Spring 2023 - Moans, Ramps & Chat

[ANYWEATHER]

10 minutes ago, richie3846 said:

I've been wondering the same thing myself. We seem to be in permanent swings of dry to wet, and back again. Springs, especially April are statistically drying out, this has been reported by the met office, so I wouldn't assume this wet March to indicate more potential for a  wet spring overall. Whilst March isn't over yet, it seems to be likely that we'll end up with 50 to 100 percent more rain than average, but then February was notably dry, so taking the two months together it'll probably be about average. 

A lot of places already have seen 150% rainfall this month, looks like we will be going into April very unsettled as well....

[Andy Bown]

8 hours ago, SunSean said:

I am aware that i keep moaning about this but my god, just give us some sunshine in the South East! Today & tomorrow were originally going to be partly cloudy but have been downgraded to overcast now  

Hope you got some sunshine today.

This is the day I have remembered something I learnt last year. When apps like Met Office and Apple show cloud you generally get plenty of hazy sunshine.

[SunSean]

2 minutes ago, Andy Bown said:

Hope you got some sunshine today.

This is the day I have remembered something I learnt last year. When apps like Met Office and Apple show cloud you generally get plenty of hazy sunshine.

Unfortunately I only got about 30 mins of sunshine all in all haha. No sun forecast for the whole of next week either. Roll on April!

[Mapantz]

A lovely day here. Very little wind, birds chirping. Temp reached 13.3°C

[reef]

8 hours ago, SunSean said:

I am aware that i keep moaning about this but my god, just give us some sunshine in the South East! Today & tomorrow were originally going to be partly cloudy but have been downgraded to overcast now  

It looks like Yorkshire (AKA the newly crowned sunniest place in the UK) are going to have a lovely sunny day again though according to the satellite.

I don't know what happened at some point, as the South & South East used to be the sunniest place, which made sense- the further south you go, the sunnier it gets, but seeing Reefs comments over the past few months about sunshine data for East Yorkshire, they have been sunnier every single month since about September. Dumbfounding.

Even some outlooks are hinting at another rubbish 2021 style year where the south is garbage and the north and Yorkshire is far sunnier. 

Will have to attack my savings and book another holiday at this rate!

Also, i think that SSW was the worst thing that could have happened to UK weather as we went from experiencing nice sunny days frequently to an absolute barrage of Atlantic lows and 95-100% cloud cover. The cold lovers didn't even get much snow so wishing for that SSW was in vain. It seems like it simply eliminated the sun and that was it lol.

One of the peculiar things with the warming climate has been a large increase in sunshine hours on average in this area:

1961-1990: 1441 hours
1971-2000: 1479 hours
1981-2010: 1547 hours
1991-2020: 1599 hours
2001-2023: 1654 hours

We've gone from averaging around 100-150 hours lower annually compared to parts of the south-east to being almost equal now.

So far we're on 62 hours this month, though interestingly Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Lerwick have been much sunnier. Heathrow has had 39 hours...

[SunSean]

5 minutes ago, reef said:

One of the peculiar things with the warming climate has been a large increase in sunshine hours on average in this area:

1961-1990: 1441 hours
1971-2000: 1479 hours
1981-2010: 1547 hours
1991-2020: 1599 hours
2001-2023: 1654 hours

We've gone from averaging around 100-150 hours lower annually compared to parts of the south-east to being almost equal now.

So far we're on 62 hours this month, though interestingly Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Lerwick have been much sunnier. Heathrow has had 39 hours...

Perhaps I need to move to East Yorkshire 

I do find it really strange though. My closest weather station is Shoeburyness and we are currently even lower- below 30 hours before today. Although we had loads of sea haar plaguing that station in February so where I live further inland, we probably had a much higher total for February. I remember this February being the sunniest since 2019 so neither Shoeburyness to the East or Heathrow to the West really did it any justice for that months total.

[Mullet]

Golf today was an experience. Pretty much 18 flags in a giant puddle. 

I would appreciate some warmth and brightness now as the cold, damp and dark takes its toll moving into March for me, but crap weather at this stage of Spring isn't cause for despondency.

Get the dirge out of the way now, and hopefully a change in late April or early May to anomolous warmth moving into Summer. 

[summer blizzard]

Lack of sunshine is not a month. 

Sunny March's typically feature high pressure or a tropical maritime sourced flow. Although it's possible that we can get a cold, dry, sunny month under high pressure, March is a month where high sunshine levels will typically deliver a milder month. 

Cold March's are typically duller simply because it requires a flow from the east or generally cyclonic northerlies. 

[ItNeverSnowsInWindsor]

Needs some warmer dry weather in April just like it was during the 1st lockdown!

[Catbrainz]

It has been a wet March for this area. The weekend was nice though Saturday started off cloudy and showery but brightened up in the afternoon and was warm (13-14 degrees can feel warm this time of year after winter). Sunday was also a fine bright day as well a nice weekend before the Atlantic onslaught this coming week. Strangely despite being a zonal Atlantic driven month this March hasn't been that cold apart from a few days of snow and cold. I would have thought Atlantic driven weather would lead to cooler than average temps this time of year with the SSTs being at their coldest and suppression of high temps due to cloud and rain.  (It has felt more like a unsettled October/November than a unsettled March, unsettled Marches are normally colder than normal IMBY). 

