Mikel Nimbus

That probably explains what I'm seeing. Anyone in the SE with light winds take a look outside the window.

I don't think I've ever wished for a Bartlett High as much as I do now, if only the NAO could fire back to strongly positive, the likes of which we haven't properly seen since last November/December!. I would be heartbroken if tour 1 doesn't go ahead, although at the same time secretly awed by the incredible power of nature over us all. Every few minutes I can see a few tiny flitters of shiny speckles floating about outside my window. Hard to believe it is the ash but the sky does look very hazy and almost "smoggy" on the horizon.

So what if the unthinkable happens and flight disruption continues until the 27th and beyond? Is tour 1 doomed? This ash cloud doesn't look like it wants to go anywhere fast

Ross, you can travel from Glasgow for £464 with US Airways on tour 3. Glasgow ----> Philadelphia ----> Dallas Have a look at www.kayak.com Entering the country last year went ok. I just told them I was storm chasing, although I was a bit stumped when the guy asked me "what's that then?". I thought it was quite self explanatory to be honest.

Have a great time everyone on all the other tours. 23 days until tour 1.

After a pleasantly warm sunny day, it gradually clouded over from the south. Cloud bases looked quite high for this time of year and consisted of what I can best describe as alto-cumulus, signaling there is some instability up there. DP's have been gradually rising also. Looking at the current radar images, the south and particularly the south east may get the odd rumble in the coming hours.

I'm no expert on photography either, but I found last year that taking exposure shots with the Canon 450D was difficult without a tripod, as my hand just wasn't steady enough so they all came out blurry. Hopefully this time someone can show me how to set the right aperture etc while using burst mode. When/where is everyone getting their Dollars from? It looks like Sterling has been taking a bit of a beating lately. :winky:

Good luck Dogs. I phoned Direct Line 3 times and spoke to 3 different people telling them I know people who have just bought insurance covering storm chasing with them. Their response everytime was no way, it can't be done...??? Ended up going with Go-Walkabout.

Hello all As mentioned in the other thread, I booked my place on tour 1 yesterday. I'm looking forward to meeting up with everyone out there for hopefully a better season than last year. :lol:

Barnet's best feature is its height. Apparently in one part, it is the highest point between London and the Ural mountains in Russia. So anything heading our way from the E likes to intensify over us. I think it's one of the worst places in the country for NE'rlys though so I'd much rather go and live in Kent.

Up in Barnet it's coming down HEAVY as snow. Showing signs of settling on grass.

Those of you who get it, enjoy it. Nothing here today and nothing expected in the foreseeable. Good night everyone.

Kent is always going to fair best from a NE'erly. Once again, I can't see a lot happening for the London area. I wouldn't mind so much if the charts weren't teasing us so much by progging ESE'erlys a short while ago. Northerlys, especially north westerlys as predicted next week are no good for here. Ahh well.

My God what a surprise!!!! It is chucking it down in Welwyn. This is the heaviest stuff i've seen all winter, no over exaggeration it is practically blizzard conditions outside. Needless to say it's finally beginning to settle.

Fairly heavy snow here for the last hour. HUGE flakes, it's brilliant to look at but not settling.

All I'll say this evening is that I haven't seen GFS 850 ensembles (for London) in such high agreement with each other since it nailed this January's freeze. When GFS wants to be, it can be stunningly accurate so I'm certainly not expecting anything cold for at least a week yet. GFS seems to flip between high uncertainty and amazing clairvoyance, so it should therefore be considered as one of earth's great climate oscillations, the "GFSO".

That is one of the most spectacular backtracks I've ever seen from any model. Something had to give in this run and it did. We simply couldn't get any closer to the event with such huge differences between the models. UKMO wins this one.

GFS 18z ensembles are very interesting tonight, as picked up by TWS in the previous thread. At least 15 of the runs have some sort of mid Atlantic block linking up with a Greenland high out at +252. That is surprisingly good agreement for GFS at that time range. I'd like to see it on a few more consecutive runs before beginning to proclaim GFS as the saviour Could we be seeing the effects of the predicted MMW splitting the PV? I'll leave that to Chionomaniac to comment.

