The dry Spring

Less than 72 hours until the end of Spring. For rainfall purposes it ends at 0900GMT on June 1st. At the moment another 6mm of rain are needed to keep the old 1976 record intact. The thunderstorms on Thursday produced over 8mm of rain and that made it the wettest day since January 17th. There was rain at other times last week, but although fronts brought changes of airmass, amounts of rain were negligible. The 'record' now appears to hinge on the behaviour of a minor wave on a cold front currently to the west of the UK. Computer models suggest that this wave will become quite active as it trundles northeast over southern England tomorrow. At the moment, it looks as if the heaviest rain will occur west and north of London, but in addition to this frontal rain, destabilization ahead of the front tomorrow may lead to showers breaking out, although the near continent seems more at risk from that feature. It certainly looks like being a close run thing before Summer begins ..... with the prospect of further records??