Cat 5

1 Hour 30 mins to go... any last minute entries?

Would be great to see something on the old John Knox - but as for Dave - brilliant channell!

lol coast, thats rich! - I dont think I have ever read a "stimulating" or "constructive" post from you... PS. Nice Pics.

What categories would the 'awards' be for?

Good point. Not sure either. Perhaps they mean mainland Japan as the epicentre.

Not sure the best place to post this so have gone for the learners area as this is an area I am not too familiar with. I read somewhere that last year we had a number of earthquakes around the globe with a magnitude of seven or more. A quake of similar strength has been predicted to hit Japan for many years. Does anyone know when this quake was expected to hit? Thanks

Reminder: Deadline for entries is 23:59 on the 31st march!! Keep those entries coming in.....! I will have to have a think about how to judge who 'wins' - not quite sure how establish how has the best predictions... I will have a think but if anyone has any ideas then please leave them here!

Apparantly the Meteorological Institute of the University of Berlin names high and low pressure systems (High = Male names & low systems = female names). Emma was a low pressure system.

Is it not possible that that the 'big' one is not a preshock in its own right to a larger upcoming event?

As is the problem with such big threads if you have not been part of it from the beginning it is hard to keep up with events. I do not have the time to go through all 18 pages of the other thread and therefore I propose starting a fresh one for associated questions / observations. Were there any pre-shocks and have there been any aftershocks? My first opinion was what if, the 5.2 shock was infact a preshock or tremor leading up to a more significant quake. Was that a realistic possiblity? What were the experts initial thoughts? Also, is it now too long after the event for after-shocks to occur or indeed a bigger quake? Cheers, Mods, feel free to merge if you want but the previous one is getting messy.

lol - got that in a text message on Wed morning... does not take long does it.

Hey weathermaster - you are spoiling the close kept secrets of the hebredies...! I can sit on the beach on the Isle of Coll and imagine I am in the carribean... everyone should try and get out there at some point in their lives (hebredies that is, not carribean lol)

Wow - thanks for that! Unreal.

Someone swallow a dictionary!? I think nature takes it course. If that nature is artificial or not is the question. We are not at bursting point - far from it. I reckon there will be a nucular war or a mass plague that will wipe out a fauir chunk of the population before we have to start queuing for loos.

No doubt the rogue satellite just happened to be over Korea at the time... lots of bright Green koreans perhaps...!

I would agree with Chris. The proposed time is the anticipated weather conditions at that percise time and not necessarily the time before / after. By giving 3 hour indicators you can use your own judgement for deterieration etc

FFO - these are 'doctored' right?

I dont think I have ever heard of an Earthquake in Norway! This is a pretty good website - not sure if anyone is interested but you can sign up for a notifications of all earthquakes / tremors / aftershocks as they happen - all for the priclley sum of £0.00. I have signed up so will report on how 'quick' the notification email is as and when they occur. Cat 5

This is a very interesting point. Is it just a personal observation or has it been confirmed? What is everyone elses opinions on this. I have just checked the records from last season and note that the only borderling case is Hurricane Karen which reached max wind speed of 75mph - which means that it qualifies for Cat1 status - just (if it were 74mph then it would be a TS). There were no examples of TS with max speeds of more than 60mph so were not even close to being upgraded. If it is a black and white case of max wind speed defining if it is a Cat1 or not then surley there is no lea-way in 'naming marginal events' - it either is 75mph or not? Or perhaps different readings etc Excuse me wont you - I am just typing as I am thinking!

I am getting fed up with de-icing the car so I am hoping for some milder nights anytime soon!

Very nice. I saw a picture in the newspaper this morning of a river in Co Durham when the temp dropped to -10 and produced icycles 4m long!

Hi Chris, I have has a look back through the last 10 years and the average is as follows; Named Storms: 15 Hurricanes: 8 Major Hurricanes: 4 I do not have the information readilt available to go back further. Hope that is helpful.

Good stuff SummerBlizzard - look forward to receiving your entry...

Hi Cookie, I am not too concerned about the lack of numbers. As with most predictions it is usual to leave the entry as late as possible to take advantage of any clues in the offering. I only set this up so early to ensure maximum exposure... not having anyone say they did not see the competition in time :o ! While Im here - can we have some general notes of interest even if you do not plan on entering your predictions until next month! Cheers

Weather: SW2 RB2 DW1 Cookie2 03JT1 Non Weather: TMN1 RBN2 PBN3 PBN1 SlinkyN1