Spring 2018: General Discussion

Rock Lesnar wrote: »

Lads sorry to talk about a thaw after this snow, but after 2 days of constant heavy streamers and the potential of this storm later, im all snowed out now.

When do ye expect a thaw, and do ye think it'll be rapid or slow, im hoping slow, because i'd be worried about flooding here if its the other.

It will be a slow thaw. I'd love if we kept on to -12 uppers or below, but it's not going to happen. If there is a reload of cold we will still see a gradual thaw due to the stronger sun. We need exceptional cold- which we have currently - to prevent a widespread thaw, sadly, one way or the other, we will lose that through the weekend.

NAGDEFI wrote: »

Has anyone a link to last night/this morning's minima temps?

https://twitter.com/MetEireann/status/969117529770790912

Its bucketing snow here nearly non stop since tuesday evening, had a brief respite yesterday morning for about 3 hours but since then its been snowing, have to admit, while i enjoy the snow, and the kids love it, i have had enough now, just want it to stop.

Clonmel1000 wrote: »

. This cold is miserable too cold to go out to dangerous to get to work country closed down and heating bill rising.

I have managed to get around it. I drove on untreated roads to and from work. If you wrap up well you can go out in it. Hopefully it continues well into March.

To be honest the last 2 weeks have been grand here in Leitrim. Cool but DRY and sunny(ish).
Spring bulbs in flower. Looking sad at the moment.

The land was drying out but God knows what will happen after the thaw.

Agree about the main general event thread. Ugly looking brute of a thing.

nacho libre wrote: »

Well it won't be very mild next week on current guidance. A gradual thaw, but more snow is possible later in the week. We will have our one day of Summer, don't worry:p

Like it doesn't even need to be fantastically warm for me to consider it a great Summer. The best of Summers to me are those with nice sunny days with pleasant temperatures around 20c like 2010 or 2014. However, I wouldn't complain about a July 2006 or 2013!

Since I've asked multiple times for my Spring 2018 forecast to be moved to this thread from the other thread and no response to doing so, I decided to repost it.

Due to the current events in the atmosphere, I think that many of us have forgotten that meteorological Spring begins in 2 days time from me writing this. However, that doesn't mean I have as I've been working away here on my Spring 2018 forecast for you guys. As usual with these long range forecasts, they're highly experimental and should not be relied upon, they're just for fun. In these forecasts, I give my predictions as well as explain where I get these predictions from and my methodology I use to forecast the season. Hopefully, Spring 2018 will be easier to forecast here than Winter 2017/18. Now let's get into this.

Firstly, I'm a talk about solar activity. The effects of solar activity on the Spring are much more complicated and less certain than Winter. In case nobody knows, it has been researched that the coldest of Winters or most blocked Winters occur before, during or after solar minimum. Solar minimum is the point where solar activity is at its lowest and there are lots of spotless days on the sun. Years of solar minimum of previous solar cycles include 2008/09, 1995/96, 1985/86, 1976/77 and 1964/65. The effects on Spring are much less clear. However, the reanalysis charts and data of the Springs directly before the solar minimum do show some interesting probabilities which go along very nicely with reanalysis charts of other factors on historical Springs to match the methodology we have here for Spring 2018. The overall Spring pattern looks rather blocked with high pressure in the Norwegian Sea from Greenland to Scandinavia. There is a trough to the south of Ireland and the UK. Normally when you'd look at this, you'd think easterly winds. However, the trough maybe a bit too deep and too north for easterly winds to take place. Then again, it's kind of a battle between the zonal westerlies and the easterlies against each other in the kind of setup the reanalysis shows. In terms of the monthly reanalysis charts, this is what they show:

- March; High pressure extends from Iceland down to the southeast of Europe with a trough centred just to the north of Spain. As there is high pressure over to the southeast of Europe all the way back to Iceland, it could only mean southeasterlies which cannot really be defined in March of what they'll bring. The temperature reanalysis shows rather below average temperatures across the board up to the north of Ireland, Scotland is around average close to that high pressure. Quite a bit surprised with the temperature anomalies given the setup, southeasterlies aren't exactly fantastic in March for warmth or cold.

- April; Low pressure builds to the north and west of Ireland and over Scotland with a weak ridge of high pressure to the south of England. Looks like a very typical April month and nothing out of the ordinary. Lots of April showers, rather unsettled, rather mild.

