The Great Meteorological Thread

Cobra said:
Thanks for the (albeit windswept :D ) update Ian. (y)

I've had a bit of a mixed bag here (MK) recently a few wet and windy days, and
a few frosts overnight,
enough to form a couple of mm of ice on the pond.

Today is at present, is mild and clear.

And thats a cracking cartoon as always (y)
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Hi Chris! Indeed, this is me summing up the weather across the UK for the next few days (cloudy, damp, windy and mild) . . .

Windy.jpg~original
 
It isn't here - just raining. :(

Never mind, while rain isn't as pretty as snow, it's far less of a PITA as well!
 
Cobra said:
Blimey thats getting closer and closer.
Just rain here though.
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Yeah I was quite surprised the rain turned to snow and settled..
I got all excited lol!
It's slowly disappearing now and the forecast doesn't look like it will amount to anything now :(
 
As already mentioned in one other thread, I've missed out on the snow here at this end of Kent. Instead I got gale force wind this morning which was strong enough to fell a small number of trees and even wrecked a rollercoaster in construction at Margate's Dreamland.

And that's our lot as far as proper winter is concerned as high pressure build over the UK to settle things down for the next few days - but we may have to watch out for fog and frost becoming a regular occurrence by night and tending to be slow in clearing up during the day.
And then we'll all be back to the default westerly Atlantic regime thereafter. I reckon it won't be until the third week of January will I "bother" looking out for wintry weather again the way things are shaping up.
Until then, the next best thing to hope for is for us not to end up having a repeat of last winter in terms of wind and rain, that was hard work. But at least those planning on going to London to see the New Year in won't be getting soaked wet or/and wind blasted
 
Chuffing chilly outside here ATM - 0.5°. Nice and warm here in the conservatory though - the sun's warmed it to a relatively balmy 18.5°.

'Twas bloomin' windy night before last - blew the top shade off the sun chair, luckily it ended up against the garage rather than 1/2 way to Tiverton!
 
It's going to be cold here in the Thames Valley tonight, the gritters were out on the major roads before 3 pm this afternoon.
 
Well @Ian D J He was not a million miles away with his prediction back in October ;)

Ulric_zpsba73abdc.jpg
 
u8myufo said:
Well @Ian D J He was not a million miles away with his prediction back in October ;)

Ulric_zpsba73abdc.jpg
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:) Let's put it this way, it has got to a point where I've been able to predict the weather - at least on a local scale (Kent) - for the next 3 to 5 days with a high degree of confidence. 5 to 10 days away may be pushing it but I've been getting to be quite successful with that part. Any longer than 10 days away and I might as well have a go at trying to predict the winning Lotto jackpot numbers for the next three weekends and have better luck with that.
However, as part of a "side experiment", I have been studying the behaviour of the atmosphe beyond the troposphere and into the stratosphere above the North Pole (at the 1 to 30 mb level - the level where long-flight commercial airliners are usually found) where I'm trying to see if sudden temperature fluctuations in that level has any effect on the polar vortex within the Arctic circle (a "pool" of low pressure and extreme cold in the upper atmosphere).
Last year, the temperatures at the 1 to 30 mb level, remained steadfastly at -80 C throughout the whole of the winter and that in turn kept the Polar Vortex rock solid over the Arctic and thus enabled a sharp temperature gradient in the mid-latitude part of the Northern Hemisphere - the perfect recipe for powerful jet streams producing explosive "bomb" Atlantic depressions, hence all that wind and rain we have had last winter.
I've always believed that if there is a "sudden stratospheric warming event", where temperature quickly rises from -80 C to 0 C in just matter of days, then that has the effect of disrupting the polar vortex and allow high pressure to become more prevalent in the mid-latitude - end result is our wind tending to come in from Russia making for a cold and snowy winter.
And so far this winter, I'm seeing little signs of a "sudden stratospheric warming" event but at the same time, the polar vortex isn't being as powerful as last winter anyway - and I do think that is why this winter so far is being so-so (not too cold, not too mild, not too wet, not too dry and not really that windy but any wintry spells appears to be blink-and-you'd miss-it events anyway).
So at the moment, that is the reason why I'm not really "feeling it" in terms of us having a proper cold snowy winter . . .

