As unpleasant and annoying as it is at the moment, I'm not too worried about the weather just yet. Given the way recent years have seen these rapid flips from very dry to washout conditions and vice versa, my view is that as we move further into spring we will hopefully revert back to a drier, more settled pattern once again. It is only March after all, and I personally think I'd be more worried if we had seen that dry and settled February continue right though this month too.

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*Shakes fist at the sky as 2 weeks of frustration boils over*

Have we not suffered enough???

Enough of this relentless wind and rain already!!!

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*Shakes fist at the sky as 2 weeks of frustration boils over*

Have we not suffered enough???

Enough of this relentless wind and rain already!!!

That another reason why I stop doing the weather data because of very boring dry and wet periods lately and extremely lack of variety and temps very static.  Overall despite how poor this month I am pleased that it not been cold since first week of March and heating had been little use or some days without it like today thanks to sunshine in between showers.  Room temps had been 16C mornings to 18-19C day time. 

Regarding weather apps it been terribly wrong every single day and fictional forecasts and now casts.   Yesterday they put 24hrs rain had  failed severely as it was mostly sunny to full pm sunshine clocking around 8-9 hrs on 12 hrs daylight.  It kept showing full rain when is was sunny. Once again it showing 5 days non stop rain from Tuesday.   I keep it for laugh at.  Window watching is the way I know well for the day.

Can anyone explain why we have been having a run of truly awful cold springs? It seems like years now since we had a warm and sunny spring. I'm in Central France and so far this year we have failed to see a temperature above 20 degrees. We had a warm spell in February when we reached 18 degrees, but March has been cool and wet and pretty miserable here. We are a long way south of you in the UK (but high up) above 500 metres. 

I cannot recall any sustained high pressure since February. Maybe one day here or there.

It's truly abysmal. Seems to be getting colder not warmer. You can guarantee we will reach June and then we will see 40 degrees!!

Can anyone explain why we have been having a run of truly awful cold springs? It seems like years now since we had a warm and sunny spring. I'm in Central France and so far this year we have failed to see a temperature above 20 degrees. We had a warm spell in February when we reached 18 degrees, but March has been cool and wet and pretty miserable here. We are a long way south of you in the UK (but high up) above 500 metres. 

I cannot recall any sustained high pressure since February. Maybe one day here or there.

It's truly abysmal. Seems to be getting colder not warmer. You can guarantee we will reach June and then we will see 40 degrees!!

Is it anything to do with the appalling state of journalism in the UK today? Well probably not.

How about this from the Crime Reporter of all people for Devon Live masquerading as a weather reporter.
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/uk-weather-switch-up-frost-8290758 

Headline 
UK weather switch-up as frost, ice and snow forecast on Arctic frozen day
The Met Office have warned that a southern breeze from the Arctic will push a frozen band of snow and frost into Britain which could result in Scotland and some northern parts of England facing spells of snowfall throughout the morning, peaking at about 9am. Sic
And he continues obviously in a state of confusion…

London and the South West could hit a balmy 7C by 11am, and the temperature is expected to rise to about 10C as the day progresses.
Since when has 7C been balmy unless you're an Eskimo? I give up. But then once he'd copied pasted some stuff from the Met Office it became clearer what the weather was probably going to do.

But yes we do seem to have had a run of chilly springs. It will be interesting if we see some traditional April showers with those beautiful cloudscapes we can get at this time of year. They've been rare or non existent in recent years in this part of Dorset.

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Can anyone explain why we have been having a run of truly awful cold springs? It seems like years now since we had a warm and sunny spring. I'm in Central France and so far this year we have failed to see a temperature above 20 degrees. We had a warm spell in February when we reached 18 degrees, but March has been cool and wet and pretty miserable here. We are a long way south of you in the UK (but high up) above 500 metres. 

I cannot recall any sustained high pressure since February. Maybe one day here or there.

It's truly abysmal. Seems to be getting colder not warmer. You can guarantee we will reach June and then we will see 40 degrees!!

Spring always feels cold at this time of year because it is cold. Spring 'proper' doesn't really get going until May in my opinion, which is why I detest March and April more than any other months of the year. Long daylight hours but with the landscapes and feel of the air still looking and feeling like midwinter. 

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It will be interesting if we see some traditional April showers with those beautiful cloudscapes we can get at this time of year. They've been rare or non existent in recent years in this part of Dorset.

Used to see those a lot in the past but nowadays is replaced with outbreak of rain due to cloudy weather in between instead of blue skies.  Shower mean blue skies and rain or snow showers and outbreak of rain mean rain on and off and overcast.

