Moomin

When can we expect to see the minima? Obviously roughly as I appreciate it varies depending on weather patterns. Just out of interest has anyone looked at trends in the min and max from year to year - i.e. are the minima/maxima getting earlier/later etc?

Sorry if this ideviating from the topic a little but I have been suprised at how in accurate the Met Office have been over the last few years, even at short timescales. A good example was last Saturday, we had the BBC/Met office forecast saying that it would be dry, bright and warm - grey but bright. Netweather on the other hand suggested it would be wet in the afternoon but warm, netweather forcast was spot on met office was wrong, we had persistent moderate drizzle all afternoon. I deal with probabilistic risk forcasting for a living so I understand the uncertainty associated but I cannot understand how they can be so far off particularly at such short timeframes - this is just an example I've spotted many over the last few years. I find it worrying as I use a lot of met office data and have to be confident in it.

It really depends upon what you want to know about. I can't really resommend anything as all the text books I've used in the last 10 years have been highly specialized very technical ones which will either put you off or you will struggle to understand without having studied the basic fundamentals. However, I did do A - Level geology, the text book for that was called Applied Geology, which was brilliant. Unfortunately I can't remember who the publisher was and I did my A-Levels 20 years ago (scary stuff) so it may be out of print by now. I would suggest looking at amazon and seeing what A- Level type text books are on there, alternatively some of the little books the Geological Museum do are quite good, although I can't find a museum shop online. I would recommend visiting the geological museum if you can - its part of the natural history museum). You'll learn quite a bit from that. Moomin

Well spotted this is a very useful feature. I am employed as a Geologist but use the traditional paper versions of the maps and haven't visited the BGS web site for a while so hadn't found this. The geology of the UK is just like the weather, incredibly variable for such a small island and similarly unpredictable in many respects. Do be aware though that some of the field work and reports that support these maps are very old and in many cases a lot of interpretation has to be made with teh older reports and indeed in the field even today, geoloogy is an imprecise science in some circumstances and some of teh maps are wrong. It all depends on the scale you are looking at, the larger the scale the less detail and as an overall indicator are pretty good, at very small scales the accuracy can be lost unless you happen to be in an area where lots of boreholes have been drilled, there are lots of outcrops of rock or it is a mining district. It is however great to see people interested, please get in touch if you want any information etc.. I'm always happy to further the cause! Moomin

Drove down the M6 through Cumbria again last week and there's still a large, long strip of snow just below the summit of Cross Fell and there were plenty of patches visible in the high peaks between Aberdeen and Perth last week also. M

I've been watching these discussions for some time now and very very rarely commented, just an observer you might say. However, I feel compelled to write as I couldn't agree more. As a geologist I remain (possibly incorrectly) unconvinced of man's ability to affect the climate so sitgnificantly, but the to my mind the CO2 issue is actually irrelevant. The issue is one of resource sustainability and preservation. The current drive to cut CO2 emmissions is not sustainable and will not preserve resources, quite the opposite in fact and may well result in an increase in CO2 emmissions. Cars for example, the drive is currently for all of us to replace our ageing vehicles with new fuel efficient machines. Surely it is a far better use fo resources to keep vehicles rather than replacing them every three years as most do, I notice that no one has ever produced CO2 emmissions for construction of new vehicles, particularly the hybrids? My point really is that if we persue a sustainable/ resource preservation approach then I would anticipate that CO2 emmissions would in fact be reduced if indeed they are proved to be important. P.S. GW I was reassured by your emotional post to Village Plank yesterday, I think it shows taht no matter what 'side of the fence' each of us may be on, ultimately we are all looking for the same outcome, namely the best way of preserving our planet for our children and other future generations - even if we do fall out from time to time. Regards Moomin

Very foggy over here on Welsh Marches, hasn't lifted all day and is getting worse now, also some patches of ice haven't melted all day. I was a postgrad at UEA(ENV) in 96/97 and whilst not quite as foggy as it is now, the feel of today reminds me of the bitter grey still days we had during Jan/Feb of 97 there. Typical student house as well with no heating and gaps around the doors that let the outside in. I found wearing all my clothes at the same time worked quite well. M

If I remember my glaciology lectures correctly, the ice got as far as the southern midlands during the last ice age, so some of the UK would most likely be ice free. However, conditions would be harsh as the land left uncovered by ice would be very similar to the canadian and siberian Tundra, which isn't famous for its crop growing characteristics! Glaciation happens quickly in geological terms but I doubt we would see the maximum ice extent in our lifetime even if it started tomorrow, I would imagine we'd be looking at a couple of hundred years before ice started to impact the arable valley floors. Moomin

This is my greatest fear realised, but I didn't expect it to manifest itself in this way. I have always been unconvinced of our influence on global warming, perhaps because I'm a geologist. However, I have always feared that science would be irrevocably damaged in the eyes of the general public by the intensely political nature of this debate and this is exactly what has happened. It is difficult to comment without the fullfacts and because the documents may have been tampered with, but at face value it would seem there has been some sharp practice on the part of CRU scientists which will damage the credibility of all of us involved in environmental science whichever side of the 'fence' we site and dare I say it whichever disciplince we practice in within environmental science - no good for anyone

Bloody hell, we're in trouble then, sales are well and truly on around here at the moment!

Good God almighty, just read the preliminary forcast from Stuart and I may have suffered cerebral failure! Incredibly interesting post irrespective of what the forcast ultimately turns out to be. Working as I do as a hydrogeologist, the weather is of great impoirtance to me professionally and also of huge interest personally, I have always thought I had a slightly better understanding of weather and climate than many and was aware of many of the processes described by Stuart but I was not aware of how intricately inetrwoven they all are. Given that this level of detail was included in the preliminary forcast, I have taken the 24th Nov off to allow enough time to read the full detailed forcast! M

Yes this is quite probable. These mountains were formed by the collision continental masses as the ancient Iapetus Ocean closed causing a massive period of mountain building (orogenesis) much in the same way as the Himalayas have been built and are building today. The continent formed by the closure of the Iapetus was only split apart when the N Atalantic opened around 50- 60 Million years ago forming the North American and European Continents. Off topic I know but I don;t get to talk real geology anymore, even though I work as a geologist! Moomin

This does make sense. The Pacific earthquake was magnitude 8.3, which is huge and is amongst the largest ever recorded. The energy release during an earth quake travels right around the globe, so I can understand how the seismic waves can cause other unstable faults to fail. As terrible as this episode is, we should all be thankful it happened where it did. Just imagine the effects if this had occurred off shore from Japan/Philipinnes or beneath California/Mexico, all of which are potentiall at risk from such a magnitude earthquake but with vastly greater population densities.

At the risk of being harranged for being a pedant do you mean venomous or poisonous? A poisonous creature is one that would do you harm if you eat it, a venomous creature is one that will do you harm if it bites you. Sorry I learnt that from some program on Discovery a while ago (so it must be true!) M

Not at home but here at work we are in a portacabin at the top of a hill in Telford, it is currntly overcast and blinkin cold, I don't normally feel the cold but the heater is on in my office and some of the others this morning. We seem to be under a cloud, I can see Shrewsbury , which is in sunshine and was pleasantly warm this morning but Telford is shrouded in murk and cold.