I love cold April convective days. Sunlit white cumulonimbus anvils marching south with dark bases and shafts of soft hail or snow lit by the sun.
I remember an April day in the early 70's in a northerly, walking up to the top of Otley Chevin in Yorkshire in the strong morning sun with my pal, we were 13 or 14. We were greeted at the summit with the above sight coming in from the north Pennines. It was a monster, mature cumulonimbus.
We started off home quickly with a huge wall of sunlit snow approaching from behind. As it reached us you could see the huge flakes falling well before they fell on us.
It was a white out within minutes as the temperature fell from 6 C to zero. It lasted an hour and put down 3 ins. We were freezing cold, plastered in snow and so glad to get home, needless to say we hadn't been suitably dressed!
Jerry
Edinburgh, in the frost hollow below Blackford Hill