Captain Peacock

Well here's my prediction for winter 2008/9 FWIW! The current cool & wet spell will last until around Bank Holiday weekend when it will turn very warm & sunny. This warm, sunny weather will last until around the end of October when it will turn frosty with still, sharp sunny days. During the third week in November, it will turn milder with very wet & windy weather until early December when it will turn very cold with several moderate snowfalls during the month interspersed with cold sharp sunny days & hard night frosts. Daytime temperatures hovering around freezing or just above. This cold weather will last until around New Year when a thaw will set in accompanied by some heavy rainfall & possibly with local flooding due to high rainfall amounts combined with snowmelt. This milder wet weather will continue until around the third week of January when it will again turn very cold with periodic snowfalls interspersed with cold, bright days and hard night frosts. Daytime temperatures mainly just below freezing with the exception of a few very sunny still days where the temperature may get slightly above freezing. This very cold weather will last until early April when milder, sunny weather will arrive heralding Spring's arrival. On what do I base this? The weather patterns of 1978 which this year has followed very closely so far - although not quite as cold as summer 1978 was! Captain Peacock.

High Wycombe currently just 5.2C (max. so far today 5.6C) Still peeing down and blowing a howling northerly gale! This has to be the coldest Whitsun bank holiday since 1977 (remember the snow showers during the Silver Jubilee?) Most days in January were warmer than it is today!! I remember a day very similar to this in 1975: Monday 2nd June to be precise. I remember sitting in one of the lecture rooms at Garratts Green Technical College just after lunch and watching a howling blizzard (almost a white-out) in progress outside. Four days later, the temperature reached 27C!! Will that happen this week I wonder? Somehow I doubt it! CP

Numerous fairly distant rumblings heard here 2 miles north of High Wycombe. Sky very dark to the south/south-west which is where the rumbles are coming from. It is SLOWLY edging closer! Fingers crossed!! CP