Summer 2011

[Bottesford]

Doubtful we'll see an April colder than Feb with those stats but cooler certainly possible.

For me it can be northerlies & NWlies for a bulk of the month of April with perhaps some warm sunshine for the bank hols!

[Snowyowl9]

April 1986 was colder than this feb not surprising,not sure about april 1989,this feb may end up at 6.5c

I remember that thunderstorm, came quite unexpectedly and gave a notable dumping of rain. Is there a link to the general lightning archive on wetterzentrale as opposed to just those particular days? Thanks.

I just change the date on the links,it goes back to 2000,but for some reason which I want to see you can`t get 2008 onwards.

That was a better thundery outbreak as it was sunny,to what we had in april 15th,2 years ago as that was dull.

[Weather-history]

Another May 1997 would be very interesting. That had much variety, an early heatwave, a spectacular turnaround with an arctic plunge. It was a pretty thundery month, I remember funnel clouds being reported and there was a notable thunderstorm during the early hours of a Sunday morning here.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I think in some parts of the country May 1997 could lay a strong claim to be the most interesting May of the last 20 years. I certainly remember the strong contrast between a very warm start (albeit not quite as hot as 1990 & 1995) and then the 6th/7th produced the most widespread May snowfalls of the 1990s, and then that very active fortnight convection wise.

In Tyneside unfortunately it was spoilt by a week of North Sea stratus starting around the 16th- which is really the big downside of being near the north-east coast.

[Weather-history]

How many below average (1961-90) Spring months of at least 1.0C have there been since 1987?

April 1989

March 1996

May 1996

Not many!!

[Terminal Moraine]

April 1986 had a fair amount of snow at high levels but in lowland Britain there was a lot of dull sleety type weather marked by consistent rather than outstanding cold- I have doubts.

I certainly wouldn't say "no" to an April like 1981 though!

I'd take April 1981 over 1986 too. Although 1986 was very chilly, the coldest on my 48 years of records, and also had the most days with sleet or snow falling ( 18 ), there was never more than a trace of lying snow and no days had lying snow at 0900. You really needed to be above 450mts to get the full benefit of that April as at that altitude there were about 6 mornings with lying snow.

April 1981 on the other hand, although not as cold overall, produced a memorable blizzard lasting almost 3 days, at the end of the month with 60cm of lying snow on the morning of the 27th and, on the 24th, the latest freezing day I've recorded with a 24hr max' of -0.5c.

[Snowyowl9]

Thats surprising TM there was certainly drifting snow from the east wind on one of the days some big drifts and around 5 or 6 inches then the drifting stopped pretty quick.

Another when there was afternoon snow and then the sun came late afternoon the snow didn`t thaw.

4 or 5inches,I was quite surprised how it wasn`t thawing after.

That was something like this,could be March 1987 but don`t think it was this early.

But it was a NW-ly type,but the wind light.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1987/Rrea00119870319.gif

Just thinking it was later like early april.

So this.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1986/Rrea00119860403.gif

And one more when there was freezing drizzle and there was a snowcover but a slow thaw that morning as that was an that must of been around 3 inches a low and east flow.

Going by your 9am total snowcover.

Looking at april 3rd 2000,6inches blizzards

April 3th upto 9inches blizzards tree uprooted,roads were blocked.

April 5th hard frost slowish thaw.

April 6th would`ve been the final more than 50% cover.

April 11th gave a tempory extra covering.

April 12th Early wet covering.

Drifts until 15th.

1998/2000 was the most april snow I`ve seen.

April 1998 gave a double whammy to 2000.

An april 2000 may just equal or beat april 1981 as there was 2 nights of northern lights one night was outstanding.

Edited February 17, 2011 by Snowyowl9

[Eugene]

An april 2000 may just equal or beat april 1981 as there was 2 nights of northern lights one night was outstanding.

A late April 1981 repeat please, one of the most memorable spell of weather in spring in my lifetime.

[Terminal Moraine]

The first half of April 2000 was certainly cold and wintry but the second half was a complete contrast in that it was very mild, bordering on warm.

We had 9cm of snow on April 3rd/4th and there were 3 mornings with snow lying at 0900, compared to 6 in 1981.

The mean max' and min' for the first 17 days of April 2000 was 6.6c and 1.1c respectively, if this had been maintained to the end of the month it would have been even colder than in 1986. The last 13 days however gave a mean max' and min' of 12.5c and 6.1c, not far off the warmth of 2007.

