Timmytour

Man's ability to do something would be limited , but nature could, in an instant, change things one way or the other. In the meantime man could have spent an awful lot of money time and resource for nothing....trying to protect the future when there are problems in the present that are being ignored. I have my serious doubts but aGW, but pushing them aside, I still wonder what we do and why we do it. I suspect a lot of the concern to do with it these days centres around protecting the status quo more than anything. If climate change would see a currently impoverished country suddenly able to feed itself and earn money exporting its produce, would it be right that they signed up to instigate a means of preventing it? Let's say the consensus is that AGW is a real factor..... where's the consensus that we can do anything to prevent it? Where's the consensus that says it's better to spend billions trying to prevent it as opposed to to dealing with and preparing for its consequences. Where's the consensus about what the actual consequences will be? Coming back to Michael Fish...I've heard it said that AGW will result in the demise of the Gulf Stream and that, as a consequence, Britain's winters will be more in line with its latitude....which would bring more not less snow wouldn't it? The biggest danger I see is giving politicians the excuse to to levy taxes which they can then funnel into schemes run by their friends for which no one is ever held accountable. Never underestimate the politician's ability to turn the concerns of a nation into a financial windfall. A prime example of this - admittedly not in anyway linked with AGW but I think the pribciple stands - was the anthrax situation after 9/11.... The big concern after 9/111 was that that the terrorists would unleash anthrax attacks upon us all and so there was a need to be at least ready to vaccinate everyone. You might say that there was a consensus on this! Anyway, strangely enough, the contract and associated public funds to provide the UK with its required vaccine landed up with a company run by a generous Labour Party benefactor who was a good friend of Tony Blair! And how did they use the funds? Well half of them they used to pay the German company that manufactured the vaccine! The other half? Well I think we can guess! When questions were asked, it was explained that the company in question had an exclusive contract with the German manufacturers to supply the vaccine. Only this actually wasn't the case as the manufacturers later confirmed they would have supplied the vaccine directly to the British Government if they had been asked. And to top it all.... it turned out the vaccine procured wasn't the recommended strain! Whether Britain ever ended up purchasing the correct strain of vaccine on top of paying double the price needed for the wrong vaccine is unclear. I mean...who talks about the risks of anthrax poisoning these days? the opportunistic politicians have already had their field day with that one! What worries me about all the talk of AGW is not the genuine concerns of people with genuine beliefs....it's the opportunistic politicians who will see it as a money raising and making scheme for themselves and their friends. Perhaps the time has now come and gone for those opportunities. I imagine a lot of them will be happy to move onto other things now, that we are in a grip of a global financial crisis and its resulting recessions. And funny enough this will probably end up by default achieving a lot of what the AGW lobby have been pushing for all along!

I think it'll be far enough NW to get snow for at least a time...however I wouldn't expect the quality of snow of sunday/monday. Also it might be an evening event only with friday morning bringing disappointment. I hope things don't melt too much around here today. My wife and kids are flying back today after their flight from Ireland was cancelled on monday and I'd like them to at least get an impression of how good things were...before it all gets washed away tomorrow!

That said of course...we don't spend around £100 at the beginning of every winter changing our tyres! That would make them ok for the once in 20 years event but wouldn't do the roads too much good for the rest of the time!

Completely understand Paul and I think your head was better than Meto but your heart was not with your head for that short bit of time when you were chasing a high ramp mark Interestingly the BBC are holding the snow a little bit further South than I would have thought the latest runs were suggesting.....but even so it's still got to come a long way south before we start getting excited again

