Spring and Summer weather moans

[Sunny76]

Quite an interesting day with sunny warm spells mixed in with sharp showers and thunder and lightning. 
 

Was on and off between 11:30 and 4pm.

[Summer8906]

23 hours ago, MP-R said:

Given how poor the May - mid July 2002 period was, it was a miracle that a warm sunny weekend coincided with the Jubilee!

I don't think June 2002 was that bad overall, ISTR most of the second half of the month was dry. Except, typically, the evening of the 21st when I led a walk and it rained (cold rain at that, too) during a temporary interruption to the settled weather .

I remember the second half of May, early June and early July were all pretty poor though - particularly the second half of May. We had three such years in that era, 2000, 2002 and 2006 all had cool, wet, cyclonic second halves of May.

[Summer8906]

Not a bad day today following the drab conditions yesterday.

A classic Pm day of blue skies, and sharply defined Cu and Cb clouds. Got the edge of one shower, and another appeared to the SW around 5pm but generally fine. Cool though.

The sort of day which the weather textbooks suggest is common, yet (sadly) isn't. We seem to get much more in the way of wishy-washy dishwater-sky rPm days, instead. If every showery interlude between frontal systems was like today, I think I would post considerably less on this "Moans" thread!

Would be interesting to hear from those who properly remember the 60s and 70s, to hear if this sort of day was more common in that period - perhaps because the world was cooler overall and the Atlantic was cooler so had less chance to mess with Pm air?

Edited May 24, 2022 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

23 hours ago, damianslaw said:

Last year brought very late growth due to the very cold April and then wet cold May. I suspect we are on a par with 2020.  

Yes, I'd say it's unusually early - thanks to persistent mildness for the past four months or so.

2021 was somewhat late due to the cold as you say, but most other years are behind this year. But we seem to be getting a lot of very advanced years recently thanks to persistent late winter/spring mildness - 2017, 2014, 2011 and 2007 all did the same, so seems to be happening once every three years on average.

Not good IMO, I don't like to see the spring/early summer flowering season end early. I still want to see flowers throughout June. This is why, despite being a fan of fine, settled springs, I don't really want them to be too warm. Cold early Feb with snow, average late Feb, March, April and May with cool nights, and then warm weather in June would be about right. Then a long persistent summer well into October...

Given, though, that our late summers and early autumns are generally mild, and it's rare to get frosts before mid Oct, I wonder why there is so much evolutionary pressure for the flowering season to be so early in the spring/summer months?

Edited May 24, 2022 by Summer8906

[SunSean]

It was mostly cloudy and raining today with a few spells of sunshine but the worst thing is that once again, the whole night is forecast clear! Why do we keep getting clear nights when it would be much more useful during the day. Extremely frustrating lol.

[damianslaw]

2 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

Yes, I'd say it's unusually early - thanks to persistent mildness for the past four months or so.

2021 was somewhat late due to the cold as you say, but most other years are behind this year. But we seem to be getting a lot of very advanced years recently thanks to persistent late winter/spring mildness - 2017, 2014, 2011 and 2007 all did the same, so seems to be happening once every three years on average.

Not good IMO, I don't like to see the spring/early summer flowering season end early. I still want to see flowers throughout June. This is why, despite being a fan of fine, settled springs, I don't really want them to be too warm. Cold early Feb with snow, average late Feb, March, April and May with cool nights, and then warm weather in June would be about right. Then a long persistent summer well into October...

Given, though, that our late summers and early autumns are generally mild, and it's rare to get frosts before mid Oct, I wonder why there is so much evolutionary pressure for the flowering season to be so early in the spring/summer months?

2019 and 2020 brought very mild Jan to May periods, so the comment about these being behind this year I'm not sure about, especially 2020.

[MP-R]

4 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

I don't think June 2002 was that bad overall, ISTR most of the second half of the month was dry. Except, typically, the evening of the 21st when I led a walk and it rained (cold rain at that, too) during a temporary interruption to the settled weather .

I remember the second half of May, early June and early July were all pretty poor though - particularly the second half of May. We had three such years in that era, 2000, 2002 and 2006 all had cool, wet, cyclonic second halves of May.

Yes true, June 2002 wasn’t wet at all tbf, just rather too cloudy and the first half had frequent episodes of light rain. I think the second half underdelivered given the synoptics, although I do remember some sunnier days.

[sarahng]

I hope this isn't going to be one of those summers where the day starts bright with beautiful blue sky and then clouds over by 8am for the rest of the day until early evening!  We have had a succession of these mornings now - today was sunny and bright at 5.30, now it's dull, overcast, windy and chilly!

[SunSean]

23 minutes ago, sarahng said:

I hope this isn't going to be one of those summers where the day starts bright with beautiful blue sky and then clouds over by 8am for the rest of the day until early evening!  We have had a succession of these mornings now - today was sunny and bright at 5.30, now it's dull, overcast, windy and chilly!

Yep and then the skies clearing up again by 7:30pm lol

[Guest]

Looks like Mother Nature will be delivering another summer Jubilee bank holiday where coats and jumpers are needed opposed to shorts and flip-flops. Model output looking pretty naff for the first half of June now, although to be fair it doesn't look overly wet. 

While we've had a such better spring than last year we are still going to be entering Summer with a lower max temp (22.1C) than last last Spring and fewer days reaching 20C (just 4).

