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Steve C

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Posts posted by Steve C

  1. Going back to the tsar bomba question. I think I read somewhere that the amount of energy we receive from the Sun in one month is about equivalent to the energy released in the Chicxulub dinosaur extinction event - circa 100M megatons. This is about 2M X tsar bomba, or tsar bomba energy in a little over a second. With the absence of much dust being thrown into the atmosphere, I'm sceptical that tsar bomba could have been a big factor in the '63 winter.

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  2. Just after Christmas 1978 - might have been Boxing Day, or maybe a day or so later - very heavy snow in the Maidenhead area, where as a young kid we'd gone to spend Christmas with an aunt. My first experience of very deep snow. Went home to a "pipe freezer"- pipes split, with tubes of ice supporting the metal. Body heat, flooded house... A reasonable amount of snow at home, but nowhere near what they'd had in Maidenhead.

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  3. I wouldn't go as far as to say "moaners" but we have loads of options now, if we want to avoid certain forecasters and have a (hopefully) decent forecast.

    I find it interesting that people really laud Rob McElwee. I appreciate he was (is) very good, but I found him too concise, in the pre internet days of no access to weather models. He'd say things like "and the outlook is interesting!" when finishing his forecasts with a grin. I could generally guess what he was saying, but found myself thinking "for goodness sake, please elaborate more!"

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  4. I've a hunch, which I've had for a couple of weeks, that we might see something nasty, storm wise, between about 2nd and 5th December. I think the current charts are conducive to storm development as well, although specifics are at too long a range at the moment. I think there may be a meteorological bullet or two to dodge. I hope I'm wrong. Violent winds no longer excite me (although I find them very impressive)

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  5. I can't believe people get so hot under the collar with what a TV forecaster says, or their facial expressions; as if their forecasts make a blind bit of difference... Let's face it, if they were showing unbridled delight in forecasting extreme weather, they wouldn't be in employment for long as presenters, as the general public don't really like extremes. They're not aiming their forecasts for weather aficionados after the BBC News.

     

    Change of subject... Matt, are you contributing to the NW Forecast this year?

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  6. More PPN?! ... I have to say, I'm really not that excited about a few flakes of snow falling from the sky although it would be nice to see.

    A dusting? :/ ... If it only lasted an hour or two on the ground before melting what's exciting about that? I guess I'm always gonna be an extreme weather chick. I will look forward to the day when I see at least a good 5 inches of snow on the ground again .... nice fat flakes falling from the sky or better yet, BLIZZARDS!! ;) ... Until then it will be just ... nice/Okay/Meh to me when I watch a few measly flakes. I will continue to watch the charts however, and get hopeful that maybe we will see a few cm's. I know that won't be likely though ... lol :)

     

    I kind of agree. I like a reasonable cover of dry snow that lasts for a while - I don't ask for much then in SE England. :D I dislike sleet with a passion (unless it's transitional...) I'm not really a fan of slushy stuff either - when you walk in it, you immediately leave a dark imprint of your footwear and all around is dripping. Yuk!

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  7. Not all of us!  I'm a touch miffed that this seems to be developing into a "Kent and Sussex" regional thread, or, at best, a "SE corner" thread, rather than SE & EA.  Apologies for the moan.  Anyway, from what has been suggested to me elsewhere on NW, I suspect the exact positioning of snow won't be known until shortly before it happens.

     

    I think it's (Saturday) more interesting in being a very rough early Winter's day. Windchill, very strong winds, rain / sleet / snow mix etc. Horses for courses though.

  8. Morning all , well what a wild night.

     

    lost 2 fence panels which allowed our lovely husky to escape, after looking for her for about an hour we unfortunately found her dead on the side of the road.

    thanks to the asshole who didn't even have the decency to stop or even call us.

     

    Mia (jinge) will be sadly missed, rest in peace my baby x 

     

    Terrible! Disgusting attitude of the person who hit her.

