su rui ke

Yes, a much better day here today. Although there was still some melting during the day, in general the snow that has fallen has been sticking better than on Monday and Tuesday. At least it's not dripping wet any more. Has anyone noticed the apparent sudden increase in the shower activity over the North Sea at 20.45?

The uppers were about the same on Friday morning weren't they - and that was OK, even right on the coast.

I drove from Dundee to Edinburgh airport during that event - I think on the evening of the 5th actually. There was snow everywhere except for the strip near the Forth south of Dunfermline and out to a similar distance from the river on the other side. At the airport it was snowing, although rather wet.I think those of us on the east coast would put up with a day of wet snow/sleet tomorrow anyway if we though there would be any precipitation left by the time the easterly turns colder later!

Yes, the snow from that heavy shower is sticking better than the snow from the earlier ones did. It's still wet and icy though.Hopefully things will improve further this evening.

Like Norrance, not enjoying the way it has turned damp here in the last few hours. Is there any chance of some lower uppers/DPs moving in later?

A very heavy snow shower going on right now in St Andrews. It's in a different league from this morning's showers - the sky is totally grey. I would say things are still going according to plan!

Mm, sounds a bit like January 1987 ...

We just had some sleet/wet snow at times on and off throughout the daylight hours so nothing too exciting here. There is apparently lying snow just to the north though in places like Auchterhouse and Tealing so I assume most of inland Angus should at least have a covering.

As expected, it's turned damp here too and most of the snow has gone. It was still mostly white at 9 am though.

Yes - about half an hour after reaching the west of the city! Ground still looks quite frosty here although I'm a bit higher up than you. Also, if you're in the High St, there'll probably be salt everywhere. Anyway, that's enough for me too. We have lying snow for now ...

That's bizarre - still nothing at all here. Either that or I need to get a better lamp post

That shows you how slowly it's moving - I'm just north of the city centre and still nothing here.

It surely can't be long now ...

I'll let you know! I wasn't expecting much but if it's snowing in Leith then we should at least get snow to begin with even here.

I thought it was just me! Yes, seems to be down - have we overloaded it?

It's entertaining but the problem is most of the public doesn't distinguish between this lot and real forecasts!

Well, it's very bad here - roads closed all over the place, inside and outside the city.

Re Pier's temperature anomaly graph. It was hard to see the details but it looked suspiciously like a graph I saw somewhere else - I think maybe on the NOAA website - showing the global temperature anomaly for the year to date. Assuming that's what the graph is, it actually shows the anomaly for this year approaching a similar value to the last few years'. There is no doubt that the first few months of this year were relatively cool, as we emerged from the La Nina. The steep slope for this year actually shows that it has been very warm indeed since about March worldwide.

Many people also found it hard to believe that 'we' were responsible for the ozone hole! My answer to this general point is always to consider some of the other impacts we've had on the planet - replacing forests by monocultures of plants that suit us, damming rivers to create new lakes, (probably) causing the extinction of many species of megafauna - and the fact the we now live in what are mostly artificially engineered surroundings. When you think about some of these impacts and then the fact that we are measurably altering the composition of the atmosphere, it's not so difficult to imagine that we might also, ultimately, be responsible for the decline in the sea ice. Also, because something has happened before, it doesn't necessarily mean that when it happens again the cause is the same!

This story is gradually creeping on to some news websites - just had a look at Yahoo for example. Lots of ignorant 'don't they know ice melts in summer'-type comments, as usual.

As others have clarified, I think what I said is correct. I was only repeating what NOAA said on their website and I'd be surprised if they got a simple thing like that wrong. By the way, it's also the warmest January-July period on record in the continental US.

The NOAA July report is out: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2012/7 The overall anomaly was 0.62C, similar to the value for recent months. It's the 4th warmest July in the series but over the continental US it was the warmest (of any) month since national records began there.

The melt season isn't even over yet. What will CC say if we do reach a record low? Would that still be 'ordinary'?

Hearing from a friend in Ningbo that conditions are very bad just now. It's the middle of the night there now so it will be a few hours before the situation regarding any damage becomes clearer.

So far it's one of the most snowless winters ever (well in the past 40 years or so) here. There have been some brief snow falls but no 'snow lying' days - or did I miss one? It's still been quite an interesting winter though. I wonder how the sunshine total compares to the average - I suspect it's quite high.