Midlands regional discussion - Winter 23/24

[Weather Enthusiast91]

 SollyOlly Oh no, you didn't offend me at all.  

 

[Polar Maritime]

Moderate rain here for the past few hours, turned heavy now.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

weather enthuisast is called Alice

[SollyOlly]

Yep, more rain here...it sure has been wet, wet, wet!! I recall that last June, after a few weeks of heat and dry, things started to look a bit parched (how quickly that changed!), but I guess the water table must surely be high now after a warm and wet winter.

[Polar Maritime]

I'm wondering why the met dropped there rain warning here. They would of been better off keeping it..

Edited February 17 by Polar Maritime

[matty40s]

River out of its banks again here, non stop rain overnight.

Looking forward to foggy Venice for a few days.

[Metwatch]

About another inch of rainfall overnight and so rivers jumping up again, the Avon in particular:

Looking at this chart wouldn't think on its own it will be that wet but it was, some strong forcing / lift in that trough is my guess.

Over 100mm now on official stations around Midlands for this month and i'm almost at 120mm, but mine could be over reading a little not sure.

Edited February 18 by Metwatch

[SollyOlly]

Nice enough day today, a bit of sunshine and a gentle breeze (too warm for mid-Feb of course!) - but what really struck me was walking around a couple of my local parks (Olton and Elmdon, for my Solihull friends!) is how utterly soaked everything is. Puddles making paths impassable, mud like a WW1 trench! It's really remarkable now. 

And of course with the warmth, and the wet...my lawn needs doing, really! But it's far to soggy and boggy, and I don't want to do it anyway...

It feels like really odd climatic conditions.

[Arctic Hare]

A generally good day here, 14.3 °C max and with a fair bit of sunshine. Some annoyingly persistent light rain in the morning which didn't stop until about 9:00. The odd nuisance value shower in the afternoon as well, so a completely dry day still seems a bit of a hen's teeth thing here. But in the sheltered café area (outdoors, but with a marquee-style roof) at the museum was doing a fine trade this afternoon. I stopped off for a coffee myself and it was genuinely pleasant to sit there. Could easily have been April.

The Severn is rushing along at a rate of knots and is almost as brown as during a big flood, but fortunately it's a metre below its banks and so for once we have a bit of breathing space. Agreed with SollyOlly about the wet and mud everywhere, though. Nobody much was walking on the grass in the park, probably to avoid sinking in the marsh!

[SollyOlly]

 Arctic Hare Oddly enough, I said to my daughter that "this would be a typical day in April in the old days"...!

[Weather Enthusiast91]

And once again, February is turning out to be more like a spring month rather than a winter month, as is the norm these days.

[SollyOlly]

 Weather Enthusiast91 Yes, with regularity these days/ years. As I recall, I think that the first half of Feb 2021 was wonderfully cold and wintry, but then the second half was (literally) balmy like this...? I might have got the year wrong, sorry. But the window for 'winter' is so small these days that an early bust can herald a complete bust...ie winter 2023/24!

Oh well, on to Spring. I can enjoy Spring, a decent variety of weather, and May is usually one of my favourite months - lots of daylight, dry-ish, pleasant sunshine but usually without the mad heat of a modern summer. As ever, we'll see...

[Weather Enthusiast91]

 SollyOlly Yes, you are correct - it is indeed Feb 2021.

It's a great pity that winter is in such short supply nowadays and I feel sorry for today's kids who may not get to experience proper snow. But yes, spring is a nice season. Generally pleasant temperatures and not overly humid. I also like the variety the season gives us. 

Edited February 19 by Weather Enthusiast91

[Iceman2606]

Late Winter Warmth - 15 February 2024 Time-Lapse

 

[Metwatch]

Was checking out the state of the River Sowe this afternoon around Wyken, and as I was leaving the sunset went pretty nuts, rather unexpected! 

 

Some compilations I made of the Sowe, on the ground and an aerial view. The areas that I was standing on this afternoon, compared to back during the worst of the flooding early January / early February it would be fully underwater, up to my thighs. Today it's still quite high and still a struggle to walk right next to the river in some spots! Might go higher again tomorrow

   

 

 

Edited February 21 by Metwatch

[Barbmac]

Lashing down with hail and rain here as a squall line comes through.

[Neil Harris]

Horrific morning out there. Some may say biblical.

Thankfully looking a lot drier from Friday. 

[SollyOlly]

This winter has been so awful (from a seasonal perspective) that I'm getting all excited at the prospect of a frost in the next couple of nights...woohoo.

[nobble]

Almost got snow on my bday ,

driving through Cannock chase area 

above 600 feet sleety rain

at 800ft almost snow

[Metwatch]

That's a goodbye to the constant mildness from this morning. Even been some snow on Welsh hills aided by evap cooling I'd think. Should be drier too once today's system fully clears, and Sunday's low is now expected to track over northern France so the cold rain doesn't reach us then.

[Snowshine]

Last year only 8mm of rain fell throughout the whole month, this year almost 150mm has fallen! This may be the wettest February on record here, and also one of the mildest.

Edited February 22 by Snowshine

[smistry]

 Snowshine We had 8mm in like 45 mins at 0800 earlier 

[Arctic Hare]

The River Severn is above the "top of normal level" er... level for the 786th time (ish) this winter. If the forecast stays as it is and Sunday isn't too bad, we should get away without serious flooding. Says something about the ridiculously wet last eight months that "get away without serious flooding" now feels like a win.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

 SollyOlly I have indeed been saying that soon we'll all end up hunting for frost, let alone snow. 

Edited February 22 by Weather Enthusiast91

[Weather Enthusiast91]

 Arctic Hare Everything is waterlogged here in this neck of the woods and no doubt elsewhere across the country. We are certainly overdue a few months of below average rainfall now.