Weather highlights of 2023?

[Metwatch]

Thought i'd also do a top 10 countdown of the most interesting weather days this year from my pov:

 

10) 9th March - 7cm of snow on roofs

9) 2nd December - freezing fog then 2-3cm of snow falling in half an hour early morning.

8. 29th November - very low atmospheric fog / inversion during morning starting right at my doorstep.

7) 9th July - thunderstorm in Telford with decent structure and was not chasing storms specifically.

6) 9th September - impressive convection in Lincolnshire and night time lightning.

5) 18th June - well formed shelf cloud on my birthday near Melton Mowbray.

4) 18th September - strong thunderstorm, closest to CG lightning but couldn't catch / see visible CG.

3) 12th June - incredible CG lightning display, and also cloud structure.

2) 9th May - second closest i've been to CG lightning, amazing cloud structure.

1) 11th June - One of the strongest thunderstorms i've seen since 2020 or even 2018, picture perfect updrafts, before entering storm with constant thunder and prolific lightning.

 

The top 7 are all thunderstorm related, with the bottom 3 snow / cold related. Active year for thunderstorms!

 

A special mention to February 6th which gave the best sunset of the year with an amazing afterglow of cirrocumulus clouds.

Edited December 29, 2023 by Metwatch

[Freeze]

11 minutes ago, Metwatch said:

Thought i'd also do a top 10 countdown of the most interesting weather days this year from my pov:

 

10) 9th March - 7cm of snow on roofs

9) 2nd December - freezing fog then 2-3cm of snow falling in half an hour early morning.

8. 29th November - very low atmospheric fog / inversion during morning starting right at my doorstep.

7) 9th July - thunderstorm in Telford with decent structure and was not chasing storms specifically.

6) 9th September - impressive convection in Lincolnshire and night time lightning.

5) 18th June - well formed shelf cloud on my birthday near Melton Mowbray.

4) 18th September - strong thunderstorm, closest to CG lightning but couldn't catch / see visible CG.

3) 12th June - incredible CG lightning display, and also cloud structure.

2) 9th May - second closest i've been to CG lightning, amazing cloud structure.

1) 11th June - One of the strongest thunderstorms i've seen since 2020 or even 2018, picture perfect updrafts, before entering storm with constant thunder and prolific lightning.

 

The top 7 are all thunderstorm related, with the bottom 3 snow / cold related.

 

A special mention to February 6th which gave the best sunset of the year with an amazing afterglow of cirrocumulus clouds.

Sounds like you had quite the year for storms, think I only had one storm here this year early in the morning around 6am some time in June.

[Summer8906]

On 27/12/2023 at 12:22, In Absence of True Seasons said:

Not sure if it was different in your area or you mean May to June? 

Because July was, for the vast majority of the month, unrelentingly overcast with many wet days and multiple cool days too with max day temps of 15-17c. 

Sorry, yes - typo! I meant May 13 to June 25!

[Summer8906]

18 hours ago, Freeze said:

Sounds like you had quite the year for storms, think I only had one storm here this year early in the morning around 6am some time in June.

I'm not sure whether I had a single good thunderstorm in the UK throughout 2023. I had one or two abroad, but in the UK I think it was just the occasional rumble of thunder in a shower.

Wonder if another symptom of UK climate change is less cold uppers, hence less thunder?

[Freeze]

28 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

I'm not sure whether I had a single good thunderstorm in the UK throughout 2023. I had one or two abroad, but in the UK I think it was just the occasional rumble of thunder in a shower.

Wonder if another symptom of UK climate change is less cold uppers, hence less thunder?

I don't know, I usually only get thunderstorms from warm uppers being Spanish plumes.

[Summer8906]

2 minutes ago, Freeze said:

I don't know, I usually only get thunderstorms from warm uppers being Spanish plumes.

We do also seem to get less in the way of good polar-maritime thundery outbreaks too though. We get more in the way of bland wishy-washy rPm air and less "true" Pm from the northwest. The latter is both sunnier and more thundery and thus more interesting.

Also a hot-weather thundery spell would presumably be more active if really cold uppers are moving in over the hot air at the surface; ironically one of our best thundery spells of late was in April 2018, presumably for this reason.

Edited December 30, 2023 by Summer8906

[Addicks Fan 1981]

1 hour ago, Summer8906 said:

We do also seem to get less in the way of good polar-maritime thundery outbreaks too though. We get more in the way of bland wishy-washy rPm air and less "true" Pm from the northwest. The latter is both sunnier and more thundery and thus more interesting.

Also a hot-weather thundery spell would presumably be more active if really cold uppers are moving in over the hot air at the surface; ironically one of our best thundery spells of late was in April 2018, presumably for this reason.

I think el niño has disrupted our summer and made our jet stream more southerly tracking at times, July was a prime example of it, however June was glorious.  I think it though was a pretty bog standard UK summer overall because the fact we had an average August conter balanced the great June and not so good July.   

