John Stevens

This is a very sad evening to see @TomSE12 leaving. I thoroughly enjoy reading his posts in the morning, SE historical weather and the detailed discussions with Mr Currie. To think that someone with such humour, knowledge, compassion for everyone else and and thoroughly brilliant writing style is being forced of this forum is perhaps a sad reflection of the wider world we now live in. This forum will be a duller and much less well informed place with Tom’s leaving. Such a shame!

So astronomical summer ends tomorrow..... and then astronomical autumn begins Sunday.... the meteorological forecast ties in perfectly!!

Away for the week... But lovely here in Port Isaac

Watched them many times great team especially in the Big Sam days.... My best mate's nan was married to Nat's brother, who was arguably a better footballer than Nat. Nat was a lovely man, I met him a couple of times and always had so much time to talk to people, even a Brighton fan when they were on the brink!! Sorry to go OT but no storm here.....

Me and the whole family sitting in the garden watching it come our way

Literally just started here rumbles and all

Stuck up between Leith and Holmbury Hills we haven't seen anything so far..... Breeze is picking up though....

In Serre Chevalier at the moment. 15cm overnight at 1400m, 80cm at 2000m and a whopping 100cm at 2800m... Only supposed to have been rain at 1400m and below, so much better than the resort forecast was saying even yesterday afternoon. Awesome skiing this morning, although very poor visibility and v.high avalanche risk. Think some resorts only a 30-50km away have had significantly more, we were on the trailing edge... But it's going to be a cracking bluebird day tomorrow

Apparently a brief heavy snow shower in the Surrey Hills this morning..... But then I'm in this in the southern French Alps, epic snow day today!!

Well maybe winter has a last hurrah before the equinox.... Let's hope so there was certainly a sleety element to what was falling when I drove home from Dorking earlier.... Was looking at the mad thread earlier and there's more swinging than a party in the 1970s.... But the gist seems that there is potential for some winteriness especially further north.... But wouldn't take much of correction south surely??? After all @TomSE12 has posted some fantastic pictures of snow events in March and April from all over the SE over the years... Anyway I'm crossing all appendages in the run up to leading my school ski trip to Serre Chevalier at the end of the month...

Garden is now saying 20.9°....

Weather station in my garden is saying 20.2°c at the moment in Holmbury St Mary....

Oh ok..... That's a shame.... The reason I like coming in to this forum, isn't just for the weather related comments but also for light hearted, down to earth, chat that people have on day to day basis...... Goats, melons, cucumbers and most importantly @TomSE12's life, history and weather....but more importantly the fact that people feel that they can talk about normal day to day things with other normal people..... Yes weather related maybe, but more often than not...... But at the end of the day if people just can't talk in whatever "forum" they've got friends they feel comfortable talking to then you may as well just delete the thread entirely........ This will almost certainly get deleted but hey hum...

Whilst over in the MAD thread there's more interest in the collapsing of the threads than the weather

Respect your POV, but both have equally accepted scientific basis...hey hum, at the end of the day neither is actually wrong... .. Also apologies.... Not quite sure where the "Christmas pudding" reference popped up in my original reply... Predictive text of some obscure nature

But that's only to make the meteorological statistics simpler to analyse ie splitting the seasons into equal quarters based upon the months of the year, solely based upon the Gregorian calendar. However, geographically and astronomically, due to the earth's tilt and distance from the sun during the year the dates of the astronomical seasons are based upon physics/ observations that underpinned the calculations of the Julian calendar. It's not really an "old chestnut" it's based upon scientific fact... The metrological seasons have only been established for convenience of establishing seasonal/ monthly statistics within a specified time frame in the christmas pudding for the benefit of commerce and various weather reliant industries, whereas the physics of the astronomical seasons cannot be changed and are fixed by our tilt, speed of orbit around the sun and speed of rotation. And yes, everyone might have a "take" on it, but as a geographer, scientist and historian, you can't escape physics. Therefore, I'll stand by my original point that winter doesn't end until around or on 21st March.

Doesn't astronomical winter end on or about the 21st march? Five weeks left then....

A friend just sent me this pic from outside his brother's house in California. He lives near lake Tahoe and loves snow.... At any other time than this... Due on a flight to the UK tomorrow,... But six foot of snow is going to hamper his efforts... And we can't get through 4 inches

Amazing photos!!!

It was so nice to arrive home this evening to find on our doorstep a card from one of the young people we'd helped up the hill outside our house last night. We then were able to drive then in to Dorking, as we had a 4x4. We didn't expecting anything, but the thank you cards just show camaraderie is alive and kicking throughout the country.

Still very much like that here too... Some epic sledging in the morning given the freeze tonight!!

It really was amazing today on the roads around Holmbury... And an awesome sunset from outside the Parrot in Forest Green, which was below the snowline!!

The most beautiful place to live.

Just had a message from a friend, she said the a25 was clear to Dorking, so guessing it's clear the other way as well.

Reckon you're right there KW, it'll look awesome... You'll be able to clearly see the snow line as well....Not sure what the a25 will be like.... But the lane outside our house is clear and doesn't get much use early on a Saturday morning.