Stormy Weather

[Serial_Apologist]

wet wet grey in the middle kingdom today - trust it brightens up generally tomorrow travelling to Eastbourne to visit niece so much easier to travel when it is dry!

May I wish you bon voyage for tomorrow, Calum.

[Nick Armstrong]

I should imagine it's raining hard over Caliban's way right now, as the London Eye has become almost invisible in rain from a very threatening cloud to the north of here, where just a few large rain spots are falling. Temperature now down from a peak of 17 C.

Oddly enough, I was some way away from 'my way' at just that time... heading southwest towards the M3 - and yes it was chucking it down!!

Then as one reached the motorway beyond Twickenham, the only clouds to be seen were scudding white ones - and in Winchester where I spent the evening, positively balmy sunshine... shorts and t-shirts much in evidence, the winter coat in which I'd pedalled to work at the start of the day left firmly in the car!

[Anna]

The UK is on course for the third warmest spring since records began, forecasters say.

The Met Office said an average March-May temperature of 8.97C (48.15F) would be beaten only by 2007 and 2011 in the records, which date back to 1910. And depending on temperatures in the final three days of May, Scotland could be set for its warmest spring on record. It would also mean six months of above-average temperatures across the UK.

We finally got the rain yesterday, around 7pm onwards, heavy but not worthy of the weather warning. Here today it's more like a dismal Autumn day, grey, cloudy, a light ENE wind, drizzly feel to the air, not cold according to the thermometer but it looks cold therefore it feels cold! I do hope mangerton has had good weather for his holiday and he agrees that it's been everso hot in Scotland.

[BBMmk2]

I see our illustrious forecasters are saying it will be a mixed bag for the next week. I( hope not. I have a few things to be getting o0n with!!

[Serial_Apologist]

I see our illustrious forecasters are saying it will be a mixed bag for the next week. I( hope not. I have a few things to be getting o0n with!!

Indeed - if they are correct, it appears we will be in yet another meteorological logjam, with the frontal system due to bring in rain from the NW on Sunday grinding to a halt straddled right across the middle of the country, blocked by the high now building over us building even further as it moves towards Scandinavia.

"Brummie Simon" had told us June was expected to start warm and dry.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ferney, when I read your post about Pen-y-Ghent I thought - Oh good, he's come to Wales! Oops, it's the Cumbric language in Yorkshire that fooled me.

- yes, whilst "pen" remains part of names of places on the West of England from Penzance to Penrith, full pre-Roman place names are very rare. "Head of the Winds"; "Windy Head" or "Headwinds", perhaps?

Looks a lovely, if challenging, walk. Good luck with it.

Well, today I did about two-thirds of it - after an eighty-minute walk with the summit looking about another half-hour away, I doubted that my out-of-condition 54-and-a-quarter-year-old legs would manage the full walk, so I headed back, intending to return another day when I'm more used to such walks. An idiotic decision - the walk back (downwards, of course!) only took ne just over half-an-hour - I could have managed the whole walk quite easily .

It's not the most scenic of walks (unless you like the look of scree) but it's certainly "challenging" - and today was perfect weather (to get to the Thread topic) for it - overcast, but not raining with a decent breeze that wasn't cold - some gloriously Straussian bursts of sunshine cheering me on the way, too. (Hmm - I wonder if Arthur Butterworth has ever written Eine Penninesinfonie?)

[mangerton]

The UK is on course for the third warmest spring since records began, forecasters say.

The Met Office said an average March-May temperature of 8.97C (48.15F) would be beaten only by 2007 and 2011 in the records, which date back to 1910. And depending on temperatures in the final three days of May, Scotland could be set for its warmest spring on record. It would also mean six months of above-average temperatures across the UK.

We finally got the rain yesterday, around 7pm onwards, heavy but not worthy of the weather warning. Here today it's more like a dismal Autumn day, grey, cloudy, a light ENE wind, drizzly feel to the air, not cold according to the thermometer but it looks cold therefore it feels cold! I do hope mangerton has had good weather for his holiday and he agrees that it's been everso hot in Scotland.

Thank you, Anna.