I am also anticipating more extremes of weather throughout the next five years, climate change can't be abated now and even if we have a slightly lower solar cycle it's not going to be enough to counteract climate change.  

The long and short of it is its too late and the horse door is well and truly bolted now.   

[baddie]

March 24th and 25th (My Birthday) is another that sticks out. I can recall plenty of warm sunny spells and thundery hail showers. My birthday in particular was so humid, it felt like June

April 4th 2023 is one day I vividly remember. I woke up to a frost painted garden, under -4c temperatures. The same day was crystal clear skies and almost pleasant temperatures. Felt refreshing after weeks of dull and wet conditions, and possibly my favourite day of the year weather-wise

June 18th was one that I also remember. I was woken up at 4am by extremely loud thunder and lightning. The afternoon also brought in torrential thunderstorms, leading to flash flooding. I recall another thunderstorm on June 12th that brought in more frequent lightning. I remember a "close-call" thunderstorm on June 25th after a hot day, but produced nothing more than threatening cloud and light showers

September 26th is a good example of "unexpected". I woke up to torrential thunderstorms at 9am, despite the forecast saying it would be dry. The rest of the day was calm with sunny spells, and looked like nothing happened

Finally, the October warm spell is exceptionally memorable to me. It felt more like spring than summer/autumn, due to the hazy sunshine and the sight of new flowers locally on the 8th. I remember the 9th very well, due to the nature and scenery looking like early-May rather than early-October

Edited December 31, 2023 by baddie

[Roban]

The highlights for me have all been related to the amount of rain we have had in East Yorkshire. I think we are looking at wettest year in decades.

The year started nice with a very nice Jan and Feb.
March and April were very wet.

May was cold and breezy to start but got out nice towards mid month. 

June was nice till mid month then it got very stormy.

July was one of our wettest Julys in the last 50yrs. Still remember the weekend of the 22/23rd of July where it rained for 42 hrs straight. Unfortunately I had booked to do the castle Howard 10km and it was so wet they had to cancel the triathlon bikes as it was too dangerous.

August was wet with a few interludes of nice weather. 

sept started nice and then went wet

October was our wettest month the 75mm on the morning of the 29th, 10 days after babet was horrendous with lots of house locally flooded. 

Nov the rain continued and Dec also.

A long time since we have had 4 dry weeks since the middle of June.

The strange thing is the amount of hours of rain. Normally rain pushes through the east quickly, i have never know as many hours of rain. 10, 20, 40hrs for fronts is unprecedented. 

I am not sure if it was the position of the highs and lows or the jet streams, maybe those who know more could explain but it has been an unbelievable year for all the wrong reasons. 
 

So highlight of 2023 the fact tonight it will be gone :)

 

 

 

 

 

[Metwatch]

On 19/12/2023 at 01:47, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

The weather in March should have happened in February.

The weather in September should have happened in July.

A good way to show that is with 2023 seemingly the only year on record when the coldest day of the year nationally happened in spring and then the hottest day of the year occurred in autumn.

Night of the 8-9th March Altnaharra recording -16.0C, which I think is the coldest March temperature since 2010.

33.5C at Brogdale (Kent) on the 10th September.

Personally i'm glad the heatwave occured in September, if the same heat was 6 weeks earlier, it may have been as bad as August 2003 or even worse for both duration and severity combined.

Edited March 6 by Metwatch

[Met.]

Wasn't much of interest. A thunderstorm on 18th June and then one around 8th July provided the most interest. 18th June had a proper gulleywasher with hail included.

[WYorksWeather]

 Metwatch I think it could have been an absolute record-shattering heatwave even at a 7-day duration. The September 2023 heatwave had seven consecutive days over 30C, and four non-consecutive days over 32C. 

At an absolute minimum, you can probably add 4C if it happened 5-6 weeks earlier I would have said.

I mentioned on another thread that only 17 days have ever reached 36C or higher since the start of the 20th century (11 this century, so far). Adding 4C to each daily max means we would have had at least four days of 36C or higher, which is the most in any one year. It may also have threatened 1976's record (I believe?) of five consecutive days above 35C. At the upper end, it could even have achieved seven days at 36C or higher, which would just be absolutely extraordinary, though that is probably stretching it.

 

[Derecho]

    

[LetItSnow!]

 Metwatch The ultimate troll year really. Imagine the September heatwave occuring in July after the hot June. Would have made 1976 crawl into a hole out of despair. Kind of glad it didn't happen. A 17C June and a possible 20C July is just ridiculous. Then July's deluge coming in September instead. That part would have been believable though. Many a classic hot summer ended with a very wet September (1975, 1976, 1983, 1984, 1994, 1995, uncannily common actually).

[Azazel]

Crap year with a few tiny bits of interest.

We had quite a beefy thunderstorm in May I think it was. Surface based with some mean looking convection.

3 nice weeks in June

The September heatwave and then a really really solid 8-9/10 elevated night time thunderstorm that was actually quite violent. 

 

Our convective season in hampshire has definitely shifted to spring and autumn. Summer itself is absolutely devoid of convective interest these days.