Gorath

That certainly didn't hold out for north west Wales! We had heavy hailstorms, strong winds, and torrential rain this morning, it's now cleared up into a mostly blue sky day, with very little wind, and mild temperatures.

I have to admit, I struggle to comprehend the seriousness of sub-100mph winds. Capel Curig in snowdonia is renowned for funneling the wind into some fierce windspeeds, and there's never any serious news. So, living in a relatively uninhabited place such as rural North Wales, I often don't realise the consequences of such extreme winds in a built up area. I suspect many people have the same difficulty imagining the power of the wind - we just don't have many extreme storms in the UK - and many people may think that properly crazy weather "only happens abroad", so to speak.

Is that the official line? I thougth they'd stopped offering them because the press always wildly exaggerated their long range forecasts. For example, I don't think I've ever read "barbecue summer" on the Met Office site, but the media seem to repeatedly bring it up as failed gospel.

Minimum temperature here overnight was 1degrees C. Several of the higher mountains are white today in Snowdonia. But still not white enough to go snowboarding, dammit.

Not far from Llanberis here, but nearer the Caernarfon coast, and the temperature is hovering around 5 degrees. Looks highly unlikely to frost over. There's an occasional shower, but it is just rain. Ooh, another heavy but very short rainshower as I type.

There was snow on the ground, there was nothing on the top of the mountain, and everyone was in disco fever at the bottom? Fascinating weather! :lol:

I thought this was specifically, an area for discussion of Wales' weather though. Well, I am very interested in conditions in the alps, sine I'll be heading there soon. Which is why I regularly check here... http://forum.netweather.tv/topic/71533-alps-snow-and-weather-conditions-2011-2012/

What's the Alps forecast got to do with regional weather for Wales?

Wasn't the reason this last storm had such enormous windspeed linked to the fact that the jetstream was in alignment with it, and reinforcing the winds? From what I can see, there's no real correlation yet on the models between mon/tuesday's jetstream and forecast winds.

I wish people would stop referring to snow as a "threat". Maybe if we were more polite to it, maybe offered it some ice cream when it came over, then it might visit more often, and stay for longer.

Hehe! I reckon we actually enjoy being ignored, and left to our own little world. We're just not meant to admit that to "outsiders" :winky:

Hmm, just popped to town for lunch, and it seems that some of Snowdonia's peaks are now whiter than they have been in the last month. There's still low cloud obscuring most of them, but it looks as though there is some snow at high(ish) altitudes here. I was quite surprised, most of last weekend's snow had melted away.

DOH! Ah yes, I see now haha! Ahem. Move along people, nothing to see here!

Isn't mortal danger, one of the things that gets someone excited, on a base, prehistoric level? Besides, I'm guessing we're all fascinated by weather here, and some of us are as fascinated by extreme weather, as others are by nice warm pleasant summers. Different strokes for different folks.

Bit slow here in the Wales thread, huh? Meanwhile, England seems to have sprouted a new thread for each and every populated area

Coast, what area does that map cover, exactly? And what are those white areas at the bottom? Glaciers? Ice cover?

Well, these forums are full of them! The one that bugs me is when people give an altitude in metres, then specify that it's metres above sea level. well... DUH! Surely that's the standard form, and if you WERE to use some unusual method of measuring altitude, then that's when you should specify. Anyway, whilst the Plain English Campaign does frequently have a point, I fear it is misguided this time. Surely this is more a case of highlighting a poor understanding of the English language by the people of Britain? The Met office is expected to carry out it's duties in a scientific, technically accurate manner, so it's stupid to expect their forecasts to read like a "children's book of weather". It seems to be a certainty, whenever language issues are discussed, that overzealous folk with their own personal agenda will become involved, and derail the original point of the issue. And I fear that's what's happening here. A particularly annoying example I came across a while ago, was a website where people were publicly mocking the absolutely insane Welsh translations on signs here in Wales. There are of course, some absolute corkers, where left and right have been accidentally substituted and so on. Eventually, however, it became a sounding board for people moaning that signs didn't use the correct tense, or abbreviated sentences to such things as "floods likely" instead of "flooding is likely". All that really achieved was for people to lose interest, and pay less attention to the original, real issue. And I fear that's what's happening here. There really are cases where plain English campaigners should raise awareness, but this, is not one of those cases.

Bloody hell, wind has picked up some strong gusts here again, and the temperature just dropped 4 degrees C in the last 20 minutes or so. So, we may not get snow, but damn, this weather is fascinating!

Honestly not much though. I took the morning off work to try and snap some pictures, and there's really not much snow up there at all. It appears that a thick layer of hailstones has carpetted the smoother peaks where the grassland helps it to stay put, but the rockier, craggy mountains are surprisingly bare.

I laugh as much as the Daily Mail's often completely misguided reporting as anyone else, but I fail to see anything particularly daft in the article you linked to.

Hope you have a good time, but be prepared for some extreme conditions. Y Garn can be an immensely tricky climb at times, even moreso when there's snow and ice around. Here's to wishing you a safe adventure.

It is amazing how much it affects our weather, eh?

That does seem to support my theory about Betws y Coed somewhat, but is a little generalised. Several times, there's been not a hint of snow a mere 2 or 3 miles away, but Betws is still white!

Anecdotally, I'd have to say that the best place in Wales is the village of Betws y Coed, in Snowdonia. It's actually a very low altitude village, at only 30m or so, but is surrounded on all sides by tall hills, meaning it gets very little direct sunshine. Due to this, the place has a strange microclimate all of it's own. It almost always seems to get lying snow first, and holds on to it the longest. I've been trying to find records which would confirm or deny my suspicions about this, but I just draw up a blank. If anyone has any evidence that supports or contradicts this, I'd be fascinated either way.

haha!sure that's meant to read "nought point one".