The North Of England Regional Discussion

[Liam J]

After a few sharp showers around lunchtime the day turned out mainly dry with afternoon sunshine lifting my spirits! A pleasant end to the day with late evening sun.

[Thundery wintry showers]

An impressive shelf cloud to the SW of Cleadon, which has produced some sferics, so have a couple of windows open to see if it produces any thunder as it passes by to the south (a more moderate shower is heading straight for here on the northern flank of the cloud).

[Dom W]

Was very black earlier this evening over Peterlee but no thunder, just a period of moderate rain.

[Cloud 10]

Looking good for some convective action across the region tomorrow with hopefully

some hail and thunder thrown in at some stage.

Very light winds as well,so a small chance of localised flooding in prone areas.

[Liam J]

Looks like Cumbria may escape the heavy showers yet again tomorrow, good job I'm off to Northumberland for the weekend where the potential is much higher for storm development.

Edited April 20, 2012 by Liam J

[damianslaw]

Looks like Cumbria may escape the heavy showers yet again tomorrow, good job I'm off to Northumberland for the weekend where the potential is much higher for storm development.

I think there will be more showers over the county tomorrow, thanks to the winds shifting more to the NW, convection should kick into gear over the fells, western parts of the county will probably be much drier than central, southeastern and eastern parts.

[JP1972]

Had some pretty impressive showers here today, and some of the black clouds were impressive too.

I'm enjoying this showery/wet regime to be honest!

[Thundery wintry showers]

The low pressure has drifted southwards, so Cleadon looks set to be a prime location up until Tuesday for settled, dry, usable weather (of the sort that most in the model output thread are after), with showers restricted to inland areas and the only real complication being the chance of low cloud off the North Sea.

For me, though, the sooner I can get moved inland the better- these sort of setups, with missing out on the convection and being informed by others that I am getting the best of the region's weather, are invariably very frustrating.

[Aaron]

Just stay well away from West Yorkshire. You will be bitterly disappointed.

Edited April 22, 2012 by Aaron

[Thundery wintry showers]

Leeds was pretty good when I came there during September 2005-August 2006. There were some particularly big convective storms on the 12th May 2006, 12th June 2006, 3rd July 2006 and on one day around 20th July 2006 (I can't remember which day exactly). August 2006 then had 4 days with thunder. I also remember numerous "sunshine and showers" type days, especially during the second half of May 2006.

I reckon what you're experiencing is just the luck of the draw. It happens even in the most prone locations- Norwich is normally a very good bet for notable/exciting weather events, but there was a long spell from 30 November 2010 to 27 June 2011 when Norwich seemed to miss out on everything, apart from the heatwaves in April. In recent months Norwich has switched back to getting a large share of notable weather events. Meanwhile 2011 often saw Tyneside get more than its usual share of notable weather events, e.g. lots of thundery activity during 27 June to 18 July and the North Sea influences failed to scupper the late-September heatwave.

But the "winds off the North Sea scuppering convection and/or bringing low cloud" has always been a characteristic of east-coast climates, particularly from Teesside northwards it would seem.

[Terminal Moraine]

We've had more showers so far today than in the whole of Saturday, the last one being the heaviest so far albeit ony brief.

Hopefully it's set the trend for the rest of the day and later there'll be some real downpours with hail and thunder.

[Aaron]

Leeds was pretty good when I came there during September 2005-August 2006. There were some particularly big convective storms on the 12th May 2006, 12th June 2006, 3rd July 2006 and on one day around 20th July 2006 (I can't remember which day exactly). August 2006 then had 4 days with thunder. I also remember numerous "sunshine and showers" type days, especially during the second half of May 2006.

I reckon what you're experiencing is just the luck of the draw. It happens even in the most prone locations- Norwich is normally a very good bet for notable/exciting weather events, but there was a long spell from 30 November 2010 to 27 June 2011 when Norwich seemed to miss out on everything, apart from the heatwaves in April. In recent months Norwich has switched back to getting a large share of notable weather events. Meanwhile 2011 often saw Tyneside get more than its usual share of notable weather events, e.g. lots of thundery activity during 27 June to 18 July and the North Sea influences failed to scupper the late-September heatwave.

