Stormy Weather II

[cloughie]

I look out of the window and see a lovely Spring day - I go out of the door and feel a cold, sunny Spring day 7C but feels less!

[Old Grumpy]

I look out of the window and see a lovely Spring day - I go out of the door and feel a cold, sunny Spring day 7C but feels less!

7C!

You were lucky...

...4C here (Cotswolds) with 5C windchill (at least according to Met Office)

[Jonathan]

It's been freezing here in the East Riding - alternating strong spring sunshine and heavy snow showers. Not quite blizzard conditions but not far off!

"I'm dreaming of a white Easter"

[BBMmk2]

It's been freezing here in the East Riding - alternating strong spring sunshine and heavy snow showers. Not quite blizzard conditions but not far off!

"I'm dreaming of a white Easter"

Keep safe! Down here it’s very cold. Has to be a north wind blowing, from what MrsBBM was saying, when she came back from taking out our puppy, with his coat on too! Sunny, noepw, after a flurry of snow.

[DracoM]

Bitter NE wind, plenty of sun, but..................... -4C

[Serial_Apologist]

More snow and sleet showers around today than I'd expected - 6 Celsius (43 Fahrenheit) at noon. Snow can reach ground level at such high temperatures at this time of year because the source air at height is much colder, relatively speaking, than it is in January, and drier at lower levels. Snowflakes melt more rapidly in conditions of higher humidity. Usually the tendency is for greater melting to take place in the heavier showers as the descending air becomes more saturated by the falling snow, or hail. This can be counteracted, however, by the amount of precipitation falling in a given part of the shower cell: the greater the amount, the more cold air aloft is brought down to the surface, bringing those surface temperatures down to levels which can maintain the integrity of the snow as snow.

Below is a useful Met Office tutorial on how surface convergence, jet streams and the Coriolis Force interact in various ways at different times to cause low pressure systems either to deepen or decay. The old "wisdom" in meteorological text books that once occluded, depressions decay or "fill up", seems to have been superseded - probably helped by the increased amount of evidence from global warming leading to more erratic jet stream pathways. I've never fully understood what weather people mean whenever they talk about left entry and right entry points, and I'm not good at taking in complex information presented in a compressed fashion, so if you're like me this video may need a few repeats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wCq2Y9CB6Y

[BBMmk2]

Thank you, as ever, for your contributions.

I think we may get wintry showers this week, sometime? Today, though, looks ok!

[DracoM]

Yes, and forecast for up here too.

[oddoneout]

Very windy, and after an early damp start has stayed dry and much milder. There is very much a smell of spring in the air - together with a high pollen count. I need to find my antihistamine tablets...
Wednesday garden duties look as if it will be a battle with the wind but staying dry until after we've finished - I hope so as rain with wind is a challenge not always offset by the feel good factor of doing one's bit for the common weal.

[gradus]

Not too bad at this end of E. Anglia, dry enough to get more potatoes and cabbages planted and even warm albeit briefly this pm.

[DracoM]

Utterly filthy here - driving winds, temp -3C, waves and waves of thick rain.
- well.............that was last night.

TODAY, it is piercingly cold, a vindictive westerly wind bullying its way through our regular Wednesday market, and that wind carries [a] rain, but [b] forecast is snow.
And I believe it!

[BBMmk2]

Not a good day, today. I have to go to the doctor today too!

[Serial_Apologist]

Not a good day, today. I have to go to the doctor today too!

Best of luck there, BBM - I have a telephone appointment with mine tomorrow afternoon.

Rather blustery, middling sort of day here today - spits and spots of rain from a pretty solid grey altostratus shield, just the odd blob of sun penetrating through, understorey of clag. The weekend promises to be cold everywhere, with considerable snow expected in Scotland tomorrow and Friday; but it is expected to warm up quite a lot next week.

[Serial_Apologist]

Just caught out in a quite intense thunderstorm at the far end of the Crystal Palace ridge. Fortunately there are still those things known as shop front awnings, and I was able to take self & bike under one of those for the 10 minute duration, though winds were strong enough at the peak to soak my lower trouser legs! It was worth the risk, but noticeably the temperature had fallen from a max of 14C to 8C in that time. Some beautiful cumulonumbus clouds in the wake of it - hopefully someone will have taken shots of them. Brilliant clear sunshine now.

[gurnemanz]

Just caught out in a quite intense thunderstorm at the far end of the Crystal Palace ridge. Fortunately there are still those things known as shop front awnings, and I was able to take self & bike under one of those for the 10 minute duration, though winds were strong enough at the peak to soak my lower trouser legs! It was worth the risk, but noticeably the temperature had fallen from a max of 14C to 8C in that time. Some beautiful cumulonumbus clouds in the wake of it - hopefully someone will have taken shots of them. Brilliant clear sunshine now.

I've just been attacking some rampant unwanted ivy in the garden - warm work at about 12C. Breezy with minor spatters of rain.
I've not heard it referred to as Crystal Palace ridge before but know it well. I often find myself there and you get a good view of it from Farthing Downs in Coulsdon where I grew up.
I once spent about 20 minutes with my bike during a torrential rainstorm under the only available nearby sheltering opportunity - the entrance canopy of our local Aldi