Stormy Weather

[Serial_Apologist]

It rained here - only a few spots, but I think enough to satisfy St Swithin. It was probably the fact that I washed my car that annoyed him.

Yes, they do say the best way to get it to rain is to wash one's car!

[marthe]

We're keeping fingers crossed that the few drops we're having now will become a torrential downpour. The garden is very dry; the lawn is turning brown. We've had a few rain "teases" but nothing substantial. My rain barrel is empty! Sadly, over here we don't have St. Swithin or St. Medard (Belgian equivilant of St Swith.) to help us out with the lack of precipitation. Perhaps I should wash my car! @saly: I'm glad to see that you've got your freezer up and running.

[BBMmk2]

We're keeping fingers crossed that the few drops we're having now will become a torrential downpour. The garden is very dry; the lawn is turning brown. We've had a few rain "teases" but nothing substantial. My rain barrel is empty! Sadly, over here we don't have St. Swithin or St. Medard (Belgian equivilant of St Swith.) to help us out with the lack of precipitation. Perhaps I should wash my car! @saly: I'm glad to see that you've got your freezer up and running.

Can you blow your sun over here please marthe? We are right fed up with the rain! :)

[amateur51]

Total stair-rods here in NW2 - Soggy sparrers are not happy

[ahinton]

Total stair-rods here in NW2 - Soggy sparrers are not happy

And rather a lot more of them to come, it sadly seems - and, of course, the accompanying temparatures are also most un-summer-like. There was no rain here yesterday until late evening but, although there have been few stair-rods around these parts, there has nevertheless been some rain or drizzle on most days of late, sometimes for hours on end - and tempratures above 20 degrees have been like gold-dust (of which there's never a surfeit in Herefordistan at the best of times). Dunno about soggy sparrers - even the swallows here aren't happy; I've never before seen so many of them fly at such low altitudes so often (quite frequently almost skimming ground level).

[Serial_Apologist]

And rather a lot more of them to come, it sadly seems - and, of course, the accompanying temparatures are also most un-summer-like. There was no rain here yesterday until late evening but, although there have been few stair-rods around these parts, there has nevertheless been some rain or drizzle on most days of late, sometimes for hours on end - and tempratures above 20 degrees have been like gold-dust (of which there's never a surfeit in Herefordistan at the best of times). Dunno about soggy sparrers - even the swallows here aren't happy; I've never before seen so many of them fly at such low altitudes so often (quite frequently almost skimming ground level).

Where, when and for how long anticyclones form seems to be one of the largest unknowns still to be explained in the science of meteorology. We can pretty easily tell now from where the jet stream is where depressions will form, where they will track, and how intense they will be; but anticyclones just seem to push themselves in and pump themselves up like bully boys, barring the way to the otherwise everyday circulation. They famously bring mostly dry weather conditions, but where they originated, where they are located relative to where we are, and how intense they are, determines if the weather will be sunny or cloudy, warm or cold. When one settles down in "the wrong place", like north of Scotland, bringing everybody else cold, cloudy winds off the North Sea at any time of the year, we wish there were some giant cosmic pin that could be used to puncture the high pressure like a balloon. But then, of course, we would be back to the jet stream being in charge again locally, with the resultant weather, such as now. In fact, the truth is that it is remarkably "difficult" for Britain to be able to enjoy the prolonged kinds of warm sunshine experienced in the Mediterranean region from June to October, normally, because here we are too far north of the Azores high pressure zone to enjoy other than usually transient northward break-offs from that Azores high. And so, today at lunchtime, the weather lady was making very tentative predictions of a north-eastward ridge building up from the Azores high bringing us warm, dry weather by the weekend, while at the same time the BBC weather website shows cold northerly winds. Maybe they're still hedging their bets, because high pressure systems aren't automatically preordained just when the jet stream lets up a bit. The pushy fellas of the meteorological kingdom, they go where they want to when they want to, obstinately outstay their welcomes or depart before we've hand any chance to derive from their benefits, and couldn't care less about jet streams.

[marthe]

Can you blow your sun over here please marthe? We are right fed up with the rain! :)

BBM, I'll have a word with the weather gods. Meanwhile, we did get that much hoped for downpour in the wee hours this AM. No need to lug watering cans around the garden today. Today's weather: sunny, hot, humid. Temps in low 90s F. Time to don my sun hat and go into town to lead a walking tour.

[vinteuil]

Well folks, for the first time in a couple of months, tentative signs from next week suggest that, once we're out of this next lot of rain, we will be entering a weather regime more typical of our usual middling kind of summers than this utterly disatrous one, up until now. High pressure is expected to move across France from the south-west, rather than bearing down from the colder regions, as has been the case mostly up until now. This change will allow comparatively warm, albeit still moist air to be steered round from a maritime tropical direction, thus bringing temperatures back to what they should be at this time of year, and a more mobile type of weather, in place of low pressure systems settling down for protracted periods right across us.

I am tentatively hopeful.

... further tentative hopes :

http://bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18868494

[gurnemanz]

... further tentative hopes :

http://bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18868494

No hope, alas, for my poor tomato plants (outdoor not greenhouse). Nurtured lovingly from seed, they now have blackened leaves and are dying, no doubt because the soaking wet ground is killing their roots. Luckily, other plants seem to be able to survive these sodden conditions.

[Serial_Apologist]

No hope, alas, for my poor tomato plants (outdoor not greenhouse). Nurtured lovingly from seed, they now have blackened leaves and are dying, no doubt because the soaking wet ground is killing their roots. Luckily, other plants seem to be able to survive these sodden conditions.

Ach - such a shame. Many must be in the same... boat seems the most appropriate word.

[salymap]

One of my young relatives grew several crops from seed, lovingly nurtured them and all that. Un fortunately the plastic lean-to greenhouse recently blew the length of the garden and ended up in little bits,ditto the seedlings. It's been an 'orrible year.

[BBMmk2]

Well, looks ;like the4 Jetstream is startin g to behave itself! Starting to go up to where it should be and yes(!), lo amnd beho;ld, it looks like we are going to have some of Marthe's weather!!

[salymap]

Warmer weather hasn't reached Kent/ SE london yet. Ifeel really cold today.

[marthe]

Well, looks ;like the4 Jetstream is startin g to behave itself! Starting to go up to where it should be and yes(!), lo amnd beho;ld, it looks like we are going to have some of Marthe's weather!!

BBM, be careful what you wish for! it's much too hot and humid here though relief is in sight, so they say. We're supposed to have thunder storms, showers, high winds later in the day. I would gladly send some of this saly's way to warm things up in darkest Kent.

[Anna]

Warmer weather hasn't reached Kent/ SE london yet. Ifeel really cold today.

It was cold yesterday evening but then muggy so I did sleep with windows open. I got drenched going out first thing, tipping it down, it's ok now, bright and dry but too late in the day. So many people seem to have developed coughs and colds, sure it's ideal breeding conditions for bugs, they love moisture and humidity.