Fed Up With Overcast, Rain And Cold?

[Village]

I dont know about you, but I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of grey, overcast, cold and rain.

I live in southeast Essex and its been raining this morning, it rained over night, it rained on and off yesterday, it rained heavily on Friday, it rained heavilly all day thursday, it was torrential rain and thunder on wednesday night, it was overcast and rained on wednesday, it rained Tuesday, it rained continually all of last weekend....I havent seen the sun for more than a week. This last month of April it has rained every day...the temperature here at the moment is colder than a January or December day...its 7C and almost midday in May.

All our reservoirs here are full up, the rivers are in flood. Roads are flooded. But the persistent cold, cold and more cold is really boring now.

We have had four cold to cool summers with rain and very little sunshine. I have never known such a long run of cold cloudy years in all my life.

I never want to hear the BBC or the Met Office repeat the nonsense about global warming ever again. Its not warm, its not getting warmer, this last decade has become colder, colder and more and more cloudy. I have just booked a flight from Southend airport to get me the hell out of here for the next three days just to get some sunshine and warmth.

Am I the only one to feel that its actually become colder in this country since the 1990's?

Who else is fed up with this and needs a break?

Edited May 6, 2012 by Village

[Aaron]

No, I don't let the weather affect me that much. Christ all mighty.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Over the UK as a whole, 2011 was one of the top 5 warmest years on record.

2006 and 2007 both broke records. 2006 was the warmest calendar year on record and 2007 was about as warm in parts of Scotland and NE England.

2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 were all somewhat on the warm side.

The only cooler-than-average calendar year using the 1961-90 reference period since 1996 was in 2010. Before 1996, we had 1991 and 1993.

Remember also that global warming does not mean drier and sunnier weather, it just means that the average temperature rises. A cool wet April, plus 0.5C of global warming, will still be cool and wet, just a little less cool than it would have been had the same synoptics occurred in the 1980s.

I can see, however, how impressionable members of the general public might think it has cooled since the 1990s since the summers have got considerably cloudier and wetter since the anomalously dry sunny 1990s and we've had a couple of fairly cool summers (2007 and 2011) recently, and we had three successive cold snowy winters (to varying degrees) in 2008/9, 2009/10 and 2010/11. However, those factors have been more than offset by a succession of exceptionally warm springs and autumns.

[Village]

None of that has any relationship to my experience here in Essex. I have been watching and studying the weather here for thirty five years and it is colder now than the last decades of the 1990's. Its not warmer. Its colder and we havent been breaking maximum temperatures. We have been breaking record cold temperatures regularly for the last five years. Something is wrong with your data. this is why you have had to go back six years to find one warm year.

In the last two years we have had more months with below average temperatures than above. Please go and check.

Edited May 6, 2012 by Village

[Thundery wintry showers]

I suggest that it isn't me that needs to check my data I'm afraid. Maybe a case of someone else needing to peek beyond a comforting wall of "global warming is a myth" confirmation bias? I could point you to April 2007, April 2011, late September/early October 2011.

[Village]

You are just being selective with your months and only picked the one or two warmest but you are deliberately ignoring the majority of months that have been below average. Please check again and you will see.

Meanwhile, the Met Office just anounced a record breaking minus 6 Centigrade below freezing last night. They also forecast hill snow for the north of the UK for the next three days. Meanwhile, here in the southeast they have predicted cloud and heavy rain every day next week from a series of low pressure systems one after the other with more flooding.

Edited May 6, 2012 by Village

[MP-R]

I think it would be fair to say that there have been a pretty equal share of warmer and cooler months, just most of them have come at the wrong time of the year. 2007 was supposedly a very warm year, but most likely because of high minima during the winter and summer and a very warm April. 2011 was a warm year, largely because of the anomously warm March and April then last week of September into October, this mildness continuing into November and December. On both accounts, summer was never blessed with such warmth.

I would however agree that our weather has become cloudier, which can say a lot where temperature and feel are concerned.

[Village]

Thankyou Miguel, I dont want members to get hung up with the same old global warming theories.

This thread is about the awful cold, cloudy wet weather which has been ongoing for weeks and I am sick to the back teeth of it.