I'm sure the likes of GP, JH, NS and SM will be interested in this revelation if they can make sense of it. :unsure: Pakistan Daily article Norway Time Hole “Leak” Plunges Northern Hemisphere Into Chaos Written by (Author ) World Jan 8, 2010 Russian scientists are reporting to Prime Minister Putin today that the high-energy beam fired into the upper heavens from the United States High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) radar facility in Ramfjordmoen, Norway this past month has resulted in a “catastrophic puncturing” of our Plant’s thermosphere thus allowing into the troposphere an “unimpeded thermal inversion” of the exosphere, which is the outermost layer of Earth’s atmosphere. To the West’s firing of this ‘quantum’ high-energy beam we had previously reported on in our December 10, 2009 report titled “Attack On Gods ‘Heaven’ Lights Up Norwegian Sky”. To how catastrophic for our Planet this massive thermal inversion has been Anthony Nunan, an assistant general manager for risk management at Mitsubishi Corporation in Tokyo, is reporting today that the entire Northern Hemisphere is in winter chaos, with the greatest danger from this unprecedented Global event being the destruction of billions of dollars worth of crops in a World already nearing the end of its ability to feed its self. So powerful has this thermal inversion become that reports from the United States are stating that their critical crops of strawberries, oranges, and other fruits and vegetables grown in their Southern States, are being destroyed by record cold temperatures. The US is further reporting record amounts of snowfall in what they are now warning may be their worst winter in 25 years. Reports from the United Kingdom today are, likewise, showing a Nation in chaos as brutal cold temperatures continue to batter the British people suffering under the worst snow blizzards to hit them in almost 50 years. So dire has it become in the UK that their National Grid yesterday issued only its second warning in its entire history stating that their Nation’s gas supply was running out due to this unprecedented event. Not just to the UK, but also to the entire European Union has this thermal inversion been affecting as reports from that region show continued chaos is occurring due to plunging temperatures and snows. In the UK, also, reports are showing that the military has been called out to rescue over 1,000 stranded vehicles. Though the Motherland, and its people, are some of the best equipped in the World to handle such severe winter conditions, the Russian island of Sakhalin was inundated this past week by a rare Snow Cyclone setting off no less than avalanches. But to the worst affected region of the Northern Hemisphere no one has been hit harder than China, where in what is being described as a “soul-destroying snowstorm” this Asian Nation has been plunged into such havoc the entire country has been brought to a standstill. China further reports that the massive snowstorms hitting them are their worst in 60 years and necessitating their military forces to save over 1,400 people trapped when their train became covered in snow. So overwhelmed by this unprecedented event has China become that they have ordered all of their citizens to help with snow removal too. South Korea has not been spared either as reports from that Nation are reporting their worst snow storms in their modern history of recording these events. Reports from Japan are also reporting record snowfall in their Northern Regions, where according to one unnamed Kushiro resident, “Snow falls hard here in Kushiro, but this is the most I have ever seen. The snow’s piling up and we’re running out of places to dump it.” Canada, another Nation used to extreme winter events, reports that the storm that had hit their maritime provinces this past week was so powerful buildings were knocked off of their foundations in what one resident, Tom Jardine, described as being “worse than a hurricane”. To the long-term consequences of this thermal inversion caused by the West, these reports further warn that by the puncturing of our atmosphere by the HHARP radars our Planet has, also, been “needlessly exposed” to the growing threat posed to us by the giant mysterious object currently approaching us (named by NASA as G1.9) which we had previously reported on in our January 3rd report titled “Russia Prepares For Asteroid Strike As New Comet Nears Sun”, and which has been blamed for the rapid shifting of our Earth’s North Pole that was first documented in 2005. But to the most critical aspect of these events it surely lies with the Western World’s continued arrogance in regards to experimenting on both our Planets natural species and human beings, and though who may think that they are ‘gods’, are continuing to give evidence that they are acting more like devils.

This event is arguably better than last Tuesday for London. Temps then were 0.8, now they are -0.3! The winds are stronger with some drifting. We have a couple of inches and it is still snowing.

I suspect GFS is bringing the cold back to our shores a few days too early. The predicted -10 850's are not supported by any of the other GFS members on the 19th/20th and is a cold outlier at that stage. The operational run is probably over doing a short wave bringing in the colder air too soon then suddenly forcing it away to the north. The general trend between members is promising for some colder air by the 21st. ECM has a similar evolution so all still to play for.

Yep, the roads around here which we usually expect to be gritted, haven't been and it's causing chaos in this part of Greater London at least. I can't get to work at the moment so will just sit here and watch the flakes fall. The beeb and Meto got this one a bit wrong. Can I stress that AGAIN, GFS has done very well forecasting the track and intensity of this front.

The temperature has taken a rather sudden dip in the last 10 mins from 0.8 to 0.4. It has been stuck on 0.8 since 4pm! DP is -2.3. Slight change in wind direction perhaps? I'm going to bed and getting an early rise for once as I believe anything substantial is going to hit us around rush hour. Night to all the brave souls staying awake.

Don't worry RMC, the dew point cannot be above your air temperature. That would give over 100% relative humidity which isn't really physically possible. (Correct me if I'm wrong someone please). Your dew point will be around -2.5/-3 I'd have thought.

While we aren't going to get a dumping, we could still get a few pulses of moderate stuff for a while. Occluded fronts tend can be good at this before completely dying out.