. . . yet. :sneaky:
 
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Getting home with a few minutes to spare before an expected delivery time (as notified by the carrier) to find a card on the mat timed 5 minutes in the future... Rearranged delivery for tomorrow and will be staying in.
 
As our weather is expected to take on a more changeable and breezy note during the course of the week with a risk of stormy conditions over the northern half of the UK by the end of the week, it is only natural that trying to get the line washing dried up quickly is a difficult task at this time of the year.

So, I have come up with this invention . . .

WashingBike_zps785ea7cb.jpg~original


PS: In case you are wondering when we are actually going to have any proper wintry weather with some snow, there are signs of things becoming generally colder as we go into the second half of this month, but it is a long way off in forecasting terms. We'll still have to get through a bit of rough 'n' tumble first.
 
Nod said:
Getting home with a few minutes to spare before an expected delivery time (as notified by the carrier) to find a card on the mat timed 5 minutes in the future... Rearranged delivery for tomorrow and will be staying in.
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have i missed something?
 
FIIK!

That was supposed to be in the WAMT thread rather than here.

Back ON topic!!!

I was hoping for a dry morning tomorrow so I could have a slight lie in and take the bike down to town for an early dentist appointment. The probable rain means that it's more sensible for me to take Mrs Nod down to teach her early class (06:30 start from home...) then come home before going back down at 08:15, parking for a couple of hours (to give me dentist time and Mrs Nod some shopping/errands time) then coming home. Could be worse though - could have to take the bus!
 
:D

And keeping the weather theme going, as far as the next few days are concerned, the latest round of forecasts are speaking for themselves, but I will be thinking of our Scottish friends where they'll be experiencing stormy conditions on Friday and then again on Saturday. Hope y'all be safe.
 
As strong winds and further damaging gales are set to be a regular feature over the UK in the next seven days at least.

GaleWarning_zps0fc2c319.jpg~original
 
Looks like i'll be getting up early and see if i can locate my garden fence panels :tumbleweed:
 
I was hoping to shoot some post-sunset shots in the snow last night, but I ended up catching something a little bit different. I think this was a front of freezing fog moving in. I was really surprised at how quickly it came in.




I also recorded a few short videos, but due to the light level I had to use high ISO (3200/6400). I ran this video through the denoise filter in Handbrake, but it's still quite bad. You can get an idea of how quickly this was moving in from the following:

Freezing Fog?
 
That's cool! Does look like a dust storm! Thanks for posting those.

At this end, I've been missing all the wintry-related action but then again this is Kent. In fact, I am recording a weather-than average month with over 70 mm of rain so far this January, good job Folkestone isn't particularly prone to flooding. But I did have my fair share of air frosts and sunny breaks which is far more than what I had last winter.
In a nutshell, this week is going to be generally cold, cloudy and damp across the UK with a mixture of rain and sleet at sea level and on coastal areas with higher ground getting to have the best chance of seeing some snow, especially at around the middle part of the week. As well as all that, a frost will form very easily as soon as skies does actually clear up. All typical of mid-winter in the UK, nothing much to get too worked up about as things stand.
But at least it's going to be quite a while before it goes all horrible and stormy again so that's one saving grace - again, an improvement on last winter.
 
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amp88 said:
I was hoping to shoot some post-sunset shots in the snow last night, but I ended up catching something a little bit different. I think this was a front of freezing fog moving in. I was really surprised at how quickly it came in.




I also recorded a few short videos, but due to the light level I had to use high ISO (3200/6400). I ran this video through the denoise filter in Handbrake, but it's still quite bad. You can get an idea of how quickly this was moving in from the following:

Freezing Fog?
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Wow...where Is that?
 
Ian D J said:
That's cool! Does look like a dust storm! Thanks for posting those.
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You're welcome :)

viv1969 said:
Wow...where Is that?
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They were taken from the top of the Strathaven war memorial monument hill, looking out towards the sunset in the direction of Darvel. I think this Google maps link should be in the right direction. Here's a panorama from the same spot which was taken a short time before the fog rolled in:



Here are a couple of shots of the monument itself, taken at different times:

 
@amp88 Thanks for that.
I love phenomena like that.
 
