[Have You Turned Your Heating On Yet ?]

I was have a chat with my gas engineer the other day while he was around servicing my boiler, I add, he is an independent engineer with no ties to any major gas supplier, just a family run business who I trust implicitly.

He was saying the cheapest way to keep your house warm & your bills down is to keep the house heated between 15-20c. This way the warmth builds and stays in the house rather than letting it drop to 10-12c and keep heating it up.

Surely, that depends upon the type and age of construction of the home, and the geographical location of that home. If I was to keep the heating on and try to maintain that sort of temperature I am convinced I would increase my gas usage by a huge amount over the year. Such is the variability of our weather in this fair land.

[Sunday 21st October 2012 - Weather & General Chat]

A beautiful Autumn afternoon with unbroken sunshine since around 12:30, once the fog had burned off. Currently clear and sunny and 13C in the shade.

[Have You Turned Your Heating On Yet ?]

My heating is still not on yet, but I think it will be on for most of the day, come the end of next week!

[Friday 19th October 2012 - Weather And General Chat]

A dull Autumn day with mist and fog this morning which took until just after Noon to clear, but only lifted into cloud. A bit of weak patchy sunshine mid afternoon but now it's relentlessly overcast.

This afternoon saw a high temperature of 11.00c at 4:30pm but it's dropped off a little since then.

Almost no wind - in fact my anemometer stopped rotating at 5am and didn't turn again until 10am.

Current Conditions in North East Staffs:

Temp 10.77c

Humidity 89%

Breeze 1-2mph from anywhere between 0 degrees (N) and 85 degrees (E).

Air Pressure 1004.99 hPa steady-ish

On this day last year, conditions as follows:

A dry but windy day with sunny spells.

Average Air Pressure 1014 hpa but rose from 1008 to 1021 during the day.

Average Temp 6.09c

High Temp 8.09c

Low Temp 2.53c

[Thursday 18th October 2012 - Weather And General Chat]

A lovely Autumn day in prospect with almost clear skies, just some small patches of well broken cumulus cloud floating around.

This morning's low was 7.87 and it's currently 10.1C

Humidity 89%

Breeze 2-3mph from anywhere between 105 degreees (ESE) and 165 degrees (SSE).

Air Pressure 995.59 hPa rising gently

[Frost Watch Autumn 2012]

First air frost of the Autumn here in East Staffs this morning, dipped below freezing at 04:30ish and reached -0.75c at 08:00 before zooming up above freezing by 08:45.

Currently 9.25c

Breeze 3-5mph West 265 degrees

Air Pressure 1000.25 hpa steady

[Weather in the general media (Newspaper features etc)]

Newspapers really are crap, aren't they?

[Saturday 13th October ~ Weather & General Chat]

A low this morning of just 1.90C and a lovely sunny morning, but patchy cloud built from mid morning onwards.

Current Conditions: Sunny periods, one light shower so far, temp is 9.5C, humidity 78%, breeze 1.5-4mph from anywhere around the compass.

Air Pressure 1002.88 hPa steady

On this day last year, conditions awere very different: A dry day with sunny spells

Average Air Pressure 1026 hpa

Average Temp 13.35c

High Temp 16.05c

Low Temp 12.06

[Wednesday 10th October General Weather Chat]

Relentlessly overcast today.

Overnight low 3c just before midnight.

Today's high 12.14c

Current conditions: 11.92C; Humidity 82%; Breeze 1.5-3mph 90-160 degrees; Air Pressure 1011.16hPa falling very, very slowly (at about 1hpa per 2 hours)

[Rainfall Statistics, 2012]

Monthly rainfall in my location in 2012 to the end of September went like this:

January 51mm - 80% - of 2000-2011 average

February 18mm - 31% and driest Feb in the series

March 31mm - 71%

April 70mm - 122%

May 36mm - 60%

June 144mm - 215%

July 133.5mm - 191%

August 82.5mm - 114%

September 72mm - 112%

Year to 30th September - 638mm - 114.4% of average

[Have You Turned Your Heating On Yet ?]

Put the heating on a couple of weekends ago, but only because my 80 year-old mum came to stay for a couple of nights. Turned it off as soon as she left though!

[Monday 8th October ~ Weather & General Chat]

A dreary Monday here in East Staffs. 8/8ths cloud cover and occasionally a few spots of drizzle.

None too warm either!

Currently: 11.62C; Humidity 88%; Breeze 2-4mph ENE to E 70-90 degrees; Air Pressure 1010.87hPa falling slowly.