[Nick L]

1 hour ago, prolongedSnowLover said:

Needs some warmer dry weather in April just like it was during the 1st lockdown!

What a waste of a perfect spring that was!

[NEVES SCREAMER]

Lovely to see temps around 13c after months of dark and cold. March not been all that wonderful but we are in that flux between winter and spring. Whichever way the wind blows now ! Looking forward to the clocks going forward next week. Will be light until about 19.45 /20.00. Another step in the right direction. 

[mb018538]

Nice that it's fairly mild, but the rest of March and probably the first week of April are looking like carrying on what we've seen the last couple of weeks.....wet wet and more wet. The MetO update going into April favours northern blocking too, so it's not the most promising outlook!

[TwisterGirl81]

10 hours ago, NEVES SCREAMER said:

Lovely to see temps around 13c after months of dark and cold. March not been all that wonderful but we are in that flux between winter and spring. Whichever way the wind blows now ! Looking forward to the clocks going forward next week. Will be light until about 19.45 /20.00. Another step in the right direction. 

We sometimes get that temparature or above in winter down here in the south west during winter,  17c and above then we are talking  

[Weatherman_93]

Looks like it will be mild for the next week and beyond. Lovely stuff 

[al78]

16 hours ago, Nick L said:

What a waste of a perfect spring that was!

Yes, fantastic weather when we were all forbidden to get out and enjoy it to the full, then when lockdown restrictions were lifted in June, the weather immediately turned poor (in my part of the SE anyway).

I visited my allotment over the weekend and managed to harvest a portion of purple sprouting broccoli from a plant that had committed suicide earlier in the winter, and tested the soil consistency by digging up a few small clumps of couch grass. I am on clay and the soil is really claggy and wet. Trying to dig up any perennial weeds involves bringing up bowling ball sized clumps of earth, so I've given up with that until we get a spell of dry weather. Problem with clay soil is once it gets very wet it takes an age to dry out enough for proper cultivation.

[cheeky_monkey]

Once the geese arrive here you know spring has finally arrived..no sign of them yet 

[SunSean]

SSW= Sudden Sunshine Withdrawal

[al78]

21 hours ago, Catbrainz said:

It has been a wet March for this area. The weekend was nice though Saturday started off cloudy and showery but brightened up in the afternoon and was warm (13-14 degrees can feel warm this time of year after winter). Sunday was also a fine bright day as well a nice weekend before the Atlantic onslaught this coming week. Strangely despite being a zonal Atlantic driven month this March hasn't been that cold apart from a few days of snow and cold. I would have thought Atlantic driven weather would lead to cooler than average temps this time of year with the SSTs being at their coldest and suppression of high temps due to cloud and rain.  (It has felt more like a unsettled October/November than a unsettled March, unsettled Marches are normally colder than normal IMBY). 

I'd say March has been on the cool side here. The first week was like a winter cold spell, then the Atlantic came roaring back in with the jet stream aimed at southern England like a cannon and day after day of cloud and intermittent rain. Daytime temperatures have been mediocre to low without any warm sunny days to compensate. It is only the last few days when it has felt mild to me. I guess it makes you appreciate the nice Spring weather when it does eventually arrive.

[*Stormforce~beka*]

God this weather is minging!!! Kill me now!!

[Arid Acle]

Replying to the comments about a lack of sunshine this month, I can only refer to the kWh generated by our solar panels here in East Norfolk: only167 to date. To put that in context, March totals for the last 7 years from 2022 bck to 2016 have been: 488; 336; 465; 398; 278; 425; 387. This gives a March average of 389. I can't see where another 200+ kwh hours are going to come from the rest of this month (given the outlook); it would need 20 a day! To add insult to injury, we recorded 275 kwh this February (admittedly a good month), so for us to even get to that figure would require 10 kwh a day for the rest of this month - and we've only managed that daily total 5 times so far this month. This vaguely mild muck is so soul-destroying. 

[al78]

The Met Office long range outlook is not looking promising as we approach the Easter weekend:

Saturday 25th March - Monday 3rd April

"Saturday is likely to be unsettled with showers for many, these perhaps turning wintry, especially over high ground in the north, but becoming drier from the west through the day. Strong winds in the south and east at first, tending to ease with time. Sunday will likely bring further rain and perhaps windy conditions to the south, whilst northern areas see brighter skies and wintry showers. After a mostly dry start to next week with some frost, further periods of strong winds and rain are expected with perhaps a trend for the wettest weather to be in the south. Temperatures likely close to average in the south, but rather cold in the north, with a risk of wintry conditions here."

Tuesday 4th April - Tuesday 18th April

To start the period, a continuation of unsettled conditions is the most likely. Moving further into April, a chance of more settled weather is predicted, with drier conditions more probable. Any wetter conditions are more likely in the far south. There is a chance that temperatures may trend cooler than average through this period.

What is it with the south getting the worst of the weather? I hope this turns out wrong.

[al78]

23 minutes ago, *Stormforce~beka* said:

God this weather is minging!!! Kill me now!!

It could be worse. At least it is happening during GMT.

[Scorcher]

15.8C here this afternoon despite an unremarkable setup- just shows how things are flipping now as we get close to the equinox.

[matt111]

Only 9.8°C here and it feels like it too.