On Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:45:11 +0100, Col wrote:

The sun beating down from a cloudless sky... it felt like a
summer's
day and not the last days of March!

Still not a lot of heat about though, 20C+ up here yesterday but over
night down to just above 5C and a light ground frost...

We are not crying out for rain. Anybody would think all the
reservoirs had dried up, the mains cut off and there were
standpipes
in the street. It's March, for goodness' sake, not late June and
evaporation rates are still relatively low. If the dry spell
continues into the summer then things will certainly get a bit
serious
but that is extremely unlikely not least because the radiation
regime
changes and will bring an end to the blocking tendency.
snip
Well the media and indeed the weather forecasts most certainly
give the impression that the SE/E is 'crying out for rain'.

That's the impression I have as well. There is very little water in
reserve in the SE and to bring things up to normal would require a
considerable amount of rain. Like a month or so of non-stop heavy
rain, as in several mm/hour type heavy rain. I don't think that is
very likely, there might be a few days but not enough.

As for barbecues - awful things. Crap food cooked and consumed in
the maximum of discomfort just so you can pretend you're in the
outback along with the jolly swag-men and their leathery sheilas.

And the usw 'grumpy old man' award for March goes to.......

Naw BBQ's are damn awful. The stench of burning flesh and haze of
smoke was terrible when ever there was a nice evening down in St
Albans. Had to shut the windows to keep both out. Glad when we moved
up here, then we get F&M and the smell from the pyres 10 to 15 miles
away....

--
Cheers Dave.
Nr Garrigill, Cumbria. 421m ASL.