UK Weather - Spring 2024

[Simon Culling]

Today is the first day of meteorological Spring here in the Northern Hemisphere, but this has not brought a change in the weather. It has been another wet and windy day over the UK with plenty of heavy showers following the overnight rain - there has even been a cover of snow to the higher parts of Ireland and northern England + Wales. Down here in the SW we had a wild and wet night followed by a rash of showers today and it has certainly felt a bit colder with a high of only 8°C and a stiff SW breeze. For mid-Devon, the average max/min for early March should be around 10°C/3°C.

There is more excitement about an imminent SSW event, but we could do without this and a cold + wet spring. Most of the models are keen on it happening and with the accompany wind reversal higher up in the Arctic atmosphere. They are also increasingly keen on a Scandinavian high pressure block becoming established next week with a resulting easterly flow over the UK which will still be cold a this time of the year. At least it might be a bit drier!

[Simon Culling]

The wet weather has continued as we move into early Spring but it has turned a bit colder and we are seeing a touch of frost on most nights - even down here in the SW. Yesterday was another wet day, particularly here in SW England with 10-15mm quite widely and a cold and strong SE wind which gusted up to around 40mph for much of the afternoon - making it a driving rain. Looking forward it should be quite a bit drier for the rest of the working week, but the rain looks to return for the weekend. The Scandi high and an easterly keeps being shunted further backwards by the models!

The Northern Lights were seen quite widely over the UK on Sat/Sun (2nd/3rd March) night and were photographed by many. It was foggy here in Tiverton and that combined with all the street lighting meant I did not see it. Attached is a photo from Seaton which is on the River Axe in Devon which gives a general view. On the couple of occasions I have seen it in the UK, it has been very faint with the colours difficult to see. I am thinking that photographic exposures significantly enhance what is likely to be seen naturally by the naked eye?

The CET for March was 4.1°C (-1.6°C) up to the 3rd and the EWR was 13mm up to the 2nd, which is 20% of the monthly mean of 65mm.

[Orion]

The Northern Lights were seen quite widely over the UK on Sat/Sun (2nd/3rd March) night and were photographed by many. It was foggy here in Tiverton and that combined with all the street lighting meant I did not see it. Attached is a photo from Seaton which is on the River Axe in Devon which gives a general view. On the couple of occasions I have seen it in the UK, it has been very faint with the colours difficult to see. I am thinking that photographic exposures significantly enhance what is likely to be seen naturally by the naked eye?
...

Has been a while since I've seen an aurora but I think you are correct, a longer exposure for photos enhances brightness and saturates colours. Peripheral vision often shows up faint light and colour better.
The most intense aurora I've ever seen was one in April 1990, whole southern sky was memorably red and I think it was seen quite widely in NZ. I heard the "rustling silk" sound-effect with that one...

[Simon Culling]

Orion, the southern island of NZ seems to get as many views of the aurora as we do in southern Britain despite NZ being a few degrees closer to the equator. One thing on my list is to spend a few weeks in the Highlands of Scotland in winter where I should get a proper view.

The very average weather continues here in the UK and as we are now in a period of Spring Tides, there are quite a few coastal flood warnings + alerts in place as well as quite a few for groundwater flooding. This is not due to any storminess, but to the fact we have had so much rain for the last few months and both the rivers are running high and groundwater levels are at the surface. With such high river levels (and flows), the water can back up at high tide and cause flooding not just on the coast but further inland. The rain, unfortunately, is continuing and the forecast for the next 5 days is for increasingly mild temperatures (up to 16/17°C in the SE) but with further rain/showers.

The CET for March was 6.2°C (+0.5°C) up to the 12th and the EWR was 37mm up to the 11th which is 56% of the monthly average.

[Simon Culling]

As anticipated in my last post, the wet weather has continued, although it has turned milder with daytime temperatures of 15°C today and yesterday here in Tiverton with some sunshine - however, we did have 20mm+ rainfall Saturday into Sunday. The forecast is not much better for the next five days with predominantly cloudy skies and some rain/showers and with cooler temperatures by the weekend as the winds swing around to the NW. Spring has not really sprung, yet.

The current wet spell has apparently produced the third wettest 12-month period since the England & Wales precipitation series started way back in 1766. Up to February this year, the running 12-month total (for England & Wales) was 1327mm and the record highest value is 1355mm for the 12-month period April 2000 to march 2001.

The CET for March was 7.5°C (+1.9°) up to the 17th and the EWR was 58mm up to the 16th, which is 89% of the monthly total. Won't be long before the monthly average is exceeded yet again.

[Simon Culling]

The relentless rain continues here in the UK and the lead up to the Easter weekend will see a continuation of the unsettled weather. We might see a dryish Sat/Sun, but the rain will return in time for Bank Holiday Monday. It has also turned quite a bit cooler in the last few days with snow over the higher ground in Scotland and there are some indications that quite a potent northerly will arrive in early April to continue the cold theme. The temperature fell to -7°C in parts of northern Scotland this morning (Monday 26th March), although here in Tiverton we were no lower than +6°C with patchy fog around dawn - it looked very autumnal rather than spring-like.

We are all getting rather fed up with the non-stop rain and lack of sunshine.......the only good news must be that to balance all this rain we will likely at some stage soon see a drier than average period. Let's hope that corresponds with the coming summer.

The CET for March was 8.1°C (+2.5°C) up to the 25th and the EWR was 70mm up to the 24th which is 107% of the monthly average.

