Looking like an El Niño year.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Very briefly, more later!

Looks like its going to be an El Niño year this year. How is it going to affect our weather? Well, for the summer, the affect on Europe really isnt understood. It tends to get swamped by other factors. However it does seem to be associated with very cold winters.

So there you go, your first winter 2014-15 weather forecast

Thank goodness for Noah's ark the past winter.

The BBC seem to have picked up the possibility of El Nino here...www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27343057

Though they are more worried about the impact on the World Cup, rather thank anything else.

meg, us too! huuuuuuge bloody things!

Oh kitten, oh wise one. Dh tells me we are going to have a 'heat wave' next week, could you tell me exactly what time to the nearest minute it will arrive so that I can get all my jobs out of the way in time?

valp mine were in my old google street map photo. They were like triffids looming over the fence. Pesky google updated the photos last summer though (very dry!), my sunflower pic is no more .

Basically I have to get my legs waxed by about thursday don't I .

And I'd better finish and water in my last allotment veg too. If the weather is dry I might be able to mow my jungle lawn.

www.ukweatherforecast.co.uk/summer-2014-forecast/

Is this a reasonable forecast for the summer OYBBK ?

I do take them with a pinch of salt especially as I'm moving somewhere with a big BBQ and a nice garden which will, no doubt, ensure a very wet summer.

Netweather are saying this for the next few months, with a drier and warmer July.

Step away from the BBQ, you'll ruin it all, everyone should buy waterproofs and wellies, it's the only way to ensure sunshine.

Sorry Buzzard - missed this! Heatwave is clearly pushing the definition slightly!

Damn. Was it because I bought two new pairs of sandals this week? Have I ended summer?

Met office are making it increasingly hard to find their long term forecast probabilities. its now under contingency planning here

To summarise they are saying it looks like an El Nino year later on but it will occur too late to influence this summers weather. For May through July No indication whatsoever as to whether it will be warmer, colder or average temps, ditto precip levels but they dont think it will be extremely wet. In fact the documents basically admit they havent a scooby what it will be like!

It does look pretty pleasant over the next few days :) Pretty much dry and temps pushing to around 20C, esp in the south. Then its a bit pear shaped again Monday so get all your mowing/washing etc done before then!

Hadn't appreciated this fact from the bbc: "The predictions are based on observations from a system of ocean buoys, which can detect warming in the waters and help scientists hone their estimates about the likelihood of an event happening during the year.

But cuts in US and Japanese funding for the monitoring system may be having an impact. In the past two years, nearly half the buoys in the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean array have stopped working.".

Not a great busget cut to make really considering climate scientists are trying to understand how these events occur. its still not very well understood.

It does look nice for the next few days

Methinks the metoffice are remembering their "BBQ summer" forecast a few years ago and instead what followed was a "washout summer." So after that one, they don't want to look silly now by doing 'proper' forecasts for months ahead!

I do admire their honesty

I'm in central Scotland and we had a niceish sunny day yesterday followed by massive thunderstorm, heavy rain then huge hailstones! How does that happen?

I start nights tomorrow for the weekend. Why does that always happen when the sun starts to shine?

Good old convection Ruby - the sunshine adds lots of energy to the system and helps the clouds grow upwards quickly. If the atmosphere becomes unstable then boom!

Thank you - hailstones were really big chunks of ice very impressive

What sort of huge Ruby? What did they look like, was there any damage?

They were like small marbles so not really huge I guess... Most damage to my poor plants - I had to run outside in it to get some of them back into the greenhouse! Really hurt when hail hit my arms.