Stormy Weather II

[Serial_Apologist]

Time for my afternoon constipational, as Ethel from EastEnders might have said. It looks pretty gloomy so this will be a shortish one around the park, sticking to the hard surfaces - about 2 miles in all.

[Petrushka]

It's never been proper daylight at all here today. Very murky, wet and misty and I've had the lights on all day.

[oddoneout]

It's never been proper daylight at all here today. Very murky, wet and misty and I've had the lights on all day.

Similar story here. Although it wasn't actually precipitating when I went out this morning, coat and gloves soon acquired a sheen of dampness. At about 1pm gravity seemed to take over and damp air became half-hearted drizzle which after a while flirted with the idea of becoming rain - a few drops for a while - and then gave up. On the plus side it was less cold than the past few days thanks to little or no breeze.

[Old Grumpy]

It's never been proper daylight at all here today. Very murky, wet and misty and I've had the lights on all day.

Oh, well - at least the days are getting longer...

...or so we are told!

[BBMmk2]

Time for my afternoon constipational, as Ethel from EastEnders might have said. It looks pretty gloomy so this will be a shortish one around the park, sticking to the hard surfaces - about 2 miles in all.

Good morning SA! My afternoon constitutional, is an afternoon nap!

Quite chilly today!

[DracoM]

Absolutely chucking it down here, fells invisible under thick, thick mist / cloud.
BUT..............

Happy Christmas etc etc to all Forumistas!

[Sir Velo]

Absolutely chucking it down here, fells invisible under thick, thick mist / cloud.

I did warn you, when you complained about the cold snap, to be careful what you wished for!

[DracoM]

[johncorrigan]

Snow on the Cat Law this morning, just ten miles north. Hope Santa's packed the runners on the sleigh. Wouldn't want him to get stuck.

[Serial_Apologist]

Did anybody watch the relayed 1963 BBC documentary on the freeze-up of that year last night on BBC4?

[oddoneout]

Did anybody watch the relayed 1963 BBC documentary on the freeze-up of that year last night on BBC4?

I had seen it previously, and didn't watch all of it second time around. I still remember that winter - or at least parts of it. My school was at the top of a hill and much of the time I would take the "pretty" ( and quicker) route through fields to get there. That winter ruled that option out but the pavement beside the road route not only froze as a flat surface but also into quite large bumps, all lethally slippery. On more than one occasion I had to resort to crawling to negotiate the steepest part. Heating was inadequate in the Victorian primary school - one large coke stove in the main classroom and some heating pipes elsewhere for the hall and the smaller classroom. The milk was often still partly frozen at break time but if melted had the foil lid missing as it had been forced off by the ice. The new infant block across the playground was warm - until the oil ran out - and we sometimes decamped to the hall there. What still puzzles me is that I can't remember what happened at lunchtime - I didn't have school meals and so walked home for lunch normally which wouldn't have been possible then, but I don't remember having a sandwich at school instead so wonder if we only did half days?

[Serial_Apologist]

I had seen it previously, and didn't watch all of it second time around. I still remember that winter - or at least parts of it. My school was at the top of a hill and much of the time I would take the "pretty" ( and quicker) route through fields to get there. That winter ruled that option out but the pavement beside the road route not only froze as a flat surface but also into quite large bumps, all lethally slippery. On more than one occasion I had to resort to crawling to negotiate the steepest part. Heating was inadequate in the Victorian primary school - one large coke stove in the main classroom and some heating pipes elsewhere for the hall and the smaller classroom. The milk was often still partly frozen at break time but if melted had the foil lid missing as it had been forced off by the ice. The new infant block across the playground was warm - until the oil ran out - and we sometimes decamped to the hall there. What still puzzles me is that I can't remember what happened at lunchtime - I didn't have school meals and so walked home for lunch normally which wouldn't have been possible then, but I don't remember having a sandwich at school instead so wonder if we only did half days?

I well remember the proper start to that cold spell: it was the heavy drifting snow that fell on New Year's Eve. I was at a teenage party at the time, and on coming out, drunk for the first time in my life, having consumed an entire bottle of ginger wine, I had to stagger home up the 1 in 10 gradient through two-foot drifts - on arrival being ordered to bed in disgrace, my mother saying "I shall have words with you in the morning!" The main memory of that winter were the frozen snow surfaces resulting from freezing rain, making the 2-3 foot drifts lethal to shins when broken through! - and frozen external pipes, which people would unsuccessfully try to unblock using boiling water. One also remembers car door handles frozen stuck, and breaking the ice in our unheated school toilets by peeing on it: sit-down numbers were ruled out as one could effectively become superglued to the toilet seat! One remembers the sound of the ice cracking up in the cylinder. There was an incident at home in which the ballcock arm to the cold water tank in the roof jammed, resulting in a cascade of overflow water turning an unfortunate pittosporum outside the kitchen door into a beautiful glass sculpture. I kept one of my first weather diaries through that period, faithfully trying to copy the day's weather charts on my own reproduction of the British Isles in an exercise book kept for the purpose, and next day plotting the midday weather reports along with the symbols for the weather as stated. I have kept these mementi. I had learned how to draw the outline of the British Isles in less than a minute - a skill I have maintained to the present. I also recall the compacted snow piled up into slabs on roadsides still being there at the beginning of April in quite a few places, a good month after the thaw that eventually came. Having experienced such punishment, everyone was predicting a hot summer to compensate, but in the event 1963 followed the disappointing pattern that had been in train from the time our elders could purportedly recall the "hot" summers of their childhoods!

[Joseph K]

Been raining continuously here since around 2. Looks like it'll rain tomorrow, too.

[oddoneout]

There was a sneaky twist this morning. It was a dull start and I hadn't expected anything different, just hoping it would stay dry for my third attempt to get milk, when suddenly the sky cleared and the sun came out. Totally unexpected and certainly not on the forecast - perhaps because it was a blink and you'll miss it occasion. After about 40 mins the curtains were drawn and murk resumed. It did stay "dry" (as in not actually raining) though until evening.

[Serial_Apologist]

There was a sneaky twist this morning. It was a dull start and I hadn't expected anything different, just hoping it would stay dry for my third attempt to get milk, when suddenly the sky cleared and the sun came out. Totally unexpected and certainly not on the forecast - perhaps because it was a blink and you'll miss it occasion. After about 40 mins the curtains were drawn and murk resumed. It did stay "dry" (as in not actually raining) though until evening.

The steady moderate rain which has been falling here since mid-afternoon is the first substantial rainfall hereabouts since the end of October!