AderynCoch

Glorious spring weather here recently. I haven't seen a single cloud for well over a week now. No rain since 21st March either. Come to think of it, that's the only day it's rained since most places got shut down by coronavirus restrictions (nearly a month now). Typical really!

Absolute garbage here. Despite being right in the path of the cold surge, the forecast low temperatures and snow somehow downgraded at the last minute. Instead we're just left with nuisance cold. It nearly reached double figures today. Some cold blast! Meanwhile, further south and further away from the Russian Express the Balkans are getting buried in snow (even low-lying places like Belgrade). How the hell is this even possible? Just go away Extended Winter 2019/20 with your cruel teasing.

Thanks to the appalling non-winter this cold spell is going to do a lot of damage to plants and trees which have grown early. There are already cherry blossoms in bloom here. Wednesday is looking like the coldest day here, with 2C and snow forecast. There might be a bit of snow on Sunday with some luck. Ironically, lying snow is the best hope for mitigating damage to plants; hard, dry frost is the worst scenario.

Arctic blast coming up for Central Europe this week. We're going to go from 20C and glorious sunshine this week to temperatures struggling to get above zero and possible snow next week. If this was January it would be severely cold indeed.

It's getting surreal here. There was an announcement in the street over some loudspeakers (which I'd always assumed were just relics of the Cold War) advising people to wear masks or improvise with a scarf. It reminded me of the old Protect and Survive broadcasts, which were used to prepare the public for nuclear war. Almost everyone I see is wearing a mask now. I went to the supermarket with a scarf around my face (you can't shop without covering your face). It felt weird walking around the (ever-emptying) aisles looking like someone who likes to throw Molotov cocktails at riot police. I sincerely hope the restrictions don't get any tighter.

"Let's be responsible" Advice on avoiding public gatherings and whatnot, as well as how to reduce the risk of infection. The local pub shut indefinitely. Most people I see are wearing masks now. I'm hearing that next week folks won't be allowed on public transport or into shops unless their faces are suitably covered (wouldn't want to be working in a bank!). The supermarkets are still surprisingly well-stocked, though people have started raiding the multipack toilet rolls (doesn't bother me, as go for the big individual ones which are still abundant).

They weren't lying: That's part of the old Iron Curtain by the way. Just found out that I'll have to work from home (I teach on-site) for the next two weeks at least. Supermarkets here aren't at panic levels just yet but I expect that to change very quickly. The pandemic is still at an early stage for Slovakia (first confirmed case was a week ago) so the situation will surely worsen for some time yet.

Cases in Slovakia more than doubled yesterday (an increase of 11 to 21). Apparently all border crossings have been closed today. I live very close to the Austrian border where there's a cycle bridge. I'll have to check it out later (I was there yesterday and it was business as usual).

21C here today. Definitely spring-like. Had a nice view of the aptly-named Schneeberg ("snow mountain") in Austria, the easternmost 2000m peak in the Alps.

I could move to Yellowknife and it would probably be 11C and rain all winter. I tend to find myself in the wrong place at the wrong time when I'm travelling. ?

There needs to be a swear-filter amnesty for me to fully express my feelings about this "winter". It's often said on here that if you don't like UK winters you should move somewhere else. So you do that and end up enduring a UK-style winter anyway. But no worries, you can always go even further east for a few days. Kiev just before Christmas - what could possibly go wrong? Oh, 11C and rain. Basically, the steroid-enhanced polar vortex and rampant jet stream has brought an Atlantic-style winter well into northern and eastern Europe. And it's still going. I've already posted the "utter crap" line from Blackadder's Christmas Carol elsewhere on the forum, so I'll post the following here instead:

Great minds... I was thinking of the exact same line. And believe it or not, most of NW England has probably seen more snow than Bratislava this February. It really has been that bad. This pithy Blackadder quote also springs to mind when summing up this cowpat of a winter (and that's another one):

August 2004 was hot, humid and thundery in the first half. The second half was naff, but August 2008 was naff from start to finish.

https://wetter.orf.at/oes/extremwerte Temperatures from Austria (left - last hour, right - last 24 hours). 20,7C today in Innsbruck. Still 20,3C in Sopron, Hungary at 11pm. In February. From a westerly flow.

The horror February continues to add insult to injury. 15.7C here at 7pm, 17C at Bratislava Airport and 20.1C at Eisenstadt in Austria (about 30 miles southwest of here). The monthly mean is now above 6C and rising. It just never ends...

Scorcher, if you prefer windy mildness to cold stillness you should fly here as soon as possible as that's all we've had for weeks now. I can't remember the last time I had a weather warning which didn't concern wind. I'm actually under one now (by the way wind events here are nothing compared to the UK, so a wind warning doesn't necessarily mean it will be interesting in any way). As for cold stillness, that doesn't necessarily preclude the possibility of snow. In any case I'll take snowless Euro High faux cold over the current weather pattern any day. Today is the twelfth day in a row above 8C (though looking like first in a week not to reach 10C - small mercies and all that). The February mean so far is 5.9C with the mean maximum at 10.1C. Such figures would be disappointing in my old stomping ground of Merseyside never mind here. There is of course no sign of anything cold even in FI. I wish this "winter" would just die.

I'm struggling to think of words to adequately describe this "winter". February so far in Bratislava has easily been the worst month of the season - and winter had already been dire before it started. Mean maximum so far for February is a ridiculous 9.8C and we haven't had a single day below 5C, which is simply dreadful for this part of Europe. Worse still, there's no end in sight. In previous winters when there was mild weather there was at least light at the end of the tunnel on the 10-day forecasts; now there's nothing, and I can't remember the last time there was cold showing even in FI. To say that this is appalling is a big understatement. This is my fourth winter in Slovakia and it's by far and away the worst of the bunch. Even the hills can't save me this time. I don't usually do this but I'm throwing in the towel. Just get this abomination of a "winter" out of the way and bring on the hot Bratislavan summer.

Dear Atlantic, Please take your mild, windy wetness and go away. Yours gratefully, Slovakia

15C today in Bratislava. There's still plenty of whiteness above about 300m but the slush must be horrible there right now. I don't know about anybody else but I need Michael Ventrice's magical record-breaking jet stream like a hole in the head.

Surprise snowfall here this morning, some monster flakes coming down (5cm or more). It'll probably all be gone by this evening sadly as milder air pushes in.

Sorry for the even later reply. It turned out you didn't miss much unless you wanted to go walking in the hills, as Sunday was an epic fail...1C and raining all day. I was not impressed! There's been virtually nothing left here since Monday, so I've had to go up nearby Devínska Kolyba (~500m) to get my snow fix. Worth it though.

It already followed the highest winter temperature on record from the previous February.

You should have told me you were coming. It's been snowing here since about 4pm today but there's only 1-2cm so far because the flakes are light. It will be interesting to see if it can keep sticking tomorrow because it's supposed to last all day. Also interesting to see only Bratislava in Slovakia under a snow warning. Don't see that very often.

Actually I've just arrived in tropical Old Town, Bratislava and there's what looks like a dusting of snow. Might just be rime but nice all the same.

Some snow forecast here for this weekend. Not sure if it will stick where I am but the nearby hills should get a good covering. At last.