UK Weather - Summer 2012

[Simon Culling]

New thread for a new season, and true to form as soon as summer officially starts, the weather heads south along with the jetstream. Quite a contrast in the weather yesterday (Saturday 2nd June) with the warm air valiantly hanging on in the far south, but much cooler air in the north. Max temps were:

24.4*C at St Helier (Jersey)
22.2*C at Otterbourne Water Works (Hants)
21.5*C at Chivenor (Devon)
9.3*C at Albermarle (Northumberland)
8.7*C at Spadeadam (Cumbria) + Redesdale (Northumberland)
8.2*C at Carterhouse (Southern Uplands, Scotland)

There was also a nip of frost in the far north of Scotland in the morning, with a minimum of -0.9*C at Loch Glascarnoch (Highlands).

Today is wet and cold over most of the UK (leading up to a Bank Holiday) with a current temperature (at 11am) of just 10*C here in Milton Keynes with a constant drizzle and a cool easterly breeze. There is a chance of some decent convection if the sun can come out in the far south of England and provide some lift.

[Simon Culling]

Much of Sunday was a cold and miserable day over most of central England and even the poor old Queen had to put up with the poor weather as she travelled up the Thames. Some very low maximum temperatures for the time of year and close to the record lows:

6.3*C at Emley Moor (N Yorks)
6.7*C at Bingley (W Yorks)
7.9*C at Leek Thorncliffe (Staffs)
8.6*C at Gringley-on-the-Hill (Notts)
10.1*C at Church Lawford (Warwicks)
10.4*C at Bedford

However, to the south of this central zone, a little sunshine and a SW brreze lifted the tmeperature to 17-18*C allowing an area of heavy convective rain (no thunder) to develop and move across the southern half of England. Totals for the 24 hours to 2100GMT on Sunday (4th) included:

42.4mm at Astwood Bank (Worcs)
40.1mm at Coalville (Leics)
31.4mm at Hawarden (N Wales)
25.6mm at RAF Brize Norton

There was also another forst in NE Scotland with lows 0f -2.5*C at Kinbrace and -1.5*C at Braemar + Altnaharra.

[Simon Culling]

A further couple of frosty nights in Scotland on the 4th and 5th, with minimums on the 5th of:

-3.5*C at Loch Glascarnoch
-3.1*C at Tulloch Bridge
-1.4*C at Tyndrum

There was also a very localised frost in E Anglia on the 5th, with an air minimum of -0.2*C at Santon Downham.

We have a large and deep low to our SW at the moment (980mb in the soutern Irish Sea at 1800GMT on Thurs 7th June) giving gale force SW winds to the SW of England and S Wales (gusts to 70mph) and plenty of rain and showers to all of us. Outlook remains wet and windy for the next 10 days. Roll on summer.

[Simon Culling]

The low pressure mentioned in the last post provided a thoroughly wet and windy day on Friday with a significant flooding event on the Saturday morning following very heavy orographic rain on the western slopes of the Welsh mountains. The strongest winds were on the exposed south coasts of both England + Wales with the highest being 82mph at Needles Old Battery (Isle of Wight), 74mph at Hurst Castle (Hampshire) and 67mph at The Mumbles Lighthouse (near Swansea, S Wales). Even well inland 58mph was reported from Bristol Filton Airport and 54mph at London Heathrow. Further details on the Wales floods (and great pictures) in the link below:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... hours.html

[Simon Culling]

This was followed by a further development overnight Sunday into Monday which brought an area of very heavy rain northwards from France to give the SE of England a soaking. In excess of 100m fell in localised spots near the south coast around Bognor Regis, Chichester and Littlehampton in Sussex with consequent flooding.

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/story/ ... er-floods/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18391200

Edit: Hightest totals from Met Office stations for the 36 hours to 0600GMT this morning (Tuesday 12th) were 72.0mm at Wiggonholt, 68.6mm at Thorney Island and 67.8mm at Shoreham Airport. The local MetO site to me, Woburn, recorded 36.2mm in this period. it was a wet and cold day yesterday here in Milton Keynes with a max temperature of just 11*C.

[Manukau heads obs]

my mother is visiting family in Ireland, so I will be following these updates with interest
I told her to expect similar conditions to what we have been getting here lately (i.e winter),LOL

[Simon Culling]

Hello Brian, it has been equally cool and wet over Ireland in the last few weeks. There have been a lot of showers and thunderstorms in the last couple of days, with a few funnel clouds reported on both Monday and Tuesday (11th and 12th June). See the links below:

http://www.worldirish.com/listening-pos ... negal-1254

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEZtuwt0 ... r_embedded#!