I was surprised when I read this because my immediate reaction was that it has been damn cold this spring. However, I keep a close watch on my electricity usage (I don't have gas) and I see that for the months March, April and May, I used 20% less than 2013, and 13% less than 2012. I can reassure you all that I am still cooking and taking regular showers, so yes, this statistic may very well be correct. Other statistics, and listings magazines, are of course available.

It has been a lovely day here today - I would say the warmest so far this year. I was further north earlier in the week, and the weather was fine. A bit overcast, but no rain. The prawns were delicious, and I saw some seals - thanks, Calum! - here and here.

[Serial_Apologist]

(Hmm - I wonder if Arthur Butterworth has ever written Eine Penninesinfonie?)

Wasn't he the composer of Pennines from Heaven?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Wasn't he the composer of Pennines from Heaven?

Oh! I thought that was Cypriano Potter.

[BBMmk2]

Oh very drole people! Arthur Butterworth wrote, imo, the best 'train' music ever!!

Dare I say a lovely day today, in store?

[Anna]

- yes, whilst "pen" remains part of names of places on the West of England from Penzance to Penrith, full pre-Roman place names are very rare. "Head of the Winds"; "Windy Head" or "Headwinds", perhaps?

I saw that Ghent possibly was from 'gaint' a derivation of a Cumbric word meaning border, thus giving 'Head or Top of the Border Country' That seems feasible I think?

Well, today I did about two-thirds of it - after an eighty-minute walk with the summit looking about another half-hour away, I doubted that my out-of-condition 54-and-a-quarter-year-old legs would manage the full walk, so I headed back, intending to return another day when I'm more used to such walks. An idiotic decision - the walk back (downwards, of course!) only took ne just over half-an-hour - I could have managed the whole walk quite easily .

Well done! It's awful when you walk and walk and walk ..... and the summit seems just as far away as ever. I find sitting down with a sandwich (but keeping half of it until you get to your destination0, and firmly turning your back on the summit works well. When you finally turn around, energised, it suddenly seems nearer!
Ontopic: the day has improved as it's gone on but the only sunshine has been weak and watery and there are still too many black clouds, it is warm though.

Mangerton, I was going to say you're a typical Scotsman regarding keeping track of every penny of your electricity consumption - but I decided not to! Nice pix of the seals, the sea looked very calm, glad you had a good time.

[Serial_Apologist]

The UK is on course for the third warmest spring since records began, forecasters say.

The Met Office said an average March-May temperature of 8.97C (48.15F) would be beaten only by 2007 and 2011 in the records, which date back to 1910. And depending on temperatures in the final three days of May, Scotland could be set for its warmest spring on record. It would also mean six months of above-average temperatures across the UK.

May has been 1.45 degrees C above normal here - that's every month with above-normal average temperatures this year.

It started sunny and very clear this morning, then cloud started forming around elevenses, and by midday had built and spread out into boring old stratocumulus, covering the entire sky. Cloudy anticyclones are sooooo disappointing: you wait for a nice fat one to come along, filled with optimism, and when it arrives....

[BBMmk2]

Anyone seen a cloud called a 'doughnut cloud'?

[Petrushka]

The UK is on course for the third warmest spring since records began, forecasters say.

The Met Office said an average March-May temperature of 8.97C (48.15F) would be beaten only by 2007 and 2011 in the records, which date back to 1910. And depending on temperatures in the final three days of May, Scotland could be set for its warmest spring on record. It would also mean six months of above-average temperatures across the UK.

This surprises me. Apart from the good week in mid-May it hasn't seemed anything special and there are, I think, only about three days when I haven't donned my trusty Berghaus. I'd put it at nothing more than a routine Spring. I'd have expected the pretty chilly temperatures of the past few days to have substantially skewed the statistics anyway.

A cloudy chilly morning today but the sun came out around noon and suddenly lifted the temp up outside. Inside feels colder with heating back on again.

[marthe]

Sunny but still cool here in Rhode Island. Checking the garden yesterday, I noticed that our fig tree was showing signs of life near the base of the tree. The upper branches got zapped during the very cold winter we had. I'm glad the tree is till alive as the original cutting came from my grandmother's garden.