It seemed so promising for a great thursday/friday earlier today.... ...but less than an hour later the story was a little different! No disrespect at all to Paul S...indeed it goes to show how even the most respectable of weather watchers have to refine even short term forecasts in this kind of situation on an almost hourly basis. I've seen it said that in this kind of situation lows generally track further south than the models predict..but in my experience they track in any direction to avoid bringing snow to my area when it's been forecast! I'm hoping for yet another late change to swing it in my favour. I shouldn't be greedy what with all the snow I saw on sunday through monday. But what a weekend for my kids to be away and unable to get back! They'll still, I hope, see the undisturbed snow in the back garden, when they come home tomorrow, but there's been a fair amount of thawing taking place and the snow is not of the depth and quality it was on monday morning...nor is it any longer piled up on every branch and every bush for that real magic winterland look. Getting nicely caught on the snowing side of a prolonged battleground eventually won by the colder air over the next few days would be absolutely fantastic....not for me you understand...I'm only thinking of the kids!! :o

Thanks Brian...they're due to leave from Knock...apparently they woke up to some snow this morning but it quickly turned to rain and melted.

Paul...i would imagine too many hearts have been broken too many times not to have a healthy streak of pessimism about something great the models put up... even with unanimous agreement. for me you would only have to look back to monday and the 6 inches I was led to expect would fall on top of the seven inches I already had...but which didn't materialise!

My wife and kids went to Galway for the weekend....which has turned into a longer trip because their flight to Stansted got cancelled. They're now due to fly out tomorrow....but do I see that there is a high risk of snow for Galway tonight?

....and the trouble is that now the entire media will taked the slightest hint of more snow to come as a god damn irreversible fact that needs to be hyped up to the max. Even to the extent that if it doesn't come off, people will blame the Met Office for their rubbish forecasting, assuming that what they read in the papers and heard on the news was what they actually said... .

Volcanoes With a few more babies like these going off, global warming will be the last thing that anyone worries about!!

Yes but he was referring to a specific hurricane and he was right...that one didn't hit us. Anyway...it was all that nasty Bill Giles' fault! :lol:

The 124th Law of Common Sense.... Has no detrimental effect on GW <> Has no detrimental effect whatsoever Was it right to do something about the old Smog that used to sit over London.... The rate of Global Warming seems to have intensified rather than decreased since it was done.... but it was still a good thing to do. Like getting rid of lead out of petrol....the benefits can be ones of health without consideration of the effect on the climate.

I daresay that, over other periods of time, the same has been true, and the reverse has been true. Perhaps in the days when the Thames used to freeze people highlighted the fact that it never used to and warned that it meant something weird was going on.....

nice pics...can't see there being too much football played at Presdales during the weekend...though when I was playing it was one place during a cold snap where you could never guarantee your game would be called off!

In some ways it was absolutely fantastic....I got snow in amounts I wasn't expecting at all and which aggregated to about as much as I have ever seen. The trouble was....having got what I didn't expect, I wanted what I was told to expect on top of it... and it didn't arrive. Instead it chipped away at what I already had! It was like Spurs beating Burnley 4-1 in the first leg. You're full of anticipation that we're going to Wembley.....but then when it happens with two scrambled goals in the dying minutes of extra time when you think you're going out..... well there's relief but not really the happiness you built yourself up to feel!!!

WE I'm a doubter who's nevertheless prepared to admit that the majority of scientists concur that Global warming is taking place. Moreover i don't myself have sufficient literary skills to dare mock others for lacking them! What I'm not so sure about is any kind of consensus for describing the effects that Global Warming will have in specific parts of the world. I seem to recall a time that doesn't seem that long ago to me when the majority of scientists were warning us that the amount of CFC's in the world would drag the UK into a new ice age. Now it seems for some that warmer but more extreme weather will result...though I still read in some places that GW will mean the end of the Gulf Stream which will plunge Britain into a frozen waste! Is it possible you could take the UK as an example and indicate what scientists believe will result from Global Warming and how much of a consensus of opinion this represents?

