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.

See, I'm always ambivalent about weather in April. It's my biggest 'write off' month where I don't care what it does. Warm isn't that warm, cold isn't that cold. 

Only notable exception in recent years was April 2020, which was a cracker to kick off lockdown. Remember working in my dining room, French doors wide open, cooking homemade pizzas with the kids outside in the pizza oven, then grabbing half an hour's sunbathing. 

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See, I'm always ambivalent about weather in April. It's my biggest 'write off' month where I don't care what it does. Warm isn't that warm, cold isn't that cold. 

Only notable exception in recent years was April 2020, which was a cracker to kick off lockdown. Remember working in my dining room, French doors wide open, cooking homemade pizzas with the kids outside in the pizza oven, then grabbing half an hour's sunbathing. 

See, I'm most ambivalent about October and November. In April, you have fairly long daylight hours and spring freshness, so I like to be able to take advantage of it. The other thing with April is after you've been used to winter, a 15°C day feels decent enough in sunshine. In October/November, you have the same situation you describe (moderate temperatures with little extreme), but also short daylight and dampness, so it can be quite tedious whether it's warm and cold.

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See, I'm most ambivalent about October and November. In April, you have fairly long daylight hours and spring freshness, so I like to be able to take advantage of it. The other thing with April is after you've been used to winter, a 15°C day feels decent enough in sunshine. In October/November, you have the same situation you describe (moderate temperatures with little extreme), but also short daylight and dampness, so it can be quite tedious whether it's warm and cold.

For me it's September. Usually too late for real summer heat yet normally too early for anything autumnal like frost & gales. The nights are rapidly drawing in, the sun is noticeably losing it's strength and all with a rather sad feeling of summer ebbing away. It's just such a 'nothing' month for me.

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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.

Getting extremely concerned with temperatures not getting above average and to low 20s this month and only 2 month left for longest day so lot of waste and unuseable days. It was all down to SSW spring destroyer as before SSW struck we had much milder warmer days in February which by now we should be getting regular 17c to 24c occasion days instead of boring winter temps.  Glad I am not doing weather data for 11th year now.

Getting extremely concerned with temperatures not getting above average and to low 20s

LOL, I'm not at all concerned. It's nice to have a normal April for once, at least down here; the normal maximum for East Malling, for example, is a high of 14C in mid-April - and that's the 91-20 version, compared to 12C in the previous 61-90 range.

It's only in the past couple of decades that people have assumed we have a Mediterranean climate, we don't!

 

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The sunless wet Spring continues as do the BBC forecasts of the non-materialising jam tomorrow. We get two types of weather in my neck of the S.E. these days. Weeks of rain or weeks of drought. No naturally changeable weather, just stuck in blocks of 4-5 weeks.

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Absolutely horrific spring. It's been extremely wet but I'm not finding that so objectionable as, apart from when I was in London, most of the rain seems to be falling at night.

There are two things I'm finding utterly detestable: relentless cold winds and the diabolical weekends 💩

Until yesterday there hadn't been a single weekend day with more than 4 hours sunshine and a max above 6C 🤮🤯

After the one reasonable day yesterday it's back to pure and utter garbage today. Cloudy, windy, 11C just like a crap mild day in December 😡

Another woeful Sunday in what is becoming the worst run I've ever known. Every time the weekend curse disappears it comes back even worse than ever. 6 consecutive months of it now beating the five consecutive months at the end of 2021. With the hideous weekend curse years of the past like 2007, 2011, 2014 we were looking at sunshine deficits of 10% compared to the weekdays. End of 2021 and start of 2023 it's more like 30%. Utterly surreal horror for which no rational explanation exists.

Sunday after Sunday of absymal grey rubbish almost always followed by sunny Mondays and Tuesdays to rub your nose in it. Utterly pig sick of the poison of the 21st Century which seems to get more toxic with each rotten lousy year that passes.