- May; There is a big block of high pressure to the north which extends through Ireland all the way down to the Azores. There is a trough way to the southeast of Europe and way out in the Atlantic. To me, this just looks very settled and warm. However, there are a few Mays in there that aren't exactly the best like May 1995 which was dull and rather unsettled with close to average temperatures for example. May 2008 in comparison was very warm and sunny.

Solar activity is a very mixed picture!

The stratosphere has been behaving very oddly recently with a major sudden stratospheric warming that occurred from the 11th-13th February. This brought record breaking reversed zonal winds dropping down to as low as -30 m/s. This meant that northern blocking was to take place and easterlies would form at some point - as they are now since it's been over 2 weeks since the event occurred. This had split the Polar Vortex into two. This major warming was succeeded by a Canadian Warming which occurred just a week later on the 18th/19th February. The temperatures of this warming were even higher than the sudden stratospheric warming of the previous week leading to again another plunge in zonal wind speeds breaking records again. According to some stratosphere experts, the impacts of the Canadian Warming won't be felt until the second half of March. Today, according to the JMA chart of 30hPa in the stratosphere, another warming event has occurred. This warming was slightly more intense than the major SSW but not the Canadian Warming. This is all incredibly interesting and will only lead to more research on the subject, it doesn't make my job any easier.... the impacts from the Canadian Warming do look likely personally for the second half of March as the ensembles are picking up on a downwards trend of the zonal winds through that period after a recovery around early to mid-month. The effects on this third warming have yet to be seen and we will have to see come closer to the time. Remember that the minimum time for a stratospheric warming to propogate down into the troposphere and have effects on the patterns is around 10 days.

The QBO for Spring 2018 is easterly. This in other words means that a negative NAO will be easier to take place as historically, negative NAO is normally easier with easterly QBO events than westerly QBO events. That's not to say we can't get positive NAO in easterly QBO though just like how it's not to say we can't get negative NAO in westerly QBO. The reanalysis charts of Springs following easterly QBO Winters show very similar results to the above on solar activity I've described. There is one key difference though and that is May which seems like a very poor month with a trough just over us and northern blocking bringing very wet, very cool, very unsettled, dire conditions.

ENSO is expected to go down to neutral during the Spring but it still currently stands within the weak La Nina threshold. Once again, ENSO produces similar results to QBO and solar activity on Spring 2018 historically although more in line with the QBO in regards to May.

It seems there is quite an agreement among the methodology for a very mixed Spring here in 2018, March being cold and blocked, April being typically mild and unsettled whilst May being dire OR very settled if you consider solar activity into the equation.

Due to the agreement, I have no chance but to agree with them. This is a far simpler season to forecast than Winter 2017-18 it seems due to less deviation in the methodology. That's not to say, it'll be right though because long range forecasting is very experimental and it's very RNG based for being correct.

To summarise:

March - Cold overall (cool start, cool end with a "milder" interlude mid-month) with perhaps rather dry and dull conditions.
April - Rather mild, close to average sunshine and unsettled.
May - Very wet and cool.

Like with May 2017 when I had a very similar prediction to May 2018 here, I hope I'm wrong about May! I hope it does not turn out like that, I dread a month like May 2015 again.

February 2012....... :rolleyes:

https://twitter.com/MJVentrice/status/969607674085167104

Lots of Great Photos of the big snow event coming in.

Feel free to add them in at the link below:

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057845112

I love the idea of a nice May - I always take leave at the end of May and since at least 2010 its always been a solid week weatherwise

Perhaps we could have a scenario like 2010 and get a second extreme snowy spell at the start of winter at the end of this year?

*Disclaimer: won't happen

Once this snow thaws, I'd love this to happen:

March: Very cold and sunny
April: Very cold and sunny
May: Warm and sunny

If I remember correctly, March and May 2012 had a warm, sunny spell but relatively cold nights. That would be fine too.

Surprisingly, I thought back and realised that I'm good at chasing nice spells of weather when I'm going on holidays. I managed to spend a week in central London in March 2013 with ice days and and snow. Our flight was delayed by a good few hours. There was an exceptionally warm March (warm spell) over there a few years ago and I was there at the time too. I even saw a few thunderstorms in August 2014 there. This sounds crazy but I remember some time in late March or early April it was snowing in Dublin but it was mild/warm and sunny in London a few years ago.

If I go to London later in March or early April (probably won't), some nice, warn, sunny weather would be great.

Cold weather is just nice for me. I struggle to sleep when it's warm. A cold room while I'm wrapped up in blankets just feels nice and cosy.