Autumn 2023

[Azazel]

Any days without rain on the horizon? Bored of it already 

[Bristawl Si]

Grim out there now.

13c, moderate to heavy rain; the dark and gloom have descended on us.

[*Stormforce~beka*]

35 minutes ago, Azazel said:

Any days without rain on the horizon? Bored of it already 

I was thinking this! It's starting to get to me too

[cheese]

On 27/10/2023 at 16:18, TwisterGirl81 said:

I’m surprised Plymouth is sunnier than London, I find it quite hard to believe to be honest but it’s what the stats say. Must be because it’s right on the coast…London is much warmer in summer though 

Most of England is warmer than Plymouth in the summer to be fair lol, at least in terms of maximum temperatures 

[Weather-history]

There was the "worringly dry" thread posted  earlier this year, shouldn't we have a "worryingly wet" thread now?

 

[Mcconnor8]

27 minutes ago, *Stormforce~beka* said:

I was thinking this! It's starting to get to me too

 

Quite the opposite unfortunately.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Mcconnor8

[markyo]

40 minutes ago, *Stormforce~beka* said:

I was thinking this! It's starting to get to me too

Got to honestly admit i'm finding this current weather infinitely more comfortable than plus 25 26c in summer. Just feel so much more healthy and alive. But each to their own, we all feel weather differently.

Edited October 28, 2023 by markyo

[Azazel]

12 minutes ago, Mcconnor8 said:

 

Quite the opposite unfortunately.

And this is why I HATE autumn/winter in the U.K. if it was cold and sunny/dry with fog and then snow in winter I would do just fine but it’s endless weeks of absolute cat p**s like this. 

[wende123]

1 hour ago, Azazel said:

Any days without rain on the horizon? Bored of it already 

Maybe tomorrow but beyond that it looks doubtful 

[StingJet]

Just for markyo 

https://youtu.be/swloMVFALXw?si=E2D6LB02YOzeQcfj

[Gregulator]

With the predicted stormy weather midweek I think the trees need to get a wriggle on and shed some more leaves or there could be a lot of collateral damage.

[markyo]

35 minutes ago, StingJet said:

Just for markyo 

https://youtu.be/swloMVFALXw?si=E2D6LB02YOzeQcfj

Thank you! All time great

[StingJet]

Keeping a close eye on Thursday's proceedings with respect to UKMO , ECM & GFS for the track and intensity of this little fellow,  circa 955mb is quite a rarity for the UK , a tad blowy for the Sw, and South of the M4

Edited October 28, 2023 by StingJet

[Metwatch]

2 hours ago, Azazel said:

And this is why I HATE autumn/winter in the U.K. if it was cold and sunny/dry with fog and then snow in winter I would do just fine but it’s endless weeks of absolute cat p**s like this. 

I think up here in the Midlands I've gotten a lot luckier. Apart from Thursday morning and currently tonight when the rain started after sunset, has been mostly dry following Babet. 

 

Some lovely foliage colours just north of here this week taken by a friend of mine.

[Summer8906]

5 hours ago, baddie said:

Finallly some sunshine todsy, and it feels much reminiscent of April

April is the one thing it does not feel reminiscent of!

Here, mostly cloudy with occasional periods of rain, though not quite the washout deluge afternoon I was expecting. Rather like last Saturday in fact.

[Summer8906]

2 hours ago, markyo said:

Got to honestly admit i'm finding this current weather infinitely more comfortable than plus 25 26c in summer. Just feel so much more healthy and alive. But each to their own, we all feel weather differently.

25/26 uncomfortable? Nah, just nice pleasant summer weather. Try going to the Mediterranean in July and experiencing 35/36 on the hotter days - now that is uncomfortable.

[Summer8906]

9 hours ago, MattStoke said:

By the time most people travel home from work, it would be dark in winter regardless of whether the clocks change.Brighter mornings is more significant. No way would I want to be getting up for work every day when it’s dark until gone 9am. The past couple of weeks has been bad enough for that. 
 

In midwinter perhaps, but in early November you have this silly situation of wasted daylight before 7am and darkness shortly after 5pm.

As I said above there might be a need for winter time for a short period for three months or so around the solstice, but there is absolutely no need to change the clocks this early. It certainly won't be "dark until gone 9am" under BST for a good few weeks yet in any part of the country.

Under winter time at this time of year, solar noon is at a ridiculously early 11.50am, leading to ridiculously lop-sided days. And all the daylight is before work, rather than after, so you can't take advantage of it. Think about it: even though the midpoint of the workday is 1pm, the sun is already going down by 11.55am, less than three hours into the typical workday.

There's something a bit puritanical and hair-shirted about winter time IMO. The weather is already making the afternoons gloomy as it is - but messing around with the clock just makes the problem very much worse. It makes it almost impossible to have a relaxed lunch at the weekend and then go out and do something out of doors, even if the weather is acceptable.

