What Did You Think of Spring 2023?

[Sunny76]

20 hours ago, Methuselah said:

It was far from the best spring I've lived through but was also far from the worst.

Typical politicians answer. 

[Sunny76]

10 hours ago, DiagonalRedLine said:

You’re the one that must have stole our Spring…  

Seems like, at the moment, this has been a Spring many wouldn’t be keen to remember, although it is interesting the various views we all have as to what makes a season great in each of our eyes. The way how the cool, cloudy and wet weather (while varying on location), for example, having made this an ideal Spring for a few. 

I think it was an awful spring. My partner had lots of gardening jobs backed up in March and April, due to the rain. 
 

We certainly don’t need too much rain from now until late September. Just a couple of thunderstorms will do, with the occasional showery day once every 10 days or so.

[SunSean]

The 2nd half of May prevented me from voting it as one of the bottom 2 options lol.

March was the worst Spring month I've ever experienced. As much sunshine as the Paris catacombs and as wet as an Amsterdam gentleman's club.

April was pretty much bang average with a nice Easter weekend but only a few other fleeting nice days.

May was almost as bad as March during the 1st half but the 2nd half was actually really decent with lots of sunshine and an incredibly sunny bank holiday weekend. Not quite as phenomenal as what they had in the South West but still the best period I've had here in May since 2020.

[Azazel]

If it wasn't for the last week or so (which has still been no great shakes) and the decent thunderstorm I got a few weeks back, it would rank as the worst spring I've experienced in living memory.

Slightly better than 2021 because of that.

[kold weather]

I think I go along with the consensus for most in the SE, its been a poor spring but the last 10-14 days have probably saved it from being really dreadful.

If I was to describe it in one word, it was 'meh'. Nothing much of note happened at all and will be forgotten very rapidly. At least there was some snow, otherwise...

[SummerShower]

The good points..

1 March snow event. 2 Good early part of the Easter weekend.  3 awesome thunderstorm with decent sized hailstones on 9th May.  4 although there weren't many nice days, quite a lot of them fell on weekends.  5 the decent, although not especially warm, 2nd half of May.

The bad points..

1 no temperature above 23C the whole season.  Shocking nowadays.  2 March was the dullest on record in this area, and very wet.  3 the sheer lack of good days.  4 our cat hated the weather this spring and 5 the general lack of sunshine up to the last 2 weeks.

So the good and bad balance each other out really with 5 points each.  I am definitely a glass half full, naive type person who sees the good in everything so I do appreciate that others may not see the season in such good light.  As others have said, better than 2021 (which I believe actually took until the end of May to get into the 23 to 25c range somewhere in the uk as well), and may was far worse.

I'm an avid runner too and i feel the weather hasn't been bad for that, so that's one thing.

 

[richie3846]

I thought it was a reasonable spring in this area, losing the cold early on in March, April nothing special but pretty useable in general, then May turning out to be lovely. I enjoyed this season as it built up and didn't give any false dawns with brief heatwaves followed by cold spells. By mid May, we'd flipped into early summer, and this made up for any meh weather earlier in the season. Not quite the exceptional May of the westcountry et al, but still a lot better than the east coast. 

 It was wet in March, so exceptional it made it an interesting month in itself, and even more interesting there was no flooding, and now we've ended on a dry note, the remaining water from March I'm sure is very useful for nature and farmers alike. Maybe the river flows won't be so low this summer. Rivers are at their poorest health when low in oxygen and barely flowing. Nature itself seems to be normal, not affected at all by any lack of heat in the earlier spring. Everything blossomed here at a typical time, and we have plenty of insects and birds going about their business. 

[Frigid]

A boring spring, nothing really happened.  The cold first half of March failed to deliver, April didn't happen and May didn't have much to offer. First half of May was quite muggy and dull, don't rate it at all! The second half was better with cooler nights and sunnier days, glad it wasn't too warm like 2020 or 2017. Probably the most significant stat from this spring is the delayed warmth with it also being above average. Breached 16C on the 29th April, then 20C on the 21st May - both very late in the year. In contrast, Spring 2012 is widely known to be one of the worst yet had warmth at the end of March and one of the warmest 10 day periods in May on record. 5/10

[BlueHedgehog074]

3 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

I think it was an awful spring. My partner had lots of gardening jobs backed up in March and April, due to the rain. 
 

We certainly don’t need too much rain from now until late September. Just a couple of thunderstorms will do, with the occasional showery day once every 10 days or so.

Was a very good Spring for interrupting various activities and missions, including the gardening. Nice to be out of that wet, cloudy, period now. (The sun popped up pretty quickly this morning in the end). 

Think some rain would be needed soon, but I agree not loads. No repeat of the first 2 months of Spring 2023, especially March. 

[Wynn D Woo]

I've gone with OK...

March was cold, very wet and no snow just pure depressing and it damaged alot of the plants in the garden.

April was just very meh!

May has been a touch chilly in the evenings but has had a bit of sunshine and the dryness has meant it has been very usable weather during the day...but defo noticed the chilliness in the evenings when camping...

 

A spring which probably wont really linger long in the memory banks, we have had worse and we have had better, best to just move on and forget and hopefully we can get a half decent summer to follow.

[MP-R]

A very poor March, a poor April and a decent May after the first third means I voted ‘a bit pants’. Had it continued in the same way then it would’ve been up there as one of the worst!

[Weather Enthusiast91]

I voted for 'Brussel sprouts are better', because I like Brussel sprouts. A great addition to a Sunday roast. 

[BlueHedgehog074]

Am probably one of the few that also like brussel sprouts. Mostly anyway. They’re like puny cabbages to me.

