Krasnoyarsk Yenesei

The rain belt currently appears to be intensifying as it is moving north - and all the forecasts seem to indicate that it will survive the journey.

Where are you viewing an updated warning from? The last Yorkshire update on the MetOffice site was 14:05 as far as I can see. The Rother looks to be in trouble around Rotherham from what I have seen too. It has risen significantly this afternoon and is almost certain to flood if heavy rains do come this evening.

BFTP - it's been a long time since I posted on this site, though I do still visit it from time to time. Have just read the summary you have given regarding global cooling. As you may be aware (or not!), I have tended to support the concept of natural cycles being dominant over man made global warming. However, in all the arguments and debates that there have been on this topic in recent years, nobody has previously to my knowledge mentioned the 230 year cycle with the 2 warm peaks. I am aware of the 2030 Minimum that is due - but where has this information arisen from regarding significant phase 2 cooling from 2023? I assume that this is something that is at odds with the science community at large, as global warming is clearly still the theme, even allowing for the cooling that has started to occur.

You said it GW - the effects of the virus itself are only part of the problem. The rest of the problem is with the nature of humanity in the west. We are too used to comforts, luxuries and medical excellence, and are just not equipped to cope with anything out of the ordinary. The fuel protest was a case in point - not just the fuel, but the stupidity of those buying 34 loaves of bread and 65 packs of sugar just in case.

Whilst we as humans often talk about major catastrophes killing millions without ever seeing it happen, it would seem to me that the H5N1 virus poses a major risk. I came down with flu - 102F temperature, fever etc, and what I noted was just how easy it is to catch. It seems to hit the population of this country every year to some extent. Add into the mix a dangerous killer strain, and it really isn't difficult to see how this could spread dramatically. Once H5N1 is in an easy to spread human to human form, it will be round the world like wildfire. Furthermore, there is no way that it could be contained anymore than ordinary flu is contained.

PottyProf - unless the rain stops falling relatively soon, Catcliffe is going to be in trouble again. The River Rother was still very high even before the rain began at 4pm this afternoon. Since then it has intensified and the forecast does not appear to offer great hope. Rotherham Council say they are better prepared this time. We will see.

Well, the heavy snow has arrived in Rotherham and I have to concur with DS regarding the Sheffield conditions. I have just done a journey from Dore across the ring road, and seen numerous places where cars have skidded off, watched a car skid continuouslu up a hill, had a few myself which I was confidently able to control. By the way, there is one gritter out on the ring road so half of it was okay, the half I was driving on was pretty bad though. Awesome stuff. At long last, the snow is falling intensely and over a long period of time. It is even intense in Brinsworth, the worst place in South Yorkshire for snow.

Don't give up yet mate. As TEITS says, the heavier the precipitation the more the likelihood of it turning to snow, and so far the heavy stuff has not arrived in Rotherham. SW Sheffield is a good 16 miles nearer the main precipitation band than Brinsworth, and I again am closer than Swinton. If it arrives here, I will let you know.

Allenar Not sure where you are in Rotherham, but that may be a factor. I am in Brinsworth and we have light drizzle. Just been speaking with my mother in SW Sheffield though (Dore) and it has been snowing for 1.5 hrs there and has just turned really heavy. The height is everything. If you are in Wickersley, you should start seeing something. Personally, I am off to Dore in the next hour or two. Awful traffic, say the media? Who cares!!

Maxdamage... Just down in Rotherham we are having the same problem with high temps and sleety rain. The snow reports show that the system is producing snow north of us and south of us. Is it really likely that snow will fall here, or realistically are we going to miss out on anything significant. The BBC radar seemed to show a heavy band over us later on, but no evidence of that on the ground. KY

The morning snow is a total bonus. The main snow is not progged to reach us until the afternoon, with the heavier stuff later on in the day. I woke to snow outside and was pleasantly surprised because I expected it to be clear. I am in Rotherham, but essentially Sheffield will take a bigger hit than I will because of the elevation. Chin up - we have something and more to come. UTB.

Snow arrived in Rotherham in the thin band at the front of the main band of precipitation. Sufficiently heavy to provide a full 1cm - 1.5cm covering. This is a bonus as forecasters had not predicted snow to start falling here until midday, with the heavier stuff later on. Will take my 10mth old daughter out to experience it for the first time in a little while. Temps interestingly at 2.1C. Snow currently stopped.

Interesting charts those Snow-man2006. Judging by that the best place to be post 12pm will be Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and South Yorkshire as these areas are constantly in the decent snowfall zone. I suspect that the truth is that the main snowbelt will be further south, though I am sure we will get some action in South Yorks.

