highcliffe2

I was really surprised just now to see a mix of rain/sleet/snow falling from the sky. Only a few drops mind, but still pleasantly surprised XCweather has Bournemouth at 3ºc at 07:20, but the dew point is low at -4ºc.

BY PAUL SIMONS THIS WEEK the funeral was held of Sister Lúcia, 97, the last of three children who claimed to have seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal, during 1917. People flocked to the field where the children had seen the visions, and on October 13 a crowd of 70,000 witnessed another spectacle. The sun seemed to move around in swirling veils of silver, blue, yellow and white but without hurting the eyes of the onlookers. “It seemed like a wheel of fire which was going to fall on the people,” one witness said. The crowd wept and prayed, and even non-believers fell to their knees in amazement. But a weather phenomenon may have been at work, and one clue comes in the months after the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. Reports worldwide described green or blue-coloured suns or disks of coloured light playing around the sun. Volcanic ash had circled the globe and the tiny dust particles scattered sunlight into surreal colours. Similar sorts of coloured suns are sometimes seen after desert duststorms, and it possible that the crowds at Fatima witnessed a cloud of dust blown over from the Sahara. Interestingly, one witness spoke of yellow spots falling to the ground. But why such a phenomenon would occur at just the right time in front of such a large crowd is a theological, rather than meteorological, question. Link to Weather Eye source

Nope sorry :lol:

BY PAUL SIMONS YOU have to feel a tinge of sympathy for the Weather Outlook, the online weather service. Its engaging website (www.theweatheroutlook.com) is something of a rallying point for fans of cold winter weather; it features long-range forecasts and a discussion forum for weather fans on the lookout for freezing weather, as well as other interesting meteorology. For months the site has been abuzz with predictions of a big freeze on the way but, alas for these fans, it has been a spectacularly mild winter on average. Our cold weather has tended to come in short, sharp bursts with not much in the way of snow: one big snowstorm in November, a white Christmas, a few flurries in the East at the end of January and a snowstorm over the North this past weekend. But these snows tended to melt away almost as soon as they arrived, and some southern parts of England have not had any snow at all. Even Scotland has had far less snowfall than usual, although Scottish ski slopes are now enjoying very good snow. Despite the chill this week, there is little sign of a major freeze on the way, although in recent weeks it has been a desperately close-run thing — large parts of Europe have been in the grip of a big freeze from an anti-cyclone centred over Russia, which was followed by a ferocious winter storm this weekend. Link to Weather Eye source

Weather: Partly cloudy Temperature: 7ºc Feels like: 3ºc Humidity: 53% Dew Point: -2ºc Wind: 17 mph NNE UV Index: 1 Low Visibility: 6.2 miles Pressure: 30.24 in and steady Sunrise: 7:19 AM Sunset: 5:24 PM As reported at Bournemouth, United Kingdom last updated 2/15/05 2:50 PM Local Time

BY PAUL SIMONS BRITAIN’s weather has influenced many artists, but the Tate Britain exhibition Turner Whistler Monet shows how London’s old smogs spurred a monumental change in art — the rise of Impressionism from traditional classic painting. In Victorian times climate change meant a permanent haze and thick smogs enveloping British cities. Countless coal fires spewed out smoke and sulphur dioxide and in cold, calm weather the toxic fumes mixed with ordinary fog to create the notorious peasouper smogs. These often castweird yellow, orange and even green lights on to the ground. J. M . W. Turner was the first great artist to be inspired by these spectacular colours. In Rain, Steam and Speed (1844) he shows the swirling smoke from a railway steam engine blending into the multicoloured clouds of smog filling the sky. Turner’s psychedelic view of London smog set the scene for James Whistler, who spent nights out on the Thames to paint the spooky silhouettes along the foggy river. Whistler then introduced Claude Monet to the Savoy Hotel, with its stunning views of the Thames. From there Monet painted many of his famous London smogs, many featuring the ghostly Houses of Parliament. He wrote: “Without the fog London wouldn’t be a beautiful city.” Impressionism was firmly established and the course of art history was changed. Turner Whistler Monet is at the Tate Britain, London SW1, until May 15. Link to Weather Eye source

Just had hail and snow, bloody amazing Most of it turned sludhy very quickly, but in the shade there is still some there. Turned very cold now

Indeed, it also shows just how fragile our climate is. If we don't start seeing months with at least average rainfall, the south and east could be in big trouble come summer.