Certainly it has been very bad down here in the south and southeast in particular. the week ahead is forecast to be equally bad. there must be many others who are fed up with the terrible winter weather we have been having too.

Edited May 6, 2012 by Village

[Bottesford]

I am certainly with you on being sick to the back teeth of all this cold, damp and sunless weather. Today is the first usable weekend day since March and am having to cram all my outdoors jobs into it!

My garden is really struggling to grow, birds are loosing nests/chicks due to cold or flooding, the heating is still having to be used, I'm getting soaked all the time going to work and my bike is falling to bits having to sit in the rain all day (finally had chance to fix it today with this rare dry, sunny-ish day). This poor weather is really having a negative effect on my mood as it is making day to day activity harder and more restrictive. Everyone is moaning about the dreadful weather as well - I've not heard a single person happy or enjoying it bar the odd one on this forum.

A change can't come soon enough!

The long term stuff- I disagree about it getting colder overall - we've had many above average months its just that they've fallen in autumn & winter mostly with the cooler ones in summer. What I think has happened is a distinct lack of high maxima with averages brought up by cloudy warmer nights leading into unimpressive cloudy days. The last few summers have featured a lot of that and cloud seems to be a constant problem in the warmer months. In contrast winter was very sunny here and so was March. But bang on cue as we move into the warmer months in comes the cloud and rain...

[Richard2901]

Yes, I am sick fed up of it. The last 12 months have been absolutely dire for warmth and fine weather.

Mean temperature is a poor indication of warmth to me. 2007 and 2011 were poor years for warmth because the positive anomalies were largely due to mild nights and mildness during the cold half of the year with exceptionally bad summers. 2010 saw much more in the way of warm weather, despite the mean temp being 1.3C lower, as the negative anomaly was largely caused by very cold winter months with a much warmer (though still just average) summer than 2007 and 2011.

Last May saw the lowest monthly max since 1983 then the summer was dismally cool, dull and wet with day after day of below average temperatures and a record breaking run of sub-70F days. We didn't see any warmth until late September when it conveniently broke down in time to make 1st/2nd October one of the vilest weekends of the whole year.

So far this year even worse. Every day since the 12th April has recorded below average maxima and despite it being into May we are still enduring day after day of single figure maxes. Even sunny days are only recording single figure maxes. April was the dullest since 1941 with a record 26 days of rain and May looks like turning out barely any better.

Since the 10th April the warmest temperature I've recorded has been just 11.5C. Today it's cloudy and 7.8C at noon and I can't see any sign of above average temperatures in the coming week. It looks as though I'll go a full month without even seeing 12C which would be unprecedented, as far as I'm aware, this late in the spring.

It's depressing to think it's only 6 weeks that the nights start getting darker when there has not been one remotely decent evening in the past 5 weeks where you can go outside and benefit from the light evenings.

[ohno]

Last years summer was the coldest for almost 20 years... Recently the weather has been poor.. Thats why you get the smiling weather forcasters bringing out stastics for how warm its been..Like on christmas day 2011 it was 15c in Aberdeen now its 7c...

I think most of us have been disappointed of the recent summers.. Even if its been dry for months on end the summers have been equally poor..

[Harve]

You live in a small corner of an island that covers a very small part of the globe. Even if we were to pretend the rest of the world didn't exist, as TWS shows it's been getting warmer when considering years as a whole. Of course, there's very little preventing record-breakingly low temperatures occurring in the warmest of years: all that requires is a few days of cold. Record-breaking cold temperatures have never been counter-evidence to overall temperature rises.

You're also fallaciously equivocating warmth to settled weather.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I was addressing the part of the post that claimed that the BBC/Met Office shouldn't repeat the global warming "nonsense" and that Britiain is getting colder. The assessment of whether or not we're having global warming is the trend in the average global temperature. Similarly, the assessment of whether Britain (or Essex) is warming or cooling is dependent on the trend in the average temperature, which is still upward (one cold blip in 2010 won't signify a reversal of the trend unless we get some more cold years). However, our summers have certainly got cloudier and wetter and a bit cooler since the 1990s, and especially from 2007 onwards, which, combined with three snowy winters, has contributed to a popular misconception that our climate is getting colder.