Average daily sun hours so far this year

Mon:  4.96
Tue:   4.95
Wed:  3.47
Thu:   3.65
Fri :    3.27
Sat :   3.20
Sun:   2.36 🤢🤢🤮

Sunday is less than half of Monday and can't even move off January levels 🤬

As if that wasn't bad enough, the endless feed off the vile north sea and resulting lack of warmth is just ridiculous. Failing to reach 15C in April used to be unusual now it's becoming the norm. Highly likely it will be the 3rd consecutive April to fail to hit 16C something that has never happened before in post-war times. More ludicrous is that every year as seen a higher temperature in March 🤡

At the same time there hasn't even been close to a frost with the lowest min a ludicrous 1.9C. So that would be two out of three months that have been frostless with the highest min on record reflecting persistence of  horridly unpleasant, uninteresting, unsuable weather. Relentless cloud and/or wind that never lets up 😒

This April has been like a mild November with nothing remotely springlike at all. Actually got out cycling far more during last years horrendously wet November as at least there wasn't nasty cold winds blowing constantly which are just pure hell to cycle in. This months mileage so far is so desperate it's as bad as January - the month when the ground was covered in ice for a week 🤢



 

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See, I'm most ambivalent about October and November. In April, you have fairly long daylight hours and spring freshness, so I like to be able to take advantage of it. The other thing with April is after you've been used to winter, a 15°C day feels decent enough in sunshine. In October/November, you have the same situation you describe (moderate temperatures with little extreme), but also short daylight and dampness, so it can be quite tedious whether it's warm and cold.

I get that. 

It's just that we as a family tend to have things on in October (eldest's birthday on Halloween, Scarefest at Alton Towers). Then there's bonfire night. 

I'd be fine with most of Oct & Nov being *autumnal* if the last two weeks of Oct/first week of Nov were dry and crisp. 

😁

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Getting extremely concerned with temperatures not getting above average and to low 20s this month and only 2 month left for longest day so lot of waste and unuseable days. It was all down to SSW spring destroyer as before SSW struck we had much milder warmer days in February which by now we should be getting regular 17c to 24c occasion days instead of boring winter temps.  Glad I am not doing weather data for 11th year now.

It's not really a cause for concern at all. It's really not at all unusual to get to the end of April without 20°C being recorded, especially up here. As others have mentioned, I think the last 15 years or so have really skewed perceptions. How many notably warm, dry and sunny Aprils have we had in recent years?

2007 (exceptionally warm, dry and sunny), 2009 (again very mild and sunny), 2011 (the warmest and sunniest on record), 2014 (again very mild), 2015 (very sunny and mild), 2017 (mild), 2018 (exceptional warm spell mid-month), 2019 (mild with an exceptional Easter) and 2020 (exceptionally sunny and in top 10 warmest).

Even April 2021 despite the cold, was exceptionally dry and sunny. In the second half of the month, I remember many days still getting into the upper teens in the sunshine, despite the notably cold nights. Out of all the months of the year, April along with October feels like its warmed the most.

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LOL, I'm not at all concerned. It's nice to have a normal April for once, at least down here; the normal maximum for East Malling, for example, is a high of 14C in mid-April - and that's the 91-20 version, compared to 12C in the previous 61-90 range.

It's only in the past couple of decades that people have assumed we have a Mediterranean climate, we don't!

Exactly right ! 

 

LOL, I'm not at all concerned. It's nice to have a normal April for once, at least down here; the normal maximum for East Malling, for example, is a high of 14C in mid-April - and that's the 91-20 version, compared to 12C in the previous 61-90 range.

It's only in the past couple of decades that people have assumed we have a Mediterranean climate, we don't!

 

14C is only 6C below 20C so having a average of 14C I expected high of 22-24C to be the high for April at some point as same to 7-8C maxes mostly at the start of the month are normal, What is not normal is continuing below average to average but no warm spell included.    So very poor month and Spring already thanks to SSW,  Feb remain the best month of the year 2023 for useable temperatures, drier and sunshine.

14C is only 6C below 20C so having a average of 14C I expected high of 22-24C to be the high for April at some point.

