Yup - I think it's rained every single day in spring so far in Manchester...

Under normal circumstances though, I would expect locations such as Manchester to be used to getting a lot of rain since it is one of the wettest locations within the UK on average.

Even here in Edinburgh though which is normally one of the driest places in Scotland (if not in the whole of the UK) on average, every single day during this spring so far has been an official rain day at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh and that has already been enough to mean that whatever happens during the rest of this month, this month will now go down as being wetter than average there in terms of the number of official rain days as a result of there now already being more rain days there during this month than the 1981-2010 February average for that, at that particular station.

At the same time, we have already had 87% of the March average rainfall at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh and more than three-quarters of the March average rainfall at Edinburgh Gogarbank. Our last wetter than average month was back in November of last year, but you actually have to go back at least an entire year to find the last time that we had quite a substantially wetter than average month in this part of the world. Yet, that is well on course to happen this month with the way in which things are going just now.

At the same time, the sunshine totals for this month have been rather disappointing and although we are around a third of the way into this month, we have only had less than a quarter of this month's average amount of sunshine so far during this month.

Under normal circumstances though, I would expect locations such as Manchester to be used to getting a lot of rain since it is one of the wettest locations within the UK on average.

My post was a jokey update on a previous discussion in the thread where I'd labelled spring 'wet' and was reminded that, statistically, it wasn't.

 

 

My post was a jokey update on a previous discussion in the thread where I'd labelled spring 'wet' and was reminded that, statistically, it wasn't.

 

 

 

That may well be the case, but it is no joke that every day (other than today so far) has been an official rain day at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh during this spring so far and since this is the moaning thread (after all), I had decided to take this opportunity to point that out anyway.

No snow here other than a few flakes mixed in with disgusting icy cold rain yesterday. March has been a horrible boring month just like the Autumn and Winter. It’s unreal. How long can we go on with absolutely nothing of interest? We should be seeing flips from mild to cold at this time of year but all we are seeing is the now familiar story of near average temperatures with no extremes in either direction. Rainfall and sunshine near average too. It is incredibly bland and tedious. Worst aspect has been the revolting wind, which is present all the time ruining sunny days and making cloudy days seem extraordinarily bleak and depressing.

2013/14 saw just 10 days of falling snow/sleet through the entire Autumn, Winter and Spring. I would never have imagined it was possible to get such a pathetic total at this latitude and here we are just five years on with an even worse total of nine. However I have no doubt the 10 will be exceeded when we get the customary vile April that always follows a very mild, dry February.

It really is shaping up to be a crap spring thanks to the abysmal February. As a result of that horror show, everything has flowered too early. Crocuses at the local park haven’t opened up properly because they shot up in February and now they’re being buffeted by this awful wind which many have been flattened by, resulting in the worst displays I have ever seen. Just a continuation of the never ending nightmare

Yet we have seen massive blooms of crocus/tete a tete/early Daffs?

I have enjoyed the winter as I only had to help my partner once to tend to her elderly folk in need of frequent 'care' through the day ( this includes well above 200m)

We are switching patterns from the trough that brought us the 'washout' years to a pattern favouring a 'ridge' instead.

Bad if you want a cold ,snowy, winter .

Ace if you want a heatwave summer!

Sorry, not really a moan but so far March has proved true to form here. Rain and wind with some sunshine and at last we got a snow shower, although it didn’t settle!  Well, I guess the last bit is a moan. 

I quite like the odd gale force wind blowing a hooley on a night, but this is getting ridiculous.

Last 3 nights we've had gale/storm force winds move in after dark and really hammer us. And we've got yet more tonight.

I don't ever remember a run of such night-time extremely strong winds.

I quite like the odd gale force wind blowing a hooley on a night, but this is getting ridiculous.

Last 3 nights we've had gale/storm force winds move in after dark and really hammer us. And we've got yet more tonight.

I don't ever remember a run of such night-time extremely strong winds.

 

Agreed Saint but I'd also been surprised to see the polar night Jet behave in its formation in oct/nov last year and its stabilisation after the SSW/split in late december/early jan?