Night Paul...great post to be signing off with. Despite my moaning at how it eventually turned out, i will carry a lot of good memories about the past two days....one of my favourites of which will be the way your desperation of sunday night when so many others were proclaiming how great things were, turned to joy earlier today. I would have given three inches of the snow we had over the period to see that...well maybe two....all right then but I would have gladly sacrificed an inch of it! :lol:

But I think they were thinking about the south east as such a large proportion of their readership lives there. There's no way they would make a 50cm snowfall in the Pennines their leader if it had been raining in London at the same time

You write as if the effects are definitive. I don't think that's the case. For all the scientists might AGREE that there is Global Warmong and that it is caused by man, I don't believe there's any consensus on the effects. For example, will the UK get warmer or colder? For those who believe that man has caused Global Warming (count me as doubtful) and for those who believe man can do something about it (count me out) I suggest the hero of the day ought to be George Bush. Under his watch we got the current financial crisis leading to a global recession which will ultimately do more than anything ever suggested before to reduce carbon emissions.

Just seen the first edition of tomorrow's Daily Mail whose headline runs along the lines of "It's Going To Last All Week". I'm guessing they might have a change of heart by the time later editions come out....

How quickly the dreams have been shattered. Unbelieveable to have reached part seven in little over 24hours.....but will there be a need to have a part eight?

I did the reverse of this a few weeks ago here So when did a forecast really let you down? we know it often happens but what on really sticks in your mind? I'm going for today and the big snow "main event" coming up from France. I should not have anything to complain about. After all, before it's supposed arrival, we were already unexpectedly 6-7 inches to the good from the showers forecast. I thought I was going to be too far north of those showers and the Thames Streamer to get much, but it was magical. so....like a banker getting blinded by the profits he was making out of selling debt... I got over confident. I thought this was the moment I'm dreamt of as a kid playing with the sugar bowl where one dump of snow would be quickly followed by another. The forecast was "snow showers giving way to heavy snow" !!!! Well the showers had given me so much...the heavy snow was going to be awesome! What a pity my wife and kids weren't here to enjoy it with me...what a pity their flight from Ireland was cancelled and we couldn't get another one till wednesday....never mind there'd still be plenty of snow left when they finally got back! Instead...what happened was a "Main Event" so poor that I don't imagine it would have amounted to a covering of snow without the previous showers, before it turned to rain. Instead of heightening what was already there, it degraded it. One that instead of enhancing the snow, turned magic into slush! Yes....it's a wrong 'un that's very fresh in the mind.....but I think it will stick with me for a long long time!

I think doing things to prevent global warming is selfish. What about those impoverished parts of the world whose climate will change to the extent they can grow stuff, feed themselves and make money exporting stuff? Why do we always think of it in terms of "we must protect the staus quo" instead of "hey...it's good those guys will get a chance for a change while we suffer what they've always been through" ? Did anyone notice that politicians started jumping on the Global Warming bandwagon as soon as they realised global warming might threaten the status quo???????

I FEEL CHEATED! To be honest, when I heard all the forecasts of snow, I was apprehensive....after all. how many times does it go wrong? But this time I thought I was being presently surprised. What I was told I was going to get by the likes of the BBC was the snow from the "main event" coming up from France. I had little hope for anything much before. What I got was seven inches before. Fantastic! But from the "main event"? Absolutely nothing. There's still a lot of wet soaking snow outside that I've just walked through, but if it were down to the "main Event" I would have nothing. Absolutely nothing. There I was thinking my old schoolboy dreams as I piled the sugar up in the bowl were finally coming true! Then reality's set in. At the moment the snow is disappearing and disappearing fast. My wife and kids were due back today and I've never had the chance to share a major snow event with them. Now they can't get back till wednesday and I'm worried it will all be gone by then! The rate it's going here at the moment it will all be gone by tomorrow. I must say I have to take my hat off to those in the east who were predicting the warm air was moving a lot more to the west then was predicted. You got it spot on! All through this event the guys from netweather, and the up to the minute stuff, have been the most accurate.

Paul... the way things are going with the current conditions, the immediate forecast and the way the models are panning out, this could leave anything we saw in the eighties far behind