highcliffe2

I can confirm that, although it was mostly heavy rain with some hail also. We have brightness currently, although the clouds look threatening to the north and west

BY PAUL SIMONS WHATEVER the problems which have beset the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles, at least the weather looks like it could be on their side this Saturday. The original wedding date, on Friday, will be dreadful — cold, windy and wet, even snow in northern places — but Saturday, April 9, promises much improved conditions as a block of high pressure builds over Britain. However, a trawl of the weather archives reveals that April 9 has a notorious reputation for bringing a taste of winter. The lowest recorded temperatures for the date were -8.3C (17F) at Leadhills, in the Scottish Borders, in 1923, and -7.8C (18F) at Alwen, Conwy, in 1968. In 1975, there was snow about 15cm (6in) deep in places in the Southeast, and 45cm (18in) in the Scottish Highlands after a bitter start to the month, when frost and cold northerly winds kept spring well at bay Probably the worst April 9 was in 1998 when a huge storm brought snow to Scotland and also Devon. Far worse, torrential rains — the equivalent of one month’s average rainfall in 24 hours — fell across central England and East Anglia Many rivers burst their banks, some 7,500 people were evacuated from their homes and five people were killed. It was one of the worst natural disasters in Britain in recent times, and the cost of damage was estimated at £400 million. Link to Weather Eye source

So do you believe that there is 'weather' outside winter now Matty? Blue skies here with glorious sunshine, a total contrast to this morning which was wild, wet and windy. Temperature: 13ºc Feels like: 13ºc Humidity: 67% Dew Point: 7ºc Wind: 16 mph WSW UV Index: 1 Low Visibility: 6.0 miles Pressure: 29.77 in and falling Sunrise: 6:32 AM Sunset: 7:48 PM As reported at Bournemouth, United Kingdom last updated 4/6/05 4:20 PM Local Time

BY PAUL SIMONS DO NOT get out the barbecues yet — April can be plagued by bouts of wintry weather. One of the worst episodes of cold struck on April 25, 1908, when a blizzard battered southern Britain. The South Coast was particularly hard hit, with about 2ft of snow falling on Southampton, and the horrendous conditions caused a maritime disaster. At around 2.30pm the cruiser HMS Gladiator, with a crew of 250, and en route from Portland to Spithead, steamed past Hurst Castle into the Solent. At the same time, the American liner St Paul, outward bound for New York was sailing in the opposite direction. The blizzard was so dense that the two ships — on a collision course — did not see each other until they were little more than 200 yards apart. By then it was too late. The St Paul ripped into the Gladiator’s starboard side. The cruiser, immediately filling with inrushing water and settling, made for the shore nearby where she went aground and turned on her beam ends. Many of her lifeboats were damaged in the collision. Most of the crew fell or jumped into the sea where they would have died of exposure or been swept away on strong currents. Fortunately Gladiator grounded near Fort Victoria where Royal Engineers were garrisoned. The fort’ s dinghies were launched, and many men swam in the icy water in a courageous attempt to rescue Gladiator’s crew. Incredibly, only 27 men died. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS THE snow in many European ski resorts is turning to slush, but there is an abundance of fresh snow in the US which is still gripped by wintry weather. A storm over the Sierra Nevada in California dumped fresh snows around 45cm (18in) deep last week. The same storm swept east and brought more snow to the Rocky Mountains in Utah and Colorado as well. This came on top of a winter of heavy snowfalls — for instance, the resort of Mammoth, California, now has a snowbase of about 5m (16ft) deep. Farther north, in the states of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Washington, the skiing season had been disappointing — there was so little snow that some resorts closed in mid-January. But since Easter the storms have delivered the heaviest snowfalls of the season and many resort operators have now reopened their slopes. These wintry storms are more than just good fun for skiers, though. Much of the western US has been suffering from chronic drought over the past several years, and the melting snows will supply desperately needed water over the coming months. The eastern US was also ravaged by a powerful storm. The golf at the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta, Georgia, was deluged by rain over the past few days as the storm swept up from southern states into New England, bringing snow over the Appalachian Mountains. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS WARNING: the weather can be dangerous to your health. Figures from the Department of Health this week reveal several hazards which put people in hospital during the 2003-04 financial year. There were 54 cases of people struck by lightning, with slightly more males than females hit, perhaps reflecting the dangers to outdoor sportsmen such as golfers and anglers.Although the average age of the victims was 53, people over 75 proved to be particularly at risk, suggesting that many were caught unawares by thunderstorms. Other weather phenomena caused surprisingly few casualties. There were 25 cases from “cataclysmic storms” and 26 incidents from floods. Although the survey covered the blazing summer of 2003, only 76 people were admitted to hospital suffering from “exposure to excessive natural heat”; the average age of the victims was 38. “Exposure to sunlight” struck a significant proportion of children, probably reflecting their vulnerability to sunburn, although there are no further details about why they were taken to hospital. Exposure to cold weather caused far greater problems, with 411 victims, largely over 75 years old. This highlights the dangers of cold snaps to the elderly population, in whom cold weather can trigger life-threatening conditions. Link to Weather Eye source

