Stormy Weather II

[DracoM]

Bella approaching - first rain falling. VERY damply cold and dispiriting here.
And now at 6.30 p.m. temp = -5C

[Serial_Apologist]

I always used to reckon to have calendula among the components of the Christmas day table posy as they self-seeded on the allotment, but I don't have any in my current garden( I did sow some seed this year but it was very old and nothing came up) - I must rectify that as their sunny orange discs flowering through the winter are a real tonic and the petals liven up a salad.
It has been sunny and blue sky here, but I refuse to feel guilty for not getting out there; I have been appreciating it from inside while listening to the radio. The temperature is plummeting at the moment, but the forecast suggests that cloud moving in during the night and a change of wind direction should halt the descent.

It fell to Minus 1 C here last night, and likely to again tonight before cloud ahead of Storm Bella sweeps over. I hope my anxieties about Bella prove unfounded, as has been the case in the past - most of the upstairs residents, who are away, have left garden furniture and potted plants out on their south-facing balconies.

Edit

It now looks as if the south east and midlands could well be clobbered by heavy sleet and snow showers on Monday as the primary low that is Bella crosses from N Wales into the south North Sea by afternoon, to then be followed by gale-force north-westerlies everywhere!

[DracoM]

Well, it's -5C up here already at 6.30 p.m. as I post - with rain and a stiffish breeze. So........seemingly on the way, is our Bella.

[BBMmk2]

We supposed to be getting Storm Bella, sometime today. Hope it won’t be too bad.....

[oddoneout]

At the moment it looks as if the worst will arrive during the night here, a situation which I hate as it wrecks my already poor sleep through the noise and worrying what damage is being done. The saturated ground and more rain is not a good combination for facing gales.

[DracoM]

Well..........this a.m., to my surprise, NO rain, NO wind, but v.low cloud and mist. Seems remarkably still. Dull, yes, but not much happening......yet!

[cloughie]

Well..........this a.m., to my surprise, NO rain, NO wind, but v.low cloud and mist. Seems remarkably still. Dull, yes, but not much happening......yet!

Same here, and at 8.00am was 8.6C cf 3.6C yesterday.

[DracoM]

Temp comparison v.similar here. Weird?
BUT
after getting in a walk before Bella truly strikes, it was freezing and a real fight in the still-dry boisterous westerly.

[oddoneout]

The flooding has been an added misery for many the past few days, even before the prospect of (not so) Bella. While feeling for the predicament of the unfortunate caravan dwellers I couldn't help thinking that the Billing Aquadrome Holiday Park was a self-fulfilling prophesy kind of name for the site. Wonder if they'll have a rebrand in due course; in this case the 'no such thing as bad publicity' mantra may not apply...

[Serial_Apologist]

Got the quotidian walk done before lunch, an hour-long circumambulation of Crystal Palace Park taking in the concrete fossils, then, after lunch, cut back the climbing rose on the south side of the block (to save it possibly being pulled to shreds if tonight's super gale turns out a bad as I am fearing) before listening to the last of my collection of Christmas music.

[DracoM]

Bella is here now: thrashing rain, drumming winds driving it. And on the forecast I am getting, just the beginning!! Temp c4C. Wildest, and as I post, pretty scary.
And I can only remember Storm Desmond in the same bracket.

[Nick Armstrong]

Bella is here now: thrashing rain, drumming winds driving it. And on the forecast I am getting, just the beginning!! Temp c4C. Wildest, and as I post, pretty scary.
And I can only remember Storm Desmond in the same bracket.

Wind & rain lashing outside here now....

[BBMmk2]

Well, that was a storm!!!! Good grief! Apparently, half our road had a power cut!

[Pulcinella]

We escaped it pretty much here; a bit of noisy wind and rain during the night but clear and sunny this morning.

[gurnemanz]

We escaped it pretty much here; a bit of noisy wind and rain during the night but clear and sunny this morning.

Pleasantly still and sunny here as well. Was expecting a drenching but only 4mm rain overnight