Stormy Weather II

[DracoM]

Wingspan 4' - blimey, yes, well not either of the ones I suggested.
Red Kites - agree.

[Serial_Apologist]

Lovely dry cold from this easterly: very bracing, especially while having to wait half an hour for a train on Clapham Junction in the dark. Talk about "freeze a jolly good fellow"!

[BBMmk2]

Very cold this morning but sunny. Snow later?

[oddoneout]

Another case of 'now you see it, now you don't' last night. Around 11-30pm snowing and around three-quarters of an inch lying and being added to. This morning a few sprinkles but no cover - so what happened temperature wise between 11-30pm and 7am? The ground is still frozen.
As I'm in the East the wind is noticeably fresh, but it's not yet been as cold as most of us around my home town had been expecting, possibly due to cloudless blue sky and sunshine. A few brief flurries so far, and some impressive looking clouds, but mostly nothing to concern, and plenty of bursts of sun. The forecast is not good and unless the temperature gets up I won't be doing my volunteer gardening stint on Wednesday,not because I'm a wimp, but because everything will be frozen, so risk doing damage rather than good.

[Serial_Apologist]

Another case of 'now you see it, now you don't' last night. Around 11-30pm snowing and around three-quarters of an inch lying and being added to. This morning a few sprinkles but no cover - so what happened temperature wise between 11-30pm and 7am? The ground is still frozen.

In the small hours a few places did reportedly experience a tiny rise in temperatures in advance of the snow showers bringing slightly milder air inland from the North Sea with them, but only very briefly, and probably not long enough to melt even the small amounts of snow that had fallen earlier. My theory would be that the type of snow we're getting right now is of the powdery type - which is quite unusual in this country, where normally snow falls in conditions of high humidity, and settles to form a layer resistant to wind shifting that clings to surfaces. The current type of snow tends to blow away very easily; I noticed just now, while on walkabouts, how mini-drifts have gathered in shaded north-facing gulleys and at the footings of walls with adjacent hard surfaces. Any signs of melting would be showing as a narrow surrounding strip of dampness, but in fact the surfaces are totally dry. Where I was working in Switzerland in the 1960s, shade temperatures did not exceed zero Celsius for several months. When, one day, I remarked on noticing it this dampening around the edges of snow cover, one of my Swiss co-workers perked up and said, "Ah, that means spring has arrived!"

[teamsaint]

Well the Red Kites seem to like it round here when it is cold. I got a better ,sharper snap or two, nice shape but not much colour, because I was photographing against grey cloud. Doh!! Still , learning to do it better is why I bought the camera, so another lesson learned .
Flurries of snow and about zero degrees I should think today.

Got to be out and about tomorrow and weds, with a trip to Cambridge set for weds. Hmmmmmmmm.....

[Lat-Literal]

In the small hours a few places did reportedly experience a tiny rise in temperatures in advance of the snow showers bringing slightly milder air inland from the North Sea with them, but only very briefly, and probably not long enough to melt even the small amounts of snow that had fallen earlier. My theory would be that the type of snow we're getting right now is of the powdery type - which is quite unusual in this country, where normally snow falls in conditions of high humidity, and settles to form a layer resistant to wind shifting that clings to surfaces. The current type of snow tends to blow away very easily; I noticed just now, while on walkabouts, how mini-drifts have gathered in shaded north-facing gulleys and at the footings of walls with adjacent hard surfaces. Any signs of melting would be showing as a narrow surrounding strip of dampness, but in fact the surfaces are totally dry. Where I was working in Switzerland in the 1960s, shade temperatures did not exceed zero Celsius for several months. When, one day, I remarked on noticing it this dampening around the edges of snow cover, one of my Swiss co-workers perked up and said, "Ah, that means spring has arrived!"

We had snow here overnight and mostly it has been snowing during today.

The roads are clear but it has settled on the pavements outside though not on the ones up the hill just a few feet away.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Alternating sunshine and snow flurries all through Monday - still managed to get a decent (if very cold) walk up in the Pennines. Not a likely prospect for the rest of the week if the Met Office forecasts turn out to be as accurate as they were for today.

[Petrushka]

My theory would be that the type of snow we're getting right now is of the powdery type - which is quite unusual in this country, where normally snow falls in conditions of high humidity, and settles to form a layer resistant to wind shifting that clings to surfaces.

This kind of snow is exactly as I recall from a trip to Moscow many years ago; very light and so powdery that it proved impossible to make snowballs out of it. The air is also very dry here as it was there.

Snow flurries and sunshine yesterday, with more persistent snow promised for today.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

An absolute "Christmas Card" scene outdoors today in the Pennines - looks lovely, but I'm glad I stocked up yesterday, and don't have to drive in it. (Having said that, traffic seems the same as usual, so fingers crossed that there's no serious disruption for anyone.)

