Spring and Summer weather moans

[Frost HoIIow]

Fantastic day here in NW England. Bang on 20C and no cloud in the sky almost all day. Perfect conditions. Not far off peak sun strength too from late May to late July....good for getting that vitamin D topped up.

[NEVES SCREAMER]

In Wolverhampton now. Temp peaked at a respectable 73f earlier. Another 5 months of this will be very pleasant.

[stainesbloke]

Just now, NEVES SCREAMER said:

In Wolverhampton now. Temp peaked at a respectable 73f earlier. Another 5 months of this will be very pleasant.

Yes, been a run of warm days here with temperatures between 21-27°C, that’d be lovely until mid October

[Summer8906]

While it would be nice to get storms I'm not so happy about the timing of the breakdown -  arriving perhaps two days earlier than anticipated. Had expected a fine weekend but the breakdown is already arriving here with increasing cloud. A few days ago Sunday looked dead-cert for a fine day with the breakdown only arriving on Monday.

Had made plans to go for a walk tomorrow so hoping it's not going to be miserable hazy, humid clag with near 100% mid level cloud and visibility of only about 5 miles. Wishing I had gone out today... second time recently I chose the "wrong" day to go out at the weekend, two weeks ago of course Saturday was much the best day, Sunday rubbish and Monday "ok" but not great.

 

Edited May 14, 2022 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

On 10/05/2022 at 19:30, al78 said:

Last spring wasn't warm. April 2021 was the frostiest for nearly a century, and had more frosts than an average winter month, thanks to a blocking high to our NW.

Yes that's true, but it is very much the exception, is doesn't seem to be typical to have sustained cold in spring nowadays. The only time of year where sustained cool (during the day, not the night) is not uncommon is high summer - particularly August.

On 10/05/2022 at 19:30, al78 said:

We did have some colder weather in January this year as well as the end of March/early April.

True but in the case of January it was not at all potent (perhaps 7 or 8C during the day) and at late March/early April very transient.

Edited May 14, 2022 by Summer8906

[al78]

Can't complain about the quality of the weather today but still really need some decent rain which is forecast to arrive early tomorrow morning. I can complain about my brassica transplants starting to get wrecked a week after I planted them out despite putting down slug nematodes and copper rings. I'm now wondering if it is worth keeping the allotment after this year if gardening is now going to be a relentless slog against blocked weather patterns and pests every damned year. Not worth it spending £££ and putting in hours of work to get bugger all out of it.

[SunSean]

I have a confession. I believe i am the reason that summer 2021 in the South East was bad and also the reason we are getting a dull cloudy and rainy day tomorrow. Reason being, i planned to do an oldskool Trance themed party last week for this Sunday when the forecast said there was going to be a number of sunny days in a row. Last year, i planned on 4 separate occasions to do that same oldskool Trance party but cancelled all 4 times because of horrific dull and wet weather. So it seems, every time i plan this damn party, the weather turns to garbage lol. I wont be cancelling it this time though so we should get much better weather this summer now that i dont have to plan this thing anymore haha. Something out there hates Trance music lol.

[stainesbloke]

2 hours ago, al78 said:

Can't complain about the quality of the weather today but still really need some decent rain which is forecast to arrive early tomorrow morning. I can complain about my brassica transplants starting to get wrecked a week after I planted them out despite putting down slug nematodes and copper rings. I'm now wondering if it is worth keeping the allotment after this year if gardening is now going to be a relentless slog against blocked weather patterns and pests every damned year. Not worth it spending £££ and putting in hours of work to get bugger all out of it.

Is it slugs eating the brassica’s, or wood pigeons? The pigeons will destroy the plants unless you net them, only way I could grow brassicas 

[Sunny76]

2 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

Yes that's true, but it is very much the exception, is doesn't seem to be typical to have sustained cold in spring nowadays. The only time of year where sustained cool (during the day, not the night) is not uncommon is high summer - particularly August.

True but in the case of January it was not at all potent (perhaps 7 or 8C during the day) and at late March/early April very transient.

It was still cold enough at times. 

[al78]

32 minutes ago, stainesbloke said:

Is it slugs eating the brassica’s, or wood pigeons? The pigeons will destroy the plants unless you net them, only way I could grow brassicas 

It looks like slug damage, although I can't be certain. I do need to get the netting over them tomorrow though.

[Summer8906]

Not as hazy as I feared today but still dull and wet, so far. No thunder, just nuisance dull weather and rain. Does nothing other than ruin the weekend.

One of the most transient highs I can remember! On Friday evening we still had the influence of the mid-week westerlies, then by about 4pm on Saturday signs of this breakdown were already visible in the SW.

Let's have some sunny weather with "heat of the day" style home-grown thunderstorms instead, of the sort we got in say late May 1992 or 2018. Much more interesting; blue skies, not dark - and visible Cbs rather than claggy mid-level debris. But the synoptics are wrong, I think: southerly types always seem to produce loads of mid-level clag, haze and limited sunshine, the "home-grown storm" type setup tends to be associated with slack easterlies, and a low over France, instead.

