Stormy Weather II

[Roger Webb]

Just returned from Gower....terrific gorse fire one day - the cottage we stayed in was (is!!) on the cliff edge near Rhossili. Smoked out, but no damage done....we phoned the farmer nearby who was unconcerned, as if it happened every day, and said it usually just burned itself out!

BTW S-A, you were a little too correct about the weather being dry!

[oddoneout]

The attached article has me thinking in terms of this particular district. Given that it is heavily (and some would say enviably) wooded, are we at greater risk from fires due to climate change?

http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/index.php?/topic/136993-uk-met-office-~-climate-change-made-severe-uk-fires-in-2022-six-times-more-likely/

I tend to assume not. There is no open grassland or heath in the vicinity, and our neighbouring woodlands and street trees are nearly all of the temperate deciduous type - although we do have three tall conifers in the garden which would be easily flammable.

In this part of the world we have all the makings of wildfire problems, and indeed 2022 demonstrated that all too well. Large arable fields at certain times of the year contain flammable material, we have large areas of heath and coniferous forest. In addition to the usual risk factors from idiot humans(naked flames, discarded glass etc) an additional headache in the recent spells of very hot weather has been fires arising from agricultural machinery. Machinery can overheat to the point of combustion when used for extended periods in hot weather(very frightening for the driver) but another is when flints are smashed by harvesters and send sparks into dry crop waste. Both can result in very fast moving fires, not least as there is wind movement most days even before the fire itself starts generating it.

[Serial_Apologist]

Just returned from Gower....terrific gorse fire one day - the cottage we stayed in was (is!!) on the cliff edge near Rhossili. Smoked out, but no damage done....we phoned the farmer nearby who was unconcerned, as if it happened every day, and said it usually just burned itself out!

BTW S-A, you were a little too correct about the weather being dry!

I am consistently politically correct, Roger!

[Serial_Apologist]

Astonishing weather today - sudden heavy hail showers turning the ground white within seconds, temperature up and down like a yo-yo - but not that atypical for spring.

Edit - Distant thunder just heard in the direction of Croydon.

[Guest]

Here, in Cumbria - a word never mentioned in BBC forecasts - it is and has been for ten or so days piercingly cold on wow-vengeful EASTERLY winds.

[Pulcinella]

Amazing full moon here, apparently called the Worm Moon.

[Pulcinella]

From a Times report about the rain in Spain:

In the first nine days of March, 59.5 litres per square metre fell in the country as a whole, which is as much as it usually does in the whole month.

Is litres per square metre a standard European measure?

[Serial_Apologist]

From a Times report about the rain in Spain:

In the first nine days of March, 59.5 litres per square metre fell in the country as a whole, which is as much as it usually does in the whole month.

Is litres per square metre a standard European measure?

To be honest I have no idea, but it would seem to make logical sense.

[Pulcinella]

To be honest I have no idea, but it would seem to make logical sense.

Not too logical:

A litre is a cubic decimetre, equal to 1000 cubic centimetres or 0.001 cubic metres. It is not an SI unit, but it is accepted for use with SI and has various derived units, such as millilitre and kilolitre.

I'd rather know the amount as a height measurement straight away rather than have to do a bit of calculation.

So 59.7 (let's call it 60) litres per square metre means 60,000 cubic centimetres per square metre (100 x 100 centimetres, = 10,000 square centimetres); i.e., 6 cm of rainfall (much easier to comprehend).
(Hope I've got my sums right!)

[Pulcinella]

News to me: Equilux day

https://www.thetimes.com/article/dee506c7-56cd-4db7-b18c-531d6e555633?shareToken=ec74c7773e8fcd2a028342f5da 440b08

[oddoneout]

News to me: Equilux day

https://www.thetimes.com/article/dee506c7-56cd-4db7-b18c-531d6e555633?shareToken=ec74c7773e8fcd2a028342f5da 440b08

More here:
https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/learn-about/weather/seasons/equinox-and-solstice#:~:text=The%20equilux%20is%20when%20day,d ays%20after%20the%20autumn%20equinox.

It's duplication, sorry, but I couldn't initially access the Times article.

[vinteuil]

... very dramatic thunder and lightning, torrential rain and much hail (usefully cleaning away much bird crap) Very noisy!

.

[Serial_Apologist]

... very dramatic thunder and lightning, torrential rain and much hail (usefully cleaning away much bird crap) Very noisy!

.

We missed that completely down here, although the sky was very threatening in your direction for a time.

Apart from a brief breakdown this coming Friday and Saturday, climate change seems to be presently manifesting as constant alternations between "zonal" - predominantly westerly types, as of old - and "meridional", where blockages in jet stream continuity, much more frequent and regular than the occasional events they used to be (maybe three per year) now result in winds approaching from north or south, with an associated greater range of temperature extremes and dry/wet period alternations.

[Serial_Apologist]

In case anybody here is still interested all looks pretty good for the weekend, apart from a little rain and breeziness for the north and west - after which high pressure already building across the south is expected to intensify as it transfers east, bringing still quite cold nights but increasing diurnal warmth up to Thursday of next week, when possibly the highest temperatures so far this year will be experienced widely across southern and western areas away from the E coast. Beyond there is a lot of uncertainty, present bets being on that same high pressure system retreating north westwards, and with the Atlantic jet reconstituting itself way to the south (meaning more wet weather for the Med!) allowing low pressure centres to skirt to the south, cooler cloudier nor'easterlies would once more be on the cards, well into April. So, farmers and gardeners will by that point be starting to fret for more rain!

[oddoneout]

In case anybody here is still interested all looks pretty good for the weekend, apart from a little rain and breeziness for the north and west - after which high pressure already building across the south is expected to intensify as it transfers east, bringing still quite cold nights but increasing diurnal warmth up to Thursday of next week, when possibly the highest temperatures so far this year will be experienced widely across southern and western areas away from the E coast. Beyond there is a lot of uncertainty, present bets being on that same high pressure system retreating north westwards, and with the Atlantic jet reconstituting itself way to the south (meaning more wet weather for the Med!) allowing low pressure centres to skirt to the south, cooler cloudier nor'easterlies would once more be on the cards, well into April. So, farmers and gardeners will by that point be starting to fret for more rain!

Well, a bit of rain wouldn't go amiss now in these parts, everything is getting very dusty! The past few days have been quite a rollercoaster temperature-wise, depending on direction of the wind and whether the sun has managed to get through. Layers have been very much the order of the day; Wednesday was glorious and jackets and jumpers were shed during the weekly volunteer garden session, but Thursday was distinctly chilly until the sun finally got through mid-afternoon.