[oddoneout]

In the small hours a few places did reportedly experience a tiny rise in temperatures in advance of the snow showers bringing slightly milder air inland from the North Sea with them, but only very briefly, and probably not long enough to melt even the small amounts of snow that had fallen earlier. My theory would be that the type of snow we're getting right now is of the powdery type - which is quite unusual in this country, where normally snow falls in conditions of high humidity, and settles to form a layer resistant to wind shifting that clings to surfaces. The current type of snow tends to blow away very easily; I noticed just now, while on walkabouts, how mini-drifts have gathered in shaded north-facing gulleys and at the footings of walls with adjacent hard surfaces. Any signs of melting would be showing as a narrow surrounding strip of dampness, but in fact the surfaces are totally dry. Where I was working in Switzerland in the 1960s, shade temperatures did not exceed zero Celsius for several months. When, one day, I remarked on noticing it this dampening around the edges of snow cover, one of my Swiss co-workers perked up and said, "Ah, that means spring has arrived!"

Thanks SA, I think that might be the explanation. It was fluffy(proper!) snow that fell, and in the morning there was a distinct bit of dampness on surfaces, despite the frost lower down, and some small lines of windblown gritty snow. The temperature stayed up(relatively speaking!) in the morning so subsequent flurries of the powdery version didn't last.
The freeze thaw is playing havoc with some of my plant pots, which have come through several winters unscathed previously. One casualty was quite impressive; a 6" deep dish shaped item, the rim of which had started to laminate, but Sunday night the whole of it got blasted off and lay in a circle around the remains. As a temporary fix elsewhere I have had to wire a couple of tall planters to stop them splaying apart from cracks.
Alternate flurries and sunshine here so far, virtually no wind movement.

[BBMmk2]

Well, today, the snow at times is like a blizzard, then suddenly calms down a bit, then it starts up again. Quite heavy where we are. Apperantly the council has not gritted any of the roads around here. Typical!

[Nick Armstrong]

An absolute "Christmas Card" scene outdoors today in the Pennines - looks lovely, but I'm glad I stocked up yesterday, and don't have to drive in it. (Having said that, traffic seems the same as usual, so fingers crossed that there's no serious disruption for anyone.)

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks SA, I think that might be the explanation. It was fluffy(proper!) snow that fell, and in the morning there was a distinct bit of dampness on surfaces, despite the frost lower down, and some small lines of windblown gritty snow. The temperature stayed up(relatively speaking!) in the morning so subsequent flurries of the powdery version didn't last.
The freeze thaw is playing havoc with some of my plant pots, which have come through several winters unscathed previously. One casualty was quite impressive; a 6" deep dish shaped item, the rim of which had started to laminate, but Sunday night the whole of it got blasted off and lay in a circle around the remains. As a temporary fix elsewhere I have had to wire a couple of tall planters to stop them splaying apart from cracks.
Alternate flurries and sunshine here so far, virtually no wind movement.

There's an interesting conversation on one of the weather sites regarding soil heave in very cold conditions, with reports from people not being able to open and shut garage doors. I hadn't heard about this previously, though aware of the problem of wood expanding in the wet, particularly because upstairs would rather slam their front door repeatedly than do anything to remedy it such as chiselling the surfaces of the door frame or the edge of the door where it snags! Possibly your pots "exploding" might be explained by this. While helping myself to a couple of bucketfuls of salted grit from the council bin (shhh) to sprinkle the paths roound our block yesterday, I hoiked several exterior pot plants into my porch area for protection, where two Criniums have managed to survive every winter since I moved here.

Just after lunch here, we had fifteen minutes of the heaviest snow I think I've ever seen. For a time the visibility was cut to about 100 metres, and a good centimeter of snow fell, almost burying the grass on our lawn for the first time this winter. The temperature hasn't exceeded zero Celsius today, making this the first "ice day" for a few years. Luckily I left enough grit for the council to grit the hill, though side roads are treacherous, and I'm not going to attempt to bike over to the chemist to get my Ramipril supply - luckily I still have 3 days' worth to hand. The shower belt retreated south-west as an impressive line of cumulonimbus anvils which, no sooner than gone, made way for brilliant sunshine, though I can now see another line of cloud build up looming to the north-east, so I'm not going anywhere today!

Differences of opinion as to when this cold spell will end, most bets being on Friday, but with the warm air spreading in overhead there are now fears of freezing rain on the warm front.

[Serial_Apologist]

Pictures were shown on the lunchtime news of two idiots off the Northumberland coast stripped to swimming trunks and going for a dip in the sea - sorry, that should have read sturdy young no nonsense Northerners.