Spring 2024

[Summer8906]

4 minutes ago, SunnyG said:

Spring what spring? Was it 2013 that we got crappy weather until mid July? This may be even worse.

April 2013 was actually quite dry and sunny. Just the second week was bad though the first week, though dry, had very lifeless countryside due to the cold March.

May was a bit meh in the middle but started and ended well. June was just cloudy and boring, though often dry.

The July hot spell set in on the 5th.

Yes, I'd definitely take 2013 over 2024. An infinitely more interesting start to the year.

[SunnyG]

 Summer8906 Maybe where you are, but in London it was a different story... like last year, they had great May weather in Wales and other locations in the West, but here in London it was dire.

Typical, my a*se.

 

 

Edited March 28 by SunnyG

[LetItSnow!]

 Summer8906 April 2013 is a month with interesting variety from memory. The month started completely frozen and I remember being in the back of the car on the 4th with gale force, I think north-easterly winds, driving snow and no vegetation. Could have been a mid-January winter storm. However, I remember warm sunshine late in the month, so much so that we drove with the top down. It was a gloriously sunny afternoon and warm from memory with it being our first day in the low 20s, think it was the 23rd. Didn't last long before it went cold again but that couple days stopped the month from being extremely cold.

[SunnyG]

 LetItSnow! I don't have your memory of weather All I recall is being so cold and miserable that year that I decided to chuck my job and travel away from the UK. And so I did. This year may be another of those times...

[LetItSnow!]

Checked and I was right as for about two days we had this lovely warm ridge

 

We had another short lived warm spell on May 6th too but generally the spring was very cold. I remember it well.

[damianslaw]

 Summer8906 2024 so far has followed a very similiar trajectory to 1998, Dec 97 included... April was a chilly wet affair, but we saw a 10 day very warm sunny dry spell early-mid May. Sadly it all imploded and the second half of May and whole summer was cool and wet.. it was a super el nino followed by quick la nina transition... again very similiar to 23-24....

[B87]

 Summer8906 2013 had below average temperatures and sunshine for the first 6 months of the year, including the coldest March on record. That spring was horrible!

[Summer8906]

 SunnyG Fair enough.

Yes, this weather is absolutely not typical. You can count on the fingers of one hand the other years which had such dire conditions end of March, beginning of April. 1983, 1998, 2018. And that's about it!

 

[Summer8906]

 damianslaw Down here May 1998 was a little bit better than that. The early Bank Holiday weekend was reasonably decent then after a dull few days, warm or even hot sunshine arrived on the 8th and persisted until the 20th. The rest of the month was a bit meh but not terrible.

June 1998, appalling in every way, almost as bad as 2012.

July 1998, dryish but very cool and very cloudy. OK in 2nd half at times with two semi-decent Saturdays on the trot (18th and 25th I think) with temps of about 21C, light winds and partly sunny conditions. Worst weather around the weekend of the 11th and 12th.

August 1998 was rather warm and sunny though apparently worse in the north.

I'd prefer something better than 1998 but even a carbon-copy 1998 repeat would be an improvement in the May-Aug period over the past 9 months!

Edited March 28 by Summer8906

[B87]

 Summer8906 If we got May and August 1998 I'd be happy, though we also need something a lot better than those in June, July, September and October. 

[damianslaw]

 Summer8906 Ah yes couldn't quite remember how long the warm dry spell lasted in 1998, I confuse it with 2008 which there were close parallels with winter- spring- summer wise, but other than first half May was probably worse. 

Edited March 28 by damianslaw

[raz.org.rain]

 Summer8906 I'd be more than happy if we got a summer 2018 to be fair, hopefully it's considerably more likely.

[AderynCoch]

Greetings from Cancún in Mexico. It's already very sultry here - I can't imagine what August is like!

I'm hoping to see the total solar eclipse in Mazatlán on 8th April.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

March is commonly described as " In like a lion and out like a lamb". But this year it has been the other way round.

[StingJet]

 Weather Enthusiast91

Aye a bit blowy down south 
Not very often I am in the centre of 967MB LP that is n't rattling through 
Very odd

[Summer8906]

Wouldn't mind betting that in this area, March 2024 will be even wetter than 2023.

2023's rainfall seemed to be mostly of the steady type while this year we seem to have been plagued by unseasonal deluges more like autumn or early winter, perhaps due to high SSTs.

It has been slightly less dull than 2023 with OK spells from the 6th-8th and again from the 20th-24th but overall every bit as unpleasant as last year.

I suspect we'll end up one of the 3 wettest Marches since 1950 here - especially if the next lot of prolonged rain sets in before Sunday midnight.

[raz.org.rain]

Some carrot dangling providing a glimmer of hope, ideally it's a trend setter... 

 

Edited March 28 by raz.org.rain

[MP-R]

 damianslaw Although I don't personally remember June 1998, I would say June 2008 was considerably better... the month had a fair bit of sunny weather varying from warm to occasionally hot to cool. Overall dry though, bar a few days. A lot of July 2008 I would say was worse than 1998, but the hot spell later in the month beat anything 1998 delivered. The Augusts are the most different for sure.

 raz.org.rain Funnily enough I did catch the iphone weather app with an 18C and 19C for the end of next week before it downgraded to mid teens. Not that they're accurate at all, but maybe whatever feeds the app is on to something.

[Don]

 raz.org.rain An early plume there with heat building over Spain and north Africa.  A sign of things to come?

[SunnyG]

 raz.org.rain Nah, that's sci-fi 

[Summer8906]

 MP-R Yes, June 2008 was infinitely better than June 1998.

June 1998 was plain horrific. We had a decent weekend on the 6th/7th (bright and fairly warm), a hot day on the 19th, a hot thundery day on the 20th and a warm bright day on the 21st. The rest of the time, constant deluges and dull weather, it was horrendous. Very close to June 2012 for awfulness.

June 2008 on the other hand was mostly settled, fine and sunny. The only interruption of note was a cool showery interlude mid-month, and even that wasn't bad with nice clear northerlies and aesthetically-pleasing Cbs. There was however a somewhat nagging cool W-ly wind (accompanied by bright sunshine) around the solstice, but as it was only June it was much less irritating than if it had occurred in July or August, when you want it warm, balmy and with little wind.

July 2008 I would rate higher than July 1998. July 1998 was dryish but cool and very cloudy.

July 2008 was poor from around the 3rd to the 10th, then cool but rather dry - and not that dull - for about 10 days and then hot for 8 days. The 29th and 31st were poor with the 30th being a further warm day.

August 2008 was of course much, much worse than 1998. You could say that June 2008 and August 1998 were similar, and June 1998 and August 2008 similar. And both Julys on the cool and cloudy side but neither were overly wet.

Edited March 29 by Summer8906

[summer blizzard]

 damianslaw I don't think one can ever really tell what the summer will be like from the spring. 

Spring 2012 saw the brilliant March and a glorious final third of May but still went for the jugular. 

Spring 2006 I believe had the latest 20C since 1996 at the time but a few days later bumped to the high twenties.

[Methuselah]

 summer blizzard: I agree. The spring of 1983 was pretty dire. But the following July and August, in utter contrast, were both stonkers!

[damianslaw]

 Methuselah I was musing about wet springs being followed by dry warm summers, 1983 may well be the best example of this. 

[kold weather]

 damianslaw even 2018 has that pattern, though obviously by May we shifted conclusively away into the drier pattern that held until the end of July.

I agree that nothing can really be gleamed by looking just at Spring. I'll admit the portents aren't great on the enso department if we do snap into a rapid developing la nina, however its also not the absolute master of summer either...