Moans, ramps and banter

[winterfreak]

Sick to the back teeth of this endless carp weather. Unbelievable how poor it’s been fir so long. Agghhhh

[In Absence of True Seasons]

 B87 You're right about grass browning/yellowing off in summer. It's not "nonsense". Especially for SE and Southern England. 

It's happened nearly every year I can remember since my young childhood. Playing in the local parks with my friends during school summer holidays...the grass would always be a bit "straw like" come late July / early August. It bounces back near immediately after summer. Perfectly normal and signs of an actual summer season.

Last summer was the only year in my life where grass in my garden and local area has basically zero yellowing. Which, obviously, is indicative of the type of high summer we had (or lack thereof).

[marky810]

The airport atis gives 7c in a straight 10kt northerly. Abysmal.

[MP-R]

 In Absence of True Seasons It happens at least every other year even here and we have double the annual rainfall of London lol.

[*Stormforce~beka*]

 Nick L YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 johncamCONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CryoraptorA303]

15 hours ago, B87 said:

That is a standard thing that happens in any normal summer.

No it isn't. It didn't even happen in 2013, let alone mixed bags like 2016. Yellow/brown grass means it's been hot and dry for a prolonged period. 2018 was the first time it happened since 2006.

You'd probably have to go down to southern France for it to be a normal or expected occurence. Yellowed grass is the hallmark of a very hot and dry summer here, only climate deniers in my experience seem to think it should be a normal occurence.

It honestly seems like you think a normal summer in the SE should be like southern France. I think you may be operating at about 50 years ahead of schedule.

[CryoraptorA303]

1 hour ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

It's happened nearly every year I can remember since my young childhood. Playing in the local parks with my friends during school summer holidays...the grass would always be a bit "straw like" come late July / early August. It bounces back near immediately after summer. Perfectly normal and signs of an actual summer season.

??? I believe you're remembering two or three exceptional summers (likely 1995, 2003 and 2006 with a hint of August 1997 in there). It most certainly does not happen almost every year, even these days.

I do have quite a few memories of it being super dry and hot in 2006 with yellow grass everywhere (2018+ is outside the realms of young childhood), but I also remember plenty of summers where that wasn't the case. In my lifetime I can clearly remember 2006, 2018, 2019 for a short while, 2022 and June 2023 having dried out grass. Even August 2020 didn't quite get there and neither did July 2013 even though June had been dry as well.

Edited April 23 by CryoraptorA303

[Northwest NI]

 stainesbloke 100%

[B87]

 CryoraptorA303 Yellow grass absolutely happened in 2013, and 2016 for that matter. It even happened in 2012 (in August and September).

The only years where I don't recall it happening were 2007 and 2008. 

If you are talking about totally brown and dead grass, then 1995, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2018 and 2022 

Edited April 23 by B87

[Northwest NI]

 CryoraptorA303

Theres a “schedule”?

I’m no climate denier but that type of statement is the opposite, climate ramping.

[Josh Rubio]

Looks like it’s turning quite a bit wetter for most of us for the latter part of this week and into next week. 

[CryoraptorA303]

 Northwest NI It wasn't meant to be taken literally.

[LetItSnow!]

 CryoraptorA303 I disagree about the browning of grass in summer comment too actually. Many summers you can have a slight discolouration. I can recall 2013, 2016 and even August 2020 before the brunt of the unsettled weather. I don't think it's an every year occurence though, but it is common. Grass and mud are quite fickle at surface level. Similar to how mud can become dry and cracked after a dry week or two even if its been unsettled (depending on soil type and area I suppose, but I've definitely seen that).

[Freeze]

The only year I can recall in the last 10 or so  year where grass stayed green was in 2021 here, even last year it browed off in may/ June.

[CryoraptorA303]

8 minutes ago, LetItSnow! said:

Many summers you can have a slight discolouration. I can recall 2013, 2016 and even August 2020 before the brunt of the unsettled weather

Not really the same as going yellow though. When I think of going yellow I think of full on masses of yellows and browns in fields, not the odd patch looking a bit sad.

8 minutes ago, LetItSnow! said:

Grass and mud are quite fickle at surface level. Similar to how mud can become dry and cracked after a dry week or two even if its been unsettled (depending on soil type and area I suppose, but I've definitely seen that).

