Benvironment

They make me laugh most of the time.....but Joe Public does take them seriously. I've been TOLD by countless people in the last couple of weeks that it will be snowing in Glenrothes before the month is out. And the other week when people were being interviewed on Brighton Beach about the unseasonal October heatwave, a family remarked 'well we had to come and make the best of it now because it's going to be snowing in October'. People do take notice.

I'd say winter has eleven hands. I just posted a blog piece about the 11 signs I look out for in the run up to winter: http://benvironment.org.uk/post/11471937874/winterevents At the moment they're happening along the same kind of timeline I'd expect in this part of the world. No frosts or subzero nights yet......but then the first subzero temperature here last year wasn't until 21st October, which also coincided with the first meaningful snowfall on the mountains. Wouldn't mind if they came earlier though!

I was down in the Cotswolds for the last few days and it was like I'd flown down to the south of France. Sandstone cottages, 21C, clear blue skies with not a cloud in sight, people hiking the Cotswold Way in shorts and t-shirts........and everybody having pub lunches in beer gardens. Everyone I met commented on what awful weather Scotland has had this year, which was striking as they're not normally people who notice what the weather is doing up here or even comment on it.....but they all said that it had been painfully apparent even to them how a big dividing line existed between northwest and southeast and it just went on....and on.....and on. Sitting in a beer garden yesterday without the need for a coat, I got a glimpse of the summer and start to autumn that much of England has had. I'd forgotten what unbroken sunshine was like! I kept looking up nervously for the ever-present cloud about to obscure the sun, but it never came. My dad did remark though, that while they've had rain down there the ground is still bone dry and they do need more of the wet stuff. It couldn't be more of a contrast to here.

Oh how marvellous! It's 11am but it's only 5.8C here! I'm getting into a frenzy of excitement at the coming winter Snapshot from this morning at the Ptarmigan: http://benvironment.org.uk/post/11094807017/firstsnow

What always puzzles me about situations like that, where you'd have to think that the person saying it must be aware that they're not 100% sure of the facts........is the fact that they never entertain the possibility that you might know more about it than they do. Bonkers.

Oh good lord. Finally we have some SUN forecast but........80mph gusts on the hills!? Oh well, at least it will keep the midges and flies away

I recall 5th Novembers in my childhood as being cold.....but that possibly says more about me standing around outside for hours waiting for a Catherine Wheel to do its thing. Nevertheless I do for some reason remember the bonfire nights in the 80s as cold.......and I remember there being fog most years too. That was in the West Midlands.

On 2nd April last year I caught a bus from outside my Edinburgh flat, took a 25 minute bus ride to Balerno on the city outskirts, stepped out of the bus........put my snowshoes on.....and spent the next six hours snow-shoeing around the sun-baked Pentlands in beautiful, deep wind-packed snow. A warm Spring sun coupled with walking in snow. Tis marvellous.

Just back from York. I thought I was gonna miss quite an event in my neck of the woods, but upon discovering this afternoon that my sunflowers are still standing it was obvious it wasn't as bad as it might have been. The weather station has the top gust yesterday at 49mph around 2pm.......and nothing since then has got close. Funny, considering how high the gusts were in Edinburgh. Today is coooooold though. Just 9.5C here now and the wind chill is distinctly autumnal if not winter-like.

I feel your pain! My west-facing sunflowers have all been lashed to the fence to within an inch of their lives. It's the east-facing ones that have borne the brunt, however. They were bent double most of last week and must have been substantially weakened 'cause the tallest, at a feisty 10ft.......snapped this afternoon in only moderate winds. I don't expect to find any standing come Tuesday.

Off to York tomorrow......coming back Tuesday. Assuming I manage to get there and back, I wonder if Fife will still be here when I return?

Oh lord, the prospect of another deep low doesn't fill me with relish so long as my sunflowers are still trying to do their thing. I fear Monday could finish off what this week's gales left of them. More fool me for trying to grow the sodding things at this exposed location

And we have Red! For Lothian & Borders albeit localised.

Yeah I went on the UK Met site looking too......but still nothing. It's always something of an anoraky thrill to see a Red warning......and looks like anoraks will be most useful on this occasion too.

Good grief it's cold outside today. That wind is making it feel much more raw than the piddling 9C would do otherwise. All the wildflowers are sealed tight and look scared to come out.

Definitely that one if you're not bothered about time. Or if you're even LESS bothered about time then do the full circuit via Glen Coe, Ft William, Spean Bridge, Laggan and that will pop you out on the A9 just south of Kingussie. <sobs> YES! There was a time back in April where it was off, finally.......but it came on in October and hasn't really been off since. We're just about to run out of oil AGAIN. This is costing a fortune :-s My family down south can't believe that it hasn't been above 13C here for the past week........apart from yesterday. And they're gobsmacked that we haven't been above 20C since 3rd September last year!

Still no power. Gone to a hotel for food and warmth

Still without power and most likely will be til late tomorrow apparently.....but nothing that candles, a fire and Lagavulin won't cure.

Ooo, our power just went off.

Just recorded 71.6mph. That beats any windspeeds we got from the gales in winter and earlier this spring by a long way. Currently watching the big tree out front disintegrate and planks of wood getting blown off some scaffolding.

Sustained winds have been over 50mph here for the past half hour now. The livestock are all cowering behind the stone walls! Not had a gust over 60mph yet though.

'Ere, who said the S word!? <rushes back to forum>

Not purely the reserve of women, it seems. Only three posts today have alluded to wedding gubbins and they've all been yours :lol: Go on, embrace your closet monarchist.

Yep, that sounds like the week here too.......except for the jealousy of those folk in the southeast. A few of my pals have been trying to rub my nose in their 26C but I just remind them to enjoy the glorious sunshine from the safety of their homes, looking out their windows at their ozone sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide. ;-) It may have been distinctly hazy and humid here but I'll take fog over smog any day! Once the cold front passed over today, you could see it in an enormous line out over the Forth and East Lothian......and then SUNSHINE! Proper clear sunshine at that, with Tinto visible from here for the first time in about ten days. The day ended beautifully

I find the humidity in southern Ontario far worse than anything we get over here. Don't get me wrong, it's still oppressively uncomfortable here when it *does* get warm.....but Toronto / Windsor / London etc felt much more stifling at the same balmy temperatures. Edit: Just noticed you're off to Coventry. I spent 25 years just down the road in Solihull. The West Midlands climate was way too warm for me so I fled to Scotland ;-)