Greyowl

Why don't you come back and look at the Fens when it's spring and summer. You view is very biased towards hilly areas which I find boring with just grass and stone walls and OON's sheep. Very little major agriculture to look at. Most of that land you saw is reclaimed land. The ditches are for drainage not for fertilizers and are part of the 40% of prime agricultural land in the country Have a look at the chalk pits in Kent, (the garden of England) The China clay pits in Cornwall, Slate quarries in Wales etc. I know what I would rather look at.

Maybe you should get off your train and take a proper look at the area before you make statements like those.

Sleet and wet snow for most of the evening.

Current data for Murrow. (NE Cambridgeshire) 10 December 2008 19:27:08 Temperature (°C): Current 1.4 Trend (per hour) 0 Average today 1.7 Wind chill -2.2 Heat index 1.4 Dew Point -2.0 Rel Humidity 78% Wind (mph): Current Gust 11.0 NNW Average Speed 7.6 NNW Maximum Gust 13.2 NW Rainfall (mm): Current rate 0.0 Last hour 0.0 Total today 0.0 Total yesterday 0.0 Total this month 9.0 Pressure (mb): Current 1013.0 Trend (per hour) -0.3

Please post your Snow reports here

I wonder how much he gets paid to produce such complete and utter rubbish such detailed forecasts.

Current data for Murrow. (NE Cambridgeshire) 04 December 2008 08:06:06 Sleet-Rain Temperature (°C): Current 2.9 Trend (per hour) +0.2 Average today 1.4 Wind chill -3.4 Heat index 2.9 Dew Point 0.1 Rel Humidity 82% Wind (mph): Current Gust 32.0 SE Average Speed 23.9 SSE Maximum Gust 36.2 SSE Rainfall (mm): Current rate 2.0 Last hour 2.0 Total today 3.0 Total yesterday 0.0 Total this month 4.0 Pressure (mb): Current 980.0 Trend (per hour) -2.7

Couple of brief sleet showers this morning.

Heavy snow shower around 10am today.

Murrow. NE Cambridgeshire. Summary for November 2008 Temperature (°C): Mean (1 minute) 7.4 Mean (min+max) 7.2 Mean Minimum 4.4 Mean Maximum 10.0 Minimum -0.9 day 22 Maximum 18.4 day 17 Highest Minimum 10.2 day 04 Lowest Maximum 3.1 day 29 Air frosts 2 Rainfall (mm): Total for month 74.0 Wettest day 22.0 day 01 Rain days 13 Pressure (mb): Maximum 1032.0 day 17 Minimum 979.0 day 10 Days with snow falling 2 Days with snow lying at 0900 1

Current data for Murrow. (NE Cambridgeshire) 28 November 2008 09:56:29 Foggy Temperature (°C): Current 2.8 Trend (per hour) +0.3 Average today 2.6 Dew Point 2.4 Rel Humidity 97% Rainfall (mm): Current rate 0.0 Last hour 0.0 Total today 0.0 Total yesterday 1.0 Total this month 60.0 Pressure (mb): Current 1002.0 Trend (per hour) -0.7

Interesting discussion guys. Thank you all for that and look forward to the next episode. As some of the others said I had to wind my volume up quite a bit to get reasonable sound. Also to remember to turn off the pop up blocker.

Covering of snow first thing. Then freezing rain. Then snow and hail and now heavy snow.

One very light snow shower about an hour ago.

Everyone looks the same on here cookie. Didn't quite remember who it was.

weathermaster I think is doing a course with the OU

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...54&source=1 There ya go Lou

This seems to do most things for the amateur forecaster and it's got £30 off at the moment in Maplin. Put it on santa'a list.

Had one of these for 4 years with no problems apart from the expense of changing the 4 batteries. I wouldn't have bought it if it was me paying but it was an award. http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/part...ext%3ECASIO.htm

A great read guys. I look forward to the colder spells arriving.

