Stormy Weather

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for that explanation of anti-cyclones S_A, - here it has done it's magic with a high of 15.7° which has enabled me to be active from first light and to completely clear an area of garden without being muffled up and shivering against the wind. This means I can now relax and enjoy the bank holiday! I hope all here have also had favourable conditions and have been out enjoying the fresh air and sunshine (and that ferney has finished laying his pebble path!) Beautiful full moon last night as well. The lunchtime weather forecast I saw promised even hotter tomorrow? Don't mind as long as it stays dry although it's clouded up considerably now.

It's always my pleasure to convey to humanity my boundless half-knowledge about all manner of things, Anna!

Nobody has come back after my last message to say, hey, what about all that dull weather we got with a south-east wind behind an anticyclone during the last winter then? And of course I omitted to mention that my explanation was mainly referring to how highs behave in the summer half of the year at our latitude. Anticyclones tend to be cloudier in winter by virtue of the amount of fog that forms at night over land within their calm, slow-descending airmasses, and that as the dewpoint rises with the rise in the daytime temperature this fog rises into stratus cloud which, being trapped beneath the inversion, has nowhere to go. Sunlight being so weak, it cannot penetrate this layer, which therefore persists unless a) air invades the system from drier regions or b) the high moves away and the fog/stratus in broken up and/or blown away by stronger winds coming in.

Anyway, it seems my predictions have more-or-less come true for this weekend, although here there have been quite large amounts of stratocumulus coming in from the cold North Sea, and air temperatures in this part of S London didn't exceed 13 C today. But that's 1 degree C above what's to be expecgted for early April, so one shouldn't complain!

[Petrushka]

A glorious April morning here! Predictions earlier in the week weren't giving out anything like this so must question the accuracy of the much vaunted BBC 10 day forecast.

[greenilex]

Equally sunny and glorious here, almost a pity to vanish into the gloom for an encore showing of Mahagonny at Harbour Lights, but oh so worth while.

[Serial_Apologist]

Rather than cloud breaking for warm sunshine, the exact reverse has been the case here in Town today, so that while I cycled down to Croydon in warm midday sunshine, I made the return journey facing a cold and clammy nor'easter.

Ah well never mind - once this high shifts a bit further south we should be joining the parts of the country currently hogging what warmth is in short supply.

[jayne lee wilson]

Anticyclonic gloom still in place here, flat calm, high of just 7 degrees, the mist so low and heavy it felt like light rain on your face...
Visibility is back down to around 50m now...

But perfect weather for pampas hacking, feeding nuts & sunflower seeds to a very tame (and very busy) squirrel...

[Anna]

Ah well never mind - once this high shifts a bit further south we should be joining the parts of the country currently hogging what warmth is in short supply.

Which is why, when I saw your post, I refrained from saying that after early morning fog we had a cloudless, windless, day and a rather tropical 19°
More of the same today but even hotter at a smidge under 20°, now absolutely cloudless night, bright stars and forecast to get down to not much above freezing and chance of frost. But, take heart - you'll be at least 2-3 degrees warmer than us by the end of the week as we cool down.
Noticeable how this brief hot spell has totally greened up hedgerows and trees, lots of bumble bees around, some overwintered butterflies, birds frantically nesting. Long may it last - well I think it'll be ok until after the weekend.

[Serial_Apologist]

Which is why, when I saw your post, I refrained from saying that after early morning fog we had a cloudless, windless, day and a rather tropical 19°
More of the same today but even hotter at a smidge under 20°, now absolutely cloudless night, bright stars and forecast to get down to not much above freezing and chance of frost. But, take heart - you'll be at least 2-3 degrees warmer than us by the end of the week as we cool down.
Noticeable how this brief hot spell has totally greened up hedgerows and trees, lots of bumble bees around, some overwintered butterflies, birds frantically nesting. Long may it last - well I think it'll be ok until after the weekend.

Nevertheless, the weather's behaviour does seem quite odd at the moment, Anna.

Today I thought I'd take advantage of the brilliant sunshine to make a cycle trip along the Embankment,from Battersea Bridge to Vauxhall Bridge - stopping off briefly to genuflect before the plaque on the house in Cheyne Walk where RVW lived! It was comfortably cool and, best of all for cycling purposes, windless. The temperature was still pegged back at 13 degrees C when I got home here, but I was able to spend a couple of hours sunbathing on the south side of our block of flats, and when I came in at 4.30 the shade temperature on the northern side of the building had risen to 16 C!

It looks as if it could reach 19 C on Friday, before the cold front introduces seasonal temperatures for the weekend. I'm afraid the forecast for next week does not look good.

[BBMmk2]

I'm not complaining about the weather and holiday time too! :)

[Serial_Apologist]

It's expected to be unbreathable tomorrow. This is the one problem with the warm Continental air which reaches us in summer, these days.

[Anna]

It's expected to be unbreathable tomorrow. This is the one problem with the warm Continental air which reaches us in summer, these days.

It's not just warm air, it's the filthy French pollution again drifting across the channel mixed with some Saharan sand. It's headline news, and was the second item on R4's 6 o'clock news and practically whole page in The Times because it's going to affect London and the SE - yet when South Wales had 3 days of it, causing the M4 to shut and streets in Cardiff lost in dense smog not a single word was said! Anyway, it'll all be gone by Saturday. (Paris, where they are still banning cars, and N. France on the air pollution map is mauve again, signifying very high)

Today was same as yesterday, 17.7° but another cold night, just above freezing, lovely clear starry night again. Forecast here is hot tomorrow then to drop to around 13° Saturday but then warming up a bit and continuing around 14° which is ok, still staying dry, possible light shower Sunday.

[teamsaint]

I was in London today, and the air was horrible. Mind you, the traffic was a disaster , after a horrible crash, and the shambles in Kingsway after the fire.

[Nick Armstrong]

the filthy French

Maybe I'll wait till after the weekend before washing the car. Don't want some beastly frogs dumping all over it!

I was in London today, and the air was horrible. Mind you, the traffic was a disaster , after a horrible crash, and the shambles in Kingsway after the fire.

I had quite a nice fresh cycle home through the centre at 7ish - the air seemed fine.

What was the crash?

[teamsaint]

Maybe I'll wait till after the weekend before washing the car. Don't want some beastly frogs dumping all over it!


I had quite a nice fresh cycle home through the centre at 7ish - the air seemed fine.

What was the crash?

Tragically, a cyclist killed near Lambeth Bridge, sometime this morning. With that and Kingsway, traffic in that part of town was awful this morning,(I was walking to Southampton Row from waterloo) with plenty of fumes about, as you can imagine.

[BBMmk2]

Thank goodness it's holiday time!

[Serial_Apologist]

Returning from the Tesco Express one mile from here, this morning, I didn't notice any problems with breathing. But I shall take care to wheel my bike up the hill this afternoon, before re-mounting to continue to the Upper Norwood St Sprees for my weekly groceries shop.

Very interesting cloud formations today: high-base cumulonimbus, associated with an upper convergence trough.