You're only just down the road from me. It depends how far north the Atlantic system gets, but South Yorkshire is highly likely to get some snow tomorrow - the question is how much?

Mrs KY is 27 today, and so far it has been a pretty excellent day. K has been causing mayhem in the household, chewing her way through the shoes, pulling the DVDs off the shelf, and helping herself to the washing. I have been continuing to put loads of items for sale on Amazon, which has been a fantastic way of raising money for our trip to Russia later this month. The whole thing has finally come together, after we booked the flights earlier this week and managed to find a place who would get visas sorted for us without charging a massive amount for a quick turnaround. The one wonderful thing about heading to Samara is that, whether this current cold spell is successful or not, snow is guaranteed for me for the middle of the month. Much of the Samaran 5 day forecasts in recent times have had snow possibilities on 4 out of the 5 days. There is no doubt we live too far west. At 17:55 I am sitting here writing my blog whilst watching South Africa bid to chase down Pakistan's 351, which seems a tall order. Even accounting for the talent of the Australians, I think we are possibly the only side in the world capable of doing this. Currently 88-2 after 15, so the game is not over, even though the loss of De Villiers was a big blow. Anyway, let's talk about the forthcoming snow event as we are on a weather site. It seems to me that in Rotherham we are either too far north, too far south, too far east or too far west for most events. I know I have to be careful with my moments when people come from places like Abingdon, but even there must surely be about to hit gold tonight. It seems that the system is going to stall somewhere to the southwest of us, over the Birmingham area. Snow looks like a real possibility but much will depend on how far north the system can drag itself into the cold air. It is nice to have a preparation time for Russia in weather terms before we go. Whatever happens though, I thoroughly enjoyed the -7 this morning, and made a special trip outside to deice the car. It is so nice to have proper winter weather for a change. I'd post a picture of snow, but I do not have any. Must get the camera out if it does snow tomorrow. Whoever you are, and wherever you come from (though if you are north of me you are struggling), I wish you much snow over the next 24hrs.

What about Rotherham? According to Mr Hudson on Look North forecast we appear to be in the zone for 2-5cm, but at the same time many on here are suggesting that we are too far north.

I thought I would call this blog entry "tough day" because it has been. It started really well in that the guys from Samara, Russia sent through our itinerary for February. The only difficulty with this was the shear volume of teaching which, whilst being exactly what I would want, is also something of a nightmare in terms of preparation. It also threw the entire day out, as I was having to sort out this rather than plan ahead for the Thurcroft congregation, where I am a leader. That was not too bad, but having got back home there is the whole problem of messy, unclean house, half finished garden, lack of money, crying baby girl, stressed Mrs KY, who has the pressure of the Samaran preparation in addition to university courses and a part time job to contend with. That is the challenge I guess, trying to juggle every aspect of our lives to maximise our time on the planet. Somehow, this process always seems to be worse in England than other nations though. Now these guys understand how to deal with life. Lie around with your mouth open all day, and wait for your food to simply walk in. Perfect. Anyway, if anyone wants to learn the secret of putting haphazardly random photos into a text, then drop me a line. I am great at it. There is simply no reason to have a picture of a crocodile in the midst of this miserably depressing read, but there it is.

Hi Andy. How's it going mate? My theory on this one is that South Africa have played 6 test matches in just 7 or 8 weeks and are in desperate need of a rest before the World Cup. That is why there was no Pollock or Nel, and more will be rested during this one day series. However, the most effective way of resting players is to ensure that the test match does not last more than 3 days. Job done. I suspect that somebody had a word with the Newlands groundsman. England have been diabolical. The best thing for them would be to actually lose to New Zealand and avoid a hammering in the final. What if England or New Zealand won the final? It would make a lottery of the competition.

When thinking about the entries I want to put into this blog, pink laptop covers have not been among the proposed topics; that is, until one turned up today. Now there is no problem with a pink laptop cover in general, although it is a little gharish, but in this situation it is strictly not brilliant. That is because Mrs KY and myself essentially share the laptop, and her chosen colour will on occasion have to be carried by good self in places where the public have viewing access to the case. Must make mental note to wear dark glasses on all such occasions and be a secret agent. Remember Dom Jolly and his "Are you red squirrel?" Mrs KY continues to have huge success in her competitions, which she has been doing for a year or so now. At last count, I think she had reached double figures for competition wins this month. Will be going to the Marriott Hotel in Kensington in March on one such win - can't be bad. Girly KY has obviously had some traumatic evenings in recent times. She has just gained her first two teeth and I have, but moments ago, discovered her very first attempt to use them. This was on the side of her cot, rather than on a piece of food unfortunately. Come on you Boks. South Africa have a real chance to win their second series in a few weeks against Pakistan. Two wickets down, but one of them is Harris and only 125 to get. We can do it...

