La Bise

I did ask that to GP, if we are talking mild in feb, it seems to be a likely setup and a repeat of Feb 2008 mid-month would be lovely... Barb, I don't go up hills in t-shirts and trackies you know, I've got all the waterproof kit one can need (bar the wellies...) and I don't mind the odd roaring gale and driving rain but not the levels of Nov 09, that was just relentless. Agreed it certainly gives you a sense of being alive but I prefer to derive that feeling from a cloudless, moonlit, frozen night hike if you don't mind

Hear, hear Tricky. You just need to have a life that takes you out of the house to have a dislike of heavy rain and howling gales. Granted it can be quite spectacular (I was actually up on the High Street ridge this rotten November, when the wind was gusting at 75mph; being buffeted like a sack of spuds was the easy part, it's the noise that remains with me...) but it does not add much to the enjoyement of one's active life.

That might be fun to follow from your computer screen but if you like the great outdoors it's not exactly very enticing...

Post of the Week for me...

Hopefully some will survive higher up the Peaks and Pennines

Following the musings of various people, would the following scenario be possible: cold interlude from mid-week followed by a euro high setting stall for a chunk of february?

Looks like a steady downgrade of the mild interlude this week-end is on the way...the second I'm confident the snow cover above 3/400m in the hills has remained intact, I'm popping the champagne open (you might have guessed I really, really like hiking in the snow by now...)

Cripes, nothing at all in Sale when I left the house at 730am and it's not as if Hale is far from where I live...I see that Manc Airport has gone to 0 last night, makes a change of the 1-2 amplitude This mild interlude is going the way of the december one, isn't it?

The sheer metronomic regularity of the temps at the moment are quite something, oscillating between 1 and 2 for the last two days at Manc Airport...

GP, quick question, when you look at february, do you see a mildish, cyclonic pattern or something more similar to 2008 (when up here we had 2 weeks of t-shirt weather by day and below freezing nights) baring in mind that month tend to a quiet one normally?

I love the difference between the 18z and 0z temp chart above, it went for 10c for my area to...ooh, -1c...

It's a weird feeling when it's so cold, I went skiing during a perfect week in 85, massive dump of snow then frigid high so you were out in the sun and it was anything between -15c and -25c. When skiing and in the sun, it was quite ok but the killer was on chairlifts entering a shadowed area...then you were remembered how cold it was!

It's a Lovecraftian thing Weather "The chart that should not be"...

The sign was there already this afternoon in Macc. Some mad snow drifts on the little roads up there...

I was up Kettleshulme-Wingdather way late this afternoon, pretty impressive drifting up there with the wind, proper wintry conditions to say the least.

I hope you're right about the cold HotCuppa, I'm reading on the model thread that the New Moon will bring mild weather on the 14th, which kind of puzzles me...

Looking at the forecast on the BBC now, it looks like Greater Manchester is the frost hollow of the UK for tonight....

-9c at Manc Airport now, boooh!

Hear, hear Karyo, that's proper winter, bone chilling cold first!

Light wind from the west though, it might go up at the next update (Manc Airport)...I'm off outside for a smoke, could be interesting...

I love seeing this from NOAA for Manc Airport: Time EST (UTC) Temperature F © Dew Point F © Pressure Inches (hPa) Wind MPH Weather Latest 5 PM (22) Jan 05 32 (0) 30 (-1) 29.59 (1002) N 9 4 PM (21) Jan 05 32 (0) 30 (-1) 29.59 (1002) N 9 light snow showers 3 PM (20) Jan 05 32 (0) 30 (-1) 29.59 (1002) N 9 2 PM (19) Jan 05 32 (0) 30 (-1) 29.59 (1002) N 9 light snow 1 PM (18) Jan 05 32 (0) 32 (0) 29.59 (1002) NNW 9 light snow Noon (17) Jan 05 32 (0) 32 (0) 29.56 (1001) N 8 light snow 11 AM (16) Jan 05 32 (0) 32 (0) 29.56 (1001) N 9 light snow 10 AM (15) Jan 05 32 (0) 32 (0) 29.56 (1001) NNW 7 light snow 9 AM (14) Jan 05 32 (0) 32 (0) 29.56 (1001) N 10 light snow 8 AM (13) Jan 05 32 (0) 32 (0) 29.56 (1001) N 9 light snow 7 AM (12) Jan 05 32 (0) 32 (0) 29.59 (1002) N 2 mist 6 AM (11) Jan 05 32 (0) 32 (0) 29.59 (1002) N 2 light snow 5 AM (10) Jan 05 32 (0) 32 (0) 29.59 (1002) ENE 5 mist 4 AM (9) Jan 05 30 (-1) 30 (-1) 29.59 (1002) Calm light snow 3 AM (<_< Jan 05 30 (-1) 30 (-1) 29.62 (1003) S 3 snow 2 AM (7) Jan 05 30 (-1) 30 (-1) 29.62 (1003) S 7 snow 1 AM (6) Jan 05 30 (-1) 30 (-1) 29.65 (1004) S 7 snow Midnight (5) Jan 05 30 (-1) 30 (-1) 29.65 (1004) SSE 7 11 PM (4) Jan 04 30 (-1) 30 (-1) 29.71 (1006) SSE 6 light snow 10 PM (3) Jan 04 30 (-1) 30 (-1) 29.74 (1007) S 7 snow 9 PM (2) Jan 04 30 (-1) 30 (-1) 29.77 (1008) S 8 snow 8 PM (1) Jan 04 30 (-1) 30 (-1) 29.77 (1008) S 7 snow 7 PM (0) Jan 04 30 (-1) 30 (-1) 29.80 (1009) S 6 snow Oldest 6 PM (23) Jan 04 30 (-1) 28 (-2) 29.85 (1011) S 6 snow

For easy access to big snow dumps, as well as Buxton, consider Glossop with the path up Cock Hill via Old Glossop probably quite passable. On the same line, Hadfield where you can go on the Longendale Trail almost straight out of the train station (it's the old Woodhead train line). You can easily go across the reservoirs and go up the hills there, I was there just before xmas and it was loaded with the white stuff. The classic destination would be Edale though, with Mam Tor not particularly difficult to go up to. I was on the ridge last sunday and it's wonderful. Make sure you got proper footwear, now it's not the time to walk around in trainer in the hills.

Some cracking scenery in the countryside around Dunham Massey, never seen such a dump of sknow in those parts...

Eccles trams not running, not that Metrokink would bother updating their service status, colleague informed me just now...

Took my wife an hour to get from Sale to Whitenshaw (normally 15min top...)...empty car park apparently at work. Awaiting confirmation we can stay at home from the office...Snow, don't you love it!