April certainly turned out to be a dull cool wet month, with the homogeneity perhaps adding to the general depression (a month with a similar mean temperature derived from a couple of potent cold spells and some warmer interludes would at least have boasted some warmer interludes). However, we must bear in mind that the period September 2011-March 2012 was exceptionally dry over most of England and that March 2012 was one of the warmest, driest and sunniest Marches on record, assisted by that phenomenal summer-like spell during the last third of the month. April 2012 was perhaps a sharp correction, similar to the way the summer drought in 1976 was followed by record-breaking September rainfall, and September 1995 also began exceptionally wet in eastern Scotland.

It's also worth noting that sunshine totals during the first half of April were close to average whereas the second half was exceptionally dull- perceptions of a period of weather are often skewed towards the latter part of the period.

[Polar Maritime]

I must say i do agree with Village. The last 3/4 years we have had very bland boring weather patterns over the UK during the summer months. But some nice cold winters.

Lots of cloud and dull wet weather, nothing like the 90's. I work outside for a living, and most of the jobs i do i need dry weather, so far this year i have had to take more days off than what i have worked, very depressing on the wallet and boring to when im sat at home wishing for a dry day.

Im no expert on solar activity, im learning every day. But i realy do believe it's down to sunspot activity coursing more cloud in the northern hemisphere, and lowering the cloud base.

And there is evidence of this effect.

Edited May 6, 2012 by Polar Maritime

[Aaron]

I just don't know what people expect.. you must move abroad for reliable sunshine, you are not going to find it anywhere in the UK.

[Polar Maritime]

I just don't know what people expect.. you must move abroad for reliable sunshine, you are not going to find it anywhere in the UK.

I expect less cloud, cold and wet weather for the uk. But yes sunshine would be more reliable in Spain.

Sunshine hours for my location.

Feb - 45.25hrs

March - 162.30hrs

April - 81.64hrs

May so far - 7.18hrs

Edited May 6, 2012 by Polar Maritime

[Milhouse]

I just don't know what people expect.. you must move abroad for reliable sunshine, you are not going to find it anywhere in the UK.

I do agree that the lovely March will have raised peoples expectations but we have just experienced what i would regard as the coldest and dullest April i can ever remember and May has started off just the same way. Apart from the nice day on the 30th April, you have to go back 5 weeks for the last day that was pleasant enough to go out in the garden and for it to be guaranteed to stay dry. that is just not normal Spring weather in my opinion. It would have been alright if we had had some traditional sunshine and April showers situations but its just been persistent cloud/rain on so many days.

For the majority of people i would expect that its much easier in Winter to carry on regardless of what the weathers doing, be it mild/sunny/wet or windy. Thats because there is so little need to be outdoors during the winter and also because its dark a lot of the time so you'd be most likely to be keeping warm indoors. I, and i'm sure many others, crave the longer days and warmer temperatures to get out and enjoy the outdoors so when they fail to arrive it comes as a disappointment.

[Terminal Moraine]

I dont know about you, but I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of grey, overcast, cold and rain.

I live in southeast Essex and its been raining this morning, it rained over night, it rained on and off yesterday, it rained heavily on Friday, it rained heavilly all day thursday, it was torrential rain and thunder on wednesday night, it was overcast and rained on wednesday, it rained Tuesday, it rained continually all of last weekend....I havent seen the sun for more than a week. This last month of April it has rained every day...the temperature here at the moment is colder than a January or December day...its 7C and almost midday in May.

All our reservoirs here are full up, the rivers are in flood. Roads are flooded. But the persistent cold, cold and more cold is really boring now.

We have had four cold to cool summers with rain and very little sunshine. I have never known such a long run of cold cloudy years in all my life.

I never want to hear the BBC or the Met Office repeat the nonsense about global warming ever again. Its not warm, its not getting warmer, this last decade has become colder, colder and more and more cloudy. I have just booked a flight from Southend airport to get me the hell out of here for the next three days just to get some sunshine and warmth.

Am I the only one to feel that its actually become colder in this country since the 1990's?

Who else is fed up with this and needs a break?

No I'm not fed up at all of the cold and wet, I embrace it and wish it would continue as, contrary to most, I find warmth and sunshine as tedious and irritating as you find the current spell of weather.