Edited May 15, 2022 by Summer8906

[al78]

Classic SE weather trolling. I was expecting it to rain overnight and early morning (as was forecast up until yesterday evening on the Met Office site) so I could work on my allotment late morning. Turns out the rain arrives exactly when I was planning to work on my allotment. Stuff it, I am going out anyway with waterproofs.

[NEVES SCREAMER]

I'm in Wolverhampton (in the pub unusually) before Wolves match. I got up at 08.30 and the main rain area was just clearing away to the north. You could see it out the window!. Sunny spells now. Warm and muggy. Just how i like it ! 

[Guest]

Central southern England going to have a shocking day, hours of rain to come. 

[kieranweatherfan]

12 minutes ago, Alderc said:

Central southern England going to have a shocking day, hours of rain to come. 

Very much needed!!!! Hopefully some really decent rain 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, kieranweatherfan said:

Very much needed!!!! Hopefully some really decent rain 

It’s really not that needed. Rivers are average or just below. 

[kieranweatherfan]

Just now, Alderc said:

It’s really not that needed. Rivers are average or just below. 

Here in the south east we are far below our average rainfall, I am on 8mm this month and the average rainfall for may is 65mm so I would really appreciate a week or so of unsettled weather! It’s warm enough anyway, been in the 20°S here pretty much all month apart from 2 days 

[Duncan McAlister]

This is one of the latest spells I can remember still having the heating on on a quasi-daily basis (including early yesterday which turned out to be lovely) and yet it’s ‘above average’. But apart from spells like late yesterday afternoon the proper heat of the sun has not manifested itself.

[Summer8906]

1 hour ago, kieranweatherfan said:

Very much needed!!!! Hopefully some really decent rain 

We get quite enough rain and gloom in the autumn and winter! Not welcome at all. A miserable, gloomy waste of a weekend day, and looks like I will have to cancel the plans I had for this afternoon. No thunder either - very much autumn/winter style steady, persistent rain for several hours.

Not warm either - but high-DP. Horrible. Low daytime temperatures but high DP (and consequently high night-time temperatures), gloom and damp seem to have become very frequent in recent summers.

And the synoptics actually look benign! Ironically we had better days on Thursday and Friday under the westerlies. And the contrast with the wonderful conditions yesterday up to around 7pm could not be more marked. Forecasts never seemed to suggest such an extreme contrast between the two weekend days.

Edited May 15, 2022 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

1 hour ago, Alderc said:

It’s really not that needed. Rivers are average or just below. 

As recently as mid-March in this area there appeared to be a high incidence of surface water not draining away properly, a result of the cyclonic conditions which dominated the first 10 days or so of March (the Eunice spell wasn't so very wet).

Much of the period from late September 2019 to August 2021 was often wet or very wet, as was Oct and Dec 2021 - it's only really been since Jan it's turned drier here.

I think there's probably a contrast between the SE and central S. So if the rain can stick the other side of the Hampshire-Sussex border, that would be good!

Edited May 15, 2022 by Summer8906

[al78]

1 hour ago, Alderc said:

It’s really not that needed. Rivers are average or just below. 

Yes it is. The ground on my allotment has been like concrete for weeks. I bet the farmers have been getting nervous as well with the prolonged lack of useful rain.

The only problem is the useful rain was originally forecast to come through during the small hours leaving today mostly dry. Unfortunately the reality is the rain comes through during waking hours and is set to hang around for most of the daylight hours here in Sussex. If there was a weather God up there deliberately out to make the population miserable, they couldn't do a better job than they are doing at the moment.

[shuggee]

I've been watching the "southern plume" forecasts develop all week and must say BBC TV forecasts haven't been covering themselves in glory. Here's today's 12.30pm forecast for 1pm and the radar. 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, shuggee said:

I've been watching the "southern plume" forecasts develop all week and must say BBC TV forecasts haven't been covering themselves in glory. Here's today's 12.30pm forecast for 1pm and the radar. 

Is that for real? 

[Frigid]

Was expecting rain today. Even the forecasts the night before were projecting downpours for most of the day with a high of 18. It's currently 21c and blue skies..

[Summer8906]

Looks set in now for most of the rest of daylight hours at a guess. Gone 3pm and still no hint of improvement. Worse in fact than two weeks ago, so ironically for a weekend day when I was expecting the most summery weather of the year so far, i.e. mostly fine weather and temps well into the twenties (a few days ago), it's possibly the worst weekend day since maybe early March! And the worst day of May so far.

Even this morning the forecasts were suggesting relatively bright afternoon.

Hoping next weekend is better. Some hints of this, though a bit marginal: looks a westerly type with relatively high pressure, but some variation as to how much anticyclonic influence there will be.

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by Summer8906