Yeti

Tu inglés no está nada mal amigo! Muy bien hecho y muy interesante ver los cambios del tiempo en Huelva Pero que suerte tener temperaturas así , aki bueno hizo un día muy muy bueno con sol todo el día y sin nada de viento, pero sólo 19º A ver si suben las temperaturas en los próximos meses, que el año pasado no subimos de 25º, algo muy raro y pesado... Un saludo desde el N de Inglaterra

:lol: The snow was a nice surprise rather than the reason I went up there! The only problem was the haze which blocked really decent views - but hey, I got a nice suntan all the same!

What a day! My brother and I took a trip (all of 100 miles each way!) to Helvellyn, England's 3rd highest peak, via Striding Edge, undoubtedly one of its most dangerous paths. I must just note that driving past Cross Fell, we could see the Helm Bar (caused by the Helm Wind (foehn) and the Easterly winds blowing over the Pennine's highest peak at 891m). No pics, but quite amazing to see! Anyway here are the photos; I'll describe the route a bit if you don't mind me waffling! I stopped alongside Ullswater to take a few pics as it is simply beautiful. The skies were clear and views down the lake showed Helvellyn already: Beginning the walk at Patterdale and climbing up along a small lane gives views over the Helvellyn massif - notice the snow patches at the top there! The first section of the climb is steady and not particularly steep, but gives amazing views over the valley and of the massif: Me with Helvellyn in the background!: Looking back along the valley. Notice Ullswater appearing in the top left: Helvellyn appears at Hole-in-the-wall, the beginning of the more difficult climbing. Snow patches at the top! And with Red Tarn, at about 800m: In the above photo, notice the ridge at the top-left connecting the path to the summit plateau of Helvellyn. This is Striding Edge, a notorious route which has claimed many lives in the past (3 just last year), particularly in bad weather. Here it is a bit closer: The beginning of Striding Edge behind me: death either side! The Ridge: Nice views The Chimney, a bit of scrambling to do near the end of Striding Edge: The end of Striding Edge (looking back) Red Tarn: The summit at last! Notice the snow on the right: To the SW we see the Old Man of Coniston (801m); the Sca Fell Massif (978m), and Great Gable (899m): Skiddaw (one of only 4 peaks above 3000ft in England) and Derwent Water: Descending via Swirral Edge goes down to Red Tarn itself, with fine views of the summit: And eventually, back at the bottom, there is a nice view through the trees: Hope you enjoy them!

Haven't seen a proper heat-induced summer thunderstorm for many years now (in Harrogate), absolute joke in this place.

Wild Garlic indeed! It's just perfect at the minute. Try using it instead of basil in a pesto; very refreshing And of course less than two months now until the arrival of the field mushroom, parasols and all the summer grassland species Great to see some other pickers out there!

Well what a nice surprise - I went out to a few fields where I know them to have grown before, and what should I find but the first St. George's Mushrooms! These are generally the first edible mushrooms of the season, unless you are lucky enough to find the elusive morel which can grow a bit earlier, but they always, always appear within about a week either side of St George's Day (hence their name). More than that, though, they are absolute top-notch mushrooms, up there with the chanterelles, with a delicious texture and flavour. Here is what I found today They were just beginning to pop up so I just picked the big ones - in 2 or 3 days' time the fields will literally be full. They grow often in huge rings, are white with a brown-shaded cap towards the middle, and have a very mealy smell (which disappears with cooking). The gills are white. Bear in mind that because of the time of year, these are some of the only mushrooms about, and I couldn't imagine being able to mix them up with anything nasty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calocybe_gambosa They grow on unimproved grassland, and often you can see rings in the grass on the fields - brown in the middle and a green ring around this - have a look out because often you can keep your eye on such a spot and wait until mushrooms appear! And remember, don't tell anyone where you found them... There is literally a feast near you - don't miss out! They will be gone in 2 weeks. PM me if you need more info on this or any other mushroom :lol: Regards, David

Buenísima cantidad de nieve para abril (: que venga el calor ya, para que nos disfrutemos en el sol (: Un abrazo.

I like the above! Nice sky and the beginnings of the horizon...

Yes I think 1995 was, and remember some of the summers in the little ice age were some of the hottest ever.

Artistic licence! It was certainly extremely hot and extremely humid - and I was there!