But the "winds off the North Sea scuppering convection and/or bringing low cloud" has always been a characteristic of east-coast climates, particularly from Teesside northwards it would seem.

I reckon it's just bad luck too. Compared to most of northern England we usually do quite well for thunderstorms, especially from plumes. I guess what's really irked me is it was the exact same last year too, and I didn't get a thundery shower until May or June (will have to check).

Guess I cannot complain as the weather has hardly been unexciting here this year, we got a 77mph wind gust in January and a 15cm snowfall in February.. payback perhaps!

Ah well, here's hoping summer is better.. hoping we get a repeat of before 2007, when thunderstorms were more common, 2004 being particularly good with 17 in total I believe.

Edited April 22, 2012 by Aaron

[pnepaul]

Rather pleasant in Workington this afternoon. Sunny spells and dry. Not much wind either.

[Alex95]

Just had a fairly distant rumble of thunder - there have been threatening looking clouds to my west all day.

[sunny scunny]

I was hoping to get 100mm of rain this month but it's looking very unlikely after todays non-event.

82mm so far so it's quite a big ask IMO.

[Cloud 10]

Been quite a wet day here under a zone of persistent showers with a bit of hail this morning.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Although it's staying dry along the coastal strip, I can see what looks like a funnel cloud out towards Gateshead- anyone able to confirm?

[reef]

But the "winds off the North Sea scuppering convection and/or bringing low cloud" has always been a characteristic of east-coast climates, particularly from Teesside northwards it would seem.

It has been similar here too, in fact it has been pretty dire to be honest. What we've seen are mostly cloudy days with showers bubbling up but either missing or weakening as they reach here and giving just 1-4mm of rain per day. Theres been nothing in the way of heavy rain, hail or thunder. The best on offer so far was a distant clap of thunder yesterday afternoon. Its has also rained on 20 out of 22 days this month so far.

It has been a remarkably dull April to this point aswell, with only 76 hours of sunshine. We've had much needed rain though, with the month already the wettest since 2000. It'll be a tall order to reach the 132mm to beat that though..

[Aaron]

Same here reef, yesterday we got frequent moderate showers and that was more than the whole of the rest of the month combined. No hail, thunder or lightning here.

This month has 53.3mm of rainfall, which is not far off average. Looks like all this talk of a wet April will not apply here.

Edited April 23, 2012 by Aaron

[Thundery wintry showers]

It's going to be a wet April here in the North East, but mainly because of that sleet-storm near the beginning of the month.

Today has begun, surprisingly, with sunshine and showers here, but the supply of showers in the North Sea is already drying up and it will probably be another day with sunny intervals here and cumulonimbus cells locked out to the west- a similar story tomorrow too, before persistent rain moves in during Wednesday/Thursday, so I can't say that I am particularly looking forward to this week's weather (maybe if I was living in Ireland, where heavy and thundery showers are possible, it might be a different story).

On the other hand it does sound from the above comments as if some parts of Yorkshire have had a similarly disappointing outcome from all the recent showery weather, cloudy with nothing particularly exciting going on. Here in Cleadon we did have a couple of active convective interludes, the hail and sleet showers overnight 14th/15th and some sharp showers including hail on the 21st, so to my surprise I appear to have had more than some.

[AndyFromDonny]

Well it's thoroughly miserable today just outside Leeds, really dark outside yet nothing seems to be happening.

[Aaron]

Rain all afternoon giving 11.9mm.

Coming from someone who likes rain though, I'm not complaining. It's nice to see and hear the rain falling against the windows while you're sitting in the room with the fire on watching TV with a hot cup of tea in your hands..

[sunny scunny]

5.4mm of rain this afternoon and a chance of more showers tomorrow.It definitely makes a change for my area to have a lot of rain and im not complaining

[Love Snow]

Rain all afternoon giving 11.9mm.

Coming from someone who likes rain though, I'm not complaining. It's nice to see and hear the rain falling against the windows while you're sitting in the room with the fire on watching TV with a hot cup of tea in your hands..

Whats the record rainfall in one day for Leeds do you know?

[Aaron]

The highest for Leeds I can find is 87mm in June 2007! So it'll take a lot of rain to beat that.

Edited April 23, 2012 by Aaron