Autumn's final fling (hopefully) tomorrow before things start to settle down thereafter. I've only been able to get in a single lawn mowing session so far this year (and that was in February) when normally I'd be on my third or fourth by now.  

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Thankfully, this month isn't turning out to be as excessively dull here as what February was. As at 4pm BST (15:00 UTC) this afternnon though, we still needed at least another 13.7 hours of sunshine to be recorded between now and tomorrow at sunset at Edinburgh Gogarbank in order for this month to go go down as being sunnier than average there.

Today has been fairly cloud with just a few sunny intervals earlier on, so a total of just under an hour of sunshine has been recorded for today so far at Edinburgh Gogarbank as at 4pm BST (15:00 UTC) this afternoon.

As wetter weather spread in further south during tomorrow, we are expected to be impacted by cloudier weather as a result of the winds coming in from off the North Sea and so, this is now looking like being yet another duller than average month here and it now seems to have become very difficult now, to actually get a sunnier than average month here.
 

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A poor first month to spring here. A failed snow event during a cold and cloudy first half of the month, followed by an excessively cloudy and wet second half. A March for the bin, IMO.

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Great month for rainfall, 130mm, and a surprise 8 - 10cm snow as our first for the "winter", albeit it wrecked my veg cage roof so had to buy a new one. Pretty dull though would be my major rant, would have preferred some warmer temps but not that worried on that front, plenty of time...

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Great month for rainfall, 130mm, and a surprise 8 - 10cm snow as our first for the "winter", albeit it wrecked my veg cage roof so had to buy a new one. Pretty dull though would be my major rant, would have preferred some warmer temps but not that worried on that front, plenty of time...

Indeed, but the thing that annoys you is, we'll probably get a dry April now and come the end of the month they'll all be going on about drought concerns again. I just find it ridiculous that water shortages should even be a possibility in a country overall as wet as the UK. Even in the driest year on record, we shouldn't need water restrictions as our infrastructure should have the capacity to store water for that long.

I will never follow a hosepipe ban in this country.

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Indeed, but the thing that annoys you is, we'll probably get a dry April now and come the end of the month they'll all be going on about drought concerns again. I just find it ridiculous that water shortages should even be a possibility in a country overall as wet as the UK. Even in the driest year on record, we shouldn't need water restrictions as our infrastructure should have the capacity to store water for that long.

I will never follow a hosepipe ban in this country.

and given we're an island, a desal plant or two might not be a bad thing to worth considering. Don't get me wrong, not something I've looked into, and they maybe horrendous environmentally but if not..

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Indeed, but the thing that annoys you is, we'll probably get a dry April now and come the end of the month they'll all be going on about drought concerns again. I just find it ridiculous that water shortages should even be a possibility in a country overall as wet as the UK. Even in the driest year on record, we shouldn't need water restrictions as our infrastructure should have the capacity to store water for that long.

I will never follow a hosepipe ban in this country.

I shouldn't think you'll have to worry this year. Reservoir levels in the NW are well up to (and in most cases over) average.
https://www.unitedutilities.com/help-and-support/your-water-supply/your-reservoirs/reservoir-levels/ 

And in the SE the largest reservoir is well above average; others also pretty full
https://www.southernwater.co.uk/water-for-life/reservoir-levels 

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I shouldn't think you'll have to worry this year. Reservoir levels in the NW are well up to (and in most cases over) average.
https://www.unitedutilities.com/help-and-support/your-water-supply/your-reservoirs/reservoir-levels/ 

And in the SE the largest reservoir is well above average; others also pretty full
https://www.southernwater.co.uk/water-for-life/reservoir-levels 

Here in SE Scotland though, it continues to be a completely different story. Last month was only our first wetter than average month of this year and even that month wasn't what exactly what you would refer to as a washout as our totals were still not all far above average even then.

