Obligatory weather post

[ewt]

Getting some proper rain rather than the half-hearted attempts at piddle that we've had in London for the last few days is no doubt doing the garden loads of good. Trees, too - the cherries in particular around where I live have been looking thirsty and droopy, and need more than just a sprinkling. Also, I'm only going to go away anyway but this rain should make some more mushrooms come out to play.

I feel no real urge to complain about the weather - we HAD July in April, this year, in case you didn't notice. All the plants are acting like it's a month later now and I don't see why the skies shouldn't as well, and I prefer this to the summer drought of the last two years, even if it does mean I'll have to go to the laundrette because I must clean clothes before going away and I can't hang them out to dry in this weather and they won't dry fast enough inside. That's inconvenient, but nothing I can't deal with. I'll be kindof pissed off if the Thames Barrier fails while I'm away but I understand we're some way from the flooding being quite that bad.

I do find the storms are less spectacular than the late-August ones I remember as a child. Those would build for days on end, and then when they finally broke it was truly amazing. There was a little of that feeling yesterday, but not like I'm used to. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for the days of my yoof, like. Or maybe in the prairies, weather systems have time to Get Big.

I am hoping for a few nights of clear skies while I'm away, because I'd quite like to see the Perseid meteor shower. For that matter, it would be good to see some stars while I'm far enough from London to actually see them. But beyond that? I'm sure I'll be fine.

Comments

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

We have had lots of proper rain up here!

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

Noted. I've spent hte last few days going, "Rain? Waht rain? It sprinkled for 10 minutes three times today, that's not RAIN!" to various Londoners, but biting my tongue. Conditions elsewhere have been quite a bit wetter, from what I understand, and perhaps that was not clear in this post.

At least it is warm and not too badly windy and I can still go outside, which means I don't have to lightbox.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Here it is monsoons, like somebody is throwing nails on you from the sky. It does it at lunchtime. That sucks.

[ksta.livejournal.com]

no, sorry, we had good weather in april for what, a few days?
I hate the weather in this country.

[spodlife]

The weather has been quite changeable, but I expect that in this country, unless a lovely big high pressure area comes and sits over us.

A few miles south of you today : http://aperrott.livejournal.com/95875.html

[spangle-kitten.livejournal.com]

I live in Wales, I look out of my window and see what the Welsh call real rain coming down right now - London wimps! If the rain doesn't hurt when it hits you it's not rain ;p

I really don't mind the colder temperature as well, I tend to suffer about 25 degrees C.

[dakeyras.livejournal.com]

There's a difference between people's definition of "bad" weather: some mean that it does not suit them, others mean that it's unseasonal and therefore wrong, whereas others still mean that it's not good for the planet, or the country, or whatever. Thinking about it a bit more, I reckon that most people mean the first and justify it with one of ther others!

This is undoubtedly "bad" weather in the unseasonal sense. It is not what we would necessarily expect of July, particularly in comparison to the ideal of summer, which most people associate with the last couple of years.

I don't agree that we had July in April, though. I believe we had April in April, in that we had the classical mixture of sunshine and showers, but it didn't really have the heat that you'd expect of July.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

All I can say is that after 3 weeks of rain, almost literary non-stop, I'm ready for a change. I hate getting wet.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

You won't get big storms like that in London very often, because London has its own weather system which isn't quite big enough to generate a really massive storm cell. You're more likely to get them on the outskirts of the city to the north, because you'll get the storms that have brewed up in Hertfordshire and Middlesex.

The only form of weather I really don't like is fog, because I spend the whole time fruitlessly trying to clean my glasses!

Objects in the rear view mirror

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/2007/index.html

APRIL

"An exceptionally warm month, with all climate districts and regions setting new April records for maximum and mean temperatures (areal series back to 1914). Maximum temperatures anomalies were over 5 deg C above the 1961-90 average across much of southern England and parts of eastern Scotland. Rainfall generally well below average, with many stations over SE England and east Anglia recording less than 3 mm of rainfall. Sunshine was also well above average across the majority of the UK, with some areas having their sunniest April on record.

Herstmonceux (Sussex) recorded a temperature of 26.5 °C on 25th. Record high April 24-hour minimums were recorded at many stations between 23rd and 25th, with a 24 hour minimum at London St James Park of 14.5 °C on 24/25th."

Mean July temperatures are usually around 21 C in England.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

See: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/2007/index.html

My reading of those data is that April in many places was drier than the average July, as well as reaching July levels of sun and temperature at times.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

The point is that this is not normal for the UK climate. Something is different. We may have some ideas why ...

[sigrid-stallard.livejournal.com]

I love that description of rain. We had the type that sweeps the paths clear of any debris and turns them into rushing springs..., but not heavy enough to hurt on impact.

I am still so grateful we do not get over the 20 deg.C. It feels warm enough already...

xxx

[pfy.livejournal.com]

Real rain is horizontal. I learned this in the Lake District.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

In the Lake District the ground is vertical, so it makes sense for the rain to be horizontal...

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

*nod* but in London that's not what we've had, and I still see Londoners complaining about it. Wimps. ;)

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I tend to find that most years I have a few bouts of "you guys, WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL with the weather complaining?" and get told off for complaining about the complaining. I guess coming from somewhere with really spectacular weather (that can be quite variable and doesn't always behave according to seasonal expectations), I'm used to adapting rather than complaining. Here it seems people get their tails in a knot if it is anything other than 21C with a light breeze and not much cloud.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

*Nod* that's proper rain. But today is the first day we've really had that in London for some time.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I do not expect the weather to suit me all the time. If it does not, it is because I have not adapted well. Mistakes in adapting to the weather are part of life; there will be times when I get drenched and other times when I get dehydrated, there will be years my garden thrives and years that it dies of too much or too little water or heat or sunlight, and none of it is too straightforward. There's no sense blaming the weather for it, though; it's not as if the meteorological conditions are capable of malice.

The last couple of years struck me (who grew up in a semi-arid region) as worryingly dry for this biome. I did enjoy the heat and the dryness but I also lost some garden crops to lack of watering (my fault, I didn't leave a watering list for my housemate when I was gone for 2 or 3 weeks so a lot of things just shriveled up).

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

And thanks for the data on July in April - I thought I was using a bit of hyperbole but it turns out I was pretty close!

Re: Objects in the rear view mirror

[ksta.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying July weather is good either. April was not good enough.

i think a lot of my anger stem from the fact that I want Britain to be Greece, at least metereologocically, thoguh gastronomically would be nice too.
I'll move someday, and complain abut something else no doubt.

[pplfichi.livejournal.com]

I ran through some yesterday trying to catch my plane. In true Londoner style... *whine bitch moan complain...* :P

It's dry here. 28 degrees 73% humidity and kinda overcast. Much better, if a little muggy :)

They are all asking me if I want to turn the aircon on though :P