May CET

[kold weather]

What is more intresting is just how much higher can we go in terms of the rainfall, can we beat May 2006 with todays frontal band and the showers that are going to follow?

[The PIT]

Well neteather id down to 12C if you round down. Should lift slightly today and tomorrow so 12.1c anyone???

[ukmoose]

Cricket play has also been disrupted due to SNOW in the past, think it was Mr Holmes that pointed this out the other day, was it 2nd June 1975? Could be wrong about that date though...

I think you are right. The ground under several inches of snow was Buxton where Derbyshire were playing. Lots of photos of the players throwing snowballs rather than cricket balls.

The rest of June that year turned out to be fairly warm though I think, but I could be wrong about that. It was certainly a pretty hot summer though.

Moose

[BLAST FROM THE PAST]

Not too sure if this is the right place to post this question so, apologies if I'm wrong...I remember reading something earlier in the spring something about a polar circulation of some sort changing phase this year, vague memories of it being a thirty odd year cyclical thing (sorry for being so vague, lousy memory); could this have anything to do with the cooler May this year? If so, could our weather cycles be reverting back to how they used to be in the 70's/80's?

Jethro

The only 30 odd year cycle I know that has happened is the El Nino La Nina phase. Since February the perturbation cycle occurred and we enter the La Nina phase [more frequent than El Nino]. Whether this is directly linked I don't know.

Anyway as I mentioned the other day cold is the only way to have described Sun/Mon......what with incredibly warm oceans and all that!!!!!

BFTP

[johnholmes]

I think you are right. The ground under several inches of snow was Buxton where Derbyshire were playing. Lots of photos of the players throwing snowballs rather than cricket balls.

The rest of June that year turned out to be fairly warm though I think, but I could be wrong about that. It was certainly a pretty hot summer though.

Moose

not warm=hot

by the end of the week the temp in many places was 25-27C

here, RAF Finningley for example=11.3max on 3rd after a min of 3.9

by 5th the max was 21.4 rising to 27.5 by 27th. It stayed above 22C until 14th and again 18-27th

mean max=21.2 with absolute of 28.2 on 12th

July and August had similar values with an absolute max of 33.9 on 8th August.

So a hot summer.

Edited May 30, 2007 by johnholmes

[ukmoose]

not warm=hot

by the end of the week the temp in many places was 25-27C

here, RAF Finningley for example=11.3max on 3rd after a min of 3.9

by 5th the max was 21.4 rising to 27.5 by 27th. It stayed above 22C until 14th and again 18-27th

mean max=21.2 with absolute of 28.2 on 12th

July and August had similar values with an absolute max of 33.9 on 8th August.

So a hot summer.

A hot summer indeed. Thanks for that John. The old memory isn't so bad then!

Moose

[damianslaw]

As expected another above average CET month, will this pattern break this year.. i wouldn't put any money on it.

However, i'm pleased that May will not go down as another ridicuously above average month just above which i'm happy about. After the record breaking April, May has certainly felt quite cool but i think had we not had the April we had then the month would have felt much warmer reflecting the actual CET that we are about to record.

[Iceberg]

What interesting is that we've had a month with almost 200% rainfall, record cold days, but it still manages to come in above average.

[snowray]

I wonder if there would have been snow in places like Buxton on Sunday/Monday if it had been 30 or 40 years ago?

What interesting is that we've had a month with almost 200% rainfall, record cold days, but it still manages to come in above average.

yes, a sad reflection realy that with all the PPN and lack of warmth this month we still end up above average, mainly due to high night time temps but even so, what a struggle its been for it not to have ended up exceptionally above average again! <_<

[Weather-history]

not warm=hot

by the end of the week the temp in many places was 25-27C

here, RAF Finningley for example=11.3max on 3rd after a min of 3.9

by 5th the max was 21.4 rising to 27.5 by 27th. It stayed above 22C until 14th and again 18-27th

mean max=21.2 with absolute of 28.2 on 12th

July and August had similar values with an absolute max of 33.9 on 8th August.

So a hot summer.

The effect of the first 4 days of June 1975 was to knock 0.4C off the summer CET.

Take those first 4 days out and the rest of the summer had a CET average of 17.3

It must be the warmest season ever during which snow fell at low levels in the south. A seasonal CET of 16.9 and yet snow was recorded during the same season.

Edited May 30, 2007 by Mr_Data

[VillagePlank]

The effect of the first 4 days of June 1975 was to knock 0.4C off the summer CET.

Take those first 4 days out and the rest of the summer had a CET average of 17.3

It must be the warmest season ever during which snow fell at low levels in the south. A seasonal CET of 16.9 and yet snow was recorded during the same season.