Temperature: 14ºc Feels like: 14ºc Humidity: 72% Dew Point: 9ºc Wind: 13 mph S UV Index: 3 Moderate Visibility: 6.2 miles Pressure: 30.06 in and steady Sunrise: 6:39 AM Sunset: 7:43 PM As reported at Bournemouth, United Kingdom last updated 4/3/05 11:20 AM Local Time Similar to Nick's conditions. Pleasant and warm B)

BY PAUL SIMONS THE virtuoso Italian sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini (1500­-71) was not noted for his modesty “An aureole of glory has rested on my head,” he claimed, confirming his belief that he was a genius. “This [halo] is visible to every sort of men to whom I have chosen to point it out.” While Cellini’s immodesty did not exactly endear him to all his contemporaries — who no doubt detected a big head rather than a sign of holiness — all us can see our heads surrounded by a halo. We need only to do as Cellini did and walk on a dew-drenched lawn in the morning sunshine. Look at your shadow and you should see a faint glow appearing around your head; sometimes this halo can be quite bright and even have a touch of colour in it. The spectacle is known as Heiligenschein from the German word for halo, literally “saintly light”. The drops of dew behave like tiny lenses, focusing sunlight onto the blades of grass they sit on and then reflecting it back as bright pinpricks of light. With hundreds of such dew drop reflections, the whole effect adds up to a Heiligenschein. Cellini’s claim that his halo was visible to others was also misleading — in fact it is difficult to see someone else’s halo, because your eyes have to be in an almost straight line between the sun and the reflected light from the dew drops. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS “IF MARCH comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb,” goes the folklore saying. This suggests windy, wet weather at the beginning of the month and fine and settled at the end. But the proverb also hints at the transitional nature of March, starting in winter and ending in spring — and it certainly lived up to its reputation this year, beginning in an icy cold grip and departing on a mild but soggy note. It was the coldest first week of March since 1971, with heavy snow in many areas. But mid-way through the month spring burst out in a remarkable heatwave, reaching 21.6C (70.9F) at Wisley, Surrey, on March 19, a UK record for that date. That balmy weather boosted the UK average temperature for the month to about 1C above normal. But despite the late warmth, March was thoroughly dull, with sunshine figures well below average. The other big talking point was the dryness. England and Wales had another significant shortfall in rain, but the dry southeast and east of England fared better, and this week’s downpours boosted their month’s rainfall to only slightly below average. The rainfall from November to March was the lowest in England and Wales for 61 years. This was caused largely by long bouts of anticyclones in the Atlantic batting away many of our usual wet depressions. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS THIS month looks as if it will close on a soggy and dismal note, living up to an old folklore reputation that March borrows its last three days from April. In Ireland these borrowed days come from a legend about the brindled cow, which complained about the harshness of March weather. But the month of March claimed to be mild-mannered and borrowed a few wet and stormy days from April to teach the cow a lesson. In England the borrowed days are supposed to bring a bitter taste of winter, with frost, sleet and snow, as well as rain. This is why the spell is also called the “blackthorn winter”, a cold snap around the time that blackthorn bushes come into blossom. In fact across much of Europe the end of March has a bleak folklore reputation, and there may be something in this. The spell from March 28 to April 1 is often swept by wet depressions, the first of a series of chilly, wet outbreaks through April and early May. At least this year’s borrowed days have brought welcome rain to the parched lands of southern and eastern England, although the month’s rainfalls for these regions will probably be just below average. And despite the dramatic snows in the first half of March, the month’s temperatures across the UK are likely to be a touch above the norm. Link to Wather Eye source