It seems to me that the wet weather is usually always either to our north (which makes it fairly dry here whilst the south of England is dry, and with the wet weather really being confined mostly yo the west and north of Scotland), or to our south (which means that it is still dry here when it is wet in the south as a result of Atlantic weather systems never getting this far north). Then when weather systems do cross here, they all too often break up in the process which means that we then get very little in the way of rainfall from them.

The result of this is that this broad swathe in SE Scotland in particular just keeps on missing out in that all important rainfall whilst the rest of the UK have no problems with that, and have seen their river and reservoir levels recover as a result.

As a write, we are now a quarter of the way through 2023 already and because of that, we should have received on average, around a quarter (i.e. around 25%) of our annual rainfall by now. However, that has not happened this year and as I write, we have only had around 19% of our average annual rainfall so far, so we are quite a long way behind where we should be at this stage of the year in terms of rainfall.

Meanwhile, SEPA have released their latest water scarcity report which highlights the dry winter quite well. That was preceded by an autumn which was relatively wet (though as per usual, not excessively so) which helped to recover things to a certain extent. However, the dry winter (with the notable exception of December which was last winter's only wetter than average month) has now raised concerns once again though and as I said above, last month wasn't excessively wet here.

This means that unless we get an increase in rainfall here from now on, water shortages could well become a real issue here once again as we go towards the end of this spring and into the coming summer and with last year being such a dry year overall, any water shortages which do arise during this year are likely to be even worse and more severe than anything of that nature which was witnessed during last year.
 

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Just back from a trip to London. First half had normal mixed British weather second half was horrific and amongst the vilest spells of unadulterated garbage I have ever suffered at this time of year. Would have expected better weather on a whale spotting cruise round the Faroe Isles 🤮

Absolutely shocking. No sun since Monday apart from Thursday which was nowhere near as good as it was up here. It reminded me of June 2007. Rain on Tuesday to be replaced by murk, gloom and drizzle the next day. Friday even worse to be followed by more gloom yesterday. Heathrow had a max of 11.9C apparently. Utter cobblers. It was cold, grey and miserable. Max of 9.8C at Kenley better reflected the dire conditions I was experiencing in Central London. Heathrow temperatures are just a joke 🙄

Best day I experienced in my fortnight off was Tuesday 21st March up here which was 14C and sunny. Way better than anything experienced in the SE which says it all. Best days were the 25th and 27th which were the only days I could take trips out. Went to Sandwich on the 25th where it was sunny and around 12C but very windy. 27th I went down to Beach Head where it was sunny but only around 10C.

Back home and the misery continues. Cold, grey filthy soul destroying tripe. 7C with a featureless grey sky. Yesterday had a max of just 5.6C which was lower than all but one day during February. Early April is becoming the most predictable time of year with cold miserable rubbish every year since 2018 except for 2020.

Also, I thought the ludicrousness of the weekend curse of 2019/20 and late 2021 couldn't be beaten but this run of repulsive Sundays is putting up a challenge to that. Absolutely ridiculous. Last sunny Sunday was 12th February 😡

With the frostless February, the hideous start to Spring and the extreme Weekend Curse this year is turning into the year from hell to rival 2014 🤢

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Finally a change of fortunes in the weather. I really do love these first mild and sunny days in spring. It always feels as though a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders, after months of depressing cold and darkness. Roll on a nice sunny and pleasantly warm rest of spring and summer!

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Another monstrously vile week 🤬

Grey skies, strong winds, the worst possible combination of rotten cold day temperatures and disgusting mild nights resulting in an appalling temperature range of less than 8C over a week at the time of year when temperature variation should be at its greatest 🤢

Ghastly doesn't even begin to describe this putrid start to April. It feels like a bad November with nothing remotely springlike. No warmth, high diurnal ranges, convection. Nothing at all worth having.

Only Monday and Tuesday were sunny but completely ruined by the wind which was ridiculous, especially on Monday, despite pressure of 1030mb. Accompanied by a pitiful high of only 8.1C it was a complete joke. 