That's actually happening here now, even though the actual soil moisture is very high, it's been so wet for so long now that the top layers are starting to degrade or disintegrate the moment it starts seeing a net loss of water, which is obviously happening now with the lack of stormy weather that we saw in March and longer periods without rainfall addition. With the way some of the open fields are looking now (with a lot of grass washed away due to said disintegration and drowning), you'd think it's been dry for the past five years! It's actually quite incredible how quickly the water can disappear in high spring between the strong Sun, high ambient temps (most of the time) and the spring bloom drinking all of it. I suppose that's how you end up with something like the summer 2018 drought, have the weather turn dry right as the Sun is getting really strong and temps are rising. Within a couple of weeks despite the wet weather of March and April it was already dry.

Edited April 23 by CryoraptorA303

[Northwest NI]

 LetItSnow! correct!

Mud is already beginning to dry and crack and it’s only been dry with temperatures in mid teens since Friday 

[raz.org.rain]

 CryoraptorA303 I have a theory that above average rainfall in winter and spring would actually render fauna more susceptible to heat stress. The foliage grows much denser in response to higher availability of water and responds more negatively when that resource inevitably drops. On paper this poses a much higher wildfire risk going into summer as there's more of an abundance of dried foliage to fuel the fires.

[richie3846]

 In Absence of True Seasons yes it's very common over this way too. Most summer seasons see some sort of yellow grass stage. Some years it's really yellow by the end of September. It does depend on soil type also, some areas are the first to turn, usually sandy soils, with the clay tending to go patchy brown instead of full on brown. It could even happen this year, it doesn't take long, 4 or 5 weeks of dry weather in summer usually does the job. 

[richie3846]

Brown grass happens most years in this area. It can be down to soil type as well as weather. Soil moisture deficits of over 100mm are usually enough to cause it to happen, and this occurrence is in most years of the last 10 to 15. It's not a south of France phenomenon. It even happens as far west as Cirencester. Witney and Carterton are particularly prone because they seem to have sandy soils. Many summers reach deficits of 125 to 150mm in the south east as far west as Cirencester

[CryoraptorA303]

So it was overcast for most of the day, and we had a brief shower, but the Sun is coming out for the afternoon it seems. This is what I mean, it's nowhere near as bad as March was. Both February and March were constant rainfests with virtually no Solar appearances at all round here. Over this month since the first week, the Sun has made an appearance virtually every day.

So far south Kent seems to have blown the monthly average, but they were already close on around the 10th so they've clearly seen a drier than average mid-month. North Kent on the other hand is still quite below and along with Essex, south London, most of Norfolk, Lincolnshire, north Wessex and the far coast of the Sussexes and Hampshire might actually achieve a drier than average April. However it will nationally overall still be very wet with the SW Peninsula, Wales, the far north of England and Scotland recording levels of rainfall closer in line with a somewhat wet October. Sunshine also won't be completely horrific in the drier areas, certainly below average yes but far from the dullest month in recent history.

Edited April 23 by CryoraptorA303

[*Stormforce~beka*]

Brown grass practically every year here! 

[B87]

 CryoraptorA303 Heathrow is on 37mm and 99 sun hours for the month so far, and with plenty of rainfall and not much sun forecast for the final week of April, it will indeed be another wet month (and probably the 11th in a row with 50mm+), as well as being very dull. I doubt we will get more than 120 hours once the month is over, comfortably in the top 10 dullest.

[CryoraptorA303]

 B87 Depends on if the area sees anymore notable downpours, so far the last ~2 weeks or so have largely been confined to sub-millimetre showers with a lot of the total coming from the first week. 50mm seems a bit of a stretch for Heathrow at this point.

Either way, 50mm will be a lot lower than the previous totals for February and March, and on par with January that was mostly dry on its own but saw two big storms either side of the month. As I've said, you have to look at the bigger picture; this month has been significantly less wet than most of the last six*. Sub-50 is going to be nearly half of March's total for most of the south and way below February's 100+ in many areas. Not the outcome people wanted, of course, it's still not been a historic April, but it's a step up from where we were.

*In the SE, I'm aware that it's been very wet further west and north.

Edited April 23 by CryoraptorA303

[B87]

 CryoraptorA303 It's still wetter than average for April (42mm), and not what we want going into the good part of the year.

120 hours of sun for April is absolutely atrocious and would be the 6th dullest on record (after the 3rd dullest December, and very dull Feb/Mar period). April 2012 and 2018 were sunnier than that.

Based on the last 18 months, I'm going to say that we will get over 50mm, and the rubbish will continue into May (probably another 50mm and sub-200 hour month).

Edited April 23 by B87

[CryoraptorA303]

 B87 Whatever, if you and others want to keep being pessimistic then you can.