PeteB

We got hammered with snow in mid March 1979 but I don't remember the exact date, but can confirm it was a Friday. I can say it certainly wasn't a blizzard here as there was no drifting at all, just steady, heavy snow for over 24 hours. This was the deepest snow I've ever seen here from a single fall (apart from true blizzards), I would estimate 20-24" of even lying snow. Pete

After this mornings/afternoons deluge we now have blue skies! Pete

5 years, almost to the day, that we had our last decent snowfall around here, nothing over 5cm's since then. This is the longest we've gone since the early 1970's. Other than a brief covering in December this looks be another very poor winter for North East Wales. I've not completely given up hope as the heaviest fall I've ever seen around here, 44cm's in a day happened in Mid March 1978 but I'm already starting to look forward to spring. Pete

Frost remained on areas sheltered from the sun all day here, temperature only reached 2.1. Pete

My word! The wind here is absolutely howling...horrible crashing noises outside that its too dark to investigate. Highest winds around these parts for several years. Pete

Hmm, the nearest weather station to me Hawarden is showing a gust of 34 yet I've not seen anything above 16 here just 4 miles away...not like I'm sheltered by anything either as I'm in the middle of nowhere completely surrounded by fields. Pressure is still falling too, now down to 969 at 120m elevation. Pete

I would think so, this is a real shadow area for both wind and rain. Pete

Not much happening here as usual, light rain, no wind to speak of but pressure is dropping sharply down to 972. Pete

Yeah, not much you can do in most circumstances...At least we have advance warning of severe weather, just imagine what it must have been like for the early pioneers in America who had no idea a hurricane ,blizzard ,heatwave or flood was about to hit them. Pete

Keeping their options open for Friday I suppose. The main problem I have with extreme storms is that you feel (and are) completely helpless, you just sit there hoping that a tree doesn't fall on your house or your roof gets blown off completely. I'm not looking forward to what could be a major weather event for this area. Last time we had anything really severe was the great January storm of 1968 which I remember really well, there were more trees down in this area on that one night than in every subsequent storm added together. Pete

Interesting article from The BBC this morning about Katia which is possibly on the verge of a major eruption! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15995845 Pete

Hawarden now takes the Welsh record....27.3 Pete

Plenty of time to increase the records too. Pete

We have a new Welsh record, 26.6 at an official site in Trawsgoed!! Pete

Yes, pretty certain those 30+ readings are over optimistic. However, the Welsh record for October which stands at 26.4 set in Ruthin 1985 should be smashed tomorrow. Pete

I have 28 degrees here right now, Hawarden airport is also reporting 28. Some of the local weather stations are reporting astounding readings, Connahs Quay 31.6, Vale of Clwyd 30.0, Wrexham 29.2 and Chester Westminster 28.8...staggering. Edit, Connahs Quay now saying 32.3, I'm not really sure what to make of that. Pete

Not yet, our house is well insulated and the plasma TV we have puts out a lot of heat. Pete

A summer with no weather to speak of, not much sun, not much rain, below average temperatures and no storms. Don't think we had a single day in June, July or August with unbroken sunshine, probably a first here. Pete

Only a handful of days above 27 here since 2006 too. I kept detailed records from 1980-1990 and we averaged about 8 days a year at 27 or above, in 1983 alone we had more than 20. I live alongside the A55 which opened in 1985 and this has been the first year that traffic heading into Wales hasn't been queueing up on a Saturday or Sunday morning during the school holidays, it must have been a disaster for the resorts along the North Wales coasts. I can only remember one or two summers as poor as this in the 50 years I've lived here and one of those was last year. Pete

This is the third or fourth "summer" on the row that's been a disaster for North Wales, hasn't reached the magic 27 degrees here since June 2009, the longest run I can ever remember. Hasn't been that wet but temperatures have only reached 25 two or three times and 21 only about a dozen times. Seems to me that the weather patterns have shifted to very cold starts to Winters, then much milder through January, a warm April, May then an unsettled and cool summer. Shocking! Pete

Birds are very hungry and I'm seeing things like Jays, Nuthatches and flocks of Tits in the garden, they're consuming vast quantities of nuts, bread virtually anything I put out. Noticed that a few of Palm Trees that have sprung up in people's gardens over the past few years are looking a bit sad, not too sure how they'll cope if this continues. Still plenty of leaves on our Oak trees, I'm guessing that they're iced on and they'll all fall off once the temperature and wind pick up. There was a touch of ice on the banks of The River Dee yesterday, maybe 4 or 5 feet out into the river itself and the ponds around here are 100% iced over now. Pete

Amazing frost on Deeside and The Wirral today, Not seen anything like that for many a year. In fact the last time was Boxing Day 1962.... Pete

I've just seen the latest positioning of the Jetstream over in the model discussion forums. It looks to have migrated a long way from its normal trajectory. Could someone tell me how much overall variation there is in the position of the Jetsteam, in other words what's the furthest North and South it ever goes? Thanks, Pete

Has to camping out in Southern France in May 1975. Got hit by an enormous thunderstorm that was right on top of us, never been so frightened in my life, remember just burying my head in a pillow. Driving home in heavy snow all the way from Aberdeen December 27th, 1978 was scary too, took me 22 hours!! Pete

I remember this storm really well and there's no doubt its the worst I've ever seen. That night, I was on Merseyside, quite a way from the main devastation but the winds were like nothing I've known before or since. From memory, this was a very snowy winter and also the year of the foot and mouth outbreak in Cheshire/Shropshire. This storm happened not long after the snow from an earlier fall had melted and I can remember it being remarkably mild during the storm, 10 degrees at least. My parents were supposed to pick me up at 11 but didn't arrive till midnight, they had to divert half a dozen times where trees had fallen. When we finally arrived home one of our poplar trees had uprooted and brought our power lines down, in the morning we also found a cherry tree snapped in half! That was the first of the poplars to fall out of 12 in the garden and over the years more have fallen, just 2 remain now. I believe there was just one fatality around here so this area got off relatively lightly compared to Scotland. Within a few days there was a huge turnaround and more heavy snow fell. Pete