A Winter's Tale

Oh No, not the same old grey skies and temps of 15c. It seems that we've been in a blocked weather pattern recently with the Greenland High present once more. I'm curious to find out if there was either a Greenland high or a Scandi High that caused the warm weather in Late April/Early May. If so, it looks good for there to be another potent cold spell next winter. I better start ramping up the prospects of another great winter after Weather Online and The Weather Outlook hinted at not rulling at cold winter

Summer has returned in style as I sunbaved in the backgarden during the almost unbearable evening heat coming from the alien looking yellow globe thingy in the sky. I never used to think that the world was flat, however I used to believe that the sky was grey, but recently I've been proved wrong and it turns out that the sky is actually, actually and I repeat ACTUALLY BLUE!!!!!! After enjoying a session of lemonade, I had the oppurtunity to lie back on the "Chair for Relaxing in the Garden" and I observed this unfamiliar sky. I noticed some strange little fluffly feathers that some excentric people called Cirrus. I thought to myself, who's Cirrus! That may be my next quest after discovering the sky is infact Blue. My family introduced me to some strange object called Barbie Que but in Code Language it was regarded as a BBQ. It looked wounderful and the food it produced was just marvelous. For the first time, we amazingly ate outside . I used to think it was against the law to eat outside or even spend more than an hour of leisue outside. Anyway, I am now going to become the youngest ever person to have a PhD due to my discovery of the Yellow Globe and the Blue carpet from above. You never know, I may be as unlucky as Brian May from Queen to get a PhD. Enjoy the rest of this 69% complete summer...............before it goes all the way back down to an inspiring 44% complete. Maybe lady luck is on my side as it goes all the way down to a precious 13%. Regards - A very overwhelmed A Winter's Tale....

I would agree that Weather Online seems to be an amatuer organisation as their forecasts keep chopping and changing day by day. By the way, their forecast for August is looking glum so they better be amatuer . Over on the weather outlook, Brian Gaze gave his thoughts about the upcoming winter: "Still looking mixed for the next week or two. The big picture is fairly clear, and pretty much textbook. Low pressure to the north west, high pressure to the south west, and Britain squeezed in the middle with a predominantly Atlantic flow. The details are more complex though, especially further south because down here we could see warmer conditions at times as low pressure to the north west becomes slow moving, causing warmer air over the near continent to be pulled towards us. Despite that, I can’t at the moment offer any realistic prospects of another heatwave in the next couple of weeks, but something could still pop up at short notice. This is turning into a summer like the ones I remember when growing up in the 1980s. The hot spells we often had between 1990 and 2006 were in my view anomalous and not typical, and neither were the exceptionally mild winters. Talking of winter, as I’ve said before don’t write off the possibility of winter 2011/12 being cold, just because the last 3 have been. If the odds of landing a head are 60% when you toss a coin, and you get 3 heads in succession, do you think probability suggests the fourth throw will give you a tail? It doesn’t it suggests you are more likely to throw a head again. Think about it…" I Would tend to agree with Brian Gaze's comment rather than the one published on Weatheronline. We can all have our feelings and senses about the weather, however we really can't say anything much about it at the moment. All we can say is that winter is meant to be the coldest time of the year so therefore we can expect snowfalls, and when we get it there is no excuse for going mad about half a cm of snow cause it's winter and you should expect some snowfalls during the winter. Regardless of what the winter is like as a whole, the potential for nothern blocking is there and as we all know, when that happens we can expect some severe winter weather for a period. So three colder than average winters in a row, I wonder if 2011/2012 would be a forth (and the last three winters have had a cold period(s) that seem to get worse each year). I'd like to know if December is now becoming more of a potent winter month now as the last three have been cold and to my knowledge, we've had cold Christmas Days during the last 5 years (or maybe it's I Can't remember when was the last time we had a mild Christmas). My thoughts on winter: Well as Brian said, you can't rule out cold weather during winter, especially with Nothern Blocking becoming more prominent aswell as the fact that we've got cold air sitting to our North West, North, North East, East and even South East. At the moment I think it's on a knife-edge between a noticibly cold winter overall (that failed to materialise after December 2010 as potential cold snaps were so near but yet so far), a mixed winter overall (with cold snaps and mild periods) and a milder winter overall. However I do feel that during some time in the winter, Nothern Blocking would reappear and deliver some bitterly cold air to our part of the world as well as snow. With the way winters have been going recently, I feel that we are not going to see the endless, mild Bartlett driven winters that we experienced during the noughties. My gut feeling is that we are going to see a winter that will have a potent blast with the rest of the time having cold interludes/snaps aswell as milder periods. All we can do is wait and see and that seems to be the way the Weather Online organisation have adopted recently!