We are literally the only country in our area of Europe which has such dark afternoons in the winter. Ireland is further west so has lighter afternoons. The Netherlands, Belgium and northern France are on a more sensible timezone. Thus the UK is perhaps the worst country to be in the Western European winter; even those countries with a comparably dull wet climate are at least on timezones more suited to their longitude. You have to go to Iceland or Scandinavia to find countries with comparably dark, or darker afternoons.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Summer8906

[Cheshire Freeze]

10 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

In midwinter perhaps, but in early November you have this silly situation of wasted daylight before 7am and darkness shortly after 5pm.

As I said above there might be a need for winter time for a short period for three months or so around the solstice, but there is absolutely no need to change the clocks this early. It certainly won't be "dark until gone 9am" under BST for a good few weeks yet in any part of the country.

Under winter time at this time of year, solar noon is at a ridiculously early 11.50am, leading to ridiculously lop-sided days. And all the daylight is before work, rather than after, so you can't take advantage of it.

There's something a bit puritanical and hair-shirted about winter time IMO. The weather is already making the afternoons gloomy as it is - but messing around with the clock just makes the problem very much worse. It makes it almost impossible to have a relaxed lunch at the weekend and then go out and do something out of doors, even if the weather is acceptable.

GMT is the standard time zone for the UK. A time zone that is old as time and based on the meridian.

BST is us messing about with the clocks.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Cheshire Freeze

[Summer8906]

6 minutes ago, Cheshire Freeze said:

GMT is the standard time zone for the UK.

BST is us messing about with the clocks.

BST is setting the clocks so that they match with the typical working and waking day. Remember the typical workday is centred around 1pm, thus solar noon should ideally be around 1pm.

GMT isn't, unless your working hours are earlier than average. It should more accurately be called LMT (Lisbon Mean Time or Limerick Mean Time), after the cities which it's more suited for.

 

Edited October 28, 2023 by Summer8906

[Cheshire Freeze]

5 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

BST is setting the clocks so that they match with the typical working and waking day. Remember the typical workday is centred around 1pm, thus solar noon should be around 1pm.

GMT isn't. It should more accurately be called LMT (Lisbon Mean Time or Limerick Mean Time), after the cities which it's more suited for.

 

There aren't any traditional work hours these days though (increasingly so). 

I'd have thought solar noon should pretty closely match our noon tbh. In BST it doesn't. There's that much light in summer that it doesn't really matter anyway. It's not going to be dark when the majority leave work.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Cheshire Freeze

[Summer8906]

Again, I suspect most consider 1pm as the middle point of the day, so I maintain we should have a timezone centred around 1pm.

Also remember that if we didn't use BST in summer (though to be fair I don't know what your position is on this) we'd lose those light summer evenings and it would be dark at 8pm for much of summer, and dark at 9pm all year.

And generally, BST maximises the period of the year when it's light after work. Winter time makes it needlessly dark soon after work at times of year when it could be light (February and much of March, in particular).

4 minutes ago, Cheshire Freeze said:

There aren't any traditional work hours these days though (increasingly so).

I think there still are. Certainly, IMX, public transport is pretty busy during the 5-6pm hour from home-bound commuters.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Summer8906

[Cheshire Freeze]

2 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

Again, I suspect most consider 1pm as the middle point of the day, so I maintain we should have a timezone centred around 1pm.

Also remember that if we didn't use BST in summer (though to be fair I don't know what your position is on this) we'd lose those light summer evenings and it would be dark at 8pm for much of summer, and dark at 9pm all year.

I think there still are. Certainly public transport is pretty busy during the 5-6pm hour from home-bound commuters.

My stance is that I hate light pouring through my window at 4am in midsummer so I'd personally go to BST+1 and have it light until midnight and dark until 5 or later. However that's not the point. GMT is the default UK time zone and unless you want it dark right up until 9am at the winter solstice, it has its uses.

[Summer8906]

4 minutes ago, Cheshire Freeze said:

My stance is that I hate light pouring through my window at 4am in midsummer so I'd personally go to BST+1 and have it light until midnight and dark until 5 or later. However that's not the point. GMT is the default UK time zone and unless you want it dark right up until 9am at the winter solstice, it has its uses.

At the winter solstice: that's the key point. I concede it's something we might have to have in the depths of winter, say from mid-Nov to mid-Feb. However I don't see the point in switching this early, nor do I see a point in keeping it until the very end of March - and sadly, next year is one of those years with a long slog until March 31st - Easter Sunday - before we move back to BST. Waiting until Easter for BST is plain silly.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Summer8906

[Cheshire Freeze]

Just now, Summer8906 said:

At the winter solstice, that's the key point. I concede it's something we might have to have in the depths of winter, say from mid-Nov to mid-Feb. However I don't see the point in switching this early, nor do I see a point in keeping it until the very end of March (and sadly, next year is one of those years with a long slog until March 31st - Easter Sunday - before we move back to BST. Waiting until Easter for BST is plain silly).

We could go forward earlier, I agree on that but I do think we put them back at the correct time. Sunrise is already past 8am here without the clocks going back.

[baddie]

5 hours ago, MP-R said:

Whereas down here we only had 2.5 hours on the 30th lol. The 27th-31st only registered 6.5 hours here.

9 hours on the 30th (but most of it in the afternnon) and 20 hours in the last 5 days