It feels like 'old school' type weather just on steroids?

I'm taking these winds to represent the northerly shift of the Polar Jet as the sun heads North so would expect them to ease as the month progresses and they drift ever further north?

The question then is what next?

GFS 06Z shows some very warm airs developing over N.Africa in a weeks time..... I wonder if we can tap into any of that? plus 20c 850 Hpa's would be nice for the end of March eh?

Just like the end of feb saw an anom as big as the 'average temp' should be at that time of year it would be a nice if that anom was repeated for late March????

EDIT: Even better if the air mass took the Biscay route and gave us some early tStorm activity!

I quite like the odd gale force wind blowing a hooley on a night, but this is getting ridiculous.

Last 3 nights we've had gale/storm force winds move in after dark and really hammer us. And we've got yet more tonight.

I don't ever remember a run of such night-time extremely strong winds.

 

I like to sleep with the bedroom window open but haven’t been able to for a couple of nights because I’m woken by blinds rattling and doors banging.  I’ve tried wedging the vertical blind against the wall with books so they don’t clatter together and that works fine but wedging socks in doors doesn’t work at all.  

I loathe the term ‘faux cold’ but this month is one of the few occasions when its use is valid. Day after day of average temperatures that feel wretchedly cold because of the vile and horrific wind. March is usually either a winter or spring month. This has to be the first time it’s been an autumn month, though even in an unsettled autumn month it would be ridiculous to see the almost entire absence of light winds we are suffering from at the moment.

Just utterly dire. Feels every bit as miserable as 2013 and 2018 but without the minimal interest those months provided through snowfalls. The lack of variation is mind-numbing. Apart from one day it reached 11.5C, every single day has had a max between 5.6C and 9.7C. A pitiful three frosts only with a low of just -2.2C. A switch from SW to NW winds should lower the temperature by several degrees but today produced exactly the same garbage under NW winds as yesterday under SW winds. In fact it was milder

Outlook is just for more of the same as well followed by a return to the coma-inducing excrement that wrote off the bulk of February. Any time the models pick up on interesting weather at day 10 it never materialises but tedious, vapid nothingness always comes off as modelled Yet another year from the 2010s that will rank amongst the most boring ever.

It's been a dire start to spring - at least last March we had x2 or 3 falls of snow each totally over 6" inches. But it was spring! So far this spring has been dire - wet windy and damp and with more rain etc.

btw What sort of weather do you crave Richard? - I just feel you may not be happy whatever happens. - Looks like you may get some snow Friday night into Saturday!? But wait! it's in spring!

 

It's been a dire start to spring - ... [rest of post]

 

My guess is rhat the only people who will be happy with how this spring has gone so far will be those farmers and growers who had become desperate for some rain in this part of the world as a result of all of the predominately dry weather which we have had during other recent months, as it hasn't really stopped raining here since this month (and indeed, this spring) started.

I quite like the odd gale force wind blowing a hooley on a night, but this is getting ridiculous.

Last 3 nights we've had gale/storm force winds move in after dark and really hammer us. And we've got yet more tonight.

I don't ever remember a run of such night-time extremely strong winds.

 

Agreed. It’s ridiculous. This is set to continue until Saturday so that’s what, 5 days on the trot of gales? And as you say the winds always pick up at night. My bedroom faces west over some large fields so faces the full force of the wind and it’s been disturbing my sleep. Sick of it now.

Wonder what the the record is for 'consecutive days from the start of spring that rain has been recorded'?

We're up to 17 now.

18 days...

Absolutely horrible weather here recently; incessant strong winds and heavy driving rain, plus hailstones yesterday. Absolutely hate this weather.

Thankfully, this week will be much quieter and more settled.

Looking at the outlook for the next 2 weeks, I reckon March will be the 12th consecutive month with below rainfall here ....      Probably have to start watering the garden again soon

Looking at the outlook for the next 2 weeks, I reckon March will be the 12th consecutive month with below rainfall here ....      Probably have to start watering the garden again soon

Show's the massive difference just about 150 miles can make on this accursed chunk of rock.