Stormy Weather

[mercia]

Who wrote recently on Stormy Weather about someone improving the 'seal' on their double glazing?

a few pages back you, Serial_Apologist and DracoM discussed double glazing.

Not wishing to give false information, might you qualify for some sort of grant for window repairs? - after all, the government is very keen on home insulation.

[salymap]

Mercia, thanks, no I wouldn't get a grant but I may contact the firm that put them in, ahem, 21 years ago.
I actually have triple glazing to shut out traffic noise. Glass is always cold, even if they are not faulty and the window faces due North anyway. I had free loft insulation because I'm a pensioner though.

[greenilex]

When I'm over the water I like the Weather Channel - is there a European equivalent?

[mangerton]

When I'm over the water I like the Weather Channel - is there a European equivalent?

Oui, "La Manche du temps".

(Je vais chercher mon pardessus.)

[greenilex]

Aiee caramba.....but I suppose better than the ravelled sleeve of Care.

[Frances_iom]

the salt on my windows is now being jet washed - hasn't shifted all of the seagull bombs tho and as 2nd floor somewhat difficult to wash from outside - no boat again tho last night's boat did manage to sail in the lull between two storms so shops won't be quite as empty (headlines in this weeks paper have been of empty stores -and other shortages as the once reliable (tho somewhat expensive) lifeline boat is stuck in port due to gales and failure of a bow thruster that should have been repaired months ago

[BBMmk2]

Now jet washing windows? Goodness!!

Perishingly cold today!!

[Mr Pee]

[Anna]

It's a bit rough here (and surprisingly warm at 12) but I've just clicked on the BBC Scotland page and it's horrendous there and due to get worse so I guess us further South should count our blessings that we're not being battered like that (gusts of up to 130mph)

[Serial_Apologist]

Well there's been no official mention, but from my own observations the weather patterns have changed for the first time in two years, with none of the blocking systems, now being attributed to reduced sunspot activity, that have led to exaggerated northward/southward swoopings of the jet stream.

This points to the likelihood of a relatively mild winter, (already in train in America) - with modified (i.e. "around the mulberry bush") arctic airflows bringing slightly lower than normal temperatures short-term, but fewer if any of the direct flows experienced in the last 2 winters - but a windier one. Low pressure systems are much deeper and more tightly packed than when I started observing weather in the early 1960s - the closer the isobars (the more circles there are in the "dart board" and the more closely packed they are) the stronger the winds.

This is the third low to bring Phase 1-strength hurricane-force winds since the end of October. Deeper depressions result from the steeper temperature gradient between the poles and the tropics in the winter halves of the year in both hemispheres; but it would seem probable that the super-depressions which have turned up with increasing frequency in mild weather-prone scenarios like the one I've attempted to describe above, since October 1987, must be in large part down to global warming, which we were warned would increase frequency of intense storms.

If I've got this right - and I'm only a self-taught amateur in the meteorological field! - precipitation levels should be more evenly spread as rain-bearing fronts sweep across the entire UK instead of diverting over N Ireland and Scotland, then plunging south over Scandinavia, leaving the bulk of England and Wales in their shadow.

BTW you might well get a few claps of thunder as the cold front crosses Wales and the South this afternoon/evening.

S-A

[Anna]

S-A, that's really interesting, thanks. I'm no weather expert but our local weather station (actually 5km up the road and slightly higher elevation) has detailed records going back to 1929, day to day. Certainly the last two Winters have been very severe (the snow started 27 Nov last year) and a record low temp on Boxing Day of -13.9, I was snowed in for 4 days last December, but last year, and this, have been so dry compared to the usual rainfall (and believe me, Wales is usually very wet), so you think precipitation levels are levelling out? But East Anglia, traditionally driest part of the country, is facing drought I think, so it's not levelling at the mo or it will do? Or have I read your post wrong (not unknown!)

Oh, I don't mind a few claps of thunder if it happens tonight.. I quite enjoy the power of thunderstorms.

[Flosshilde]

Very windy weather in Glasgow just now - I think wind speed is around 50mph.

People are battening down the hatches & closing early, & I've just had an email saying that the BBCSSO concert tonight is cancelled.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks, Anna

If, as I suspect, the jet stream has reverted to its more normal west-to-east tracking pattern, rain-bearing frontal systems should cut right across the country, instead of sweeping up the western flank, as has tended more often than not to happen during the past 2 years, avoiding Wales and England as a whole.

Hope that clarifies it a bit!

S-A, that's really interesting, thanks. I'm no weather expert but our local weather station (actually 5km up the road and slightly higher elevation) has detailed records going back to 1929, day to day. Certainly the last two Winters have been very severe (the snow started 27 Nov last year) and a record low temp on Boxing Day of -13.9, I was snowed in for 4 days last December, but last year, and this, have been so dry compared to the usual rainfall (and believe me, Wales is usually very wet), so you think precipitation levels are levelling out? But East Anglia, traditionally driest part of the country, is facing drought I think, so it's not levelling at the mo or it will do? Or have I read your post wrong (not unknown!)

Oh, I don't mind a few claps of thunder if it happens tonight.. I quite enjoy the power of thunderstorms.

[marthe]

Bright, sunny, and windy (brisk NW wind) drying up the deluge of the past two days! Temps a bit cooler than before but nowhere near their usual level for this time of year! Fingers crossed for all of you who are in the path of gale-force (or near hurricane-force) winds.

Christmas prep in full swing chez m. Housecleaning today, getting the library re-arranged to make room for the tree which we'll get on Saturday. Writing out cards as well.

Anniversaries: 70 years since Pearl Harbor yesterday. John Lennon today. 31 years. Last night at the Newport city council meeting, we observed a moment of silence in memory of those who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor. After that it was business as usual. Newporters had at each other over a proposed redesign of a local park known as Queen Anne Square.

[eighthobstruction]

Some places have winds with beautiful or interesting names like : Mistral or Matacabras or Harmattan....what we have here is a Dirty Pie Eating Lancashire Muck Slinger...."why don't ya just .....fffff fade away...."....