stupid things because of it. Cycling between that in the pouring rain isn't fun. And no sign of turning the heating off - or even down! This is my first year I'm really getting into gardening properly. After a great start everything is getting water logged and without sun is growing much more slowly. My worry is if we get a naff spring or naff summer my efforts will be wasted. Peppers and tomatoes do not like this weather - and neither do I! Fine to roll out to the end of April with this pattern but after that here's hoping we can change to something warmer & sunnier. No sign yet but then there was no sign of the drought easing into April either - and now look!

A cold feeling and very wet day with rain pretty much all day from light to very heavy. A short few mins of weak sunshine in the afternoon. 10.2c the max and now 7.6c.

Heavy frontal rain now lightening off a bit. Feeling horrible, cold and damp at 6c.

Clear and cold night down to 1.2c. Today started clear & sunny but cloud has built up a bit now. 12.2c the max but dropped a little now to 11.1c.

But only a few weeks ago it was high pressure all the way with no sign of change so you never really quite know when the gear will shift... Certainly not in the short term though. Here's hoping mid May summer 2012 switches onto full power for a good 3 or so months!

Clear and chilly night down to 2.2c. Lovely sunny start with deep blue skies and sunlight flooding my house - lovely!

Yes time for a fresh one I think!

Please continue here with your thoughts & observations about the model output....

Lovely sunny start here with light winds. Down to 4.4c overnight now 9.7c. Good to finally see my house in sunlight at last!

A few off topic posts have been removed - please stick to model discussion and leave the drought talk to the relevant thread and the personal digs off the forum completely! Thanks.

Cool and damp sums it up with the Atlantic sending depressions across us. So more general rain rather than the sunshine & (so far around here) odd shower of this week. So very useful weather for water resources and hopefully something we can get out of the way now rather than late May onwards!

Yes I found in Central/Eastern Europe that temperatures of only around 24-26c by day it would stay really warm overnight (over 20c but a dry warm) whereas in the UK it either needs to be extremely humid or be well over 30c by day to even remain in the high teens.

I don't think so and I think our view of the British summer has been somewhat skewed with a good number of very warm & sunny ones in the 90s and early 2000s. If you were to ask Joe public what makes a good summer I think it would average out at 23c by day and 14c by night with plenty of sunshine and the odd overnight rain spell. With those figures in mind we have had some periods of 'decent' summer weather in the last fews years although generally let down by the low sunshine totals - especially after June. For me the above definition would mean 'decent' but to be good I'd notch those temperatures up about 4c so I can enjoy the outdoors during the week after work without getting cold. By that definition then no we've not seen a great deal of good summer weather since 2006 - at least in Nottingham anyway.

Seconded back on topic please or your post will disappear like April showers do after sunset...