It snowed in Maidstone, on the 4th June (my birthday) once - can't remember the year, though. It was much later than 1975, I guess, because I can remember the event on the news.

EDIT: I think it was 1985?

Edited May 30, 2007 by VillagePlank

[PersianPaladin]

What interesting is that we've had a month with almost 200% rainfall, record cold days, but it still manages to come in above average.

Yep, 0.8 according to Manley, 1.0 according to the Hadley series and 0.75 according to the unofficial net-weather CET.

[The PIT]

Well today isn't going to boost up the aveage much here. A max of 12.2C and a low of 5C. The rainfall from the south has almost died a death so no increase of rainfall amount expected really.

[Stu_London]

Well today isn't going to boost up the aveage much here. A max of 12.2C and a low of 5C. The rainfall from the south has almost died a death so no increase of rainfall amount expected really.

A small drop again overall is the most likely scenario.

[Lettucing Gutted]

We were "lucky" to get this cold spell (if a little brief). It almost never happened. On Sunday 20th May 2007 Countryfile were predicting a Southerly heatwave to come to Britain from the continent. "Luckily", however Countryfile overestimated (for once) the strength of the warm front (and Thermal Ridge) over southern Britain and underestimated the strength of the cold front (and deep low) which was originally positioned to the southeast of Iceland. If that heatwave did happen it would have given us the second warmest May on record if it persisted to the end of the month. That "heatwave" could have been frightening.

Edited May 30, 2007 by Craig Evans

[snowray]

Quite frightening indeed and would have smashed the spring record, gfs were for a few runs showing temps in excess of +30c for many parts of the UK. In fact it is Russia that has had the heat wave and the last time that temps where above 30c for 5 consecutive days in Moscow was around 1870 and its not even Summer yet. Also the Alpine regions and Northern Italy had temps in excess of 30c during May, well above average, only to be replaced by up to half a meter of snow above apx 1000m and temps strugling into double figures..The contrast between Sat and Tues on the Alpine resort cams is quite astounding!

[Joneseye]

Latest Stats from http://www.climate-uk.com

CET: (May 1-30): 11.9°C (+0.7 degC)

E&W Rain: (May 1-30): 117.5mm (198 per cent)

E&W Sun: (May 1-30): 165.8hr ( 85 per cent)

Got a feeling we may have some more rain to add to that total today and push it over the 200 per cent mark.

[Weather-history]

Using Philip's rainfall value as a base, here's the wettest Mays on record since 1776

151.8 1773

142.4 1782

140.7 1967

129.6 1932

129.1 1843

123.1 1886

122.4 1924

121.9 1811

121.5 1869

119.1 1979

117.6 1878

117.5 2007

[Joneseye]

Using Philip's rainfall value as a base, here's the wettest Mays on record since 1776

151.8 1773

142.4 1782

140.7 1967

129.6 1932

129.1 1843

123.1 1886

122.4 1924

121.9 1811

121.5 1869

119.1 1979

117.6 1878

117.5 2007

Looks like this month will move up a couple of notches... Can't see it breaking into the top 5, but maybe above 1886..

[snowray]

Could still go up a fair bit if there are a few beefy thunder storms around later today.

[snowray]

Could still go up a fair bit if there are a few beefy thunder storms around later today.

As for the CET, last nights min temps remained close to double figures in many areas, lowest I'v seen is around 7c so I would expect a small increase today, probably end up dead on 12c for the month.

[Stu_London]

As for the CET, last nights min temps remained close to double figures in many areas, lowest I'v seen is around 7c so I would expect a small increase today, probably end up dead on 12c for the month.

Much depends on whether 11.9 is rounded up or down. To achieve a full 0.1C rise we would need an average of about 15C (or maxes of 21-23C today) - With 17C widely forecast in the CET zone today, I would suggest the most likely outcome is that it remains the same.

[Weather-history]

We'll have to wait and see what the Hadley rainfall value is after they done their quality controls but it looks a possibilty that we could just have had our wettest May since 1967.

[Stu_London]

We'll have to wait and see what the Hadley rainfall value is after they done their quality controls but it looks a possibilty that we could just have had our wettest May since 1967.

All the more remarkable for the complete absense of rain in the first 5 days - the rolling 30 day figure will be interesting on 5th June

[Weather-history]

A sub 10mm month followed by a month with 100mm+ rainfall

1865: Sep 9.5 Oct 168.4

1995: Aug 9.1 Sep 123.3

1781: Oct 8.8 Nov 121.3

2007: Apr 9.3 May 117.5

1788: Dec 8.9 Jan 105.6

1817: Apr 7.9 May 101.4