Indeed this could be on the way, arctic air will flood down the isobars courtesy of a Greenland high by the weekend, In scotland and the far north of england snow could get down to quite low levels at times, however the more remarkable situation comes with the slackening of the isobars as a slack ridge forms over the uk later trapping the cold arctic air over the uk. This would mean unseasonably cold nights with -4C perhaps widely in parts of the midlands in sheltered spots. With such low temperatures I think there is a decent chance of some records being broken for the coldest ever may temperature particualry in England and West Wales.
Agreed
I'll be looking forward to it
Since being at my current location the lowest May temps i have are as follows:
2011 -1.9c (Mean min for month 6.60c)
2010 -4.9c (mean min for month 3.92c)
2009 2.3c (mean min for month 6.5c)
So maybe the -4.9c could be under threat..
The record min for 6th May is only -5.6c (1980) so if GFS is right we could be in with a shout on Sunday. Coldest May temp was -9.4c on 4th May 1941 and I doubt we get close to that anywhere this weekendNearest I've come to recording a May air frost here was +0.3c on 11th May 2005. At the moment I'm not expecting to see that record beaten.
Edited by user 02 May 2012 06:39:34(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
Nearest I've come to recording a May air frost here was +0.3c on 11th May 2005. At the moment I'm not expecting to see that record beaten.
Why not? I'd have thought an air frost is virtually certain in your location, looking at the output.
Look at the upper air temps & how slack the wind is I would say you have a chance of -2/-3 C sunday morning
S
Latest Met Office not showing anything particularly interesting temp wise for here just yet.
101
Looking at the charts Central and western areas look to be the worst affected, especially in the highlands of scotland, cumbria,west wales and the midlands among the favoured spots. Perhaps edinburough is too near the coast, and thus too exposed to the sea breeze.
Agreed - certainly not after the warmth of March brought everything on more quickly. A sharp frost could take out all of the apple blossom, which would be a disaster.
Edited by user 02 May 2012 11:24:05(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
Quite. The clematis (and we have a lot of them, very mature and younger) seem to have been in bud since then, just waiting for some wamrth/sun to finally flower a few now are out).
That has already happened here in mid April - the prune and cherry blossom too. Same as in 2010 when the record low max was set in the first week of May.
It only 2 years ago when I recorded -3.9C that damaged our vine leaves and never recovered fully in the summer despite a warm/hot first half. From -3.9C on the 12th May morning to 32.2C was logged on the 23rd May. That give a huge monthly diurnal range of 36.1C.
Never had a frost-free May: Lowest was -5.4 (18.5.05)
Keep tabs on this.
Edited by user 02 May 2012 15:38:51(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
From a gardeners perspective I can see how frosts in May would be bad..
But since I'm not a gardener I'm just going to be completely selfish.