Stormy Weather

[Petrushka]

Still a few patches of snow lying around here and there. It's felt a cold day with that damp chill that gets into the bones but feels warmer indoors than of late. On the bright side, both mornings and evenings are now drawing out and it will be completely daylight when I leave work by the beginning of next week.

[BBMmk2]

The weather systems, seem to be changing for the milder climate this week? Thank goodness!

[Serial_Apologist]

The weather systems, seem to be changing for the milder climate this week? Thank goodness!

Yes indeed, BBM: high pressure more-or-less guaranteeing fine weather everywhere bar the odd fog patch until Friday, apparently.

We really have been lucky this year - it is unusual these days to experience a comparatively mild winter without concomitant expectations of heavy rain, as happened last year. Today's sunshine seems like a foretaste of spring, despite the temperature reaching a mere 7.5 degrees C., the London average for early February, whereas our friends in Canada and the eastern States are once more having to endure way below freezing temperatures for weeks on end.

[Anna]

Yesterday was a perfect Sunday. -4° overnight but freezing fog soon burnt off and we had not a breath of wind, not a wisp of cloud all day! After lunch, when it was beginning to warm up nicely, I did a couple of hours hard labour in the (SSW facing) garden, at 3.30pm it had reached 10.1° and it was lovely, sitting in the sun, soaking up the vitamin D with a mug of tea. Few strips of cloud just before sunset which resulted in lovely sunset and temps dropping like a stone. Hope everyone else was out and about doing something vigorous!

Bitterly cold, misty and foggy again overnight but today cleared to much the same as yesterday, not so warm as still a bit hazy but a very respectable 9.6° I'm not really surprised as the barometer had been creeping steadily up into Very Dry (dropped back a little this morning)

[Serial_Apologist]

Yesterday was a perfect Sunday. -4° overnight but freezing fog soon burnt off and we had not a breath of wind, not a wisp of cloud all day! After lunch, when it was beginning to warm up nicely, I did a couple of hours hard labour in the (SSW facing) garden, at 3.30pm it had reached 10.1° and it was lovely, sitting in the sun, soaking up the vitamin D with a mug of tea. Few strips of cloud just before sunset which resulted in lovely sunset and temps dropping like a stone. Hope everyone else was out and about doing something vigorous!

Not vigorous, ahem, but I did manage to put in the 3-mile walk which has become more-or-less my daily routine since government-advising medics stated the advisability of a 20 minute walk every day for the likes of my age group, if possible. I just take an hour instead! - but we are blessed with beautiful circular walk opportunities around here.

Today I ventured out on my first decent cycle ride of the year - a 10-miler taking in Brixton, Clapham Park, Streatham and the scenic routes on the return via the soaring heights of Streatham Common, standing nearly 300 feet above sea level.

Bitterly cold, misty and foggy again overnight but today cleared to much the same as yesterday, not so warm as still a bit hazy but a very respectable 9.6° I'm not really surprised as the barometer had been creeping steadily up into Very Dry (dropped back a little this morning)

Would I be right in thinking you live in a sheltered or valley situation, Anna?

[Anna]

Would I be right in thinking you live in a sheltered or valley situation, Anna?

Yes, I'm down in the valley! A bit elevated above the river which is 10 mins walk away, surrounded by hills so usually we escape the worst of the snow/ice although the SSW aspect means the rain sweeps in .... It's my daily journey that takes me to higher ground a couple of miles away where I can look across to the Black Mountains, which - at least this morning - still have a good sprinkle of snow on the tops and the sunless sides. Although I can see one of them from upstairs where there's a dip in the hills.

Good for you on your daily walk - have you thought of joining one of the Fit4Life or Walk for Health groups? Here they're funded by the Council and are guided through places of interest.

[BBMmk2]

I see the weekend may be a wet one!!

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes, I'm down in the valley! A bit elevated above the river which is 10 mins walk away, surrounded by hills so usually we escape the worst of the snow/ice although the SSW aspect means the rain sweeps in .... It's my daily journey that takes me to higher ground a couple of miles away where I can look across to the Black Mountains, which - at least this morning - still have a good sprinkle of snow on the tops and the sunless sides. Although I can see one of them from upstairs where there's a dip in the hills.

That would explain the wide daily range of temperatures you experience in your location, Anna - the katabatic flow effect!

Good for you on your daily walk - have you thought of joining one of the Fit4Life or Walk for Health groups? Here they're funded by the Council and are guided through places of interest.

I hadn't heard of those, and might give them a check. Thanks for the tip, Anna.

[BBMmk2]

Not a very god day down here. Rather overcast!

[Serial_Apologist]

Cloudy here too today - solid layer of stratocumulus, which will probably be difficult for the still weak sun to puncture this afternoon.

Never mind: at least I needed no treatment or follow up appointments when I went for my 6-monthly check-up at the dentist this morning. "Terrible for business" said the dentist, before I returned to the reception to pay the £80 for the scrape and polish.

[Anna]

That would explain the wide daily range of temperatures you experience in your location, Anna - the katabatic flow effect!

S_A, do you remember I posted about a weird weather event we had a few years ago? Woke up to find the world had disappeared and we were enveloped in a thick white mist for 24 hours. This is looking down in misty conditions prior to sunset one day (where I live is totally submerged!) It was only then that I learnt from you that it was katabatic mist!!



And this is taken from the top of a hill on the other day where it was brilliant sunshine looking down into the mist.



And sunset



Ontopic, dismal overall grey mist here today, and chilly.

[Serial_Apologist]

Anna - thank you for those beautiful pics.

By coincidence, today's BBC weather page has a (rather simplified) expkanation of inversion fog:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/feeds/31200198

[vinteuil]

S_A, do you remember I posted about a weird weather event we had a few years ago? Woke up to find the world had disappeared and we were enveloped in a thick white mist for 24 hours. This is looking down in misty conditions prior to sunset one day (where I live is totally submerged!) It was only then that I learnt from you that it was katabatic mist!!
.

... Wordsworth's writing of a nocturnal ascent of Snowdon is surely a fine description of a katabatic event -

http://www.bartleby.com/337/898.html

[mangerton]

Yes Anna's pics are magnificent.

Another lovely sunny day here today, and a temp of 7º C when I left work half an hour ago.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Progress of a rake begins!

Lovely day today in the Pennines - silver-grey cloud, but bright and clear. Temperatures only a couple of degrees higher than recently, but without that "edge" to the air that cuts through layers of clothing. Got out into the garden for the first time since October - an hour's weeding and clearing up. The first feeling that Spring is on its way.