Pennine Ten Foot Drifts

Just a coupe of quick showers here, but so insignificant I can't even remember which days. And whilst I know 'it's early days', and 'things can change quickly', this just feels to me like it's going to be one of those winters i.e. the type of winter we thought we'd seen the back of after the much vaunted 'pattern change' in 2007 (I think it was).

Blowing a gale again here, fourth time in 7 days winds have been gusting close to or above 60 mph, and sometimes higher. Getting a bit tiresome now.

It just goes to show how difficult local forecasting is, of the three windy days here this week Monday was still the worst with a top gust of 73.8 mph. Top gust here today so far 61.5 mph, and on Xmas Eve it was 56.7 mph. And Monday was the day when there was no Met Office warning for here at all. Xmas Eve was yellow, and today was yellow, but right on the edge of the amber area.

Absolutely Pit, top of a south facing hill slope, nothing between us and the next high ground which is Holme Moss 15 miles to our south. Anyway, chalk and cheese yesterday and today, max gust today of 50.1 mph, so just a normal breezy day up here. Now my attention switches to Friday, and hope against hope it turns out more like today than yesterday. Oh and I suppose it's worth mentioning we had a sleet to snow shower earlier.

Slates back Real lull here just now, so let's see what round 2 serves up tomorrow morning ! Max today ended up being 73.8 mph gust at 12.33.

Seems to be easing a bit here now, gusts down to around 50 mph. If it calms down a bit more before it gets too dark I think I'll climb up and try and put the couple of slates which have come off back again.

I really really wouldn't want to be on a plane coming into Leeds/Bradford or Manchester just now, if it's anything like as bad as it is here right now

Latest high gust 73.9 mph, still two slates thus far. I'm just waiting and hoping for the forecasted easing off as we head into the afternoon, but it sure ain't started to ease yet !

Never mind 40-50, I've just recorded a 72.6 mph gust, and my weather station if anything tends to under-report

I'm hoping we've hit the peak here now as I believe it's supposed to ease down a bit in the next few hours. Mind you, tomorrow morning looks potentially as bad if not worse, and then there's Friday.................

I just hope it doesn't get any worse, another few mph onto these gusts and things will start to get expensive. Max gust I've ever recorded up here is 81 mph (so that's in the last 5 years or so) and that time we lost half our conservatory roof

Worst storm for a good while currently - gusting 70-75 mph at present. Just popped out to check round the house, one slate on the ground thus far, and the noise of the wind is quite deafening, it really does sound like a jet plane. Worst kind of weather as far as I'm concerned.

top gust I've recorded so far this morning - 71 mph. Wtaching the slates on the garage roof lifting up and down, which isn't very pleasant. Quite surprised as it wasn't supposed to be quite that strong for this location today.

And that's the really depressing thing underlying this type of thing - the papers are only as they are because they are commercial enterprises, and years of experience have taught them the best way to sell papers. These headlines are what sells papers, if that wasn't the case then they wouldn't print them. In a society where the best selling magazines are OK and Hello and the like, basically when it comes to the quality of the press we as a nation get what we deserve.........................

Maybe a wave effect as the air passes across the Pennines Pit ? I'm not at home today, but my wife normally texts me if it starts to get bad, and nothing's come through yet.

Yep, not looking forward to Thursday. Snow is fun, wind can be expensive.................

I think given the latest GFS it's Thursday that's got the most interesting weather forecast for the forseeable future....................

Aye, I think all this cold snap chasing has distracted people from what could be quite a dramatic event for a good portion of the country

Or maybe it just means that we are still struggling to understand the impact of an overall increasing global temperature at a local level ?

Started off as heavy sleet, now snow. And the radar looks quite encouraging.

Not sure if I'm imagining it, but it feels as if over the last few years the tendency has almost been to favour retrogression to Greenland over topplers ? (which previously for a long time were by far the more common scenario). Or maybe because retrogression happened so rarely previously, the fact it's happened at all over the past few years makes it seem as if it's more common ? I don't suppose there's any actual stats which could back this up ?

Apologies for deviating slightly from the current tragedy, but all this (A)GW tennis gets very confusing at times, (and to be honest at times like this a little distasteful - tragedy shouldn't be used to support arguments), but people's personal viewpoints often get completely lost. As I see it there are a couple of common positions being taken: [*]the world isn't warming - so nothing to worry about [*]the world was warming, but now it's stopped - so nothing to worry about [*]the world is in a warming phase, but it's natural cycles, nothing to do with human activity - no point worrying, we can't change it [*]the world is in a natural warming phase, exacerbated by human activity - we may be able to have some influence, but only fairly limited [*]the world is warming, and human activity is the main reason - we can significantly affect the eventual outcome, but it requires a major global change to human behaviour Personally I'm probably closest to 5, but this is influenced by an acceptance that the evidence is not absolutely proven, however if we do nothing and then history shows that it was in fact 5 all along, we (the human race) will have been guilty of terrible arrogance, and by then it'll be too late i.e. better to act now just in case - even if that means making changes which will materially affect the perceived standard of living of the richest societies, (after all, the types of action generally suggested would likely have the biggest impact on developed or rapidly developing nations). So I'd appreciate if people could declare their personal standpoint, either referring to the ones above, or stating their own. I'd find it very useful to understand a person's position behind all the day to day exchanges.

First winteryness of the year here this morning, only some sleet so nothing to get excited about, but still nice to know winter is definitely brewing up !

It's definitely worth reading, and is pretty much spot on in it's assertions. AGW or no AGW is not the real issue, uncontrolled corporate capitalism, (and the myth of perpetual growth), is the biggest threat to planet earth.

Some fresh snow this evening: http://www2.liikennevirasto.fi/alk/english/kelikamerat/kamera-C1451601.html