Uh-huh. 20C now is the equivalent of getting a 1C day in say, February. 24C would be like getting a day with a -3C max in February (down here).

Again - we're not in the Med!

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I guess the average highest maximum for a month and location might be a useful figure to look at too?

On a local note I would, in a typical year, expect a few more above average days than look like this month (and that’s not even considering next week).

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It's not really a cause for concern at all. It's really not at all unusual to get to the end of April without 20°C being recorded, especially up here. As others have mentioned, I think the last 15 years or so have really skewed perceptions. How many notably warm, dry and sunny Aprils have we had in recent years?

2007 (exceptionally warm, dry and sunny), 2009 (again very mild and sunny), 2011 (the warmest and sunniest on record), 2014 (again very mild), 2015 (very sunny and mild), 2017 (mild), 2018 (exceptional warm spell mid-month), 2019 (mild with an exceptional Easter) and 2020 (exceptionally sunny and in top 10 warmest).
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Worth noting, of course, that the 2007, 2009 & 2011 summers were poor, with 2017 not much better.

2014 & 2015 were very front-loaded (poor Augusts), and 2019 mixed (some hot snaps, but wet overall)

I'd sacrifice April to a rubbish, cool, unsettled month on the altar of a good summer.

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Worth noting, of course, that the 2007, 2009 & 2011 summers were poor, with 2017 not much better.

2014 & 2015 were very front-loaded (poor Augusts), and 2019 mixed (some hot snaps, but wet overall)

I'd sacrifice April to a rubbish, cool, unsettled month on the altar of a good summer.

Yes indeed. I mentioned in the 20°C thread that I never understand why people get so concerned about the summer when we have a cool or poor spring. There are plenty of occasions where a cool/poor spring has given way to a warm or hot summer. In fact, I tend to find that long periods of warmth and dryness in spring is a bad sign for June onwards, and I'd be more worried if we were seeing that now.

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Here in Edinburgh, we have now entered the second day of our latest permacast hell with some easterly muck now coming in from off the North Sea.

We did somehow muster up a total of 12 minutes of sunshine at Edinburgh Gogarbank at around 10am yesterday morning, but that was our lot for that entire day and there has been nothing in the way of any recorded sunshine here since then.

Furthermore, this is also when we start looking for our first temperature of the year of 20°C or more and at the very least, we should be at least be getting a number of days by now with decent weather which is warm enough to be out and about without any need for a jumper because for that to happen, the temperature only really needs to above around 15°C here.

Yet, that has happened on only one occasion during this year so far in this part of the world. Our highest temperature of this year so far is 15.8°C at Edinburgh Gogarbank but that was reached on 30 March 2023.

We are now halfway through the spring and more than halfway through this month, and yet we still haven't even had a single temperature here of 15°C or above during this month, let alone 20°C or more.

Absolutely pathetic!!😡

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Yes indeed. I mentioned in the 20°C thread that I never understand why people get so concerned about the summer when we have a cool or poor spring. There are plenty of occasions where a cool/poor spring has given way to a warm or hot summer. In fact, I tend to find that long periods of warmth and dryness in spring is a bad sign for June onwards, and I'd be more worried if we were seeing that now.

Yes if we getting 23-27C runs for weeks like 2007 then worry about summer but what I wanted is to see few days of 22-24C being the highest max for April since the average is 14C which is not far from 20C levels so should not impact the summer season.   This month is a cold below average month so far.

Uhh not another northerly showing for early next week, for God's sake. As a gardener, I could really do without the ruddy frost now!

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Another poor weekend on the cards. 

Funny how an easterly or northerly can always manage to get the PPN over to NW England when it's falling as rain, but not when it's snow.

 

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What a dire month this has been here. Virtually sunless and raining and cold most of the time. The models have been awful in their reliability, even at less than a week that has led to the media forecast outlooks being pretty much 100% wrong most of the time. The short term outlook is  awful so lets hope that the promised warm up (again!) materialises for the end of the month this time.
If in Scotland please ignore!

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