[Simon Culling]

The UK is still wet and is now rather cooler than it was for much of the month of March. The last few days has seen a mix of heavy rain, sleet and snow, thunder and even large hailstones. An area of rain moved northwards over SW England on Wednesday evening (27th March) and readily turned to snow on its western side as evaporative cooling in the light winds allowed the temperature to drop sufficiently. Over the higher parts of Dartmoor they had 6-8" of snow, but even the low ground and down to the seashore had a slight cover in eastern Cornwall and the west side of Devon. Here in Tiverton we were on the boundary of the rain and snow and had a few hours of heavy sleet (about 20mm for the event) but it never quite transitioned to be fully snow, so we had no more than a little slush on the ground. However, we had a nasty frost on Thursday morning as the cloud cleared after the rain/snow finished and it made the roads very slick around dawn. First photo is Princetown (elevation 400m) in the evening snow.

Yesterday (Thurs 28th March) another low (around 965mb) moved NE across the western side of England + Wales and left the southern half of the UK in a very showery S-SW flow. Lots of showers developed in bands and one cell travelled from the south coast NNE into the Midlands (about 200 miles) during the afternoon and showed some supercellular characteristics. It produced large hail for the time of year, with some stones being in excess of 30mm across. The photo below is of one such stone, which looks like an agglomeration, observed at Church Stowe which is in Northamptonshire - just to the SW of Althorp House.

[Simon Culling]

The relentless miserable weather continues here in the UK, but there are hints in the models of high pressure finally asserting more of an influence from mid-month. A drying out would be very welcome, especially for the farming community who are some way behind with spring planting as the ground is so wet. Before that may (or may not) happen, we still have plenty of rain and now wind to come. This morning (Thurs 4th April) Met Eireann has named Storm Kathleen which is currently forming to the SW of the UK and will move north just to the west of Eire on Saturday. It will give a windy day to all of the UK and particularly Eire, with bands of rain and showers as well for all. It will also drag some very warm air (for the time of the year) northwards over most of Western Europe and this will affect more eastern parts of the UK to give them a warm but breezy day with most of the sunshine and little of the rain - we could easily see 21°C reached in this area.

The final CET for March was 8.1°C (+2.5°C) and the final EWR was 111mm which is 169% of the monthly average. The month was generally much wetter, warmer and duller than average for most of the UK, but NW Scotland had a much drier and sunnier month than might be expected. Met Office summary attached - from their blog.

https://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2024/04/0 ... wet-march/

[Simon Culling]

Storm Kathleen duly moved north just to the west of Eire with a lowest central pressure analysed around 953mb on Saturday evening. It is now (mid afternoon Sunday) roughly between Scotland + Iceland, but is giving the UK another windy day. Looking at the media reports, there have been quite a few trees toppled, but structural damage appears to have been minimal. The effect of the stormy seas has been felt in coastal areas with some local flooding. The BBC report quotes a windspeed of 90mph, but gusts of this order were over the tops of the mountains. The highest gusts where people live were around 70mph - the highest I can find is 73mph at Drumalbin which is located on the edge of Scottish Southern Uplands.

The warm air on the eastern + southern flank of the low gave England its warmest day of the year so far on Saturday with a high of 20.9°C at Santon Downham in East Anglia.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2808nl1gd4o

A few more days of rain and showers to come up to the middle of the coming week, but it looks a bit more settled and drier from Friday onwards as high pressure becomes established to our south over France/Spain. Might be a touch warmer also.

[Simon Culling]

Another low pressure system (named Storm Pierrick by Meteo France) moved NNE right over the UK on Monday/Tuesday (8/9th April) bringing heavy rain + strong winds (gusts to around 70mph) with high sea to much of the coasts, but especially the south coast of England. As the storm coincided with the Spring Tides there was quite a bit of local flooding from both the sea and backed up rivers. BBC report gives more details, but the local news has more material/pictures as linked in the article.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-68773277

Thankfully, this looks to be the last of the deep depressions for the time being.

The CET for April was 11.0°C (+3.1°C) up to 10th and the EWR was 48mm up to the 9th which is 76% of the monthly average of 63mm.

[Simon Culling]

The weather calmed down briefly at the end of last week and over the weekend and much of England + Wales enjoyed a couple of warmer and drier days. The highest temperature of the year so far was recorded in the SE on Saturday (13th April) with 21.8°C being measured at Writtle in Essex and 21.6°C at St James Park in London. However, this was a brief interlude because a very active cold front swept across the whole of the UK overnight Sunday into Monday bringing further heavy rain + gales, and even a couple of probable tornadoes in Staffordshire + Nottinghamshire around dawn on Monday. Since then it has remained very windy + showery and it has been quite a bit cooler.

The wind event in Staffordshire (in the Stoke suburb of Knutton) was caught on video.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-englan ... e-68820755

[Simon Culling]

The weather has calmed down considerably since the active cold front on last Monday and we have got stuck in a N to NE flow off a cold North Sea with predominantly cloudy skies and a nagging breeze. With high pressure anchored firmly to our west at least the endless run of lows and fronts, with their attendant rain, has been curtailed for a while. However, we did have a beautiful day yesterday (Sat 20th April) here in Tiverton with just a few puffs of cumulus and unbroken sunshine - and with a light breeze, it still felt very pleasant despite a maximum of only 14°C. Clear skies overnight did lead to a slight ground frost on Sunday (today) morning.

Looking ahead and there is still no sign of any real warmth in the models - the general N flow looks like persisting with a number of fronts pushing into the high to give some rain as well this week and highs only in the range of 10-12°C. It was often milder in February + March!!

The CET for April was 10.6°C (+2.7°C) up to the 19th and the EWR was 65mm, also up the 19th, which is 103% of the monthly average. Despite the weather appearing poor this April, it is still much warmer than average which is due to all the cloud and the mild nights. However, despite this mildness, we haven't had any decent warmth so far.