I remember spring 2003. We moved from the south coast of England to Snowdonia in Wales. February, March and April were stunning with wall to wall sunshine. Crazy amount of sunshine hours. We couldn't believe it!! Can't recall a spring like that in this decade or the last.

I remember spring 2003. We moved from the south coast of England to Snowdonia in Wales. February, March and April were stunning with wall to wall sunshine. Crazy amount of sunshine hours. We couldn't believe it!! Can't recall a spring like that in this decade or the last.

Not sure about Wales, and very jealous to be not living in that area, but lockdown 2020 was incredible here, we ate lunch outside most days in April & May with beautiful silence from the lack of far off road traffic and further off air polution.

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I remember spring 2020 as very pleasant in terms of weather which made lockdown that little bit more tolerable. Long walks on the sunshine, quiet roads etc.

Although as this is the moaning thread my moan is that it has been snowing today and when it it is due to warm up in the coming days it looks like being rather unsettled.

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Is it anything to do with the appalling state of journalism in the UK today? 

Sensationalism begets clicks. 

Clicks beget higher advertising revenue. 


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Spring always feels cold at this time of year because it is cold. Spring 'proper' doesn't really get going until May in my opinion, which is why I detest March and April more than any other months of the year. Long daylight hours but with the landscapes and feel of the air still looking and feeling like midwinter. 

I wouldn't go as strong as to say I detest them, but they're my least favourite months. 

All a bit 'nothing'. If it's cold, it's rare to get good snow that stays around for days; if it's warm, it's only 'relatively' warm. 

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Not sure about Wales, and very jealous to be not living in that area, but lockdown 2020 was incredible here, we ate lunch outside most days in April & May with beautiful silence from the lack of far off road traffic and further off air polution.

Yes I had forgotten the lockdown spring here in France, which was dry and warmish. It's always like lockdown here as it is so dead!! If anyone is not familiar with the French countryside in the Massif Central then you would not believe how empty it is. Drive through most villages or hamlets and you'll not see a living soul! Many houses here are empty most the year and taken over by Parisians in July and August.

This spring so far, 2022 and 2021 have all been unsettled, with some warm spells, but mainly cool with fierce northerly or north east winds (la Bise). Not much T shirt weather. Hasn't it been a La Nina yar this winter? Cooler than normal and carrying on into spring. I saw on Gardeners World that Monty's place Longmeadow had recorded -14 this winter. Much cooler than normal for that location. Our max low was -12, but we had snow on the ground for well over four weeks. Our property is at 810 metres asl though.

Just aching for some sustained warmth now.

 

Still no sign of a proper warm spell, but at least the models are showing more of a high pressure influence once we get past this week. Once we get to April, it can still feel very decent in sunshine and light winds, even under a cool air mass (today for instance). April 2021 was also pretty good for that.; cold, but very sunny and calm so it as acceptable.

April is also when the first home grown warmth can start to form too.

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Yes I had forgotten the lockdown spring here in France, which was dry and warmish. It's always like lockdown here as it is so dead!! If anyone is not familiar with the French countryside in the Massif Central then you would not believe how empty it is. Drive through most villages or hamlets and you'll not see a living soul! Many houses here are empty most the year and taken over by Parisians in July and August.

This spring so far, 2022 and 2021 have all been unsettled, with some warm spells, but mainly cool with fierce northerly or north east winds (la Bise). Not much T shirt weather. Hasn't it been a La Nina yar this winter? Cooler than normal and carrying on into spring. I saw on Gardeners World that Monty's place Longmeadow had recorded -14 this winter. Much cooler than normal for that location. Our max low was -12, but we had snow on the ground for well over four weeks. Our property is at 810 metres asl though.

Just aching for some sustained warmth now.

 

Yes my parents lived in rural Charente so I'm sure it was very similar although maybe more Brits there given the proximity to the Loire, Dordogne and Cognac. It was pretty quiet even in the height of summer to be honest, in some ways lovely but in some ways a shame to see the lack of life, I was always torn. I remember driving to Poiters at "rush" hour on a Monday morning to pick up my now wife from the train station and there was nigh on not a car on the road until 5km from the city centre. Not like the UK for sure.

Many a decade since I drove south, well before the bridge, that for sure, but you certainly have some altitude working against you for warmth.

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I remember spring 2020 as very pleasant in terms of weather which made lockdown that little bit more tolerable. Long walks on the sunshine, quiet roads etc.

Although as this is the moaning thread my moan is that it has been snowing today and when it it is due to warm up in the coming days it looks like being rather unsettled.