Temperature: 9ºc Feels like: 7ºc Humidity: 93% Dew Point: 8ºc Wind: 10 mph NNW UV Index: 1 Low Visibility: 6.2 miles Pressure: 29.94 in and rising Sunrise: 6:47 AM Sunset: 7:37 PM As reported at Bournemouth, United Kingdom last updated 3/30/05 12:20 PM Local Time It's cloudy here, and a bit chilly also. The rain finally stopped here around midnight, must have given around 10mm I'd say. I'm hoping for some brightness later on, so we'll see

BY PAUL SIMONS CLIMATE change is melting many mountain glaciers across the world. The Swiss are so alarmed at the loss of their glaciers that they plan to try to save part of the Gurschen glacier at the ski resort of Andermatt. In May a sheet of foil-backed plastic will be laid over 3,000sq m (slightly smaller than a football pitch) of the glacier, which is retreating by about 5m each year. The foam will insulate the glacier from the blazing summer sun. Other Alpine resorts are considering using similar shields to protect their pistes, and they will be monitoring the experiment closely. An even more ambitious plan to slow global warming is being developed by scientists. The idea is to cool the Earth by turning clouds into powerful heat shields. The proposal is to inject sea salt into low-level stratocumulus clouds. The tiny particles of salt would encourage more water droplets to form in the clouds, making the cloud tops more reflective and so bounce more of the Sun’s heat back into space. The big problem is injecting the salt into the clouds, but one ingenious idea is being developed at Edinburgh University. Unmanned yachts across the world’s seas would use high- frequency generators to convert seawater into a fine mist of tiny salt particles, which would rise and eventually get sucked into the low clouds. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS IN A bizarre move to celebrate the building of the Titanic, a project in Northern Ireland plans to tow an iceberg from Norway into the Belfast shipyard where the liner was built. The Titanic was launched on April 2, 1912, and was hailed as “unsinkable” by her owners, White Star. But only 13 days later she sank with the loss of 1,503 lives after hitting an iceberg in calm waters in the North Atlantic, off the Grand Banks of Canada. However, the Titanic’s fatal collision with an iceberg inspired an astonishing project in the Second World War, and one which was backed fully by Winston Churchill — to make aircraft carriers out of icebergs. Not only are icebergs far tougher than ships, they are practically bomb-proof, as was soon discovered when attempts were made to bomb bergs in shipping lanes to destruction. The plan was to hollow out the centre of an iceberg for living quarters, hangars and maintenance workshops, and flatten the top as a landing strip for aircraft. The entire craft would have been 2,000ft long, with walls 50ft thick, and would have weighed around two million tons. A model of the iceberg carrier was built in 1943 on a lake in Canada but the costs were so astronomical that the project was dropped. Perhaps the best use for icebergs is by a Canadian company which makes vodka from their meltwater. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS IN SOME of Britain’s deepest lakes there lives a relic of the last Ice Age — the Arctic char, a cousin of trout and salmon, and our oldest native fish. When the ice sheets retreated in Britain several thousand years ago, they left behind new, icy-cold lakes which the Arctic char quickly colonised. But as the British climate slowly warmed, the Arctic char was squeezed out because it needs waters colder than 7C (45F) in which to spawn. Today it lies marooned in only a few deep, cold lakes in Wales, the Lake District and Scotland. These last British outposts of the fish are now threatened by rapid changes in climate. Windermere, the only place in Britain where anglers fish for Arctic char, has grown significantly warmer since the 1990s. Although the fish usually lives deep in colder water, parts of the lake are suffering from lack of oxygen at depth and the Arctic char is being forced up into warmer, better aerated waters. This makes it vulnerable: only a small rise in water temperatures could push it to extinction. The same may be true elsewhere, but information is lacking. However, global warming is offering opportunities for the Arctic char elsewhere. In the far north of Alaska and Canada, glaciers are retreating fast, leaving behind new icy-cold lakes which the Arctic char is rapidly invading. Link to Weather Eye source

I must say that the temperature has dramatically risen since I last posted in here, from 07:20 at 4ºc to 09:20 at 12ºc Although it is gorgeous outside with hazy blue skies