BY PAUL SIMONS A COUNTRYSIDE carpeted in nodding sunflower heads, fat cobs of ripening sweetcorn and long rows of vines; it may sound like an idyllic scene from southern Europe, but may become familiar in parts of England in a few decades’ time. This was one scenario described last week at a government conference on how the country’s changing climate could alter the face of farming. But there are dangers as well. As eastern and southern regions grow increasingly dry during hot summers, water supplies will become desperately short, especially with farmers competing against the greater demands of growing populations. Farmers in these areas might be banned from taking water for irrigation from rivers and public supplies, and may have to build their own reservoirs to catch winter rains. In regions such as East Anglia, many of our thirstiest crops, such as potatoes and salad vegetables, might have to be given up. Instead, these crops may have to be grown solely in the West of the country, where rainfall will be more plentiful. Livestock farming in the East also may have to shift to the wetter pastures of the West, although intense summer heat in many parts will stress animals, affecting their milk yield, fertility and general welfare. The changing climate could also bring new pests, such as the Colorado beetle. Currently kept at bay by the cool waters of the English Channel, this voracious pest of potato crops might invade our shores as sea temperatures rise. Link to Weather Eye source

Dense fog here this morning, at around 6:30 near the seafront, it was difficult to see more than 30 metres in any direction Also, you could hear the sea, but not see it. The latest update on xcweather says it is currently around 1ºc at the moment

BY PAUL SIMONS WARNINGS about the Arctic icecap vanishing as the polar climate grows warmer can sometimes seem far-fetched. But a remarkable meeting last week brought the melting icecap into sharp focus — a delegation of Canadians visited Russia to discuss plans for a new shipping route across the Arctic Ocean as it becomes free of ice. Churchill is a small port town on the Hudson Bay, frozen in for much of the year. But last year it stayed open from July to November, enough to ship small amounts of grain. Scientists predict that by mid-century the seaway from Churchill to Murmansk, Russia, could be ice-free year round, cutting more than 2,000km (1,240 miles) off the North America to North Europe trade route. The port authorities in Churchill are planning to increase their shipping volume and have dredged the harbour and improved rail links in preparation for heavier cargos that will be shipped to Russia this year. But the downside is awesome. The disappearance of the Arctic ice wreaks havoc on the world climate because the Arctic icecap acts like a global refrigerator, without which the world will overheat rapidly. Changes in weather are happening already. For the past 20 years, the atmospheric pressure over the Arctic Ocean has grown lower, which may be helping to create and steer stronger storms across the Atlantic. Link to Weather Eye source

Temperature: 48F/9ºC Feels like: 43F/6ºC Humidity: 76% Dew Point: 41F/5ºc Wind: 14 mph S UV Index: 1Low Visibilitiy: 5.6 mi Pressure: 29.97 in and steady Sunrise: 7:37 AM Sunset: 5:06 PM As reported at Bournemouth, United Kingdom last updated 2/5/05 12:20 PM Local Time Still cloudy but there have been some brighter breaks, it fells quite nice out there

Certainly was a wet night last night, the first decent rain for some time Now it's cloudy Temperature: 43F/6ºc Feels like: 39F/4ºc Humidity: 87% Dew Point: 39F/4ºc Wind: 6 mph SE UV Index: 0 Low Visibilitiy: 6.2 mi Pressure: 30.00 in and falling Sunrise: 7:37 AM Sunset: 5:06 PM As reported at Bournemouth, United Kingdom last updated 2/5/05 7:50 AM Local Time