Still I'm sure they're be a rapid improvement from the 19th when I go on the first of my summer travels for two weeks.   

Edited May 25, 2022 by Alderc

[StormChaseUK]

Stunned how models can go from  26C to 9C  in space of a day.  Don't think I've seen such a big change before.

[Summer8906]

15 hours ago, damianslaw said:

2019 and 2020 brought very mild Jan to May periods, so the comment about these being behind this year I'm not sure about, especially 2020.

Sorry, I did omit 2020 as you'd already mentioned it, but yes, perhaps equivalent to this year or even more forward still.

2019 had a cooler last week of April and first half of May IIRC, so it was forward but not quite as much so as this year. But if so, it's another example of the point that too many years recently have had overly-forward seasons.

Edited May 25, 2022 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

I noticed the cool and dry outlook on the models (GFS 00Z) this morning too.

Looks like three "layers" across Europe - northern Europe cool and dry (but Scandinavia wetter), southern Europe unusually hot, and then a weak cyclonic zone between the two which will presumably give places like southern Germany and the Alps some impressive thunderstorms.

Further still, towards the end of the run, there seems to be something of a NW-ly bias. This really looks like an ideal spring pattern; the cool and dry setup would have been most welcome in April or early May as it could have slowed down nature and made it less unusually forward.

Edited May 25, 2022 by Summer8906

[NEVES SCREAMER]

Nice to see we are hurtling in to November on Sunday. Just 12/13c . Cloud. Showers and a NE wind. And just 3 days away from 'flaming June'. The UK. Global warming free zone as usual. 

[Cheshire Freeze]

6 minutes ago, NEVES SCREAMER said:

Nice to see we are hurtling in to November on Sunday. Just 12/13c . Cloud. Showers and a NE wind. And just 3 days away from 'flaming June'. The UK. Global warming free zone as usual. 

That’s why it’s now known as ‘climate change’ rather than global warming. All it seems to have done for us is to make our climate blander.

I wouldn’t mind if we were about to see N blocking take hold with LP pushing up from the S or SW…at least we’d be in with a shout of some convection. As it stands it looks like a NE’ly flow with cloud and just shallow convection.

[Guest]

 If ever there was something to moan about. 

 

[simshady]

Looking good for the foreseeable

[markyo]

3 minutes ago, simshady said:

Looking good for the foreseeable

Oh yes, very good, no sleepless nights, no air con on, good for working in, the list goes on and on!

[TwisterGirl81]

So much for global warming....jeezus....We have yet to breach 21c this year where I am in Devon, this is not very common....   Almost put the heating on last night but resisted due to not wanting to worry so much in winter thanks to some higher greedy powers that be.

After last summer just really don't want a repeat performance, we all need some glorious sustained sun and warmth

Edited May 25, 2022 by TwisterGirl81

[Don]

18 minutes ago, TwisterGirl81 said:

So much for global warming....jeezus....We have yet to breach 21c this year where I am in Devon, this is not very common.... 

Don't worry, I'm sure September will be an absolute scorcher! 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

most coming nights will be colder than 1st Jan this year, tropical January SW'lys certainly feel warmer than summer NW'lys/NE'lys

[Azazel]

I’m so bored and so tired.

Its mental to me we’ll be heading into summer with a lower max than last year and last year was absolutely dreadful.

im so unacclimatised to the warmth that when the temp has pushed 20 degrees it feels absolutely roasting.

wearing my winter coat into work in June is absolutely laughable. 

[TwisterGirl81]

30 minutes ago, Azazel said:

I’m so bored and so tired.

Its mental to me we’ll be heading into summer with a lower max than last year and last year was absolutely dreadful.

im so unacclimatised to the warmth that when the temp has pushed 20 degrees it feels absolutely roasting.

wearing my winter coat into work in June is absolutely laughable. 

We've all got through a tough couple of years then onto a cost of living crises brought on by those who should have had the foresight before making a lot of silly decisions the past few years.  The weather can affect our moods so it's no wonder most of us are craving some prolonged gorgeous weather to feel a little bit better about the world.  Unfortunately it's the nature of the British climate, whilst us in the south fair alot better than northern areas, when it's beautiful it really is but all too often gets scuppered or short lived....The price we pay for having milder winters thanks to the gulf stream than other countries in our similar longitude, it's more frequently than not changeable.

I googled the other day why it tends to be more cloudy in the uk than most other countries at least in mainland europe and it's because of the gulf stream to our south and polar airstream to our north I guess clashing right over us.  I can think of the pacific northwest of usa as similar climate but even they get consistently better summers generally than us and sunnier, it's crazy and almost unfair....why?!! 

Edited May 25, 2022 by TwisterGirl81

[SunSean]

Shock horror, another cloudy dull day and yet again the skies are now clear for night time. This has happened constantly in May this year, it's beyond a joke! Same again tomorrow by the looks of it, cloudy day and clear night. Can we have it the other way round please. Unbelievable lol.

[TwisterGirl81]

1 minute ago, SunSean said:

Shock horror, another cloudy dull day and yet again the skies are now clear for night time. This has happened constantly in May this year, it's beyond a joke! Same again tomorrow by the looks of it, cloudy day and clear night. Can we have it the other way round please. Unbelievable lol.

I have noticed this a lot too!