Yet another vile write-off day. Effectively sunless and constant rain from lunchtime till evening 😩🤮

There is no question that this is the worst ever start to April. Just off the scale in terms of rainfall. Over 80mm already and only around 1 in 6 Aprils manage that for the full month. 2012 was slightly duller but at least had the interest of snow.

There has been nothing at all of interest. Just stupefying amounts of rain and cloud with dire cold day temperatures and mild nights. A putrid combination like nothing on earth we would ever have seen before. There hasn't been a frost in over 5 weeks which is unprecedented this early in spring. Not even in the warmest years never mind anything as cold as this as we continues to endure day after day of winter 5-7C temperatures. Just a brief respite when it got to 14C but didn't feel anything like as warm due to the totally revolting wind. Just nothing decent at all.

Rainfall for the first 10 days of April:

2024 81.2
2016 48.8
2022 48.6
2008 38.6
2012 33.8
2019 29.2
2023 23.8
2009 22.2
2018 22.0
2017 21.4
2006 20.0
2014 10.6
2021 7.2
2015 5.6
2010 4.6
2013 4.2
2011 2.2
2020 1.8
2007 0.2
 
and sunshine hours

2017 77.0
2015 70.3
2007 68.6
2011 65.4
2021 64.4
2020 54.1
2010 48.8
2022 48.3
2008 46.3
2018 37.9
2013 37.2
2019 36.0
2023 35.9
2009 24.1
2014 23.9
2016 21.4
2024 18.7
2012 14.5

An absolutely hideous performance that on it's own would stand out as extraordinarily grim. In the context of whats been endured since September 2022 there are no words 🤢🤢🤢

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But our climate has never been like the Medditerean climate, a few days of unsettled weather then a return to sunny/warm conditions. It's not how it works here. It's generally unsettled but with periods of more settled conditions thrown in. That's how it is in the mid latitudes westerlies I'm afraid.

Also not normal for UK to stay unsettled for nearly a year now. For our latitude we should be getting 50/50 of settled and unsettled times with Spring and summer more on settled side and more unsettled in Autumn to winter.

... There hasn't been a frost in over 5 weeks which is unprecedented this early in spring. ...

In recent springs, we have often had far more frosts during that spring than what had during the winter before that, especially if that preceding winter has been disappointing with very little in the way of snow or frost.

However, that hasn't been the case this year even though last winter was once again, very poor in terms of any snow or frost.

Last month, the number of air frosts here in Edinburgh was well below average once again and during this month so far, we haven't even had as much as a ground frost, let alone an actual air frost.

I know that we're almost halfway through the spring and into British Summer Time but even with that, I still think that it's a bit early to be getting no frosts at all in any given month.

After all, we would normally expect to be getting just under 3 air frosts on average during April here in Edinburgh and just under one air frost on average even during May.

It is then only during the summer months that we would expect to get no air frosts at all on average and even then, we can still be prone to the odd ground frost on a clear night, especially during June.
 

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Nice to have a proper warm feeling day that hasn't be ruined by heavy rain or blustery winds, even if it has still been on the cloudy side. It's not to last though, as the garbage that's dominated most of the last 9 months looks set to return this weekend.

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Yesterday was the first day this year (apart from when we have been away) that the heating wasn't on at all.  Felt effortlessly warm even though it wasn't always sunny. Shame how things are going to deteriorate.  Wet, cool at times but not cold enough for snow. Story of the Spring so far.  

(I know overall it has been above average  for most but the cool spells since March have been very mediocre and not cold enough for snow. 

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Nice to have a proper warm feeling day that hasn't be ruined by heavy rain or blustery winds, even if it has still been on the cloudy side. It's not to last though, as the garbage that's dominated most of the last 9 months looks set to return this weekend.

Booked the day off yesterday to celebrate!

😁


(it was raining by teatime, mind)

 

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First decent day yesterday, and heaven forbid, might be dry again today.

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Dry but murky. I'm hoping to dry laundry outside for the first time this year.
Forecast suggests sunny spells later once mist dissipates.

Edit the murk has now morphed into drizzle.
 

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Dry but murky. I'm hoping to dry laundry outside for the first time this year.
Forecast suggests sunny spells later once mist dissipates.