Morning all, please post your current conditions here

BY PAUL SIMONS “I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way, Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring.” Percy Bysshe Shelley YOU MAY have noticed that the days now are growing lighter at a cracking pace, with daylight increasing by about three minutes each day, whereas just over a month ago it was struggling to add one minute daily. It seems as if we are rushing headlong into springtime and this amazing acceleration is largely thanks to the tilt of the Earth’s axis. This tilt gives us the seasons. With the northern hemisphere now tilting towards the Sun the days are growing longer. The tilt also means that the Sun is climbing higher in the sky. From its lowest point at the winter solstice, December 21, the Sun’s altitude barely increased. But from mid-January it grew noticeably higher and will reach its greatest height in March. This means that the further north you go, the greater the increase in daylight. Throughout February daylight increases for London by 1hr 39min, Manchester by 1hr 47min and Aberdeen by 2hr 6min. The most spectacular increase in daylight is at the North Pole, where 24 hours of night will be broken by the first sunrise on March 18 and two days later it will remain light all day long. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS WEDNESDAY was Groundhog Day in America, when folklore says that if a groundhog sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter, whereas no shadow will mean that spring will arrive early. This year the groundhog’s shadow was clear on a bitterly cold, sunny day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the home of the forecasting groundhog. North America has had a cold winter, with record snowfall in Boston and spectacular snows in the western mountains. However, whether this trend will continue is anybody’s guess: the groundhogs’ track record of predictions is dismal. A survey revealed that it made only four correct forecasts in the years 1988-2002. Other living beings have been suspected of having long-range forecasting powers. In autumn, the woolly bear caterpillar of America sported patches of brown fur, a sign that the winter would be harsh. Whether this mechanism is “correct” every year is not known. In Gujarat, India, the flowering of the golden shower tree predicts the start of the monsoon some 45 days later, and scientists confirm that it works. In Britain, if the orange ladybird hibernates in leaf litter on the ground in autumn it signals a hard winter, but if it stays out on exposed tree trunks the winter will be mild. The ladybirds are always correct but we do not know why. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS WHAT has happened to this winter? You may recall that back in October there were dire warnings of a bitter winter to come, but apart from a few fleeting cold snaps the big freeze has failed to appear. In fact, January was incredibly mild, the warmest since 1990 across England and Wales, with very little rain and slightly more sun than expected. Even in Scotland and northwest England — which bore the brunt of gales, rain, snow and the occasional blizzard — temperatures were well above the seasonal norm. There were some even sharper contrasts. The horrendous Carlisle floods on January 9-11 followed huge rains across the region, while some places in eastern and southern England only had 25 per cent of their normal January rainfall. The reason for the national split was a powerful run of westerly winds lasting five weeks since December, which launched a barrage of wet depressions crashing into western regions. By the time those winds reached the eastern side of the country they were wrung dry. Then something spectacular happened on January 21. The wild westerlies vanished suddenly as a large block of high pressure built up in the Atlantic and sent the depressions on a wide detour around the UK. The days of big winter freezes seem to have gone, thanks largely to strong runs of mild westerlies over the past 20 years or so. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS TODAY is Candlemas Day, which is supposed to predict what the remaining six weeks of winter will bring. Folklore says: “If Candlemas Day be fair and bright/ Winter will have another flight.” There could be a grain of truth in this. A cold, sunny winter’s day often comes from a high-pressure system, especially one that is anchored over Scandinavia. The rhyme continues: “But if Candlemas Day bring clouds and rain/ Winter is gone and won’t come again.” Wet, grey skies often sweep off the Gulf Stream, bringing mild westerlies. But the outlook today is largely bright and dry for the UK, so watch out for the return of winter. However, these tend to be only short-term weather predictions. Candlemas Day is more significant because it marks the exact end of the “solar winter”, the three months with the shortest days. Daylight is now increasing rapidly — we are adding almost three minutes of extra light each day until the spring equinox — and for the next three months, the “solar spring”, the heat from sunshine becomes much stronger. Today is far better known in the US as Groundhog Day, the day on which groundhogs are said to leave their burrow after hibernation. If the groundhog sees his shadow, he will retreat inside for six more weeks of winter; but if there is no shadow, he stays outside because he knows that spring has arrived early. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS “Up, up, up, past the Russell hotel Up, up, up, to the Heaviside layer” SO GOES the Andrew Lloyd Webber song Journey to the Heaviside Layer in the musical Cats. The Heaviside layer is part of the upper atmosphere and this week marks the anniversary of its discoverer, Oliver Heaviside, who died 80 years ago on February 3, 1925. Heaviside was originally a telegrapher, but as he became increasingly deaf he began to investigate electricity and made some profound research on electromagnetism. In 1902 he predicted that there was an electrical layer in the atmosphere which reflected radio waves around the Earth’s curvature. This became known as the Heaviside layer, and its existence was proved in 1923 when radio pulses were beamed upwards and reflected down. The Heaviside layer is part of the ionosphere, roughly 50km (30 miles) to 600km above the surface of the Earth. It is mainly composed of oxygen and nitrogen. As the Sun’s ultraviolet rays strip electrons from these gases, they ionise into an electrical layer — hence the name ionosphere — which can bounce AM radio signals thousands of miles around the Earth. The radio reflections are affected by the Sun. During the daytime, the highly charged solar wind presses the Heaviside layer closer to the Earth, limiting the radio wave reflections. But at night reception improves as the solar wind drags the ionosphere further away. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS THE UK’s weather seems to have flipped. After weeks of wet and windy weather battering western regions, peace has returned and sunshine broken out, whereas eastern areas have been plagued by gloomy low-level clouds. The reason lies in a huge system of high pressure anchored firmly to the west of Britain. This anti-cyclone is picking up moist air from the Atlantic and wheeling it around its flank, sweeping blankets of cloud over eastern areas on cold northerly winds. But places such as Ireland and Northern Ireland have been closer to the anti-cyclones’s centre, where the pressure of falling air is strong enough to kill off clouds. Because the pressure in the anti-cyclone is extremely strong, it is stuck in the Atlantic. But as its central core drifts in towards Britain, the high pressure helps to clear skies. To find out if your area is going to be sunny, watch where the centre of the high pressure is located on the “general situation” weather map on this page — the closer you are to the anti-cyclone’s core, the sunnier your weather. The outlook is more of the same calm conditions — as long as the anti-cyclone remains in place it will block out wet and windy Atlantic storms, which are being sent on a huge detour into the Mediterranean. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS DO NOT adjust your set — if your television is receiving the wrong channels, or your radio making strange noises, then the weather could be to blame. A large and very powerful high-pressure system is sitting over the UK. The air in anti- cyclones falls slowly and as it descends it warms up — rather like a bicycle pump heating up when the piston is pushed in. Air usually gets colder the higher in the sky you go, but in a temperature inversion, a lid of warm air is now sitting on colder air. Radio and television signals normally get bounced in the troposphere, the lower atmosphere where our weather takes place. But a temperature inversion creates a false ceiling in the troposphere and bounces TV and radio signals more strongly over much longer distances. This extra bounce is called tropospheric ducting and can send signals travelling up to 1,200km (800 miles) and sometimes beyond 1,600km. This phenomenon is great for amateur radio hams making long-distance calls, but creates a mess for FM radio or UHF television signals. Low-level temperature inversions can also play spooky tricks. Radio-operated garage doors have been known to flap up and down for no apparent reason because stray radio signals of the right frequency — even from radio-operated model airplanes — have interfered with them. