UK Weather - Spring 2019

[Simon Culling]

The weekend and into Monday was showery over the UK, but they tended to be confined to convergence zones down the spine of England and near to the south coast. Some of the showers were heavy and as they were slow moving, deposited a lot of rain in limited areas - although they seem to have missed the rain gauges. At least 6 funnel clouds were observed in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire over this 3 day period despite there being little if any lightning activity - convergence zones, especially coastal breeze induced, tend to produce this effect here in the UK.

The weather for the rest of the week will be rather benign, but it appears that low pressure systems from the Atlantic will have a greater influence come the weekend and beyond.

The CET for May was 10.3°C (-0.4°C) up to the 19th and the EWR was 32mm also up to the 19th, which is 49% of the monthly average.

[Simon Culling]

The weather for the working week turned out a lot better than earlier forecasts had suggested - certainly for England + Wales. It became quite warm and sunny from Tuesday onwards with the mercury reaching 24.7°C at London Heathrow Airport on Thursday and 23.2°C at St James Park yesterday. I was in Devon for most of the week and it was warm and mostly sunny there as well (up to 20°C on Weds/Thurs), but we had a lot of medium and high cloud on Friday making the sunshine a bit hazy. Scotland did not fare so well, with a lot of cloud and outbreaks of rain all week, with up to 50mm in a few places. This is in sharp contrast to the increasingly dry conditions here in the south. This rainfall + river flow summary from the Environment Agency for the third week of May gives a flavour:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... y_2019.pdf

The weather is looking a bit more unsettled this weekend and for the Whitsun BH, but I do not think there will be too much rain for the south - apart from some localised heavy showers. After that, the models are hinting at 30°C for the south for next weekend.

[Simon Culling]

It was a showery weekend over most of the UK, but as is the case in these situations, some places remained mostly dry. This applied to Hythe where it was pleasantly warm with sunny intervals from Saturday through to Monday, with a few showers only arriving during Monday evening. More western and northern parts of the UK had a lot more showers and a few funnel clouds were seen and photographed in the NW of England. The temperature reached 24.5°C on Saturday at Teddington Bushy Park (SW London), and this place was the warmest again on Sunday and Monday when 20.5°C and 20.1°C respectively were reached. The cooling trend has continued into the new week, but as the wind has been generally light, it has still felt warm here in the south. However, further north it has been quite a bit cooler, with Fair Isle (in-between Orkney + Shetland) recording a maximum of just 9.1°C on Monday (27th May).

The cooler showery weather will continue until mid-week, but high pressure will then build again from the south and we will have a warm end to the week and into the weekend - when a thundery trough may introduce the first plume of the summer.

[Simon Culling]

The north-south split in the weather has continued with the south mostly dry from mid-week and the north still getting periods of rain. It has become warmer in the south and increasingly muggy from Thursday as we draw in humid air from the south. With high pressure over the Alpes and a low moving NE to the NW of the UK, this SSW flow will be maintained and we will have a warm start to the summer season - we should see at least 27°C in the London area which would be the warmest day of the year so far.

As is often the case at this time of the year, there has been quite a contrast in the temperatures across the UK this week with a high of 24.8°C at London Heathrow on Thursday afternoon and a low of -3.5°C at Tulloch Bridge (in the Scottish Highlands) on Wednesday morning.

[Simon Culling]

The final CET for May was 11.1°C which has been given the difference from average of -0.0°C. I assume this is just below average, but not enough for it to be -0.1°C. The final EWR was 45mm which is just 69% of the monthly average and continues the relatively dry run of months.

The month of May was the first month in the CET series to record a below average temperature since March 2018 (i.e. over a year), although a few months have run it close. October 2018 was dead on average and September 2018 and January 2019 had an anomaly of just +0.1°C. The CET (Hadley) series uses the climate reference period of 1961-1990 when making a comparison to recent temperatures.

Since the start of 2018 (17 completed months), only 6 months have had above average rainfall for England + Wales, whilst 11 have seen lower than average rainfall. There is a regional difference as well to these figures, with the SE being drier and the NW wetter than the average figure.

[RWood]

The final CET for May was 11.1°C which has been given the difference from average of -0.0°C. I assume this is just below average, but not enough for it to be -0.1°C. The final EWR was 45mm which is just 69% of the monthly average and continues the relatively dry run of months.

The month of May was the first month in the CET series to record a below average temperature since March 2018 (i.e. over a year), although a few months have run it close. October 2018 was dead on average and September 2018 and January 2019 had an anomaly of just +0.1°C. The CET (Hadley) series uses the climate reference period of 1961-1990 when making a comparison to recent temperatures.

Since the start of 2018 (17 completed months), only 6 months have had above average rainfall for England + Wales, whilst 11 have seen lower than average rainfall. There is a regional difference as well to these figures, with the SE being drier and the NW wetter than the average figure.

Thanks Simon, looking forward to the stats. reports on May and the Spring.

[Simon Culling]

Here we go, Rupert. The Met Office have produced a blog entry with details of both May and Spring 2019.

https://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2019/06/0 ... o-a-close/

The most telling picture is the Spring rainfall and how dry it has been in the south and east of England. Interestingly, the wettest region was NE Scotland, rather than the usual NW.

[RWood]

Here we go, Rupert. The Met Office have produced a blog entry with details of both May and Spring 2019.

https://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2019/06/0 ... o-a-close/

The most telling picture is the Spring rainfall and how dry it has been in the south and east of England. Interestingly, the wettest region was NE Scotland, rather than the usual NW.

Thanks Simon, interesting re NE Scotland.

[Simon Culling]

Dan Holley has posted an interesting tweet regarding recent rainfall in the East Anglian Region of the UK which is traditionally the driest part of these islands. As can be seen from the graph, there is quite a deficit over the last three years - amounting to over 200mm. The graph also shows an increasing trend in the deficit, although the very wet start to June will slow this down a bit.

https://twitter.com/danholley_/status/1 ... 9913152514

The graph uses the 30 year average period of 1981-2010 as a comparison. There is also a graph for recent London rainfall further down the tweet.