Stormy Weather

[BBMmk2]

Wild wet and windy down these parts too! yuk.

[Nick Armstrong]

"It's black over Bill's mother's!!"

Going to be a lot of this about over the holiday period I think:



(Very cool picture of a rain cloud justifying its epithet)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Against the forecast, we've had a sunny, slightly blustery day in the Pennines. Just started to drizzle about half-an-hour ago - but a welcome surprise today.

[BBMmk2]

Hasnit been too bad today, although the Daily Express sees the doom and gloom over the Easter weekend! :( (if you believe that! :) )

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... the Daily Express sees the doom and gloom over the Easter weekend!

Well, it will be.


For anyone who reads the Express.



They're probably used to it.

[Petrushka]

A howling wind and heavy rain tonight and it's none too warm either. March came in like a lion and looks to be going out like a whole pride of them!

[DracoM]

Absolutely.
Same oop 'ere in Ultima Thule.

[Anna]

It was Storm Force 12 here - winds up to 62mph - not as bad as some more exposed areas but it was scary between around 1am-3am when it was at its worst, with driving rain. Cower under the covers time, couldn't decide whether to stay put and turn on TTN to drown out the thumps, bumps, howling, and groaning or get up, make a cuppa and worry about tiles falling off .... so I stayed put! Calmer this morning and rewarded with dustbin lost somewhere in space even though weighed down with house bricks, garden planters all over the place and the most beautiful rainbow I've ever seen. Still a weather warning in place for winds over 45mph but it's still really warm.

[Serial_Apologist]

It was Storm Force 12 here - winds up to 62mph - not as bad as some more exposed areas but it was scary between around 1am-3am when it was at its worst, with driving rain. Cower under the covers time, couldn't decide whether to stay put and turn on TTN to drown out the thumps, bumps, howling, and groaning or get up, make a cuppa and worry about tiles falling off .... so I stayed put! Calmer this morning and rewarded with dustbin lost somewhere in space even though weighed down with house bricks, garden planters all over the place and the most beautiful rainbow I've ever seen. Still a weather warning in place for winds over 45mph but it's still really warm.

I tried the volume-up treatment and must have drifted off during the slow movement of the "Jupiter", only to wake just before 4 o'clock when our bins blew over. At least that enabled me to hear some ballet music from 1929 by Henri Sauguet I hadn't heard before - "La Nuit", appropriately - well, how often does R3 play any Sauguet? which they should do, his music being attractive in a sub-Messager way, and him being Satie's one pupil.

It's still blowing a Force 6 here, but otherwise a lovely day, 12 C, with 50% sky coverage of fairweather cumulus and visibility as good as it's possible to get. This airstream must be doing wonders for London pollution.

[Petrushka]

Absolutely frightful day here! Ferociously strong winds and intermittent very heavy showers. God knows what they are made of but the lamp posts in the business park where I work were swaying in the wind something I've never seen before. Very hard to stand upright myself in this onslaught.

[Serial_Apologist]

At least that damned wind has died down - here, at any rate.

What that means is that the next weather system, not having the strong jetstream we've recently seen to propel it on its way, will be likely to hang around tomorrow.

Such slowing down of the atmospheric circulation often indicates a change in the weather regime, with blocking systems coming into play - in this case in the form of a high, which has been building out there in the Atlantic to the west of Ireland, spreading right across us by Sunday.

Highs (anticyclones) are generally associated with settled weather, the deciding issue on cloud amounts being in the amount of moisture they accumulate by virtue of whereabouts they form. Our best chance of warm sunny weather from a high is either when one forms right over our dry landmass, or to our east, sending up a dry airflow from the south or south-east. In this particular case the high will have the large amounts of low-level humidity absorbed from the ocean surface within its circulation. This means a lot of stratocumulus as the circulating airflow rises and bumps against the temperature inversion that is characteristic of high pressure systems, and this being augmented by cumulus growth spreading out when it reaches this inversion layer (usually at roughly 8.000 feet). Anticyclones being a bit of a law unto themselves as far as where they go and how big they get - (unlike depressions which are governed by the jetstream) - it then depends on their location whether they give us cloudy or sunny weather; but while the high is around, the presence of the inversion generally ensures dry conditions by squeezing the instability out of any lingering frontal systems trapped within them, or drizzle at the most from any low-level stratus forming.

[Anna]

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.

[DracoM]

Balmy, blissful day here in Ultima Thule.

[mangerton]

Not long back from socialising with friends and relations on the outskirts. It's been (still is!) a lovely sunny day here, and with the temperature a mild 16º C we were able to sit outside after lunch.

[EdgeleyRob]

Clear blue skies and wall to wall sunshine in the Manchester area.