UK Weather - Summer 2013

[Simon Culling]

A lot of good photographs on this link to a UK newspaper, especially of the lightning.

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

[spwill]

Thanks Simon, yes some nice lightning photos there.

[Tornado Tim]

Waikato would get that more than the UK.

I would agree with that.
A NW flow usually directly feeds hot and humid air from Queensland Australia and give rise to conditions like the tropics: with a balmy 22°C+ DP.

The Photos on that link are great, some of them clearly show it was elevated convection.

[Simon Culling]

Yes indeed Tornado Tim, the convection overnight Tues/Weds had Cb cloud bases between 5000ft and up to 10,000ft reported in some METARS. During the late afternoon of today (Weds 23rd) a line of surface based storms developed from the Midlands northwards to southern Scotland and they had much lower bases and caused a lot of flooding in Nottinghamshire. A funnel cloud was filmed near Chesterfield (Derbyshire):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba0_TlVeRK0

By the way, the CET up to the 22nd is 18.6*C (+2.6*C) and the EWR up to the 21st is just 5mm, although that will rise substantially over the next few days. Rainfall average for July is 62mm.

Edit: The heavy rain in the Nottingham area seems to have been from a back building supercell which gave a lot of rain in a short period. Watnall Observatory recorded 67.8mm in the 24hrs to 2100GMT on Tues 24th with most of this falling in an hour so around tea-time. Considerable flooding resulting, See this link from ITV Television:

http://www.itv.com/news/central/story/2 ... e-weather/

[NZstorm]

Looks a nice spanish plume thunderstorm set up for France tomorrow. Big CAPE number, strong forcing, upper level jet. Similar to what you see in USA, the missing ingredient low level directional shear. France gets a lot of high CAPE thunderstorms in a very moist environment but doesn't seem to get the tornadoes. Low level shear will be the issue. Still, supercells highly likely tomorrow.

UK will catch some elevated storm activity from this system.

[spwill]

I don't think England is a better place for Tstorms than NZ from my memory of living there 4 years.

[Simon Culling]

it has remained warm with last weeks thunderstorms not clearing the air as might be expected. Highs were:

Wednesday 24th July, 28.0*C at Norwich Airport
Thursday 25th July, 27.9*C at Norwich Airport
Friday 26th July, 27.9*C at Gravesend
Saturday 27th July, 29.6*C at RAF Northolt

On Saturday a thundery low developed over N France and was at 1003mb at 1800GMT and centred in the eastern Channel and moved north overnight into Sunday and deepended to 992mb by 1200GMT Sunday and was then centred off the NE coast of Scotland. It had quite a sharp isobar contour on its southern flank with wind gust of 50mph+ reported over NE England on Sunday morning. The low pushed a lot of heavy rain northward over most of the UK Saturday night into Sunday with 70-75mm in a few places (Cumbria and Leicestershire), although not too much in more southern and western areas. A few thunderstorms developed ahead of the rain - we had one here in Milton Keynes for half an hour around 18hrs with a few decent rumbles of thunder. All this rain will boost the current low rainfall totals for July.

CET for July up to 27th was 18.8*C (+2.8*C) and the EWR up to the 26th was 19mm. I would not be surprised if the EWR approaches the average (of 62mm) by the end of the month.

[Simon Culling]

The hot spell came to an end after the rain over the weekend but it has remained fairly warm and showery with plenty of thunderstorms on Monday 29th July. We had a decent storm in the early afternoon in Milton Keynes with an impressive arch cloud on its leading edge stretching from the SE through S to the W.

We will receive a short burst of warm air from the south tomorrow (Thursday 1st Aug) with the temperature reaching 31-32*C in the SE....unfortunately I have to travel to London so it will be an uncomfortable and humid day in the capital. This 'plume' is not expected to produce much in the way of thunder on Friday and will be replaced by cooler and showery weather for the weekend. There are signs in the models of a return to a more westerly flow for the first couple of weeks of August, although I think we still have the chance of another plume or two.

[Simon Culling]

Thursday 1st August was indeed very warm in the SE.....it turned out to be the warmest day of the year so far, with maximum temperatures of:

34.1*C at London Heathrow
33.4*C at Writtle (Essex)
33.2*C at Gravesend
33.1*C at RAF Northolt + St James Park
32.1*C at Bedford
32.0*C at Wellesbourne (Warwickshire)

The rest of the month has been sunnier, warmer and drier for those of us in the SE half of England and about average elsewhere. The CET is 17.1*C (+1.2*C) up to the 26th and the EWR is 61mm up to the 25th (average for month is 77mm). Two warm months in a row.

The Met Office have produced a good summary of the hot and dry spell in the month of July. See this link:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/ ... 3-heatwave

[Simon Culling]

It has cooled off a bit today (Saturday 31st) as a NW flow introduced itself overnight. Despite a mostly sunny day, the temperature across the Midlands only reached 18-19*C and there was a fresh feel to the air. It will be chilly tonight as the wind dies down and the skies remain mostly clear - there is likely to be a nip of ground frost in more rural areas. It was a cool start in Wales this morning with an overnight low of 4.1*C at Bala.

Next week looks dry again and with temperatures rising past 25*C again by midweek. We have been treated to a decent summer this year and it looks like continuing into the autumn.

[Simon Culling]

Provisional figures from the Met Office suggest this summer has been 'the best' since 2006, but I suppose that depends upon how you measure such things. It has been warmer, drier and sunnier than normal, so I suppose by most people's judgement that would make it better. It has certainly brought a boost to tourism and general outdoor activities and has probably added a small amount to the GDP!!!

Met Office summary:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releas ... mmer-stats

The CET for July ended up at 18.3*C (+2.3*C) and the EWR was 54mm (86%) with most of that falling in the last week. August will end up 1*C warmer and a little drier than average when the figures are totted up.

[Simon Culling]

Final CET for August was 16.9*C (+1.1*C) and the EWR only 64mm, which is 83% of the monthly average of 77mm. That's two warmer than average months in a row.