Stevetynant

Hi Tony - yes your right I need to move the aeonometer higher but when I painted the side of my house last year I was clinging onto the ladder for grim death at the apex of the roof so not sure I want to do it again without a parachute- perhaps we'll see in the spring when things calm down a bit. Am actually thinking of getting a Davis as I've enjoyed this one a lot more than I thought I would but won't be for a while unfortunately (unless my lotto number comes up anytime soon)

Highest windspeed I've recorded is only 15mph in the last two weeks which seems pretty low to me considering the way the trees have been bending over recently. May have to move the aeonometer to a more elevated position - either that or my idea of windspeed is a bit more removed from reality than it should be.- going to check some of the local weather stations to get a better feel for what I should be expecting to see.

Brilliant - thanks Tony - got plenty to work on now thats really helpful (not sure the wife will be so pleased as I already have a few projects on that mean I avoid painting the hallway - networking all my TVs and uploading loads of my DVDs and the most crtitical one- the 6 Nations which wipes out all my weekends for the next month or so.)

Hi Tony - so far so good - really pleased in fact as I'd read a few reviews after I'd bought it that made me question whether I should have or not but like I said so far so good. - the WS2800 holds up to 1700 data points I think so I haven't exported anything into excel just yet but that is my next thing to do when I get a couple of months worth of data sets together - at the moment I'm still using heavy weather Software which a lot of people don't like but I don't mind it at all. Its hard to say anything about the aenometer at the moment because we haven't really had any prolonged periods of wind where I live since Christmas which is quite odd really as I'm fairly elevated up here in the Valleys - be interesting when I do get some accumulated data together to see if I can spot patterns in the prevailing wind direction - but like I said nothing too exciting on that front to report as yet. - what La Crosse model do you use?- I hadn't thought of publishing the data to the web - I'll have to have a root around that website you mentioned and see whats possible. Apologies if its gone a bit off topic but - like the weather at the moment it is fairly quiet in here - back on topic for a second - temperature briefly touched zero here tonight - went down to Caerphilly to do some shopping - when I came out of Asda- the fog was unbelievable- seemed to come from nowhere in the space of an hour - now back home and no sign of it at all.

Well still a good two months to go yet so who knows - if your summer job is selling Ice creams theres still a way to go before the Mr Whippy van needs to come out for sure. On the gritting front though - before Christmas didn't seem to see many out and about, although they must have been I guess, but now there seems to be so much rock salt on the roads near where I live I would be better going to work in a dune buggy than a car

Well to save us from going a whole day without a single post (a sure sign the weather is getting a little, well boring I suppose) last night saw the coldest temperature recorded in 2011 for my part of the World with the temp dropping to -6.7c .the warmest day in January was the 14th with max daytime temps of 11.4c. so a swing of some 18 degrees in max/mim temperature ranges - definitely not as extreme as December but not too bad. Dew point has not got above zero degrees since the 26th Jan and is still at -0.62 tonight at 12am. Looks like we're heading into a milder / wetter scenario for the next week - clinging to the hope that mid Feb outwards is still too far out of the reliable time frame for accurate predicions But can't say I'm too hopeful for anything more "exciting" this winter now. I've come to the conclusion though (as if we have any choice in the matter) I would rather have one extreme month like December and sacrifice the remaining months to the usual mush than have the milder , wetter winters with the occasional cold spell that prior to last year seemed to be the norm. Oh well - fingers crossed and at least there shouldn't be any frost on the car to worry about fora while.

We do have earthquakes in S Wales and had one a few years ago if I remember - can't remember the details but the wife quite regularly tells the tale of me running around the house in my underpants with a baseball bat in the dark as it woke us up and I thought we had someone breaking and entering - I'll do a bit of googling and get some details Here you go http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/06/08/south-wales-hit-by-biggest-earthquake-in-three-decades-91466-23812619/

Not quite sure what your disagreeing with here Adam - thanks for the stats though very interesting - pretty much backs up what I thought notionally about Feb being the snowiest month of winter but this December just gone was exceptional by anyones standards and perhaps I'm jaundiced in my view of last years December as I had the trauma of getting my daughter home from Spain when easy jet just decided not to fly anyone home until after Christmas. Got my weather station shooting out facts and figures for January now aswel so eventually in years to come should be able to make my own conclusions on such matters but thanks for the reply anyway - very interesting.

8th and 9th of February is a weird date always snow around about that time (not ever year granted however a good fair few. Similary the 1st of March never seems to be overly mild and either snowy or frosty. Another date that always crops up is around the 23rd of November around there also. Weird Yes adam march the 1 another good one funny enough early march is our best month for snow. With no stats to back up what I'm about to say - it seems to me that the worst(or best depending how you look at these things) month for snow - at least in accumalation terms has been February - however the last two years seems to see December being the prime month for snow lovers. Maybe this is to do with the drift South of the Gulf stream or maybe its just my memory's not so good. Looks like January is not going to deliver this year and obviously Feb an unknown and still to come so could this be the shape of things to come or is it just a random anomaly.

coldest day of 2011 here in the Rhymney Valley today - got a low of -7.3 at 8am this morning. Was in double digit negative before the New Year but after the mush that proceeded Christmas I'm not complaining.

I'm already fed up of scraping ice off the car at 6.30 in the morning - whens the rain coming back

Just an update for anyone who's interested - W/S all set up and synched first time no problems at all. Transmitting data wirelessly through two external walls no problem at all and the heavy weather software is really good - so far so good. I must admit to adding a little silicone gel around the plastic seals of the aenometre just for good luck but everythings going well so far - we'll wait to see what happens after the first storm it has to face (and there'll be one just around the corner- there always is in S Wales). So despite my initial trepidation - recommended so far - will report back again in a month to see if things are still progressing but pleased as punch at the moment.

I've just bought a La Crosse 2800 and the version of heavy weather I've got ie 1.5 seems great so far - easy to make your own charts and I can't say its a system hog at all. Have any of you got any recommendations about alternate software I could run with my W/S?

Thanks Watsy - I have to say I have read a few negative reports about the model I'm going for but I guess forewarned is forearmed and I'm quite looking forward to it - shame I couldn't get it a week earlier with the weather front thats heading here at the end of the week - let us know how you get on with your new weather station aswel.