The link below will give you the daily weather stats for Eire from Met Eireann. They use a 24 hour priod up to midnight:

http://www.met.ie/latest/yesterday.asp

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Just come back from Ireland. Very wet in the central of the country last week, especially in the Offally area where they have the peat (Turf) bogs, with lots of water lying about everywhere.

[Orion]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weath ... winds.html

Sounds as if there will be battening-down of hatches.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

It was interesting that when we went over there late April, it was said that there had been a drought. I don't know what sort of drought it was as everything looked so green. Maybe they have a different interpretation of drought in the UK as compared to here in NZ?

[Orion]

I understand that it was later re-defined as a "public water shortage".

[Simon Culling]

John + Orion, the UK drought has been somewhat exagerated by sensationalist newspapers (a bit like to warning of 80mph gales a few days ago!), but we have been experiencing lower than average rainfall for at least two and a half years. More importantly, the last two winters have been drier than average and this is when the aquafiers get restocked. England takes at least (particularly the South) 30% of its water from these ground aquafers and that is why the water companies applied for a drought order to restrict unecessary water use, i.e. using the hose pipe to clean your car or water the lawn. Despite the recent heavy rain since April, the ground water levels remain low and will not be topped up until well into autunm, assuming it is wet. At this time of the year, the plants will take all the water that falls, leaving nothing for the aquafers. Add to this the increasing amounts of concrete and tarmac which restricts water soaking into the ground (it just runs off into the drains and rivers!) and you can see our current dilemna.....lots of rain falling, but still drought orders in some areas.

The reality is that despite consumer devices being more economic water wise, there are more of using more machines and hence the use of water per head continues to rise. Therefore, with a constant or declining resource, we are likely to have further problems in this area in the future.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Thanks for that explanation there, Simon, that sort of makes sense with consideration of the much bigger population with more usage of the water over the area compared to that here in NZ.
I noticed that the water had a lot of chalk in it, especially just off the Thames where we were staying at Beale Park near Pangbourne. Is that normal?

[Simon Culling]

John, much of the water in the south eastern half of England is what you might call 'hard water' because of the chalk content. In the north western half, the water is much softer because the strata is more limestone based. This link provides a bit more info about the drinking water you encountered on your recent visit.

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwat ... chalk.html

CET for June is currently 13.1*C (-1.0*C) up to the 22nd and the EWR a whopping 124mm up to the 21st, already nearly double the June average of 65mm and there has been more rain since. Another depression with a 'wrap around' front stalled over the NW of England on Friday into Saturday, giving up to 200m on the higher ground as measured from the rainfall radar runs. In the 24 hours to 0900GMT today (Sat 23rd) Blencathra (Cumbria) recorded 93.8mm and Keswick (also Cumbria) 88.6mm, with 74.4mm at Stoneyhurst in Lancashire. More flooding resulted:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18564518

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Thanks for that Simon. I did notice a different quality in the NW half.
Nice to drink our 'pure' water back home here.

[Richard]

Becoming a real wet June for those northern areas,what are the sunshine hours Simon

[Janos]

Thanks for that Simon. I did notice a different quality in the NW half.
Nice to drink our 'pure' water back home here.

Hmmm you get used to it in fact i quite enjoy the taste of it then again I was from Dunedin.!

[NZstorm]

Large hail in Leicestershire today! (east of Birmingham).

[Tornado Tim]

Large hail in Leicestershire today! (east of Birmingham).

I noticed that area was getting a very good storm according to Blitzortung before I went to bed....

[NZstorm]

As well as the large hail in Leicestershire, tornadoes were also observed on Thursday.

84000 lightning strikes also recorded!

Tornado clip

[Manukau heads obs]

nice one , thats a goog tornado for the UK!

[Simon Culling]

Have had more computer problems for the last month or so, but we are back up and running again. It has been a rather cool and wet summer, but August has been better, but it is also turning cooler + wetter just in time for the Bank Holiday weekend. Will give some further details on the huge hail in July (up to near tennis ball size) when I get the chance.

CET for June was 13.5*C (-0.5*C), July was 15.5*C (-0.5*C) and August is on 17.4*C (+1.5*C) up to the 22nd.

EWR for June was 160mm (246%), July was 119mm (192%) and August is 54mm up to 21st.....average for the month is 77mm, but we have a wet weekend and last week to come.

[Richard]

Thats a rather wet summer all right Simon and man that hail nearly the size of tennis ball must have done some damage

[Michael]

(They) havent really had a summer,a couple of 28c days,some lesser sunny days over the olympics and remember some summer like days at the end of march?

[Richard]

A lovely mild WNW wind here to start the day off,should help dry things out a bit