Thursday, March 28, 2024

Will it rain or snow?

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Snowy Alvechurch

Alvechurch amateur weatherman Phil Thomas records the changes.

As The Village went to press, November seemed to be following its normal pattern with a mixture of weather – a few frosts, but mostly wet and windy.

The big questions about this coming winter are how cold will it be, and will there be any snow? As usual it is very difficult to predict what the winter will be like.

Some predictions are suggesting a slightly more settled and colder period into December, but this may have changed by the time you are reading this!

As the weather patterns begin to settle down a little, it does tend to suggest an average period towards Christmas.

This means that there may be some brief periods of colder conditions with heavy frost and possible snow – but how much, and when, is impossible to predict.

Looking back to October, it was a very mild month with a mean maximum of 12.0C, 1.9c above the local mean. The 31st gave us the highest maximum in the last week of October in my station records (since 1989).

However, sunshine was well below the average with 72.2 hours – only 78% of the mean – including five sunless days.

If the next couple of months have a mean temperature of 0.8C above their mean, 2014 would end up being the warmest year in the Midlands since accurate records began.

October 2014
Mean Max   15.4C   1.5 above average
Mean Min   8.6C   2.2 above average
Mean       12.0C   1.9 above average
Rainfall     97.5mm   108% of average
Sunshine   72.2 hours 78% of average

More information at https://www.alvechurchweather.metsite.com  You can now see an improved HD weather-cam, updated at one-minute intervals, at: https://www.alvechurchweather.metsite.com/webcam_alvechurch.php

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