Awww, I've just got out the BBQ for the first time since May

Fantatic sunshine this morning. I Can really feel that summer warmth for once and it looks like the next few days will be good before a return to normality.

Summer has returned during the past days and amazingly I was actually able to sit in the backgarden for wee while yesterday!!!!!!!! Today started off fine but it has no become a little more overcast. The sunshine recently better be a sign for the rest of the summer!!!! i.e a big improvement before we settle into autumn and rampage into winter.

Incredibly dull day here and it's alreadly dark enough for me to turn the lights on. Quite depressing weather and I'm craving for a prolonged spell of sunshine and temps of 20c +. I BET that most Scots and suffering from SADS in this Summer rather than the winter just gone by. It's so dull that I am already looking at some videos of Snow!!!!!!! Can't quite believe that during Late April and early May, we got the backgarden done really nice and after it being worked on during the April heat, we've only been able to use it (and the BBQ) once since May. If you ask me about where summer has gone, my answer would be April and Early May was summer 2011. My prediction - Blizzards in September

I think I recall a minimum of 13c in London during one winter night and that is warmer than what we've got here (12c). Not too often I say this in summer, but I really can't wait until Autumn and really, really can't wait till winter. Hopefully there will be a hot and sunny period in the coming months, and hopefully it will happen in early in August when I'm in Morar. I'm now starting to believe that summer ended on the 8th May (my Birthday) after one heck of a smashing April. 2011 is already starting to look like an incredibly messed up year weather-wise with winter gales in May, November rains in June, summer heat waves in April...... and we better have a dry, clear autumn and a very snowy and sub-zero winter.

Ah Yes Autumn, quite a special time (like every season). I love the sunshine in all three months, the heat on a warmish september day. I also like the first feeling of cold in September and the first frosts in October. By October time, usually prefer cold nights and morning and pleasant afternoons with sunshine. Fog can be quite good in October along with the odd cold snap, august like day and occasional rainfall. The light during October can also be special and I usually like the feeling of approching December. Of course, Halloween and Guy Fawkes night are special and conditions such as clear skies and cold nights between late October and Mid November can be special. Now to predictions of the upcoming Autumn, all I can say (judging on the weather we've had so far this year) is I don't have a real clue. However looking back at patterns of this year I might come up with something. January - After harsh December, we were treated to a mixture of Atlantic storms, dull days, cold, crisp nights and some snowy days. All in all it was a bit of a mix. February - There were some snowfalls and cold days, however by the end of the month things began to warm up and look Spring like (like Late November became winter). March - After spring like conditions, Winter returned with some snow (and for the last time). Eventually things began to clear up and it became quite a pleasant month. April - High pressure dominated and we had a warm, sunny spell (that now looks to have been our summer). Nothing cold and rarely wet. May - Warm and settled until My Birthday (8th May - that was quite a nice day). After that, thunderstorms arrived and then it became really wet and windy. My Uncle's newly built stables near Freuchie (Fife) lost it's roof in a powerful storm. June - So Far, it has been pretty poor with the odd nice day and one thunder shower. So by looking at the past few months, I believe we can see a mixture of weather types this Autumn. I expect some warm days in September, along with jet stream influenced spells, clear and calm periods and potentially another cold end to the month. Looking at recent news about the sun, it seems that it has become a little more active, however it is still pretty low for max. If this keeps up, we could see some warm and cold weather this autumn.

Thunder here.

I think there could be thunder right now. I'd like to know that when there is a thunder clap is there always lightning with it?

