ManiaMuse

This has come surprisingly quickly for me. I usually obsess over the sunset times but I have managed to mostly avoid thinking about it this year. Pretty much bottomed out with the evenings now, only lose one more minute so things do not really change much more. Less than a week until the darkest evening and the gradual return of brighter evenings (albeit painfully slowly to begin with). After that the next milestone for me after the solstice is the end of December when the morning light turns the corner as well.

Yeah that it usually my first milestone. About 13 December when the evenings turn here I think. It's not that long really until we get to the slog through January and February. Managed to get through Autumn without thinking about it too much (got a holiday booked 2nd week of January which makes a difference having something to look forward to).

Totally agree that January and early February are the worst. By late February at least there is a glimmer of improving daylight.

For me I don't think I have really seen any health benefits other than maybe slightly clearer skin. But it has helped with determination/willpower/avoiding procrastination/just getting on with doing things. I don't even think about it being cold anymore. I just stand under the shower and turn the cold tap on. After 5 seconds it doesn't really seem that cold anymore and I wonder why the water even needs to be warm. Will help with saving water as well as I just get on with washing myself and get out of there instead of standing in it for ages. And as you say it wakes you up in the morning. EDF sent me yet another letter asking for meter readings despite putting in for readings over the last two weeks. They did accept my readings on my last bill but obviously must think I am putting in dodgy readings. Going to leave the smart thermostat to still do its thing as normal.

Heating came on briefly on Saturday morning which was pretty cold. Think it would have come on this morning as only 18c in kitchen but the smart thermostat doesn't realise that it is a bank holiday. Have been having cold showers and using cold water as much as possible since the start of August so that is saving a lot of gas. EDF thought I was lying about my readings!

This is the time of year where it really makes a difference to how light it feels depending one whether we have a pleasant Indian summer or whether we descend into our usual grey and wet Autumn weather.

I've had roofers on scaffolding on my house today replacing ridge/hip tiles/painting stucco and other various jobs. They started on Saturday and I did warn them about the upcoming weather and told them to take as much time as they needed and that the weather was looking cooler later in the week if they wanted to finish then but they didn't seem bothered. They were sure that they would get everything finished off today but looks like they called it quits at about 2pm and are now going to come back tomorrow . I get the impression that they have also booked in some other jobs this week which they are trying to get finished at the same time. I guess the problem of being a roofer is that the weather is so unreliable in the Autumn/Winter that they feel they need to get as much done during spells of good weather to compensate but I am a bit concerned about their health especially with carrying stuff up ladders and being so exposed on scaffolding all day.

Keep your windows and curtains closed during the day. Late evening if it does cool down to a comfortable temperature outside and is cooler than inside then you should then open your windows overnight and try to get a draft going. But Monday is looking like it will stay hot all night into Tuesday morning so you might be better to keep your windows closed then. Also hot air rises so if it going to be cooler overnight and you have a vented loft space you could try opening the loft hatch overnight although results may vary depending on how and where your loft space is insulated.

Problem is you need somewhere to vent the hot air outside otherwise all you are doing is moving hot air around inside. But if it is 30c+ outside you are probably going to be letting more hot air in by opening a window than you can blow out with a fan.

Managed to put it down on the ground after all the holding. Passengers will hopefully be relieved. A queue starting to build up in the stacks now.

Some really squally weather passing through now. Two TUI 787s are coming in for a go.

Don't want to derail this thread into an aviation thread but it's distracting me from the howling wind. This has to be an amber at least surely? The winds are forecast to be like this still all the way through rush hour and most of the morning. One of the TUI 787s did manage to land earlier. Virgin A330 had one attempt, now maybe coming back for another go. Qatar 777 has climbed and is heading back South

If anything it seems to be getting windier. Hope it calms down a bit before I walk to work, don't want to get hit by a tree. A TUI 787 thinks it is up to the challenge... ...and made it stick. Going to be a fun morning for the pilots.

Or rather just holding.

Looks like it is coming back for more, place your bets...

A Qatar 777 is giving it a go at the moment.... ....nope attempt 1. Let's see where it goes now. Have managed to get absolutely no sleep despite sleeping in the spare bedroom which is the other side of the house from the wind. The constant roar and creaking of the house and trees and other things outside is relentless. Just wish it would bugger off already.

Hopefully it will stop rising soon, the sustained rain has passed through and now it looks like it is just going to be showers for a while.

Last night sounded pretty vile with the rain lashing against the windows. My walk to work takes me down the Mersey. The river was very low for winter only a month ago but when I left on Friday it was already looking high and now there are flood warnings out in the usual places. Rain is seeping into my loft around my chimney again which is annoying. Have had three different people look at it over the last couple of years. Last guy completely redid the flashing, flaunching, cleared out the mortar joints and repointed, cleaned the moss and got rid of the aerials a few months ago. Most of the time even in heavy downpours it seems to be fine but whenever there is wind driven rain from a particular direction it seems to find a way in. Just wish all this yucky weather would go away and we can have some nice warm and sunny early spring weather. In some ways I feel like the high in January was a bit wasted when the sun is at its weakest.

Just a windy day in Stockport at the moment. Dudley felt like it had higher sustained gusts and heavier showers.

Plenty will be cancelled before taking off. Heathrow will have reduced slots. Airlines are well aware of these things and will load extra fuel. Some will chance it and try to get in before the worst of it. Some will attempt to get to their primary destination with the backup of an alternate in Manchester/Leeds/Liverpool/Edinburgh/Newcastle/Glasgow. Some European flights might give up after a few landing attempts and end up going all the way back to where they came from. Some long haul flights might end landing in France/Germany/Netherlands. I suspect some of the southern airports will be closed for at least part of the day. In any case it will be chaos. Glad I am not flying tomorrow or in charge of an airline's operations.

They have brakes to stop them when it is too windy. There is a video on YouTube somewhere of one where the brakes obviously failed during a windstorm and then the generator catches on fire due to the speed of the blades before the whole thing disintegrates and collapses to the ground.

Quite a noticeable rain shadow on the radar over my parts with the weatherh coming from the SW for the first time in a while. It's drizzling and a bit windy but nowhere near as bad as forecast. Makes a difference from all the deluges we have had from Northwesterly events recently.

My Christmas tree is still up in my living room spreading bad luck

What I am saying is that the clock changes are not equally balanced around the equinoxes. They should really change a few weeks earlier in March and it would still be perfectly light enough for the school runs in Scotland, perhaps the 2nd weekend of March.

I understand that morning light lags evening light. But by the time the clocks change we can be having sunrise as early as 5.45am depending on when the last weekend in March falls. In October we seem to be happy with waiting until sunrise is as late at 8am before changing the clocks.