It just goes to show how wrong the forecasting models can be at times. It's raining here this evening, nothing dramatic, but the radar is showing a whole swave of rain crossing London and The South East in the next few hours. Not expected and not predicted.

Moley

It rained a bit here too - just after I went and watered all our pots outside

More rain on the cards today it seems. Not much though.

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Lets be careful out there !

It's raining now. We can't take our dog for a walk in the field as the grass is waist high (or shoulder high, in my case) and we would get soaked.

Looks like a canal walk today

Get a longer lead and you get to stay on the path

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Lets be careful out there !

I have always used this very useful radar for looking at the SHORT TERM prospects of rain, and I don't know why I haven't posted this link before:

http://www.raintoday.co.uk/

Yes it is very short term ( just under 2 hours ) but it is LIVE data and gives an excellent indication of exactly where the rain is, how heavy it is, and which direction it's heading so in that sense it is a very useful tool.

Certainly helpful when deciding whether/when to water the garden or walk the dog !!

Moley

Just a very quick heads up from me today ( Saturday ) but I wouldn't rule out a possible 25-27c (77-81f ) somewhere in the South East tomorrow, most probably in the London area.

Short lived perhaps but at least it's the weekend and today is quite pleasant. I will try and go into more detail about next week later, but for now I hope you all have a good weekend.

Moley

It was a nice day today - not too hot and not a bit of rain

I'm just out going out for a walk around the block - I try to get 10,000 steps done every day and I still need to do 1500

I note the BBC have revised their forecast next week to no rain expected

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Lets be careful out there !

There has been a lot of criticism of the recent BBC and Met Office forecasts in the last week or so, and much of it from folk like me who don't like to criticize the Met Office too often. It has been justified in my humble opinion but.....read on and it may go some way to explaining.

The weekend just gone was a corker for most of us here in London and The South East. Heathrow was the warmest spot in the UK on Sunday recording 27.2c ( 81f ), with Northolt just behind on 26.4c, making it the hottest day of the year so far.

Some folk on parts of the Sussex and Kent coasts are wondering what all the fuss was about though, as sea fog and low cloud made for an unpleasant day and pegged temperatures back to as low as 14c ( 57f ). Thats quite a temperature range for such a relatively small but densely populated area as The South East.

I rarely watch tv these days, but I spent much of the weekend glued to live coverage of Glastonbury, the British Grand Prix, and the athletics from Birmingham, and all of them were blessed with good weather. I am all watched out now !!

So......the prospects ahead ??

Most of this week looks like being a mish-mash of non descript weather for our region for the first half of the week. I wouldn't rule out rain entirely, but we should avoid the worst of it. I think temperatures will generally be around average for this time of year so around 19-22c ( 66-72f ) but cooler on coasts.

Towards the end of the week and into next weekend and beyond there are some strong signals for High Pressure to take control and this may well introduce a very summery spell of weather for a while. I am tending to keep my powder dry for now, because the computer models have been flip-flopping in recent weeks BUT......there is a reasonable chance that by the weekend we could be entering a spell of some of the best summer type weather for a good few years.
( 2006 being the last spell I can remember ).

Watch this space, and thank you as always for reading and posting.

Moley