I just come back from my SQA Standard Grade Maths Exam. I found General easy but Credit hard (harder than the past papers). I am hoping that the pass mark will be dropped. Anyway, it's a glorious afternoon here. Sadly, it looks like it is set to move away.

I was hoping for a BQ on Sunday (my birthday) after my exams. Unfortuantly, it looks like Low Pressure would start to influence things later in the week with the potential for Thunder.

Home Videos have dates on them. Some of the dates are guesses on events and objects such as type of car at the time. Dec 1999 is one of the clearest early memories I have. I kind of started this thread about snow events that I can't get a date for as there was quite a few decent ones.

The date was 4th December 1999.

Actually the title of the thread should be Dec 1999-Jan 2002

Prior to the snow in Feb 2009, my favourite snow events and winter memories were from December 1999-Jan 2002. I have memories of Christmas Shopping in beefy snow showes, being stuck on the mate during a Blizzard wth snow depth over a foot, vertical snowfalls and plenty of other deep snowfalls. I can't quite remember exact dates, but I believe that this period was had some quite exceptional snowfalls tha even the past 3 winters have not quite surpassed. http://www.personal....ther_dundee.htm, http://www.met.rdg.a.../diary1999.html, http://www.met.rdg.a.../diary2000.html, http://www.met.rdg.a.../diary2001.html are links which can show snow events. I'd like to ask how where these winters in your region as I've heard many people say that this period was dull whereas in my opinion I have lost count of many deep snowfalls. Some dates that I can remember include 4 Dec 1999, Christmas - New Year 2000, 18 Feb 2000 though I have some real uncertainties with dates with snow in Dec 2001 and memories of heavy snowfalls between Dec 2000 and Feb 2001.

How is your Cleadon Snow events count doing so far?

The Winter had a classic cold spell in December and that is good enough for me. Here in Glasgow, we had a decent cold/snow spell in early January which was better than what we got from some of the winters in the past 10 years. Personally, I would have liked to have a consistently cold and snowy december rather than two prolonged spells and some cold spells in January and February (3-4 days) bringing large accumilations. For some, this winter may have overall been disapointing but for myself, it was one of the best winters I have ever experienced with the cold sell in December and decent snow in January which surpassed all snow events in some of the winters I have experienced before.

I am Going For: March: Settle with occasional chills - Max Temps 16c April: Showery with a brief cold spell. Quite warm in the middle of the month - Max Temps - 17-20c May: Warm and Sunny First part with temps reaching 22-23c. The rest of the month is quite sunny with some thunderstorms - Max Temps 25c June: Mostly a warm and sunny month. 30c in South Eastern England. July: Dull, rainy and on the chilly side. Max temps 24c August: Some Atlantic weather and thunderstorms though there will be decent warm days and sunny spells. MAX TEMPS 26C. And a quick look at autumn and winter. September: Quite sunny and pleasant to begin with though mid month I expect quite warm temperatures before the Atlantic intervenes. I also expect the first frosts. Max Temps 21c, min temps 1c OctoberSome wet and windy periods followed by sunny and settle days. I expect a quite cold end to the month so it's a bit of a mixture. Max Temps - 19c, min temps - 2c November: Foggy and quite dull to begin with and some Atlantic domination. I expect things to settle out and the first snowfalls from cold spell. Max Temps 16c, min temps -6c December: Cold with some snow to begin with before things warm up slightly. I expect a severe cold spell to follow after mid month until the new year. Max Temps 11c, min temps -15c

9.1c

If things develop in the right direction in the Models, hopefully a potent cold snap will round this winter off. I am content enough with having the best of the winter cramed into the end of November and most of December. I prefer to have cold weather in December because I tend to look forward to wintry weather around Christmas and it looks and feels its best during December when the nights draw in. I would have liked to have experienced two or three decent cold spells in and around January and February. Prior to the winter 2008/2009 and post 2005/2006 there were very little decent snowfalls. In January we had a spell where we had more lying snow than some of the dull winters in the last 8 years.

3.9c

Perhaps some of these snowfalls happened in February instead of January.