Spring 2024

[B87]

 damianslaw Average rainfall and sunshine for spring at Heathrow:

Rainfall: 127mm

Rain days: 25 days

Sunshine: 508 hours

Compared with Mar-Apr 2024 so far...

Rainfall: 154mm

Rain days: 24 days

Sunshine: 216 hours

For May to make up for spring so far, it will need to have pretty much zero rainfall and around 290 hours of sun, and that is just to scrape the seasonal average.

[Metwatch]

34 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

This thread fast becoming a summer chat thread, there is a separate thread for discussing summer prospects. Alas with only May left I expect this thread to become more one of reflecting on the Spring just gone

I do feel this thread and the moans thread should be joined up as it was the case last year and for each season. This one is pretty quiet so can't see much of a point in it, but suppose can still keep it running; there is quite a lot of threads which I notice often overlap; model emotions, moans thread and this one, either way I'm not overly bothered.

Keeping it on topic, looks like it's drier from now, but haven't had much sun, currently 10C. Tuesday looking nice for the last day of this forgettable month. Only one way up for temperatures from today forward.

Edited April 28 by Metwatch

[Addicks Fan 1981]

 damianslaw would it be a possibility if the posts I made then and other posters made were migrated over to the summer thread then please?   

Edited April 28 by Addicks Fan 1981

[Greyhound81]

 B87 Will this be the wettest January - April on record?  Could this recent weather have anything to do with the AMOC getting weaker or is there no evidence of that?

Edited April 28 by Greyhound81

[raz.org.rain]

 Greyhound81 very unlikely. A weaker AMOC would result in a noticeable drop in precipitation in both winter and summer. Winters would observe a colder and drier trend whereas summers would be considerably drier and hotter. Under a partial or full collapse scenario, you'd see the same trend but very amplified. 
 

Here's an article from a few weeks ago that discusses the implications for summer. Ironically a collapse scenario would make for a much more pronounced and predictable seasonal variability in this part of the world, we can pretty much bank on cold dry winters and hot dry summers.

[TheOgre]

This lopsided April temperature wise has had the blessing amongst the gloom of having a longer blossom season than normal round here. The very mild nights in March and early April made blossom arrive early this year and the cold of late has preserved them through the whole of April.

[danm]

21 hours ago, raz.org.rain said:

Winters would observe a colder and drier trend whereas summers would be considerably drier and hotter.

Sounds good to me! 

[ANYWEATHER]

Beautiful sunrise, accentuating the Alto-Cumulus clouds at 5:30 this morning.

[kold weather]

Finally reaching the time of year where you staet to legitimately need stinker synoptic for the weather outside to be dreadful.

Today is no great shakes synoptic wise but under the sun things warm up fairly nicely.

Still even a great May is now not going to stop this spring from being wetter than normal, we are basically there already now.

[sundog]

Happy Walpurgis night 

Pagan Holidays: Walpurgis Night and how a British lady went from Catholic saint, to Germanic goddess, to witch and gave us a second Halloween - Witchery Art: A Gothic Cabinet of Curiosities and Mysteries

WWW.GOTHICHORRORSTORIES.COM

---

“Walpurgis Night was when, according to the belief of millions of people, the devil was abroad—when the graves were opened and the dead came forth and...

 

[damianslaw]

May tomorrow! Firmly a month in the driest half of the year, sunniest quarter of the year, and marks the start of the warmest half of the year, yes April is colder than October, and generally is the best month of the year, just edges June (in my opinion), what's not to like! Its the antithesis to its opposite compatriot, November!

There is strong semblence in the opposing forcing effects of the calandar months -

Jan (hard winter state), July (heady summer state)

Feb ( winter hangover), August (summer fadeness)

March (spring sluggishness), September (mellow wistfulness)

April (spring flourish), October (Autumn glory)

May (green goodness), November (decay drabness)

December ( festive darkness), June ( golden lightness)

 

Edited April 30 by damianslaw

[LetItSnow!]

I’ll be keeping a close eye on rainfall this month as April has kept the ongoing wetter than average conditions since July last year. I already spoke about it a couple weeks ago but we’ve already surpassed 1960-1961 and 2000-2001 in terms of length and appear to now be the second longest ever spell of wetter than average months behind January 1872 through to January 1873, 13 months. We’d need to keep wetter than average weather through to August 2024 to beat it. A thundery start to May with troughs around the place making sure we’re not off to a dry start… Now we see if high pressure comes in and if it does, will it hold? 

Fascinating times. In a perverse sense I want it to be beat. All eyes on rainfall this May. 

[SunSean]

Now that April 2024 has finished, I have the stats to show just how BAD this month was, in terms of sunshine...