^^lol

Lol, try Venice when it's 40c with 90% humidity and the whole city is running out of bottled water, so they put the prices up to 5 euros a bottle! Couple that with the stinking canals and trains with no air con; that's a nightmare! Actually the hottest I've ever felt was on a train in Madrid last summer when it was 34c but the heating was trapped on full power (used in winter when it's bitterly cold). It was literally like a moving sauna, I've never felt anything like it and it must have been very dangerous to the elderly etc. I can imagine the tube gets pretty bad in summer though - London's bad enough at any time of year in terms of rushing from place to place!

People on here often describe how expectations have been raised with summers by quoting the past summer in particular, which featured average temperatures. What they often fail to do is look at the rainfall and sunshine, because last summer had something like 150% of the expected rainfall in July/August and below average sunshine, whilst still having average temps. I would love a summer with 18-22c and still to slightly breezy, sunny and dry conditions much more than 20-24c and wet. Sadly, this doesn't seem to happen for the reasons you explained earlier. Yet I imagine most people judge summers on their sunshine more than their absolute temperatures, for the simple fact that if the sun comes out when it's still in summer, you cannot help but feel warm enough.

Not sure about the radiation idea tbh, but it's certainly possible that *some* climate data has been construed to look higher because of the urban heat island; i.e. 100 years ago a site may have been relatively isolated, and if now it has been engulfed by urbanisation, it will give a higher reading. Then, of course, there are the secondary effects of building cities such as deforestation which increases atmospheric CO2. Thinking about it though, I would imagine that any heat that tarmac does radiate out into space, acting like a mirror (and it's pure speculation) would actually lower temperature as more heat would "bounce back" away from the Earth.

The Peak District is not "up North"!!!! :lol: Lol, 50cm "over the Pennines"... Sorry but even on the top of Cross Fell it wouldn't have been anywhere near that... still, I'm not going to complain. It was poor that they didn't look at the radar - but there was so much going on in SE England I didn't expect them to pay much attention to North Yorkshire Seriously though, at the end of the day, it didn't really matter; nearly 30cm of snow that lasted a very long time, and it was obvious they were being a bit rampy anyway!

Lol, so someone crashes into a lamp post and loses their no claims bonus; or worse, become injured! They end up paying more for their insurance, is that a good thing!? You can't have one without the other, either - if people are more likely to crash into lamp posts, they're more likely to die on motorways! That's the worst thing about snow, and I certainly wouldn't wish more disruption on anyone. Disruption comes at a great cost. How old are you btw? you should put it in your profile! :lol: David

It didn't turn to rain here Sustained snowfall throughout the night, although where I work at 70m it had clearly rained as it bore the icy coating that you describe. Of course I was quite disappointed on the night, although in retrospect, I don't believe there was much cause for complaint. The only thing that did annoy me is that it was incredibly obvious by 8-9pm, simply by looking at the radar, that it was 10-15cm tops, but the Meto ploughed on with their fantastical forecasts until 11pm when they finally admitted there was due to be a "bit less than expected" - for that, in my opinion, there was little excuse and they clearly hadn't looked at the radar!

It certainly does well by English standards amongst large cities, but there are many smaller cities that would do better in England - York, Durham and perhaps Norwich to mention just three. As for the UK as a whole, it doesn't compare to Aberdeen, nor Edinburgh, Dundee etc.

I take your point, but that doesn't stop one being better than the other I love any kind of snow, but powder snow is an "added bonus"; particularly for the reasons I posted above about greater accumulation rates - not, however, that I would complain about the wet variety. Sadly, powder snow is dying out in the UK, especially the "higher grade" dentrite varieties that form at -10 to -15 upper temps. It looks like we will all have to share this attitude, if ever we are to be frequently pleased with snow in the future!