You make some very broad generalisations regarding global warmning based only on your own very parochial experience. It may well have become slightly cooler in Britain over the last few years but then again the period between about 1990 and 2003 was anomalously warm even in recent times.

It's quite possible to have global warming and a cooling climate in Britain as a whole, or even the whole of north west Europe, let alone your little corner of Essex.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Philip Eden had England and Wales sunshine totals at 29% of average for the 1st-5th May- that's even duller than it was during the wet conditions in the last third of April! In Tyneside there was only a couple of hours' worth of sunshine during the first four days but yesterday was much brighter.

April 2012, averaged over England and Wales, was the dullest since 1998, but April 1998's sunshine shortage was concentrated towards the south-east whereas in April 2012 eastern Scotland and north-east England had the largest shortages, plus parts of Wales, making it the dullest for much longer in those regions. We did have a fair amount of sunshine-and-showers type weather during the second week of April but after midmonth the Atlantic fronts piled in and frequently gave us grey skies and persistent rain.

[Bottesford]

For the majority of people i would expect that its much easier in Winter to carry on regardless of what the weathers doing, be it mild/sunny/wet or windy. Thats because there is so little need to be outdoors during the winter and also because its dark a lot of the time so you'd be most likely to be keeping warm indoors. I, and i'm sure many others, crave the longer days and warmer temperatures to get out and enjoy the outdoors so when they fail to arrive it comes as a disappointment.

Yes absolutely - for the majority of people the weather is most important April-August gradually falling off to almost irrelevant in November to January. Certainly not the case on this forum of course but to most people winter weather is only really relevant if snow or extreme cold prevent them getting to places. If it rains a lot, flooding aside, it just doesn't matter as you're inside filling your belly with stews and rich puddings anyway.

During spring and summer the weather can make or break peoples holidays, sporting events, weddings, school carnivals or even just their weekend. For this reason I am much more interested in the weather once late March-September than I am in November. If we could have the majority of our wet & overcast weather in winter most people would prefer it - except on this forum of course!

[Thundery wintry showers]

In fairness I think most on this forum also prefer a majority of the overcast wet weather to occur in winter. During the past few summers the model output thread was dominated by discussions of when the next sustained settled spell would be (and not just from Gavin D). There are numerous members who (like me- lol) prefer to have a fair amount of convective/thundery activity thrown in and groan inwardly at the sort of dry, partly cloudy, usable weather that we get via ridging from a large Azores High, but even here, such convective rainfall tends to be heavy and short-lived with sunshine in between, particularly when associated with southerly incursions and/or polar maritime airmasses.

That said the proportion of "winter lovers" on this forum (as is also characteristic of most other weather forums to be fair) certainly is anomalous. I do know some non-weather-enthusiasts in the outside world who prefer winter to summer, but they are somewhat outnumbered.

The weather does look like becoming rather more "normal" rainfall and sunshine wise over the coming weeks, but any spell similar to what we had in late March is looking unlikely for the foreseeable future.

[Nick L]

It's cold in my tiny part of the world, therefore global warming isn't happening!

[Alex]

I'm sick of it too and I live in Essex but I think perceptions play a big part here. Firstly we live in a dry part of the country so having a very wet April is probably worst in the southeast rather than other places. Secondly I disagree with some of your comments village I too live near Chelmsford and the extremes have become more extreme, for example April 2007 was very warm then we had a a very wet summer, 2008 followed with a cold April, 2009 had a very cold winter into 2010 then we had a decent July which sits in the top 10 for warmth. 2011 had a barmy April and very dry spring which turned into a wet summer. Autumn was very warm with a heatwave in October which was followed by a mild very dry winter period then we get a very wet cold April.

What annoys me the most though is the reversal on the models of what was showing yesterday I just Want some sun and dry weather, surely it's not too much to ask!?!?

[Aaron]

It's cold in my tiny part of the world, therefore global warming isn't happening!

Global warming is irrelevant to me - I don't care if it's getting warmer in Baffin Island, Canada. I'm sure the people of Alaska who have endured a very cold winter don't give two flying craps either.

Edited May 6, 2012 by Aaron

[I remember Atlantic 252]

I just cant understand why frontal rain bands (for here the NW midlands) are nearly always timed for the day, other areas eg, Ireland seem to get their rain at night, or if it comes up from south, S England is dry by morning