[Snowyowl9]

A late April 1981 repeat please, one of the most memorable spell of weather in spring in my lifetime.

I don`t remember april 1981.

I`ll take the northern lights first over a blizzard.

Thanks TM interesting.

[Eugene]

I hardly remember it either being too young but read this and you'll see what a classic spell of weather it was.

It was quite sunny in the first half, particularly in the north. In some places it was the warmest first half of April for twenty years, but the second half as the coldest of the century; hence temperatures overall were not too far off average. It was cloudier at times in the south, with some rain. Thunderstorms gave 83.6 mm of rain at Horsham on the 14th, leading to severe flooding. 86 mm of rain fell at Horsham (Sussex) on the 14th. Around Easter most of the country was cloudless. Cold weather came south from the Arctic on Easter Monday, the 20th, as northerly winds set in. Then very cold air swept south on the 22nd, interacting with a complex low moving east across the Midlands to bring snow. It was -11C at Dalwhinnie (Highland) on the night of the 23rd. There was a maximum of only 1C at Leeming (Yorks.) and Nottingham on the 24th. There was a great blizzard with thunder on the 24th and 26th; particularly affecting the Pennines, the west, southwest, and even Salisbury Plain and the Cotswolds. Thunder and northerly winds of 40 mph. There was 20 cm of snow on the night of the 25th across southern and western England and Wales: 66 cm was reported in Gloucestershire. Level snow of 60 cm around the Peak District with 20' drifts reported. The snow was wet and drifted in very strong winds: 20' high drifts were recorded in Derbyshire and Staffordshire. The Snake Pass in Derbyshire was closed because of the risk of an avalanche. There was widespread disruption to power supplies, farming (particularly on Dartmoor), particularly livestock, and traffic. The thaw led to serious flooding in the Midlands, in some places the worst since 1947. Hence this month just shaves it as the most interesting April for weather of the century.

[Snowyowl9]

Yes I`ve seen that site,no doubt it goes down as the best blizzard so late in the year.

As TM temps shows coldest day so late in the month.

Looking at the charts though the strongest winds just missed here until the low left.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1981/Rrea00119810424.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1981/Rrea00119810425.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1981/Rrea00119810426.gif

April 2000 just shows how potent that was,and looking at the first half of the month going by TM`s temps.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/2000/Rrea00120000403.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/2000/Rrea00120000404.gif

Mum and remember very heavy snow and thunder and lightning one march either 1979 or april it could`ve been 1981.

Maybe all this talk of snow we`ll get some this spring.

Edited February 17, 2011 by Snowyowl9

[conor123]

I'll be mortified if we have any snow after 21st March here, it's certainly not welcome to me, its had its chance in January and February and failed so i certainly don't want any snow ruining the time of year i want to be going on walks, camping and just being outdoors in general.

[damianslaw]

How many below average (1961-90) Spring months of at least 1.0C have there been since 1987?

April 1989

March 1996

May 1996

Not many!!

March 2006 was on course to be a particularly cold one, however, the last 7 days saw a signficant change to very mild weather thus preventing a very cold CET value.

I'm quite surprised months like Mar 01, Apr 98 and 00 don't feature on this list, each one having notable very cold spells..

Last May had potential to be a particularly cold month, but it saw that major very warm spell later in the month. Indeed it ranks alongside May 97 as being our most 'extreme' May for a long time in terms of swings from very cold to very warm weather.

Its been a long time since we saw a notably chilly April, we're due one, could Apr 11 be the one?

[Snowyowl9]

Well 1998 was the heaviest late snow and blizzard I`ve seen at 9 inches again.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1998/Rrea00119980415.gif

Watch out with that mountain walk.

1997 also gave the most may snow I`ve seen.

Edited February 17, 2011 by Snowyowl9

[Thundery wintry showers]

March 2006 was on course to be a particularly cold one, however, the last 7 days saw a signficant change to very mild weather thus preventing a very cold CET value.

I'm quite surprised months like Mar 01, Apr 98 and 00 don't feature on this list, each one having notable very cold spells..

Last May had potential to be a particularly cold month, but it saw that major very warm spell later in the month. Indeed it ranks alongside May 97 as being our most 'extreme' May for a long time in terms of swings from very cold to very warm weather.

Its been a long time since we saw a notably chilly April, we're due one, could Apr 11 be the one?

Terminal Moraine mentioned the frequent southerly winds in the second half of April 2000, which cancelled out the frequent north-easterlies in the first half. It was a similar story in April 1998- after the exceptionally cold spell on the 9th-16th, warm southerlies blew frequently during the remainder of the month.