The past two days saw a return to the poison I endured in London last week. Horrific dank grey sunless skies and rain that won't let up. Awful. More rain is the last thing that's needed.

Today has degenerated into abject horror of filthy cold grey after a sunny start and this crud looks like sticking around to give an Easter weekend from hell on a par with last years rotten lousy stinking dross 🤮

Another crap weekend in a year of relentless crap weekends. Just endless unusable cold, grey rubbish weekend after weekend. Every time the weekend curse goes way it always comes back even worse than ever 🤬

Yet again instead of being able to do the outdoors activities that I enjoy, I will be stuck indoors feeling miserable and depressed wondering what the hell I've done to deserve such an unfulfilling existence in this miserable Eternal Autumn 💩 hole.

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Time to do to do an Aberdeen.

I'm guessing there are places on the South Coast that have yet to reach 13C this year. Portland being one place stuck out in the Channel where the sea temp is still in single figures.
I think 15C is the best so far for me inland and that was a blink and you'd miss it on the wall thermometer. 

A copywriter's now predicting a 'soft heatwave' up to 15C sometime next week. The story's been farmed out across the UK. WTF. Where do these hacks get their inspiration from?
Iceland?

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It's been a poor week here. If it hasn't rained, there's been an annoying near gale-force wind instead. I'm really just looking forward to something warmer and more settled now. We've got all autumn and winter for wind and rain.

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8 frigging degrees the max here today, grey albeit only 1.6mm of rain.

Think the chances of a 20c this April are reducing given next week's change to an easterly, but still a while left yet, so we'll see.

Given my question a while back on the last time we didn't see a 20c in March, I looked back at Aprils as it must be years since the last time. Well no, 2021 in fact, even down here, so not that long ago being an understatement. That said 2021 saw 15 frosts in April, so at least it was clear and "usable" weather for outdoors...

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8 frigging degrees the max here today, grey albeit only 1.6mm of rain.

Think the chances of a 20c this April are reducing given next week's change to an easterly, but still a while left yet, so we'll see.

Given my question a while back on the last time we didn't see a 20c in March, I looked back at Aprils as it must be years since the last time. Well no, 2021 in fact, even down here, so not that long ago being an understatement. That said 2021 saw 15 frosts in April, so at least it was clear and "usable" weather for outdoors...

I've been wondering about this, what is the latest date that 20C has been recorded? I can't imagine that even in the coldest and most miserable of springs, it could go beyond mid-May.

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I've been wondering about this, what is the latest date that 20C has been recorded? I can't imagine that even in the coldest and most miserable of springs, it could go beyond mid-May.

There was one year when we lived in Manchester (could it have been 1969?) when we didn't see 20C  there until going on holiday abroad in July. Abroad it was hot, and the hot weather spread to Britain later that month.

Having got to Germany to stay with friends there, temps were in mid 30s C and we couldn't stand the heat, made our apologies, and spent the rest of the holiday in the Alps.

See https://www.trevorharley.com/1969.html?utm_content=cmp-true  for possibilities

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I've been wondering about this, what is the latest date that 20C has been recorded? I can't imagine that even in the coldest and most miserable of springs, it could go beyond mid-May.

Yes I have tried to find this to no avail.

I just looked at 2021 and it was the 27th May.

It didn't get much better through the summer with only 23.4c in August and 3 days above 30c the whole summer.

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Yes I have tried to find this to no avail.

I just looked at 2021 and it was the 27th May.

It didn't get much better through the summer with only 23.4c in August and 3 days above 30c the whole summer.

Is this for your own location, as March 2021 (30th) reached 24.5°C?

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Is this for your own location, as March 2021 (30th) reached 24.5°C?

Thanks, that's interesting somewhere else reached that high. Obviously the South isn't always the warmest, but yes I was talking about my data.

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I think 1972 was a particularly poor spring and summer not so much wet but particularly cool.