Moans, ramps and banter

[A Face like Thunder]

 Met. I am trying to imagine what the start of lockdown in late March 2020 would have been like had the weather not been sunny and quite warm. But yes, I take your point otherwise.

[baddie]

 raz.org.rain It would be a P**stake if it didnt come to fruition

[Metwatch]

March has rarely been a good month for something warmer or drier, especially pre equinox. I understand many want it after a rubbish winter but the reality is it's usually a continuation of winter even when it's near average too. After the equinox though we can start to get some nice spells, i.e March 2022, last 2 days of 2021, 2020 I guess as well but not much memories of that until the April came. 2012 is the most known of course.

Edited March 10 by Metwatch

[baddie]

 Metwatch April only seems to be good in the middle. The end is almost always wet, dull and/or cold too, and the first 10 days are usually "meh" (Last April had a decent start, and 2020 was good from the 4th)

[reef]

 baddie You've got to be kidding. April has been the most dry, sunny and warmer than average of all the Spring months in recent years.

Locally, since 2007, we've had 10 here with 21mm of rainfall or less (the average is 46.7mm). All but 6 have had more than 110% of sunshine in the last 22 years and 8 of those had 200+ hours. 12 Aprils since 2002 have reached 20C or more, compared to just 5 in the 22 years before.

2020, 2021 and 2022 had 6.6mm, 2.4mm and 4.0mm of rainfall and 227, 248 and 218hrs of sunshine.

It has been reliably the best month of the year for dry, sunny and warm conditions relative to average.

[Arctic Hare]

Honestly, the MetO short outlook (Tue-Thu) forecast for the W Mids reads like it was thrown together at random:

"Dry but mostly cloudy on Tuesday with light winds. thicker cloud and rain arriving on Wednesday and Thursday, with strengthening winds and a chance of some rain at times."

Yes, I would have thought that thicker cloud and rain arriving *would* mean a chance of some rain at times...

(Also, a further kick in the teeth as 12 hours ago this part of the forecast had Wed/Thu mostly dry with some brightness...)

[baddie]

 reef Your best bet for good weather is always the middle two weeks of April. I would say the start is often a redux of winter, but anything wet often comes in the last week. Not saying April is ever wet

 

[SunSean]

 reef I agree with this, April & September are often the 2 most reliably decent months of the year.

[baddie]

 SunSean Im noticing May is improving a lot. Before 2016 we had so many rubbish or mediocre Mays and since then 2018, 2020 and 2023 (Not in the East) were classics, with 2021 probably being a thing ceasing to happen. Hoping August does the same too

Edited March 10 by baddie

[Frigid]

 baddie We did have May 2008/10/12 which all had quite warm spells, especially 2012. I often rate May more than June as a more reliable summer month.

[NEVES SCREAMER]

How utterly typical Tue to Fri stuck in  the office is bone dry. Come the weekend and Sunday is an absolute washout. Just happens time and time again. It's about time we had the weekend on Wednesday and Thursday. Guaranteed decent weather every week. 

[stainesbloke]

The day went from bad to worse here, absolutely chucked it down frequently throughout the afternoon. Huge puddles and surface water everywhere. Poor worms can’t cope

[danm]

Yesterday was lovely. Today has been disgusting, no other word for it. 

[baddie]

 stainesbloke Thats the dry week we had undone and its back to flooding

[I remember Atlantic 252]

do we ever have a decent last week of April? definitely the most unsettled week

[ANYWEATHER]

Must be one of the most depressing days weather wise that the weather this time of year has to offer. If today was the summary of what winter was like ….. today was the day .

[baddie]

 I remember Atlantic 252 Last one was 2011 (Late-April 2015 was sunny, but often cold and breezy)

[NEVES SCREAMER]

Disgusting day. Cold. Wet. Rain the entire day. 6c/7c. Still raining now. But it is the weekend so why is it even an issue. I note mid week is spring like 16c and I am stuck at work. 

[raz.org.rain]

Horrible day today. Northerly freezing cold wind, constantly raining. The kind of conditions we can look forward to if the SSW delivers the so called cold synoptics that some are so desperate for.

[Arctic Hare]

 NEVES SCREAMER Let's be honest, though, even if it is 16 °C it won't feel like it because the chance of rain getting in the way and preventing any fully nice days at all is about 99.99999%...

[NEVES SCREAMER]

 Arctic Hare Agreed

[East Lancs Rain]

I don’t know about anyone else but I tend to find bbc weather forecasts too pessimistic when it comes to rainfall… They almost always forecast every day to be raining here, whereas the met office app is more optimistic. Neither outlook is very inspiring though, to say the least.

[East Lancs Rain]

7 hours ago, baddie said:

Your best bet for good weather is always the middle two weeks of April. I would say the start is often a redux of winter, but anything wet often comes in the last week. Not saying April is ever wet

I agree about the first week of April often being cold. Easter is often cold too. One of those regularities of the weather, like how the first week of September is often dry, sunny and warm.

 

8 hours ago, baddie said:

Im noticing May is improving a lot. Before 2016 we had so many rubbish or mediocre Mays and since then 2018, 2020 and 2023 (Not in the East) were classics, with 2021 probably being a thing ceasing to happen. Hoping August does the same too

May 2017, 2019 and 2022 were pretty good too. May 2019 was rather cool, but it was also quite dry (and quite sunny I remember).

1 hour ago, raz.org.rain said:

Horrible day today. Northerly freezing cold wind, constantly raining. The kind of conditions we can look forward to if the SSW delivers the so called cold synoptics that some are so desperate for.

Strange that. No rain there. Still cold and cloudy though, but only a bit of drizzle at most. I am usually wetter than you, must be a rain shadow effect because of the northerly wind.

 

 

7 hours ago, Frigid said:

I often rate May more than June as a more reliable summer month.

May is often the best month of the year in the north west. Often sunny, dry and fairly warm, while eastern areas tend to be cold and foggy thanks to easterly winds.

[MP-R]

 SunSean April in the west and September in the east perhaps. Don’t rate September here personally… almost always falls apart after the first week. 

[In Absence of True Seasons]

 East Lancs Rain At least some days on that forecast are darker grey and others lighter grey! Keeps things interesting and varied eh