78/79

Glad I'm the age that I am, and have lived through some exceptional winters from the 60s onwards. Winters these days seem like a lot of other things in life, watered down and a little bit pathetic really.

We lived in Frome until last year, Shepton s got a tad more elevation, but Fromes more inland, both on a par really. Had some good falls of snow over there though.

Sharp frost over in Shepton, hardest one so far.

Looks like we've had rain in Shepton, I expected to see a dusting of snow this morning. Had a little yesterday though. Most of the really cold spells that I remember had their origins from the N/NW gained momentum, and eventually switched around to the E/NE. I can remember following a snow blower up through Burrington Coombe on a motorbike in early Jan 79,following the New Year's Eve blizzard.

Saw that myself, I don't tend to post in here, probably because I don't know enough about the subject, but that's not to say that I'm not interested . I've learned an awful lot just by reading through the posts on this thread, and, as a result, have a better basic knowledge of meteorology than a lot of people. Like a lot of things in life it's easy to slag something off, but not so easy to make a meaningful contribution.

I should imagine that should any of these cold charts verify, then Darren Bett will be crying into his cornflakes, and kicking the cat.

Get the right set up, and we can get hammered here. Seen it a few times, Feb 78 being notable.

Tend to agree ,it's one thing clowning around in it for a few hours , but completely different when you're obliged to spend eight hours plus in it to earn a living. There were times back in the 80's when I was so bl..dy cold that I didn't know what to do with myself.

UK has always been crap for cold/snow in winter, I'm nearly 61 ,and can count on the fingers of one hand winters that could be in any way be described as being severe. Living in the S.W doesn't help either.

He's absolutely right about one thing though , and that is about our dependence upon electricity for our heating ,No power= no heating .You have to have lived through it to remember that very few ordinary households back in the 60's/80s etc had central heating. All we had was one coal fire in the living room, the point being was that you could always light one to keep warm. We didn't have a pot to p...s in when we were kids , but I don't remember sitting there cold even in the most severe winters . The councils switched over to gas fires during the 90's which removed peoples options on keeping warm, and immediately threw people into the clutches of the Gas companies irrespective of whether they could afford it or not. In our previous house we had a wood burner, and a couple of years ago our boiler packed up, all I done was to get a couple of loads of logs in for about £250 and used the immersion heater for the hot water, that gave me a bit of time to save up a couple of thousand for a new boiler. Will be getting one put in to this place as well. If we did have a 47 or 63 repeat, together with power cuts and extremely low temperatures, there would be a lot of very cold people about.

Oh well back to the usual wet sh.. te, had just under a week of dry, sunny weather. Still mustn't be greedy I suppose. Whatever reasons people have for wanting to come to this country, the weather can't be one of them surely to God.

Can't complain about the weather this week, spot on if you work outside Hopefully the rain has done one for the foreseeable.

Could do with a week or two of dry weather now, this rainy crud is starting to play havoc with my work again.

Absolutely throwing it down here, 3rd day in a row, getting cheesed off with it now, about as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

They ripened quite early down here this year, picked most of mine around second week of Sept. They are blowing off the hedge easily now, the birds are having them as well.

Aldi was knocking it out quite cheaply, and Tescos were doing a litre and a half for 22 quid. We've got 10 litres on the go, a lot will be given away as Christmas presents though.

Always feel cheated when summer fails to deliver. During the other 3 seasons I kind of expect crap weather, and accept it more, but this time of year I generally hope for better, unrealistically or not especially from a work perspective.

On one level it's been good to get some work done without the risk of having it ruined by rain, but on another it's been physically draining; the heat just saps your strength.

Seeing as how I'm going back to work next week, I'll have some of that Pete.

If I was to put into print what I really thought of this winter , the post would probably be deleted on account of the obscene content. It's cost me a bl...dy fortune.

It depends on what it is you do, sometimes you might be lucky and get some inside work , but if like me you do masonry work then it is a struggle when you get relentless rain. In most winters you get the odd dry week here and there , but this winter has been particularly wet. Combine that with a wet summer , and it can be difficult to put money back to cover yourself for winter weather. Most people in the Building Trade are self employed , so everything has to come out of that money , Tax , insurance Holidays ,sickness etc. To be honest I'm not surprised the youngsters don't want to know these days.

For anyone who works outdoors ,the weather since the end of September has been abysmal. When it affects a person's ability to earn a living, it seriously begins to grate.

Get this poxy winter out of the way, then hopefully a half decent Spring and Summer Knowing our crud climate though, I'm not holding my breath.

Not many youngsters work outdoors these days in comparison to say 40 or so years ago, consequently they haven't become hardened to the cold. Believe me , there's a big difference between clowning around in the snow for a few hours , and spending 8 hours a day,40 a week in freezing temperatures with the wind behind it. . Thankfully, I don't have to do it anymore, but I can recall being so bl....dy cold back in the 70s/80s that I did'nt know what to do with myself .

Been a pleasure to be out and about today, blue skies, sunshine , and a sharp frost to start, 100% improvement on the Atlantic driven s....te that we've had to endure since October. A winter of this would do me just fine.