Edit the murk has now morphed into drizzle.
 

Very bad in the south coasts due to SW flow which a bit less effected in the hazy sunshine Midlands.  Conservatory is a must for on going record wet and dull weather non stop. This help to dry your washing with ease as it still get warmish and dry guaranteed.

Dry but murky. I'm hoping to dry laundry outside for the first time this year.
Forecast suggests sunny spells later once mist dissipates.

Edit the murk has now morphed into drizzle.
 

Bring your washing along here! Sun now coming out from time to time - I'm planning on some gardening later

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Yesterday was fabulous here. Dry warm and quite sunny. The day started with me risking not wearing a vest for the first time this year. Then working over the allotment I had to take my jumper off. By mid afternoon and some heavier labour I was shocked to find I needed to even take off my shirt. (apologies if this sounds like an extract from "The Full Monty"!) When I got home and checked the weather station I could see why. At that time it had maxed at 21.7C ! So now the seeds are sown I suppose I can expect a month of cold dry weather!


 

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Bring your washing along here! Sun now coming out from time to time - I'm planning on some gardening later

Here comes the sun too and the laundry is drying. Just had a bite to eat outside in the suntrap and I needed a hat too.
The garden beckoned yesterday and the soil is drying out well. So much so, a Berggarten sage in pot at the front was wilting yesterday. The box in pots need a soak too.
I have some cinnamon basil I'll sow this afternoon though that goes indoors. Far too early to keep outside.
And then later when it gets dark, a mollusc pogrom before bedtime. It's all go go go now in the garden.

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And then later when it gets dark, a mollusc pogrom before bedtime. It's all go go go now in the garden.

Be careful that you don't get reported to the RSPCA which is having a be-kind-to-snails campaign.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/rspca-under-fire-over-rules-160157981.html? 

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Bright and sunny for a change but very blustery. Can't complain as the ground seriously needs a good drying out. 

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Yet another garbage grey Sunday. I cannot adequately put into words just how angry and depressed this is making me 🤬

6am it was clear skies, as it was all night although the temperature wouldn't drop as much as it should due to the vile wind which never lets up. Then masses of ugly grot forms, for no valid reason, that takes an age to clear. Almost as soon as it does more 💩 arrives to take it's place with full overcast that looks set to write-off the rest of the day now. Utterly revolting 🤢

If the exact same synoptic set up occurred during the week there would have been clear blue skies all morning and we would have had 6 hours sun instead of a poxy 2 hours, almost half of which was pre-7am 🙄

Not a single sunny, dry sunday all of last spring. One so far this spring. That makes 1 good Sunday out of 20. Even the Faeroe Islands climate isn't so grim to make such an appalling hit rate anywhere near remotely acceptable. There just isn't anywhere on earth this depressing.

Yesterday it was the wind with hail stones battering the sun house during the afternoon. It's just a perpetual autumn/winter. Even Thursday and Friday were more like good days in September than spring, due to high minima, and both days turned into a cloudfest by evening. That's the sort of days we are desperately needing at the weekend, particularly Sunday, and it would need to be one hell of a long run to make up for this unrelenting grey purgatory.

It's just the absolute pits 👎 The spring equivalent of the 2007-12 summers 🤮

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This has to be one of the worst April's I can recall. Howling like mad out there with frequent bouts of what can only be described as violent rain/hail showers. Looks like December and feels like it too. April is usually a month where fine days heavily out match the bad, but this April has turned that trait right on its head. 

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   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-68816142 

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-68816142 

This has happened as well, without there even being any named storm.

I did notice that there was extensive Met Office yellow warnings for wind across England and Wales for that, but no amber or red warnings (such warnings might well have led to that system being officially named Storm Lilian which is the next name on that list after Kathleen).

Clearly, the Met Office have completely underestimated the effects of this system, and were caught out by it being even worse than expected.
 

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This has to be one of the worst April's I can recall. Howling like mad out there with frequent bouts of what can only be described as violent rain/hail showers. Looks like December and feels like it too. April is usually a month where fine days heavily out match the bad, but this April has turned that trait right on its head. 

Thought you liked stormy weather?

 

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Thought you liked stormy weather?

 

Hardly 'stormy'. Very much high nuisance value rather. 

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