     

    My sympathies. :(  

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  9. I think I've got myself muddled thinking St Jude was in winter months of 2014, when it was really in October 2013 - odd doesn't seem like 2 over years. Looking at the stats I was wrong but for some odd reason that Windstorm never really stood out for me which is quite bemusing the strong winds may have occurred during the early hours? I also think there was a sting jet at play too.

    STATION NAME AREA MAX GUST (MPH)

    WIGHT: NEEDLES ISLE OF WIGHT 99

    LANGDON BAY KENT 82

    ISLE OF PORTLAND DORSET 81

    ANDREWSFIELD ESSEX 79

    ODIHAM HAMPSHIRE 78

    THORNEY ISLAND WEST SUSSEX 76

    SOLENT HAMPSHIRE 75

    WIGHT: ST CATHERINES POINT ISLE OF WIGHT 75

    YEOVILTON SOMERSET 75

    LYNEHAM WILTSHIRE 75

    HURN DORSET 74

    MANSTON KENT 70

    HEATHROW GREATER LONDON 69

    This is an interesting read...apologies if it's familiar to you.

    http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/pdf/s/n/18.5_PaulDavies.pdf

    Personally the more ferocious the better I'm quite a junkie in terms of extreme weather, I'm aware of the dangers but what can you do its Mother Nature - we are way overdue a beast I must say.

     

     

    I hadn't read the article. Thanks for posting.

     

    I'd gone out for a morning walk during St. Jude's, with the aim of taking photos (and not waiting to see if fence panels etc. blew over at home) I got caught in the worst of it in a wooded area, when the roar through the trees was horrendous. I could also hear large cracks and was well aware of the possibility of trees falling. I had the camera filming, but the footage was unusable, due to massive camera shake (nervous) the camera swinging about wildly, as I was concerned that this or that tree might crush me and also my swearing and self admonishment... Several reasonable sized trees fell in the two or three minutes I was there; one taking out overhead cables. Locally Clacton's helter skelter blew down and power was quite widely out for much of the day - although I only suffered 30 minutes and was able to bring flasks of hot water to needy people.

     

    Just reading about it on Wiki last night, it mentioned tremendous windspeeds recorded at the Gunfleet Sands Windfarm. As the crow flies that's only 10 miles away from here. Frankly I don't believe the numbers reported there, but it would have been good to have had an official measurement taken.

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Jude_storm

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  10. Well I was quite impressed by last night really, brought the strongest gust of 72mph here, beating the previous of 60mph on 29th March. Much calmer out there now but still breezy. This particular low reminded me a little bit of the 27th October 2002 storm, short lived but very potent. I'd be surprised if any gale to come beats the one just gone; once again autumn producing the strongest gales.

     

    Really? I'm actually expecting a worse storm this cold season, where I live, unfortunately.

     

    October 2002 was a lot stronger here than yesterday's effort (gusts roughly 60mph last night) which is the sort of storm I'd expect on an annual basis.

  11. Real gale here currently this quite easily outdoes St Jude I would say 50mph+ winds in this part of London is unusual being quite sheltered. The local woodland must be having a hard time a lot of tree debris!

     

    Possibly for your area, but no way for where I live. The most appropriate weather station for my area recorded a 78mph gust during St Judes.

     

    However none of these events comes close to some of the powerful autumn / winter storms that I've experienced here (okay St Judes was a monster in Denmark...) Three in the last forty years were a league above this and St Judes. It'd be interesting if another really powerful winter storm occurred again soon (although I don't want it to happen - too much worry about trees falling and property damage etc.)

  12. As strong as it's been here on the coast so far - likely force 8. A few places have approached 60mph in gusts, eg - Andrewsfield and Cranwell, so far. The closest place I can see that's exceeded 60 is East Midlands Airport. A few places will likely exceed 60mph around here, but I don't expect much strengthening from this point.

     

    http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weather/maps/current?LANG=en&UP=0&R=310&TYP=windspitzen&ART=tabelle&LANG=en&DATE=1447792200&KEY=UK&LAND=UK&CONT=ukuk&SORT=3&SI=mph&CEL=C&UD=1

     

    Could be time for a drive...

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