Shoeburyness-

Average number of sunny days (50%+ sunshine) is 13 and this gets achieved almost every year- April 2016 (13) April 2017 (12) April 2018 (13) April 2019 (14) April 2020 (19) April 2021 (17) April 2022 (14)

April 2023 managed the lowest ever total of just 8 and I didn't expect to see a number this low again but April 2024 came along and shouted, "hold my beer!" April 2024 managed just 5 days. 5!!!!!!! Absolute bottom of the barrel stuff!! The average number of 50%+ days for December & January is 8 for crying out loud...

Added to this that February 2024 managed only 4 days out of 29 with 50%+ and March 2024 managed also a pathetic 4 out of 31 and we stand at 13 days of 50%+ sunshine out of the last 91 days. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. This is the lowest number of sunny days from the Feb to Apr period on record for Shoeburyness. The next lowest is 2023 funnily enough, with a rubbish 22 days. 2024 is THAT much worse than 2023 already!

But wait...there's more...

April 2024 was in fact, so bad here, that it is now the new worst month ever in the April to September period in terms of proportional sunshine! Yay!! What a time to be alive! It used to be July 2023, 2nd to last with 32.2% of available sunshine achieved & bottom was the dreadful June 2016 with 29.9% of available sunshine achieved but April 2024? 29.7% of available sunshine achieved- A new absolute low, dethroning June 2016.

124 hours of sunshine in April is basically a bang average, nothing to note March but to get this figure when the days are supposedly getting brighter & the evenings longer, is a massive blow. April is normally one of my favourite months but it has been getting worse & worse every year now unfortunately, culminating in the new "dullest month ever!" in 2024!

One thing I worry about as I wake up to yet another dreary gloom filled "October" morning, thinking it can't get any duller... Will May 2024 once again shout "Hold my beer!!!"? Looking at the forecasts & horrific model outputs...I think my fears will be confirmed.

All that's left is hope, that the weather gods will finally shine their light on us after one of the dullest era's in living memory. 

 

[sundog]

Happy May Day

 

[In Absence of True Seasons]

Tomorrow's forecast description sums up Spring 2024 in a nutshell. 

[Wade]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Yet another wet month bagged, Spring 2024 pretty much guaranteed to be wetter/much wetter than average unless May 2024 is remarkably dry which I can't see happening  

Edited May 1 by Wade

[*Stormforce~beka*]

Well April was a good month here. I use good by the 2023 set standard and not the pre 2023. Pre I would have said it was dire. However ... I saw a whole week of sun a week or 2 back. Albeit hazy beggars can't be choosers ... So based on the fact I haven't see a week since last Sept/Oct makes it a good month!

[danm]

Met Office anomaly maps are out for April.

Overall, it was about average for temperatures...

 

Unsurprisingly for most areas, it was wetter than average...

 

...and again, unsurprisingly, it was duller than average almost everywhere...

 

Looking at the number of days of rainfall, it was above average almost everywhere for days of rain over 1mm:

 

...but in terms of the number of days with rainfall above 10mm, it's the north and west that have been above average:

So exceptionally wet in these parts, which can seen on the overall anomaly maps for rainfall totals with the far NW of England and S Scotland.

 

Here are the actual values for reference:

 

 

 

[Addicks Fan 1981]

Today 22 C was achieved at two locations so its the warmest day of the year so far.    

[damianslaw]

 Wade Over twice the normal rainfall in much of Cumbria combined with well below average sunshine cancels out the mild temps, indeed only a little above average, especially given they coincided with rain and dull windy weather. A very poor month, bit of a shocker given April is often our driest month with decent sunshine. The dry weather at the end was far too cold to enjoy. 

Edited May 1 by damianslaw

[Wade]

 damianslaw Oddly enough I live near to that isolated brown patch in the Rutland area on that anomaly map and that makes sense because I recorded 36mm for this month so not very wet here at all but countrywide for sun and dry weather lovers it has been hideous seeing Aprils tend to be decent. 

[B87]

London, April 2024 - slightly warmer than average due to mild nights, very wet and very cloudy.



Avg max: 15.0c (0.0c)
Avg min: 7.2c (+1.2c)
Mean: 11.1c (+0.6c)

Rainfall: 68.6mm (162%)
Sunshine: 137.7 hours (78%)

[Snowyowl9]

What a loopy couple of days..Scotland is having a heatwave while the south is cold..

[ANYWEATHER]

Don’t get much worse for early May . Temperature around 9/10c and intermittent rain and a cloud base as low as 800ft shrouding the top Of Bredon Hill.

[Dare i watch the GFS 06Z]

Wall-to-wall sunshine and 23c from tomorrow and a week onward, so  extreme well deserved after what feels like a non-existent spring/pre summer so far.