That period was very sunny (I can remember all of the discussions on here about the air also being a lot cleaner during that period due to the fact that there wasn't the usual air traffic then), but it can't also be forgotten that there was also some very cold nights back then.

The preceding winter had been a very wet and virtually completely snowless winter which was dubbed as the polar vortex of doom as a result. This then led to a hotel/guest house in Hawick which was located at the very point where the River Stilrig flows into the River Teviot being washed away by Storm Ciara in February 2020.

This means that in at least one of those much sunnier months in the spring of 2020, we actually ended up with more air frosts being recorded here in Edinburgh than what we had during the whole of the preceding winter.

However, that didn't prevent the days from being fairly warm which then led to some very decent diurnal temperature ranges then, and it was just such a shame that we weren't really allowed to enjoy that lovely weather for any length of time due to the restriction which were in place then.

EDIT

I've just had a lot back through the archives of what I posted on here during those lockdown months and it turns out that there wasn't actually as many frosty nights back then as what I seem to remember. Having said that though, there was as many air frosts back in May 2020 as what there was in January of that  year. At that time, I was using the older 1981-2010 averages for my reports on here but even with that, the Spring of 2020 actually had fewer air frosts than that particular spring average.

Looking back, there was a total of 9 air frosts at Edinburgh Gogarbank during the spring of 2020 and even when you compare that with the current 1991-2020 average which I now use for these reports, that still comes out slightly less than that particular spring average.

Having said that though, there was still some decent diurnal temperature ranges during that period. This was before the time when I started recording ground frosts on here (that came about when I started to learn how to decode raw SYNOP/BUFR data rather than just copying and pasting the publicly displayed data from the appropriate sources), and I'm sure that there were probably quite a number of occasions back then when we would have had a ground frost, but without actually getting an air frost although the fact that we had as many air frosts in May 2020 as we had in January of that year just shows how much of a complete write-off for cold weather that winter of 2019/20 actually was.

Since then, we haven't had a winter which has been as wet as that, but there hasn't exactly been a lot of sustained cold weather during those more recent winters either, with some very poor figures for air frosts being recorded once again during the winter of 2021/22 in particular.
 

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Quite like my walks, the ground is absolutely sodden here at the moment with lots of surface water, local ponds bursting their banks and streams gushing.  More like a wet November in terms of the terrain.  Absolutely no sign of drought.

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Quite like my walks, the ground is absolutely sodden here at the moment with lots of surface water, local ponds bursting their banks and streams gushing.  More like a wet November in terms of the terrain.  Absolutely no sign of drought.

According to the BBC, Cambridge (not a million miles from you) has had more rain in March - 97mm - than in the whole three winter months preceding it - 67mm.

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As an avid cyclist and countryside walker, March and April are all about getting those first days of 'drying sun' that really start to diminish the muck of the winter. When the weather's very sunny and the wind not too cold, these months can produce some of the most pleasant weather of the year from my perspective, as I have a high metabolism that means I'm usually comfortable in a light jacket at around 8-14°C depending on how windy it is. If it's very sunny with light winds I can even walk around in short sleeves in temps as low as 10°C.

This month has been sorely short on such weather here. The only very sunny day was 2nd March with 8.4 hours. The top day since then, 14th, saw a mere 6.3 hours. On top of that it's rained very often with only 2 dry days since 6th. As a result, it's so mucky outside in this rural area that you always come back from walking with some mud on whatever's covering your legs, even after sticking to pavements the whole time.

The total sunshine to 29th is 52.5 hours. The dullest March of 1957-2022 recorded 69.2 hours. The forecast is for some sunny spells today, then yet more cloudy skies tomorrow. So, a new record dullest is certain and it could be by a large margin!

Rainfall is at 75.9 mm to 29th, 132.4% of the whole month average with showers expected today and a fair bit of rain tonight through tomorrow. It's currently 20th wettest on record but probably won't get anywhere near the wettest on record, which was both 2018 and 1981 with a whopping 123.8 mm. 3rd is 2001 with 111.5 mm, again likely well out of reach.

2018 saw 79.8 hours sunshine, still very poor but not as tragic as 2023. In 1961 a relatively healthy 110.7 hours was recorded, only around 16 short of the long-term average. 2001... we already know about, soon to be 2nd dullest on record.

In that respect, from most to least horrendous March from my perspective, the order would be 2023, 2001, 2018, 1961.

I can't wait for the transition to a much drier weather regime starting Sunday, even though it's not looking great temperature-wise. Sunshine remains to be seen.

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