March 2001 featured a north-south split- the south had a lot of dull wet weather with cold days and warm nights, while in the meantime the north often had sunny spells, wintry showers and sharp night frosts. I'm pretty certain that the relatively high minima in the southern half of the CET zone will be what prevented the figure from getting particularly low. At Durham the mean temperature was 1.2C below the 1961-90 average.

[Bottesford]

Its been a long time since we saw a notably chilly April, we're due one, could Apr 11 be the one?

Maybe but the welcome it gets from me (& many others I think) depends what sort of synoptics we're talking about.

An Arctic feed with clear skies day & night would be welcomed - as would some disturbances in the flow leading to convective wintry showers. We could get a very low CET that way but still feel very spring like with all the sunshine.

However we could easily get a low CET from a dull easterly too where sunshine is non existent as is any 'weather' bar drizzle and a raw wind.

So anyone hoping for a cold April be careful what you wish for!

[Snowyowl9]

April 1998 was the wettest since 1818 and 2000 gave the worst april floods in centuries all the snow melt from those 2 months from the hills of Wales flooded the midlands out.

Remember it was cold and wet before that snow came,april 1998 alone gave more snow here than this winter.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Maybe but the welcome it gets from me (& many others I think) depends what sort of synoptics we're talking about.

An Arctic feed with clear skies day & night would be welcomed - as would some disturbances in the flow leading to convective wintry showers. We could get a very low CET that way but still feel very spring like with all the sunshine.

However we could easily get a low CET from a dull easterly too where sunshine is non existent as is any 'weather' bar drizzle and a raw wind.

So anyone hoping for a cold April be careful what you wish for!

Agreed- I don't like the sound of April 1986 for instance (as discussed above) or April 1966, which did have a couple of widespread snow events but for most of the time was grey with easterly winds.

On the other hand I would certainly welcome a cold April characterised by frequent setups of the kind we had during 18-21 April 1995, 13-18 April 1999, 3-9 April 2006 and 6-15 April 2008- basically sunny with sharp wintry showers and occasional thunder in places- or indeed a dry and sunny but cool one. Oddly I can't find many examples of such Aprils in the archives (April 1951 is one, but it was a long time ago) yet there have been many such Marches, Mays and even Junes.

[Snowyowl9]

How exceptional was april 2000 the more I think looking at this site we`ve lived through the 2nd wettest april on record.

http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/climate/1750_1799.htm

How far did records like this go back around,as this site goes into highly extreme weather territory even TM wouldn`t want to see famine floods droughts extreme winters as we head into 1000BC etc.

Edited February 18, 2011 by Snowyowl9

[Weather-history]

How exceptional was april 2000 the more I think looking at this site we`ve lived through the 2nd wettest april on record.

April 2000 is the wettest April on record for England and Wales.

There have been only 15 Aprils that have averaged 100mm or over and 3 of them occurred within 4 years: 1998, 2000, 2001

[Terminal Moraine]

April 2000 is the wettest April on record for England and Wales.

There have been only 15 Aprils that have averaged 100mm or over and 3 of them occurred within 4 years: 1998, 2000, 2001

April 2000 was also very dull. I recorded only 75.5 hrs sunshine that month although several Aprils have run it close. 1989 had 83.4hrs, 2001 had 82.7 hrs and 2008 recorded 81.3 hrs.

[Weather-history]

Any takers for spring 1837?

March: 2.3

April: 4.7

May: 9.9

2nd half of March: 1.5

1st half of April 2.9

Mid March-mid April a CET of just 2.1

[Milhouse]

Any takers for spring 1837?

A resounding NO!

[reef]

Any takers for spring 1837?

March: 2.3

April: 4.7

May: 9.9

2nd half of March: 1.5

1st half of April 2.9

Mid March-mid April a CET of just 2.1

It'd certainly be interesting for novelty value. With only 3 below average springs in 23 years it'd be good to see the form book turned on its head in style (much like Dec 2010 and a sub-zero month). What a spring that must have been, at 5.63C it was colder than Winter 2006/07 and equal to 2007/08. It must have felt very strange when followed by that 15.5C June and 16.9C July. It also came after a run of 19 years without a spring 1C below average. The following winter was bitter aswell.

I imagine many on here would be pretty unhappy with a spring like that, though it was rather dry with only 117.5mm - less than anything we've had since 1990.