One aspect that does seem to be continuing to stand out is how Spring was a slow burner in terms of temperatures for many. Quite amazing really enduring the whole season without much of a very warm spell. But it did seem like North-Western spots faired the best. 

I mean I don’t expect Spring to be dominated by warm or very warm spells too often as it can typically have quite a portion of cooler periods. More especially at the beginning. I think, however, to not really have a period of very warm temperatures, particularly later into the season, was a bit unusual (even though last 2 weeks of May had some warmer moments, albeit some chilly mornings).   

[Metwatch]

It was certainly a much more typical spring rather than those classic warm and dry ones we have been used to in recent years. Didn't particualrly like the weather that much and a lack of warmth or dryness until the last 2 weeks of May was at times an annoyance. Even in May it often wasn't sunny or warm. Infact the coldest daytime max last month was on the 31st. A shame the month / season had to end quite cloudy and cool despite high pressure, different to recent Mays.

However the variety was quite interesting, from decent snow falls in March and a surprise storm too that month, to decent convection in April and more potent storms in May.  i've taken a lot of photos this spring, lots of convection and thunderstorms normal to an unsettled spring as such this year. The spring flowers display, especially bluebells were also great.

So for weather I would give a rating of maybe a 4/10, but photography wise 8/10.

Edited June 3, 2023 by Metwatch

[NEVES SCREAMER]

Chilly. Wet. Picked up a bit last couple weeks but still chilly. 

 

[markyo]

By far one of the best in years. Not for everyone i know but i've loved it.

[NEVES SCREAMER]

1 minute ago, markyo said:

By far one of the best in years. Not for everyone i know but i've loved it.

You loved the 10/11 weeks of cold /wet? Unless Sheffield was in its own micro climate

 

[Hotspur62]

March April and first half of May were cool and pretty wet in this part of NW Kent.Been dry here since 16th May but unlike most of western Britain it has been cool with a nagging cool NE wind which on most days has prevented the sun breaking through till 2/3pm most days so all in all a pretty crappy spring here!!

[markyo]

1 hour ago, NEVES SCREAMER said:

You loved the 10/11 weeks of cold /wet? Unless Sheffield was in its own micro climate

 

Oh you mean the comfortable weather...

[Maz]

Good

Got very lucky with a 1 week holiday near Ashbourne, Derbyshire in the week before Easter - 6/7 lovely crisp sunny days, frosty mornings, warm in the sun in the afternoon.  Then final week in May in Pembrokeshire.  Barely a cloud in 7 days, pleasantly warm.  Perfect!  
 

The spell from mid May on, which was near my perfect weather in NW England (then SW Wales).  Got lucky on my work trips too, great days in NW Wales and Edinburgh and two stunning drives up and back from Edinburgh too, with snowy scenes.

The dross for most of March and a lot of April marks the season down as did the Manchester SE’’ly “hole” opening and ruining the early March snow event ( it was so close I literally ran from my house with a dusting of snow to knee deep drifts though!)

 

[BlueHedgehog074]

Pleased you had great weather during your holidays in both the Peak District (very nice area around Ashbourne) and in Wales. The weather can be well behaved… sometimes!

[SakuraOwl]

Hi, I can definitely say that SPRING 2023 was far better than this miserable weather.
The fact that I'm sleeping unhealthily while not even having the chance to sleep in the daytime because the weather is so annoyingly consistent throughout the day... HEAT!
I've actually become seriously sick. My head hurts, my body aches, my chest hurts, and it only gets worse. I pass out to fall asleep because of how insanely difficult it now is.
I even tried to sleep in my friend's house as their family installed a new AC - This AC was very expensive while also being able to keep the entire house much cooler (advertised)
I then experienced it for myself... Not only could we not sleep since the AC was no longer creating cooler air. The driest of air continued while I began to feel dehydrated.
We all hydrated while laying in our bedrooms feeling awful. My friend is also now sick because the weather has taken a turn for frustrating levels of heat.
It just feels like there's no window to breathe. It's just consistent endless heat that doesn't give you a moment to relax... cool down... It's annoying -_-

[Summer8906]

i went for "OK" in the end. Slightly below-average but still in the OK category, not quite bad enough for "a bit pants".

It was heading for appalling territory as late as the Coronation weekend, but the long dry, sunny spell from May 13th onwards made a real difference to the perception of the season. Those final 19 days of spring were incredibly sunny here - only the 19th featured significant cloud.

As for the individual months:

March - appalling and no mistake. Constantly dull, and after the 8th, wet. No surprise as it was the worst since 1981. I hope we don't get another March as bad as that one anytime soon!

April - looking back at this month its real problem was the way that the models constantly promised fine weather which was then much watered down, and there was no fine spell lasting more than about 3 or 4 days. It was perhaps not such a terrible month overall, though in the past 15 years only 2012 was worse with 2008 and 2018 about equal. The first week and the Easter weekend wasn't bad, then it was cool, wet and windy before a further short fine spell (expected to be a long one with temps in the 20s at one point). Then it turned cool and unsettled again with occasional fine days. In retrospect, only slightly below par though the constant failure of prolonged fine weather to arrive was a major irritation at the time.

May - was looking very bad at one point with prolonged dull, wet weather being progged. In fact the first 4 days were OK before easily the worst spell of the month coincided with the Coronation weekend, from the 5th to the 8th though the Sunday was fine. This was followed by a few showery days before the notable, perhaps even historic here for sunshine, fine spell.

Marks:

March - 1/10

April - 4.5/10

May - 8/10

Overall 4.5/10.

However it could have easily, if the early May models had come to fruition, achieved a score below 3/10.

Edited June 17, 2023 by Summer8906

[cheese]

March was dreadful 

April was meh

May was decent

3/10

Edited June 18, 2023 by cheese