Spring Weather 2011

[Maggi Young]

I'm not surprised at that damage Angela.... we're getting it very gusty here too.

 Fresh leaves flying everywhere but I hope that's all, apart from the Delphinium horizontalis.   The blue poppies are holding up so far.
Ian has just got back from his swim....  thank goodness for that.... though he might have been blown to Norway in this gale.
Saw the news of terrible death toll from the tornado in Missouri in the States... we should think ourselves lucky, I know.

[Tony Willis]

Just looked at the BBC weather forecast for the local area which says winds of 20mph! What rubbish.

It is easier and more accurate to look outside and see the six missing fence panels and after walking across the bog(lawn) barely able to stand in the wind I see a large clump of Dracunculus vulgaris is ripped off. We had torrential rain at lunchtime but so far no glass missing from the greenhouses.

[Tim Ingram]

I was promised some rain from Norway if I could find a way of getting it here! This is pretty much the driest spring I remember here in the South-East - no real rain since February and with the hotter and windier weather of May the garden is becoming really parched. We expect this in August but not now. Having said this the plants we grow are pretty well suited to drought; the times of trying to grow primulas and meconopsis are well past! A few things have been stimulated to flower such as Scilla hyacinthoides and the curious Iranian Pelargonium quercetorum, and I imagine many of the bulbs might flower very well next year.

A friend who has kept weather records for the Met Office since the 1960's says April was the second driest he has recorded, after 2007 which had no rain at all! But this time March and May have had virtually none either.

[Hoy]

Still no way to get some water from me, Tim? I am promised rain every day the next 10 days so I have much to share Last night we had strong wind too tearing flowers and leaves off the plants. This evening the rain had stopped but the sky was very gloomy and the clouds had a unnatural colour - Grímsvötn ash from Iceland!

[Anthony Darby]

Seems like the new volcanic ash cloud has closed Scotland's air space again.

[Lesley Cox]

I've been wondering how our Arilnut John, is faring, in Kansas. It was one of the worst hit states by those appalling tornadoes, along with Arkansas, Missouri and the Mid West generally. Hope he is OK.

[Maggi Young]

He was online this morning (UK time) Lesley, so I would hope he's okay.

The scenes of the tornado damage across the States is frightening indeed.

[Lesley Cox]

I could hardly believe the devastation caused in just a few seconds in the city of Joplin. We were shocked at our single Auckland tornado a week or so ago but really, it was nothing. Living with the knowledge that these things are endemic must be very hard on the nerves, like continual earthquake aftershocks.

[mark smyth]

How bad has May's weather been?

Yesterday I was out doing an environmental impact assessment - wildlife survey - on a farm that hopes to get a wind turbine. The cattle were still in their sheds yet the grass was long and lush. I asked why. The cows went out in April which was earlier than normal but had to be brought back in because they were making a mess of the fields due to too much rain

[Martin Baxendale]

Lesley, I feel especially sorry for the people who have to live in trailer parks in tornado-prone areas (and anywhere else for that matter). Seeing what a big twister does to a trailer park is horrific.

[arilnut]

Thank you for your concern my friends. I am fine and no twisters have been within 60 miles or so of me.
The Joplin one was very bad, deadliest tornado in U.S. since 1947. It really doesn't wear on me too much.
I have been just minutes behind a tornado that crossed the highway I was traveling on and
had seen 2 others in the lightning flashes to the side of me 20 miles before. They are terrible things tho.

John B

[Philippe]

It's been a long time that spring has turned into summer here in France.
The drought is getting worse and worse every day now, the half of the land is already concerned by more ore less important water supply restrictions. If nothing changes soon, this will lead or is already leading into a situation which we didn't have for centuries. So far from the climate change here.
Here in the Vosges, we aren't yet concerned by this "administrative" drought ( untill now no restrictions), we, lucky we, even had some rain in the past few days, and the plants still look ok for the moment. But it's just a matter of time, I think, untill our stream runs dry in the garden, a thing that almost never happened in the last 40 years, only once in 1976, again in 2003, 2009, and perhaps 2011 now? Is it still worth growing alpines now, in a climate which was once comparable with the one of north norway on sea level, and seems now to get year after year drier and warmer? 
I'm really really anxious about the way things are going to turn this summer. A summer which hasn't even officially begun yet

[mark smyth]

A week ago is was lashing in N ireland and a week later the garden is bone dry. Geraniums are wilting but the swifts love it

[Tim Ingram]

Some rain at last in Kent! We decided that the dog needed a good bath (great fun to watch him afterwards!) and then the rain came down and he decided to do some digging in the garden! Today the rain has been quite steady and penetrating and both garden and gardener are sighing with relief. However, we probably need another week or two's worth to soak down deep.

[mark smyth]

A friend in Cambridgeshire got much needed rain last night. Here the rain lashed all day