Spring 2023 - General Discussion

KanyeSouthEast

Terrible day wet and cold and of course breezy. Mid April might as well be mid November. Heating and lights on in the house.

appledrop

Yeah I'm surprised how cold it has been the last two days.

Loads of hailstones yesterday and only 6 degrees when I was getting a few bits in Tesco.

Today is not much better.

Gonzo

Another 5 days of cool Atlantic muck to go and next week should see a big improvement in temperatures and dryer conditions fingers crossed. A small chance somewhere could reach 20C next week.

Mantis Toboggan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120465370#Comment_120465370

That's a bit more like it Gonzo

highdef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120464896#Comment_120464896

In my last house (fairly big by Irish standards but also fairly well insulated but not to the point of the very new homes of today, the house being about 15 years old now), the thermostats would still call for heat through most of April and usually quite a lot in May too and even into June during cooler nights. I rarely actually powered down the heating system, I'd almost always just leave it on and let it do its thing. If there was a particularly chilly night in late Spring or early meteorological summer and some rooms got a bit on the cool side getting close to rising time, the heating would go and bring those rooms back up to desired temperature. Having said that, a chilly house to me may not be chilly to others. Ground floor rooms were set to either 22° or 23° round the clock and 1st floor to the same in the mornings and to 20° for bed time.

I've never fallen into the group type who have some obsession about not having the heating system enabled during certain times of the calendar year and will walk around the house with many layers on to stay warm (even if he/she can afford to heat the house), just because he/she blind refuses to heat the house because "it's only September".

April is generally not known for being a warm month bar some exceptions. The seas around us are more or less at their coldest now and the land has not really heated up much as the sun is only beginning to gain some height in the sky now. Even May is usually fairly cool, more especially the first half.

.Donegal.

Plenty of spot flooding around. Some wintriness tonight

Tonight

Blustery tonight with moderate to fresh southwesterly winds, increasing very strong to gale force in western and southern coastal areas with some damaging gusts. Showers will merge to long spells of rain with some wintry falls of hail and sleet possible as well as thunder. Lowest temperatures of 0 to 4 degrees.

Thelonious Monk

Does El Nino this year mean the summer in Europe will be even hotter this year, or does it mean cooler, or is it not that binary?

Ragwort and Stones

Those of a certain age will remember the dog Faherty in Bosco.

Ruff said Faherty what a lovely day it is but then he remembered it wasn't a lovely day because that mad Crow, Cornelius, had hidden his favourite bone.

I got up and said what a lovely day it is. And then I looked out and saw some seriously grey skies and the heaviest rain I ever saw. Sideways rain, rain coming up from the ground, big one fat rain...very wet rain.

Dazler97

I've no heating on , 15 candles lighting to heat up the room and it works

Dazler97

Gonna be nearly frosty tonight , I best stick on the heating in a while , after some serious rain it's cloudy here in carrick with 7c

Billcarson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120465781#Comment_120465781

Not sure about this summer but I'd say summer 2024 would be the one to watch regarding heat. Its highly likely I'd say that 2024 will be the warmest yr globally on record due to the lag effect.

A mild wet possibily stormy next winter most likely ,especially first half. The joys 🙄

.Donegal.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120465781#Comment_120465781

I just read an article from Leeds university that El Niño isn’t expected until autumn/winter so El Niño won’t have an effect on this summer if that happens(it’s dated from January so perhaps the timing has changed). The article also says it increases the chance of colder, drier weather for Northern Europe in winter and southern Europe more likely to be wetter. I wasn’t really sure what effect it had on us but thought it increased our chances of a milder winter. Sryan probably knows.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120466091#Comment_120466091

yeah I just dread to think what will happen if it gets even hotter in spain/france with wildfires etc., wonder if we'll reach 50 in the next couple of years.

