The Strange weather - is this an El Nino /Nina year?

[SimonJ]

What is happening to the weather?
In Dec I sailed across the Atlantic when it should have been idyllic Trade wind conditions - Easterly sector winds, blue skies, puffs of white clouds with occasional squally increases of wind. What did we find, no sun and totally clouded over for two weeks, sustained gusts of up to 40 knots and pretty cool. Many of those crossing in the weeks after us had no wind at all for up to 8 days and sometimes even wind from the North west! This in an area where the Trade winds ALWAYS blow!
On arrival in the Caribbean the rainy season which should have come to an end by late Nov persisted with a vengeance until the end of January with huge amounts of rain!
Now having returned to UK (not by boat) we find in SW England the coolest and wettest May for a generation.
So is there a Met person out there who can give an overview? All the forecasts I have heard/seen are blinkered 3-5 day affairs with no big picture comment.
Is it an El Nino/Nina year - these I believe occur cyclically every 5-10 years. The changes in this Pacific based phenomenon apparently do have effects on the North Atlantic. If not El Nino, what other cause??
Even two days ago I heard a BBC forecaster speaking of a Tropical storm which had just moved from the Pacific into Caribbean and (quote) he "had never seen this happen before".

 

[Twister_Ken]

If posters are to be believed it's all to do with the new BBCTV weather forecast graphix whioh make Britian look like an army shirt with damp patches.

 

[Klaus]

Sounds a bit spooky! I'm about to do the same trip end of november. At what latitude were you crossing?

Klaus

 

[ChrisE]

The bit about the rainy season ending in the Caribbean in Nov is, in my view a myth. We had the kind of weather you decribe 9 years ago and others have said the same. There is even a period around the New Year known as the Christmas winds which on our shift blew 20-30 knots with rain and associated grot from December to March!

 

[StugeronSteve]

IMHO it's definitely the Beeb graphics, I understand that they are fully interactive and can actually effect the weather. The crystal ball globe jobbie, that appears at the start of report, hints of a particularly reliable data source, don't you think?

 

[Sans Bateau]

Saw this last night for the first time, looks OK to me. Would'nt use it for anything else except entertainment though.

 

[StugeronSteve]

It'll never catch on like the fast show weather reports:- "Scorchio scorchio!

 

[Evadne]

Its official

according to Noaa (not the Penarth one) here the unusual weather conditions are due to this being a "normal" year. It's been so long since we had one that it is now considered abnormal. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
For Britain then, expect rain through the summer, especially at weekends and on bank holidays, although it will be dry enough in late August that the farmers will complain and there will be a hosepipe ban in the south. Oh, and England will probably fail to win the Ashes again, series score 1-0, with the remainder rained off.

 

[kimhollamby]

Evening Standard last night

Business pages report suggested that insurers expecting another heavy year of losses in the Caribbean. Expectation is for a total of 12-15 tropical storms with seven to nine becoming hurricanes in 2005.

According to report NOAA is stating that as many as five major hurricanes could be worse than last year's big four. This due to "warmer than usual temperatures in the North Atlantic" and "a weakening of the El Nino effect in the Pacific".

 

[Mirelle]

Ah, all clear now.

Thank you. I suspected that this was normal, but doubted my memory.