Ian D J said:
In a nutshell, this week is going to be generally cold, cloudy and damp across the UK with a mixture of rain and sleet at sea level and on coastal areas with higher ground getting to have the best chance of seeing some snow, .
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See now the thing is all this forecasting lark is rather hit and miss.
You need to go for the tried and trusted methods, from time immemorial.
I held the "TP nutters meet" at a zoo Saturday,
I sacrificed a couple of virgins to Chione the snow Nymph and low and behold
It started as I arrived (y)
However I feel that one of the virgins may not have been 100% truthful with me as it quit after about an hour :D


IMG_6226 by Chris-the-falconer, on Flickr
 
Hi Chris! I bet they felt right at home (the wolves, that is, not the people at the meet up).
 
Ian D J said:
Hi Chris! I bet they felt right at home (the wolves, that is, not the people at the meet up).
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It was bloody cold up there I can tell you Ian,
even the penguins were shivering,
( I jest not ;) )
 
That's because people kept peeling their wrappers off to see if they were chocolaty inside!
 
Time for a little bumpette to the thread.
After a late evening and over night snow fall circa 2cm.
The sun is trying hard to break through the dense cloud,
but its also started to snow again.
If the sun makes it through the cloud, will we have a snowbow.?
And what actually does snowbow look like?
 
Cobra said:
Time for a little bumpette to the thread.
After a late evening and over night snow fall circa 2cm.
The sun is trying hard to break through the dense cloud,
but its also started to snow again.
If the sun makes it through the cloud, will we have a snowbow.?
And what actually does snowbow look like?
Click to expand...

Hi Chris! I guess because I kept missing the snow, etc, here at Folkestone (even this morning I only had rain while the rest of Southern England woke up to a snow cover) I kinda forgot about this thread. :oops: :$ :D At the moment, it is feeling like there is a snow party going on and I haven't been invited as sunshine is beaming into my hobby room as I type this - but I am hoping to have a slice of the action in the form of streamers feeding in from the North Sea as we go into Thursday, but it could also easily turn out to be a dud.

Anyway, a snowbow doesn't exist because light get scattered about too much in a snowflake and thus they come out looking white (a bit like bubbles each with their own different refractions showing the light being split into the different colours of the spectrum but when all those bubbles blend into as one mass of foam, the whole thing comes out looking white anyway).
But, we can get ice bows, and it is that very thing which enabled me to take this lunar halo above my house last night using my D7000. That phenomenon was caused by moon light being refracted evenly inside simple shaped prism-like ice needles.

Halo20Moon.jpg~original
 
Thats a cracking image Ian (y)

And thanks for the info,
it was kind of a tongue in cheek post,
as I'd I'd never really thought about it until now.
But yes that makes a lot of sense (y)

I guess the moon halo is the night time equivalent of the dog sun's ( sun dogs? ) I see sometimes?
 
Cobra said:
Thats a cracking image Ian (y)

And thanks for the info,
it was kind of a tongue in cheek post,
as I'd I'd never really thought about it until now.
But yes that makes a lot of sense (y)

I guess the moon halo is the night time equivalent of the dog sun's ( sun dogs? ) I see sometimes?
Click to expand...

:D Indeed to the last bit, as shown by Michael (thank you!).
 
Evenin'. I dunno about y'all but I've thrown away the shackles of Winter and can't wait to experience the first bit of real spring-like warmth.

Spring20Corner_zpszl3oatrj.jpg


Indeed, the general trend is for things to become drier, milder and brighter over the bulk of the UK for the rest of this week and into the weekend as high pressure start to take control. Beyond that, I think southern and eastern parts of the UK may get to hang onto the spring-like conditions for longer while tending to be more unsettled over northern and western parts.
 
Today was like Spring, except for the temperatures!
If we get the forecast shower at dawn, then I reckon we could be in for another dusting of snow - just like a couple of days ago.

Spring can't be far away though :)
 
Well I came through quite a little snow storm as I hit the Bedford by-pass from the A1 this afternoon!
It was just a 5 minute thing, but a sure sign spring is on the way :D
 
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