Birdtrack update for October We probably shouldn’t be surprised, but October was a very exciting month in all parts of the country, with migrants and vagrants in all regions. SEAWATCHING IN WESTERLIES At the start of the month, the westerly winds were ideal for sea-watching and there were plenty of Leach’s Petrels and Balearic Shearwaters to be looked for. The highest counts we heard of for these enigmatic birds were 120 Leach’s Petrels past Hilbre Island, Cheshire, on 1 October, and 115 Balearic Shearwaters past Pendeen, Cornwall, on 6 October. The latter were seen at the SeaWatch SW watchpoint which is manned through the autumn monitoring seabird passage: http://www.seawatch-sw.org/ EAST COAST ARRIVALS These westerly winds are not ideal at all for migration from the Continent, and east coast birders had to wait until the middle of the month for the wind to turn. There were two distinct periods of easterly winds, both of which saw big arrivals of birds. The first wave of birds was mostly Redwing, and standing outside for a short while would have revealed them passing overhead giving their characteristic thin 'seeih' call. This first peak can be seen in the BirdTrack results, as can the much later, and much bigger, arrival: http://blx1.bto.org/bt-dailyresults/results/s377-20-08.html This later arrival was one of the events of the autumn so far, with a lull in the westerly airflow coinciding with a weak weather front over the east coast. This allowed birds to leave Scandinavia, but also pushed them down onto the coast as they arrived. In just two hours, Spurn Bird Observatory recorded 5,570 Redwing passing over the Point and heading inland. This afternoon arrival was quite typical for the east coast, as birds leaving the Continent in the morning will take this time to make the crossing. In North Yorkshire, one visible migration watcher also recorded 4,500 Redwing passing over in just 15 minutes! Further south, birds were seen in strangely specific locations. At Skegness, Lincolnshire, a team from the Central Science Laboratory monitoring migration using radar equipment recorded a very narrow, 1km wide, band of birds arriving at an altitude of up to 4,000 above sea level, well above the height they could be seen from the ground. http://www.csl.gov.uk/aboutCsl/scienceGrou...ams/wem/bmu.cfm Obviously what happens here is dictated by what is happening on the Continent. Many people will have their fingers crossed for a Tengmalm's Owl, as there is a very large 'irruption' in southern Scandinavia. In the south of Sweden, Tengmalm’s Owl hadn’t been recorded at Falsterbo Bird Observatory for 22 years, but this autumn they have so far ringed 261 birds! Check the 'Owls 2008' link on their website: http://www.skof.se/fbo/index_e.html Also just over the North Sea, we’ve heard of very big movements of tits, with 12,650 Blue Tits recorded at Falsterbo on one day! Also moving in numbers are Long-tailed Tits, with counts of over 100 at several sites on the British coast, though their origins are largely unknown. These birds are moving though, and at Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire 131 were ringed in the middle week of the month. Further south, five of these birds were then caught at Gibraltar Point Bird Observatory, where 186 have been ringed this autumn. It’s not just along the east coast either, as we also heard of very large numbers arriving at Bardsey Bird Observatory, Gwynedd, at the end of the month. WINTER VISITORS IN THE NORTH AND WEST As the winds turned to the west, October also saw the arrival of some truly winter migrants. Snow Buntings began to appear along the west and north coasts and we even heard of a bird in a garden in Ireland! These birds are probably from the Icelandic population (of the subspecies insulae) rather than the Scandinavian population (subspecies nivalis). With a good view of a male, you can tell the difference between the two subspecies by looking at the amount of black on the wings. The Icelandic race is much darker; with Scandinavian birds have extensive bright white wing patches. Other ‘northern’ highlights included the arrival of large numbers of Whooper Swans, a trickle of Waxwings and some rather late Ring Ouzels. MEGA-RARITIES CONTINUE TO ARRIVE After the incredible rush of extreme rarities in September, October managed to keep up the trend. From North America came a Little Blue Heron (actually white as it was a juvenile) that was found in Co. Galway and is the first record for Ireland, with a second report of one in Wales at the end of the month. Galway also hosted an incredible flock of 15 Ring-necked Ducks, which we think is the largest group ever seen together in Europe, narrowly beating the 12 seen in the Azores in winter 2007-08. Irish birders also enjoyed a Scarlet Tanager, which was the fourth Irish record, following one in Co Down and, remarkably, two records in October 1985 at the same site in Co Cork! The best was saved until last, though, when an ‘Empidonax’ flycatcher was found in Cornwall. These are a group of American birds where identification in the field is incredibly difficult, and this bird was only positively identified once local ringers were given permission to catch it: http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=1468

Definition of air and ground frost from WiKi and BBC weather. http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/unde...ing/frost.shtml http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_frost

Better Red Admiral one Small Tortoiseshell still around today as well.

Bit of a late appearance from this beauty. Red admiral. Quality isn't that good as I had to rush before the dogs scared it off.