winterfreak

My video did it no justice at all. Watched it from our balcony at about 3am. Spectacular…

Another snippet of a storm earlier in the week. This is the storm that battered Menorca before moving East toward Corsica… IMG_7273.MOV

We recently got back from Majorca and it was hot hot hot!!! Banging storm last Thursday there. Huge hail after heavy rain. Cracking!!! IMG_7206.MOV IMG_7211.MOV IMG_7279.MOV IMG_7278.MOV

I was really lucky here in Tonbridge. A 10 minute drive to a fantastic viewpoint at 5:30am. And it’s raining heavily too. Great fun

Out in the middle of it near Tonbridge!! Stunning IMG_7354.MOV

We’re really lucky I know. Terrible you’re put in that situation though sunny

I’ve got about two ton of logs ready for winter. Aiming to keep the gas CH off and just wrap up warmer as well. Completely relagged the loft this spring to 300mm so I’ve got us in the best starting position. Going to top up food stores too. Currently could feed the five of us for a month or 6 weeks at a push even if it was the proverbial rice and beans. Planning to add to it as much as possible. Got a 10 square m home veg patch too that I completed this year but sadly was very late starting it off so really next year is when it’ll come into its own. Hedgerow foraging is something I’m big into so will be lots of jams and jellies from that, chestnuts and apples too hopefully. Trying to be much less reliant on others as far as possible. Grew up in the sticks on the North Downs in the 70s/80s and mum and dad taught us well. Fingers crossed

Usually, like any other year, I’d be gunning for a 1979,1987 or 1991 redux but I hope this year we avoid it as it’ll be misery for some. Odds are favourable for a mild winter anyway because, as we know, about a 1000 things have to fall in place just right to get proper cold here. Would settle for a mild winter of above average rainfall. We’ll see….

No Rain?

Very slow moving north though isn’t it. Mind you at least the jubilee concert has stayed dry. Would have been crap if it had lashed down

Yeah it’s gone as flat as a pancake… we’ll see

Yes we got that in Tonbridge!!!

Terrifying

On YouTube looking at live cams. Looking at Dawlish at the moment near Exeter, literally a breezy day not working today (self employed) on the back of this. Won’t be pleased if it turns out another overhype

earth :: a global map of wind, weather, and ocean conditions EARTH.NULLSCHOOL.NET See current wind, weather, ocean, and pollution conditions, as forecast by supercomputers, on an interactive animated map. Updated every three hours. This is good to give you an idea of current wind direction and speed

Quite sobering to see. Still relatively quiet here until about 5 minutes ago when I could suddenly here’s the gusts firing up. Fingers crossed it’s not too bad It’s starting I think, excited but nervous at the same time

It’s getting to the point where a frost becomes an ‘event’ Absolutely dire….

Only just

After a week or so of ‘stunning Synoptics’ and ‘very rare Northern Hemisphere’ profiles for cold it falls apart, Again!!!! Laughable. Literally the worst place on our latitude for Winter weather. The worst

MAD thread now elated again as it’s showing them what they want. What a bloody pantomime

After a good few years on here I’ve learnt to browse the MAD thread with an eternally large pinch of salt. I said it when I joined and I’ll say it again, the models, in my opinion, are as useful as reading tea leaves for all the good they are. They give a hint of the weather and that’s about as useful as they get, especially where cold weather is concerned!!!

Always 10 days away… I used to hang on every run when the charts looked good, the stress!!! Not any more. If it snows it snows ?

When it’s minus 5 indoors.. then the wood burner gets fired up

The public are supposed to be convinced, are they not? When forecasts a few days out are wrong why should they believe what 30 year predictions will be?

Heat from below? Geothermal vents? After all we only know 5% of our ocean. It’s a distinct possibility that heat come from within from geological activity