Spring 2016

[Costa Del Fal]

Satellite clearly showing the best sunshine across Cornwall, Devon, West Midlands, West Wales and pets of NW England right now. Great warmth off that sun now with little breeze.

[Milhouse]

Not bad temperatures at all considering upper air temps are -3c for most of the UK.

[reef]

3 hours ago, Summer Sun said:

Provisional figures up until 28 March show that most of England has had a wetter than average March but parts of Scotland have been much drier than average. In this topsy-turvy set up, figures also show that the north of the UK enjoyed warmer than average conditions for the first month of Spring.

http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2016/03/31/topsy-turvy-spell-for-the-first-month-of-spring/

Its actually turned out to be the 5th wettest March in the last 50 years here with 78.6mm, which is quite strange since we had a 14 day period in the middle when only 0.8mm fell.

[Weather-history]

The sun sets on March 2016

 

[summer blizzard]

17 hours ago, Weather-history said:

The sun sets on March 2016

 

Mr Data. I was wondering if you have the data for the first 20C and 25C since say 2011.

[Weather-history]

On 1 April 2016 at 2:09 PM, summer blizzard said:

Mr Data. I was wondering if you have the data for the first 20C and 25C since say 2011.

14th April, 6th June 2013

16th March, 19th May 2014

5th April, 15th April 2015

I think

 

[Milhouse]

Now that skies have cleared its turned into a glorious afternoon with temps pushing 14c. Hopefully the FI charts from the GFS that are showing a S/SE flow will materialise.

[wishingforsnow]

On 28 March 2016 at 8:53 PM, Costa Del Fal said:

NOAA's very recent update seems to suggest it will be late summer or even Autumn until La Niña kicks in. Neutral conditions at least more likely for early summer.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf

This is what I was thinking too as I have read in other recent articles that La Nina could kick in August at the earliest as this current El Nino has been quite strong but maybe it won't break the 1998 record after all. As opposed to say 2007/2012 which had a weaker El Nino preceding a La Nina in place by mid/late Spring and early Summer hence all the wet weather during the summer months of those years. If La Nina materialises then it would mean another poor August I suppose but if ENSO neutral conditions preceding it provided the UK with decent spells of summer weather beforehand during May-June-July I wouldn't be too bothered 

 

Strange March 2016 stats though, I thought it didn't feel like a very wet March in the South due to long periods of High Pressure and hazy/light cloud with occasional sunshine.

Edited April 2, 2016 by wishingforsnow

[Summer Sun]

18.1c recorded at Writtle in Essex the warmest day of the year so far for England

Edited April 12, 2016 by Summer Sun

[Milhouse]

About time that some parts saw some decent Spring warmth. Its been a slow start to the season. Im thankful for the mild winter to give nature a head start otherwise the countryside would be looking rather bare.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

26 minutes ago, Milhouse said:

About time that some parts saw some decent Spring warmth. Its been a slow start to the season. Im thankful for the mild winter to give nature a head start otherwise the countryside would be looking rather bare.

agree there, been decent here though, light winds sunnyish, tomorrow okay as well, then after bleeurgh

[cheese]

33 minutes ago, Milhouse said:

About time that some parts saw some decent Spring warmth. Its been a slow start to the season. Im thankful for the mild winter to give nature a head start otherwise the countryside would be looking rather bare.

Are you kidding me? The trees have taken ages to get going this year - well behind on last year and previous years. The mild winter has done nothing to kick-start spring growth.

[Milhouse]

15 minutes ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

agree there, been decent here though, light winds sunnyish, tomorrow okay as well, then after bleeurgh

I often judge the recent conditions by how full the bird bath is and its pretty full now. Some dry weather looks in the offing next week though so hopefully it remains that way.

[knocker]

 

[March]

3 hours ago, Summer Sun said:

18.1c recorded at Writtle in Essex the warmest day of the year so far for England

Bloody London and the South Coast got lots of sunshine today. Only 50 miles north we hung on to cloud and I only reached 14.8C. 

[Milhouse]

3 hours ago, cheese said:

Are you kidding me? The trees have taken ages to get going this year - well behind on last year and previous years. The mild winter has done nothing to kick-start spring growth.

The daffs were very early round here and that's got to be thanks to the mild winter. The unfurling of leaves and the tulips do seem to be behind last year though as the progression of Spring growth has slowed since it turned cooler late February.

[4wd]

Definitely a rather late season now here.

Wild daffodils are more consistent and are mainly open now whereas in mild springs e.g. 2012 it can be mid-March.
Hawthorn did start to break early but it's still the only tree/bush with any green.

Hardly surprising when highest temperature of the year so far is only 12.8C on 24th January.
It is quite annoying to hear 'media' constanty going on about how mild it has been and how early things are, when as usual it's mainly only the south.

Edited April 13, 2016 by 4wd

[cheese]

11 hours ago, Milhouse said:

The daffs were very early round here and that's got to be thanks to the mild winter. The unfurling of leaves and the tulips do seem to be behind last year though as the progression of Spring growth has slowed since it turned cooler late February.

Oh sure - we even had some blossoming trees in February - but that's about it, and those trees that did blossom in February put on a rather weak show and they're now green.

The magnolias don't even look as pink as they usually do.

[MP-R]

I think a lot can be said for sunshine levels - temperatures through March last year were fairly similar to this year, and February was colder than this year, off the back of a colder winter. Last spring was, however, also sunnier up to this point and more spring growth was evident. The trees really got going in the first two weeks in April which were largely sunny (and mostly warm). I bet if we had a week of mild-warm sunshine or even just sunshine we'd see a notable progression in tree leaf.

[4wd]

Last year the swallows were here on the 10th - the very idea this year, it's still more like January.
Well actually it's colder than most of January ...

[Summer Sun]

Warmest day of the year so far for England with 18.2c recorded at St James's Park, Central London

Edited April 13, 2016 by Summer Sun

[Summer Sun]

Warmest day of the year so far for both England and Wales

18.6c at Heathrow and 16.9C in Cardiff

Edited April 13, 2016 by Summer Sun

[damianslaw]

After very early signs of spring growth back in January, things have slowed somewhat to something much closer to average, thanks to a relatively cool/average spell of weather for 2 months now, with limited sunshine in the main. 

Nearing half way stage of spring and so far its been very average here, temps only slighter higher than normal in March, but a little below so far this month, mainly due to cool maxima than minima, rainfall very near average, sunshine levels a little below. Rest of the month looking nothing special neither. So after the silly mild of Nov-Jan there has been a redress and we are back to normal conditions now, ground is still saturated mind after the record rainfall amounts during Nov-Dec, I really don't want to experience a similiar 2 month period again, we thought winter 13/14 was bad..

Edited April 13, 2016 by damianslaw

[mountain shadow]

6 hours ago, Summer Sun said:

Warmest day of the year so far for England with 18.2c recorded at St James's Park, Central London

Seems like a different world to here we've struggled to get North of ten degrees all Spring.

[4wd]

12.8C on 24th January is still our warmest.

It's unusual for March not to manage the odd day in high teens.