Bright pink and needs redecorating? Not sure Mrs KY would agree with that. You should see the colour she chose for her laptop cover - and I sometimes have to carry it around. Anyway, enjoy the period of transition - as these things can either be enjoyable or a pile of stress. Trust it will be the former. KY

I understand the concept of the topic, and in fairness there are probably some areas of Britain where a decent snow event can be reported from this century, such as Scotland or the South West, but here in Rotherham it has been pathetic. Therefore I would say late November 2005, not because there was snow but because there was a least a really good cold spell.

"You're not doing that again." Thus came the declaration from Mrs KY, after my latest trip into the loft. Our loft is different to many lofts because, although their is a stick to enable the door to be opened from ground level, it is impossible to access the ladders without first obtaining a chair to gain added elevation. This is basically down to poor design - but then who am I to argue about this? I say that it is necessary to get a chair to gain access to the ladders. Strictly speaking, that is true. However, I managed to find another way yesterday evening as girly (Kaitlyn) was in bed and the chairs were therefore inaccessible. By pulling myself up on the door frame and the loft door, I managed to get myself onto the stair bannister, from which position I could pull down the ladders. Quite a bizarre way of doing things, and too dangerous for Mrs KY to appreciate. The reason for doing this though is even more pathetic. Basically the water tanks are overflowing in the loft, so that water constantly drips down the overflow into the front garden. If I was still in South Africa, it would be a scandalous waste of water, but up north there is plenty to go round. The ballcock (that could be entirely the wrong word) is in the wrong position and needs adjusting to stop the flow of water. Unfortunately I have not managed to figure this out yet, so as an alternative means of DIY I have got myself a large plank and stuck it under the ballcock. If positioned correctly it works like a dream. Sometimes though, it will slip and another treacherous visit to the loft becomes necessary. Now I know that nobody reading this would ever resort to such appaulling DIY methods, but to be quite honest, it is par for the course for me. Technical I am not. Never found it interesting at school, never took any note at home. Football in those days was far too important to learn stuff like that. Perhaps I had better start learning....

To be honest, the answer to the question "How was it for you?" is determined by the original level of expectation. For me in Rotherham, expectation was extremely low, which was a good thing because in terms of snow this was a complete none event. The band that came down across the country on Tuesday night (our only shot at snow really) provided snow for Sheffield and Doncaster but only sleet for us. This was consequently disappointing. However, it has been lovely to experience some winter sun and colder temperatures, rather than the rubbish the Atlantic has been throwing at us for the last couple of months.

One of the great challenges with having a child is the amount of attention that they require. If, like me, you are attempting to work from home, keep the house tidy, do the garden and then add extra voluntary stuff on top, the volume of attention required by a child can be quite daunting. Obviously I, like Mrs KY try to give her as much time as we can but we have also discovered a new ingenious method of giving ourselves a break. It is called sing and sign DVD. The one guarantee in our lives is that when Kaitlyn is put in front of the sign and sign dvd, she will be happy and quiet for 30 mins, regardless of how she has been acting during the day. We got hold of them after meeting somebody who ran sing and sign classes in Wakefield at an Usborne bookselling event we were doing. They were starting up classes in Rotherham so we signed up, and they have been brilliant. Essentially they enable children to communicate through signing from anything after 10/11 months, which is much earlier than they are able to speak. This reduces frustration for the child and makes your life easier, so they tell us. Kaitlyn is still only 9mths and so is not signing yet, though we thought she might have signed for milk for the first time yesterday. However, the dvd that accompanies the lessons has been worth its weight in gold. The wonderful thing is that it is not just shoving a child in front of any old tv, but in front of a programme in which she is learning. On a disappointing note, I see Hershelle Gibbs has had his ban upheld after the remarks he made against some abusive Pakistani fans. As Pollock and Ntinni might well be rested, I fear for our chances in the final test against Pakistan. Then again, if we go on to win the World Cup, no one will care what happens in tomorrow's match. To all who have been on here reading some of this drivel, thanks. I hope you find it at least a little better than diabolically, numbingly awful. If not, there's always another blog...

It's about time I had a crack at this. Winter seems to come later and later every year, but February has generally produced over the past few years and is the most likely month for cold. Even so, I am not convinced that there will be a belter this year. Straight 4.0 for me.