One thing people haven't mentioned is the accumulation rates of powder snow compared to wet snow. With decent, dry powder snow occurring with ground temps below 0 and upper air temps below -10 to -15 at 850hPa, you will find that 1mm of rain equates to 15mm of snow or more (i.e. 10mm of rain gives 15cm of snow). However, the wettest snow only gives ratios of 1:5 or better - in other words, 10mm of rain would only give you 5cm of snow instead of 15. When you take this into account I'd take powder snow any day - the drier the snow, the better it accumulates as it's more "fluffy" and doesn't compact/melt to a wet coating like wet snow does. The beginning of December brought 10-15cm of snow to the west of the Vale of York, but I would imagine that this would have been over 20cm if temps had been colder. Remember too, that when the temperature is above 0 and the snow is wet, the melt occurs a lot more quickly, often from the bottom upwards as happened during the RPM setup here in January. Powder snow is the best!

lol, I believe the forecast said 50cm over the Pennine Hills. Whilst it was still a gross exaggeration, I don't think you or I count as living on Pennine Hills, even though we're at 200m. Effectively we are on the very edge of the Pennines, and about 10/15cm fell that night, which wasn't bad at all... especially since it gave us nearly 30cm - almost a foot of snow! It wasn't really a let down, and it was obvious that forecast was OTT anyway. My favourite snow event was the great blizzard of 1995 which I vaguely remember, living in Leeds at the time, brought 40-50cm to Leeds city centre. Now that was a snow event! The other of course was February 2001, which brought over a foot, and a similar event that unfortunately turned to rain on the previous New Year, having dumped nearly a foot.

A woodpecker on the garden feeders today

9.2c

Certainly one of the best walks in the Dales imo, beating Malham on sheer remoteness... It's a shame you missed Attermire cave though, it's absolutely spectacular and by far the best of all of them

Today was a fabulously clear day so it was perfect for a trip out with my brother to Langcliffe, near Settle, at the foot of Ribblesdale. The walk climbs up to smaller, higher valleys and plateaus that offer amazing views over to the Three Peaks (Ingleborough, Whernside, Pen-y-Ghent) and today the Lake District was clearly visible; capped with snow the Cumbrian Mountains looked like viewing the Alps from the distance! Sadly though this didn't come out on the photos. The most interesting feature of this walk is the fantastic limestone scenery that gives even Malham a run for its money. Massive scars tower over the footpaths and within these scars are Victoria Cave (discovered in 1837 with many prehistoric bones), Jubilee Cave, Bat Cave and best of all, Attermire Cave, which can be penetrated for a great distance. Anyway here are some photos; I'll waffle on as I post them! The walk begins in Langcliffe, just to the N of Settle and the A65, the footpath winding its way through sublime views of Ribblesdale; on no.2 Ingleborough is in the distance; A mother protects her tiny lamb: At this point the walk climbs, leaving spectacular views of Pen-y-Ghent (694m); A detour takes us to Catrigg Foss, a huge gorge and waterfall crashing down next to the footpath. Many Dales waterfalls are called "foss", derived from Old Norse (I think!); Back on the path and another fine vista of Pen-y-Ghent, left, and Plover Hill; Another mile and we reach Jubilee Cave, slightly less interesting than the other two we entered but still with an imposing entrance; The typical scarred landscape and a view down the Dale; Victoria Cave comes up next. Its entrance is huge, and there are signs all over the place saying DANGER etc. but we entered anyway. There are several passages leading off from the cavern at the entrance but none can be entered for more than 30m unless you are a rabbit - something of an anticlimax. But it's the most famous cave, being host to ancient Rhino and Hippo bones from 100,000 years ago. John Holmes lives there to this day A rather blurry picture of my brother in one of the side passages: By far the most interesting cave, however, is Attermire Cave which is found higher up on the scar and is both more difficult to reach and harder to find. Once found though, it's quite spectacular. Here is the entrance: After about 50m, the ceiling drops considerably and there is about 5m of on-your-tummy crawling. Then it opens out again but it's still fairly hard-going. After about another 100m a chamber is reached with a pool!!!! All along here are organ pipe type structures that are stunning to see outside of a show cave. Here is a dodgy pic of the organ pipes: And then amazingly, what should we chance upon but a caveman!!! If you look beyond me, and please do, you might just be able to make out the organ pipes again in the background. After the chamber with the pool there is much, much more to explore, and the cave eventually ends up with a 20m high ceiling and about 1m wide - as I say, it's amazing if you like an adventure! It goes on for a long, long way - far longer than we had time to explore - I would love to have a good 2 hours there to get as far as possible. Heading back gives more fine views over Ribblesdale and more dramatic scarring; Thanks a lot for reading, I hope you like the pics from a place I love