Autumn 2024 Moans, ramps and banter

[Seasonal Trim]

It's that time of year again when we start looking forward to the beautiful season of Autumn. With its fruitful harvests and magical colours, it's the season of blissful beauty and snugs and huggles. Stews and Roasts, here we come!

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cell. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep, Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers; And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook; Or by a cider-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours. Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--- While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft, And gathering swallows twitter in the skies."

 

Edited September 3, 2024 by reef
Thread title change

[LetItSnow]

With my assumption of unsettled weather continuing and the already waterlogged soil, I can't help but feel another naff season for colours is on the way... Autumn 2016 was the best for leaf display I can recall. Dry conditions from mid July onward combined with early heat with a gradual tapering off of temperature and no windstorms lead to remarkable displays of colour. However 2021, 2022 and 2023 have all been exceptionally poor. 2022 and 2023 in particularly had very little colour due to persistent mild weather and no frost. In fact both years had leaves into December!

Here's a lovely autumn scene from another proper autumn! Taken in the chilly but sunny October 2003.

Edited July 12, 2024 by LetItSnow!

[cheeky_monkey]

Autumn is a bit of a poisoned challis here..on the one hand it has some of the best weather on offer throughout the year and some spectacular scenery to see..on the other hand it is way too short and what follows is the worst season of the year.

[Dangerous55019]

Ahhhhhh… The Autumn thread… My favourite thread of the year!

Thank you @Seasonal Trim for starting this up for another year.

Personally, I always look forward to this time of the year, as summer slowly fades, and the evenings and mornings start to turn cooler and more misty. 
 

I’ll have a nice big, extra large helping of autumn this year if I may please? With lots of mists and fog, plus a fair few of those mellow autumn days that have a smokey appearance to the air.

A Halloween fog like we had in 2015 would be most welcome and atmospheric, or a good ole foggy spell like we had in November 2021?

Then for desserts, (or as a side order, I’m not fussy) a few proper autumn storms, with lashings of wild, and gale force winds… Like the storm we had on October 27th 2002?

Oooooohhh… I’m getting all misty and dewy eyed thinking about out it.

Plus the nights are getting longer! Over two minutes a day of daylight being lost now!

The summer sun is fading as the year grows old And darker days are drawing near

[damianslaw]

Can't think of Autumn until we get at least high summer out of the way i.e. by mid Aug. Until then I'm firmly in peak summer mode!

[raz.org.rain]

Hopefully the warmest and driest on record to compensate for this pile of crap excuse of a summer 

[CharlieBear9]

Hopefully no 30+ temperatures like last year. Summer can keep to itself.

[MP-R]

I’m torn between posting in the spring thread or just chatting here until summer actually starts…

[*Stormforce~beka*]

 CharlieBear9 If only Autumn would do the same and seasons were seasons we would all be happier!!

[Frigid]

I hope Autumn is actually an autumn this year, no blistering heat or torrential downpours. The last few autumns have been absolutely dismal.

By month basis, I hope the autumn is like:

September 2015

October 2003

November 2010

Or Autumn 1993 

Perfect 

[stainesbloke]

It’s been one long autumn in the UK, and not the mellow variety we all seem to love! 
This year I’d like: 

A mainly warm, sunny, and settled September.   
A misty and foggy October with plenty of mellow sunshine but with some frost towards the end of the month.  
A more lively November with some Atlantic storms, the first wintry precipitation and some frost and fog in the quieter spells.

[Coldilocks]

 raz.org.rain Hopefully not. The last three autumn were warmer than average and as such the autumn colours were terrible. I'm hoping we get proper autumn colours this year.

[simshady]

Hopefully lots of frost and fog, a few storms and maybe a sprinkling of snow? As long as it's cold I don't mind. 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

can't be doing with autumn, still waiting for summer

[LetItSnow]

I would like periods of genuinely foggy weather. A real pea souper as I think they used to call them. Fog has become exceptionally rare nowadays. It would be great to have a spell of really foggy weather in October and November. Some of the most atmospheric days are those heavy fog days thick enough to produce a dew on branches, like a drizzle, with the smell of autumn in the air. Then sitting down to a cozy meal warm inside your home at the end of the day. Oooooh lovely. 
 

Unfortunately in recent years autumn has just been rain and gales with temperatures between 13C and 21C too much recently.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

Hoping for an autumn that actually feels like autumn for a change. And before anyone assumes, that doesn't mean I want a washout. Mist and fog in the mornings followed by mellow sunshine and seasonal temperatures with chilly nights and frost later on would be perfect. The odd storm here and there would be great too, but again I don't want the whole season to be a washout.

As much as I am disappointed with this year's spring and so far summer, I don't want to be disappointed with autumn either. I don't go by the "this season is unseasonal, so the next one should be also" mentality which often crops up on here. 

It would be great to have a year with all four seasons being seasonal.

Edited July 13, 2024 by Weather Enthusiast91

[al78]

 Seasonal Trim That is such a romanticised view of autumn that I wonder which country it is referring to, because it doesn't fit with my experience of autumns in the UK. Autumn might be better up in Scotland where there is more tree cover and the changing colours are more evident. I have heard September/early October can be a good time to go hiking in the highlands due to the changing colours of the landscape, assuming you don't get 70 mph gales, driving rain and a 200 meter high cloud base.

[al78]

 Weather Enthusiast91 I'd be happy with some old fashioned high frequency variability in the weather, for example the occasional pleasantly warm sunny period being the last gasp of summer, some wet and windy periods blowing the leaves off the trees, the odd polar/Arctic air mass bringing cold overnight temperatures and frosts, and days where a front goes through bringing a few hours of rain with a clearance behind. In other words, a cessation of the monotonic overcast damp conditions we've endured for the last year and a half.

[Met.]

This silly idea of mellow mists, fruitfulness, bright colours etc... sounds like New England, not England or anywhere in the UK. In the UK it's just July a couple degrees cooler with a few more percent cloud and rain.

[Seasonal Trim]

 al78 it's the dream of the perfect Autumn. Highly unlikely in this country of course, but not impossible.

[stainesbloke]

 Met. In recent times, autumn has often been unpleasantly wet and windy but we certainly used to get more seasonal weather. It wouldn’t last forever, of course, but it was much more enjoyable than the crap we get nowadays

[Metwatch]

Dreaming for an autumn 1978 repeat

[stainesbloke]

 Whether Enthusiast91 I agree with your seasonality comments wholeheartedly, my only exception is when we get extended foul weather in high summer. Then I hope for at least a warmer and sunnier September. It really helps counter SAD. 

[LetItSnow]

 Metwatch Entirely possible after the summer of 1978 was unceremoniously cool… It would fit the joker nature of 2024 to have all the nice weather come too late.

I think autumn 2024 will either feature spells of anomalous heat or anomalous cold. 

I’d hate an autumn 1978 repeat as I’m a believer that notable warmth needs to get gone before mid-September. By that point I’m on the lookout for frosts and northerly blasts. 

[B87]

 CharlieBear9 Still waiting for summer to start. Hopefully a scorching and bone dry sunny September to make up for the almost total lack of summer conditions so far.