Start of meteorological Autumn (September 1st)

[GloriaSmud]

Today is the start of meteorological Autumn and the weather this week, certainly looks like it's going to match up to the new season! As for the rest of Autumn, there aren't any strong signals either way as to what to expect but here are some thoughts from….
TheWeatherOutlook.
And Netweather's thoughts for the week ahead...

My Leeds son living in Leeds will be happy. He's in Madeira. Lucky sod 😂

We went for a reconnaissance walk in the morning when it calmed down a bit for a few hours and there are so many trees and large branches down. Two massive old pine trees (in different places) came down, a huge beautiful rowan tree on top a small cairn split into two and fallen over, there is debris everywhere, the cycle track will need some clearance before you can take a normal bike on it again. Still winds in the high 40s but should quiet down in the evening.

Well it's very quiet here warm, stable weather. Soo many fruit flies in the house. I've heard of ladybirds elsewhere.

DH heard of snow, hard to imagine that.

We are slowly getting rid of the fruit flies here, but there are So Many Wasps. Went down to the lighthouse earlier to visit out local seal population. Blowing a gale (very exposed on NE coast of England) yet still the buggers were everywhere! Nice an sunny / warm in more sheltered spots, but I almost dropped my phone three times as my hands were numb with the cold wind.

Snow? That's reminded me that me and DD usually have two bets in the winter; forecast when the first snow will be, and when the first Christmas song will be on the radio.

Anyone else seem to have bumper levels of berries about this year?

Yes, masses of fruit of all sorts, nuts too.

The fieldfares will be here soon so hopefully there will be enough for them to get a nice surprise.

They keep taking the forecast sunshine away! Was hoping to see a bit today after a grey week but doesn’t look likely now and next week looks miserable. Boo.

It's not cold though so we're saving on heating bills here. The berries, acorns, conkers are stupendous here. DH was in Powys this week. Big pheasant shoots there. Young pheasants staggering around with full crops miles from the shoots. The game keepers must be going nuts. They're all over the place too comfy to fly back to the estates.

It’s true, despite the grey cloud it’s not cold. Think Weds felt quite chilly then temperatures recovered. Just need a little sun to cheer me up.

We’ve had grey too, sometimes with some sun later in the day. We climbed Pen y Fan on Wednesday and got a cloud inversion - blazing sunshine at the summit and on the west flank, cloud to the north and filling the horseshoe valley to the south. Stunning. Got back to Merthyr and then Cardiff - like a different day, grey and gloomy.

Sounds beautiful! Maybe I need to climb a mountain to find some sun…!

I think there are easier ways of finding sun! 😂

😂 I do sound a little unhinged!

What would your options be?

For myself, the exhilaration of climbing Pen y Fan and finding myself in glorious sunshine, whilst gazing at the clouds below, would be pretty damned good.

It was a pretty tiring climb! It’s 7 years since j did it last and near the top I was properly knackered and asking myself whether I remembered it being that hard before. Once I got my breath back I was fine and the way down was a doddle as we went up the « motorway » from Pont ar Daf - it’s a wide well maintained path, just relentless incline!

The sun was a nice surprise, it had brightened as we got there and I thought it was just the day clearing through but as we went back down away from the hills it was just grey, so I think it was only the uplands that got sunshine. It was sunny from the base though, it wasn’t like we popped through a magic hole in the cloud (though that would have been cool).

After rather a depressing dull week, it looks like some proper autumnal weather returns from tomorrow. There might be some sun about today (which will be a nice change after all the grey!) but tomorrow looks wet for most.

(Wednesday onwards ~ there's a storm showing up on the GFS that could bring strong winds and rain to the Midlands/Wales/Northern England which might be something to keep an eye on.)

We are out in Weardale for the weekend. It was quite chilly last night.
Some people are off to the local park run but I haven't surfaced yet so can't do a full weather report

Thanks @GloriaSmud I shall appreciate any sun I see today then. Next week sounds a bit miserable!

It's still so dry out there. I've never had to water pots in autumn before. Everything was wilting.
On the other hand my house isn't damp.

We've woken up to blue sky this morning but I fear it's a case of 'calm before the storm' though ~ wet weather due to arrive mid-morning.

Netweather's thoughts for the week ahead ~ looks like it's going to be an unsettled week with a possible cold snap next weekend...

We've had it grey, murky and still for the last week. It's now raining, and apparently is going to do so for the whole week!

Yeah. Sadly no sun here yesterday so didn’t see a glimpse all week..and now rain. Looks miserable all week? I’m not sure I can cope with not seeing the sun for two weeks. Definitely live in the wrong country!

All those people who start threads about loving autumn and winter. Maybe in other countries they are pleasant but not here. Endless grey..

We do need the rain, though. Where I am it's rained about three times since March.

We've not had consistent rain. We've had long dry spells, then loads of rain, then long dry spells...and repeat. It's been a strange year.

Yes, a very strange year. I've worked in horticulture for a long time and this is the most difficult growing year I've ever had.