Billcarson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120466091#Comment_120466091

Don't know where they are getting a colder dryer winter for Northern Europe from? Unless it's a modoki El Nino where much of the warmth in the Pacific is in the middle of the Pacific . Think it was a modoki during winter 09/10 which was a cold winter. But if its like the last one in 2015 a mild wet winter is surely more likely.

sryanbruen

With much interest in ENSO at the moment given the developments of El Niño, I'll bring back the ENSO thread later today or tomorrow for the first time in a few years. I will give a much more in-depth answer there but the correlation is weak all year round in Europe with any ENSO state whilst this is even weaker in summertime and it does not matter much in the grand scheme of things. However, there is a tendency with Niño active MJO composites for plumey scenarios with a warm summer but often unstable i.e. thundery. It would not surprise me whatsoever to see yet another summer of intense heat spikes, they have been commonplace since 2015. For Ireland, it would be a case of how far west or east would the Atlantic trough be placed. Could be quite dry for some but very wet for others. That's current thoughts anyway, prone to change and unreliable obviously.

Mantis Toboggan

Another lovely spring morning....

NOT!

OldRio

Torrential downpours yesterday with localised flooding. Cool as well. Tulips and daffs looking sorry for themselves this morning. Seedlings in polytunnel covered in bubble wrap because of the chance of Frost at night.

Getting fairly pis#€D with the weather at this stage.

nacho libre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120464257#Comment_120464257

It likely means a bad Summer too if its a strong one. A weak one can lead to colder weather in winter. As we saw back in 2009.

Ozvaldo

Id just like to jump on a plane and get out of here -how much disgusting weather can one take month after month

Pish cork city

Gonzo

Aside from February and 1st week of December, the rain has pretty much been relentless since September 2nd, here is hoping for a prolonged, warm and dry summer, we really need it at this stage.

appledrop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120467957#Comment_120467957

I'll second that! The rain was unbelievable on way back from Dundrum yesterday, loads of flooding on local roads.

So lucky that we got outdoors as much as we did over Easter bank holiday because this week has been an absolute write off.

Terrible for the kids with their Easter holidays, we have made the best of it with trips to cinema and indoor golf which I have to say was great fun but haven't managed the zoo yet this week as its too wet every day.

The only saving grace is we were going to go away for a few days this week in Ireland, ha ha glad we scrapped that, stuck in a hotel in that weather I don't think so!

.Donegal.

Official station kilkit in Monaghan is only 2.5c at 2pm. Impressive for 2pm in mid April.

Rain/snow mix over mid ulster(sperrins) and the Wicklow mountains on the radar.

Loafing Oaf

Atrocious day here in north Mayo. Joe show on Friday is gonna be a washout if things don't improve...

Supercell

Hills around Killaloe, Clare covered in snow this morning. My son (who was up far earlier than me) said it was snowing this morning here too.

Ragwort and Stones

Brendan McWilliams had a great article about how common air frost was until the 3rd week of May back in 1994. About one third of years air frost was recorded in the midlands during the 3rd week of May in the 100 years prior to 1994. That has probably changed now.

But just illustrates April and May are Spring for a reason. I remember air frost the first week of June 1991 and 1996, off the top of my head also. It's really only 18th June to 18th August that are usually frost free 99% of the time.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120464896#Comment_120464896

My dad put down a fire yesterday, in a normal year he leaves off that in February...

Ragwort and Stones

Cold, wintry type weather in April is so common, it's normal.

Snow April 2nd 1987, 1989 April the coldest month of winter that year, April 1990 very cold. First week of April 1992 cold easterly, daytime temps 3-6c with some snow. Early April 1994 cold with some wintry falls, snow on higher ground. April 1998, after a glorious February down to -5C around 9/10 April, time of the Good Friday Agreement. 2002 cool, 2008 snow at Easter and cold for early April. 2010, snow lay on the ground in SE Laois hills for the first 7 days of April. 2012 a cold showery April. 2013 the first 10 days or so cold following a very cold March. 2016 cold April, falls of hail on 9th of the month. 2020, first covid April. Bright and sunny but lowish temps and frost at night.

Niall145

There was also snow in the Dublin mountains in May 2021

Cluedo Monopoly

We had heavy hailstones twice this week already and sleet yesterday.

Ragwort and Stones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120469853#Comment_120469853

Had snow at my homeplace, 336m asl on 14 May 1993.