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS THE weather is behaving very strangely — Scotland has been warmer than the South of England over the past few days, while Menorca has suffered a big snowstorm and Algeria has been drenched in rain. A giant area of high pressure has dug in off the West Coast of Ireland and is slowly churning air clockwise, picking up mild air from the mid-Atlantic, sweeping it around Iceland and back down into Scotland. But that milder air is taking time to reach southern England, which has remained shivering in colder, more northerly winds. The anti-cyclone is so powerful it reached a whopping 1050 millibars this week — the UK’s record for high pressure stands at 1054.4 millibars, in Aberdeenshire on January 31, 1902 — and is blocking out wet westerlies from the Atlantic. The weather is largely calm, dry and will likely stay that way for days to come. Because the high pressure is so well entrenched, the jet stream — a ribbon of wind miles overhead — has been looping around the UK and diving down through Spain and the Mediterranean where it is causing mayhem. A deep depression hit Algeria with 46mm (1.8in) of rain, nearly half its average January rainfall, and cold northerly winds howling down from Russia sent temperatures crashing across Spain, with Menorca receiving a vicious snowstorm on Wednesday. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS ABERDEEN beats Edinburgh and Glasgow for sunshine. The latest Met Office figures show that the Granite City last year recorded a yearly total of 1,454 hours of sunshine, 7 per cent more than the Scottish average. Edinburgh trailed well behind with 1,225 hours of sunshine, and Glasgow with 1,224 hours. This may come as a surprise given Aberdeen’s reputation for rather dour weather, but the northeast coast is protected by the Highlands from cloudy, wet Atlantic depressions that crash into the west coast — which is why the dullest place in Scotland is Kinlochewe, Wester Ross, northwest Scotland, which has only 850 hours of sunshine a year. By the time those wet winds reach Aberdeen they have been wrung dry over the mountains, leaving much clearer skies. In fact, many parts of the north and east of the country are remarkably dry, with average rainfall of less than 250mm (10in) over the summer, which is comparable with the drier parts of England. The down side is that the east side of Scotland is much colder than the west in winter. The North Sea is much cooler than the Atlantic, which is warmed by the Gulf Stream. The east coast is also often plagued by a sea fog known as haar, when warm air passes over the cold North Sea and condenses into a depressing fog, striking most often between April and September. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS THE WEATHER this month has been on a dizzy rollercoaster ride, from storms and snow to balmy spring-like warmth. But this weekend Britain will experience an icy shock as winter makes a dramatic return with northerly winds pouring straight down from the Arctic and sending temperatures plummeting. To begin with, an Arctic blast from the North will collide with a block of mild air to the South and could set off snow showers over high ground in Wales, Midlands and southern England. In this titanic battle it is expected that the warm air will lose out and leave the entire country shivering in bitter night-time temperatures. But unlike some previous cold snaps this winter, the current freeze could linger around slightly longer. A block of high pressure is set to build up west of Ireland and its eastern flank will pour cold air down the UK; unusually, South and East England are at risk of the coldest temperatures. But the high-pressure system will delivery plenty of bright sunshine and clear blue skies for many places, although the East Coast of Scotland and England could be hit by snow showers. As the high pressure wallows around in the Atlantic, temperatures will remain on a knife edge: Monday and Tuesday are set to remain cold and frosty but Wednesday could turn mild again and possibly swing back to cold again. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS DESPITE the storms, this January is turning out to be astonishingly warm. Even as the nights have turned chilly, the days still feel more like spring than the depths of winter — latest figures suggest that Britain is some 3C (5.4F) warmer than normal for the time of year. January 9 was particularly balmy, when Church Fenton, North Yorkshire, scored 14.7C (58.5F), followed by an amazingly mild night with Machrihanish on the Mull of Kintyre breaking its highest January temperature with 14.4C (58F) in the evening. Much of that warmth has come from mild, sub-tropical southwesterlies swept in off the Atlantic, often on the back of the same depressions which brought winds, rains and thick clouds. In fact, those clouds helped to boost night-time temperatures by trapping heat on the ground. But during the day cloud cover drastically slashed the hours of sunshine recorded, with the North of Scotland getting only a third of its normal sunshine quota for the month. Another big surprise is the rainfall figures. Although heavy rainfall has battered the north and west of the country — western Scotland has received three times its average rainfall — eastern parts of Britain have stayed remarkably dry, with only a quarter of the month’s usual rainfall in East Anglia. This may point to drought problems later on in the year if heavy rains do not fall during the rest of winter. Link to Weather Eye source