BY PAUL SIMONS THERE are growing concerns that parts of England are heading for a drought this summer (The Times, March 22 and 25). Large areas of southern and eastern England have not had a prolonged spell of rain since October, and despite the snow and rain in early March, the rest of the month has turned dry again. Southeast England is running 40 per cent below its normal rainfall for March, with little chance of the deficit being made up before April. The need for rain is particularly urgent because the recent warm spell has prompted trees to break their buds and come into leaf. That new vegetation is about to lose huge volumes of water by transpiration, as the leaves evaporate water and suck up groundwater from the tree roots — a full-grown oak tree can transpire about 100 gallons (455 litres) of water a day. Because many regions of southern and eastern England extract their water from underground aquifers, any shortages in groundwater are critical. In contrast, most western and northern areas of Britain have been drenched in rains this winter. Their water supplies are largely held in big reservoirs which are now brimming. In theory there could be enough spare capacity to help out the dry regions, but the costs of pumping the excess water are prohibitive. The only affordable alternative, it seems, is for people in the dry South to cut their water use. Link to Weather Eye source

Morning all Please post your current conditions here. Temperature: 4ºc Feels like: 4ºc Humidity: 100% Dew Point: 4ºc Wind: Calm UV Index: 0 Low Visibility: 4.3 miles Pressure: 29.80 in and steady Sunrise: 5:57 AM Sunset: 6:30 PM As reported at Bournemouth, United Kingdom last updated 3/26/05 7:20 AM Local Time I wasn't expecting the temperature to drop that much overnight, looking at the weatheronline site, it says that Redhill got down to -1ºc Whilst Bournemouth got down to a minimum of 1ºc. Anyway the day has got started rather nicely, with some sunshine

Temperature: 9ºc Feels like: 8ºc Humidity: 100% Dew Point: 9ºc Wind: 6 mph SE UV Index: 0 Low Visibility: 1.1 miles Pressure: 30.03 in and steady Sunrise: 5:59 AM Sunset: 6:28 PM As reported at Bournemouth, United Kingdom last updated 3/25/05 8:20 AM Local Time Cloudy with some fog, mostly on the coastline now. Feels chillier than the temperature suggests.

BY PAUL SIMONS WITH the threat of deteriorating conditions this Easter, it is worth remembering that in past years this holiday period has often brought savage weather. Even though Easter can fall as late as April 25, snow at Easter has been more common than a white Christmas over the past 50 years. Easter 1908 brought a cruel taste of winter. The days leading up to the holiday were bitterly cold, and on Easter Day, April 19, eastern and southern regions were hit by snow and hail. Snow fell again on Easter Monday — although the dire conditions did not deter the great cricketer Dr W. G. Grace from playing his final game at Whitstable, Kent, despite snow on the pitch. The weather after Easter was even worse: a week later spectacular blizzards buried southern England under 2ft (60cm) of snow. The whitest Easter in recent times struck in 1983, when Arctic winds gripped Britain in an icy embrace. Late on Good Friday — April 1 that year — snow carpeted the hills of northeast England and the north Midlands, spreading southwards the next day. By Easter morning, London and the South East lay under a blanket of snow, 8in (20cm) deep on the hills around Dover and leaving many roads in Kent blocked. The following day temperatures soared and most of the snow thawed, bringing different problems as the torrents of meltwater triggered flooding. Link to Weather Eye source

Temperature: 48F Feels like: 48F Humidity: 100% Dew Point: 48F Wind: 3 mph SSE UV Index: 0 Low Visibility: 1.5 miles Pressure: 29.85 in and steady Sunrise: 6:01 AM Sunset: 6:27 PM As reported at Bournemouth, United Kingdom last updated 3/24/05 7:50 AM Local Time Cloudy but wet after last night's rain. It cleared through here between midnight and 1, there may have been the odd flash of lightning too.

BY PAUL SIMONS PRING is bursting out in spectacular style across much of Britain. The past week’s warmth has triggered sycamore, horse chestnut and many other trees and shrubs to break open their leaves or blossoms. The key threshold for spring is when temperatures roughly average over 6C (43F), which triggers many trees and plants into growth. As it takes longer for temperatures to rise in the north than the south of the country, the arrival of spring marches northwards at an average of about 17 miles per day, at sea-level. Another springtime phenomenon happens across the entire northern hemisphere. The sudden awakening of plant growth each spring is so dramatic that the levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere drop sharply as the new vegetation absorbs huge amounts of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis (the process which turns carbon dioxide into food, using solar energy). Long-term monitoring of these carbon dioxide levels reveals that in the past 20 years the springtime burst in photosynthesis has begun seven days earlier. This pattern is even stronger in latitudes north of a line running roughly through Boston, Bordeaux and Vladivostok, and is thought to be caused by global warming, stimulating plants to start growing earlier in the year. The rising temperatures also seem to be responsible for a more vigorous growth of vegetation in spring and in summer across Europe, Asia and North America. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS LAST WEEK’s extraordinary flip in our weather was even more dramatic elsewhere in Europe. Arctic conditions had gripped much of the Continent for the first half of the month, with snow on the French Riviera and record-breaking cold in the Netherlands. But last Thursday a heatwave took hold, with Bilbao, Spain, reaching 28C (82F) and Biarritz, southwest France soaring to 25C (77F), way above their seasonal norms of 15C (59F). For skiers, the sudden burst of heat has come at a heavy price. After magnificent snowfalls between late December and mid-March, many ski resorts were reporting their best conditions for many years; some were even planning to extend their normal season by a week or more, into mid-April. But the soaring temperatures have triggered a thaw, especially on lower slopes, and many of last week’s perfect ski runs are now looking decidedly slushy under scorching sunshine. In central and eastern Europe, thick snows are thawing so rapidly that there is now a growing threat of flooding. Many rivers in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic are swollen with surging meltwaters and some have burst their banks already. However, Afghanistan is suffering far worse. This winter’s snowfall was unusually large and is now melting, but the thaw has coincided with fierce rains. This combination of snowmelt and torrential rainfall has triggered devastating floods, leaving some 200 people dead and thousands homeless. Link to Weather Eye source

BY PAUL SIMONS A BEAUTIFUL sight appeared over London early on Saturday morning. The sun shone bright in a sky which was almost completely clear, except for a few “contrails” — the cloud trails left behind by aircraft. One of those contrails was streaked along a short segment by a brilliant spectrum of colours, as if a piece of rainbow were trapped inside it. Contrails are basically ice crystals created from jet-engine exhaust fumes. If those ice crystals are shaped like six-sided pencils and lined up horizontally, they bend rays of sunlight into a pair of multicoloured “sundogs” either side of the Sun. However, in Saturday’s spectacle there was only a single sundog because there were too few contrails in the sky to create a pair of them. Sundogs are so named because they sometimes sport a tail of light pointing upwards, like a dog. They usually form from high, often wispy, streaks of cirrus clouds, usually over about 5,500m (18,000ft). They are not as rare as you might suppose. Shakespeare certainly knew about them when he wrote in Henry VI — Part 3: “Dazzle mine eyes, or do I see three suns?” asks Edward of his brother Richard, who replies: “Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun; Not separated with the racking clouds, But sever’d in a pale, clear-shining sky.” Link to Weather Eye source

Temperature: 13ºc Feels like: 13ºc Humidity: 72% Dew Point: 46F Wind: 12 mph ESE UV Index: 0 Low Visibility: 5.6 miles Pressure: 29.65 in and falling Sunrise: 6:08 AM Sunset: 6:22 PM As reported at Bournemouth, United Kingdom last updated 3/21/05 3:50 PM Local Time Rather cloudy with some brightness, a top temperature of 13ºc

BY PAUL SIMONS A GREAT flood is under way in Iraq as the Tigris and Euphrates rivers have burst their banks over a vast area. This might seem remarkable in a region which receives only a few inches of rain a year, but springtime floods are normal, as melting snows in the mountains of eastern Turkey and Iran feed a tremendous surge of water down the two rivers, flooding the plains and fertilising them with silt. The floods also create southern Iraq’s marshes, an area as large as Wales, and reputed to be the biblical Garden of Eden. These marshes formed part of the Fertile Crescent where early agriculture developed, thus allowing the emergence of the Mesopotamian civilisation 5,000 years ago, when engineers first built great dykes to control the spring floods. During Saddam Hussein’s regime the marshes were drained to destroy the livelihood of the Marsh Arabs. Dykes and canals were built to stop the floods, and the region became so dry it endured vast duststorms — a phenomenon rarely seen in southern Iraq. Only about 7 per cent of the original wetlands remains, but now a huge effort is being made to restore them. Dykes are being breached, some of the floodwaters are flowing again, and birds and fish returning. But serious problems of salination and reduced flow — due to water extraction upstream in central Iraq, Iran and Turkey — still have to be addressed. Link to Weather Eye source