iand61

Great to see some local affects from this snowstorm. Could be wrong but I read somewhere that Rossendale saw the heaviest of the January 1940 falls and I remember my parents and grandparents saying that it was the worst snow they had ever seen and that both 1947 and 1963 weren’t as bad locally. apparently a double decker tram was completely buried at an exposed part of the Bacup to Rochdale road. as you say, under different circumstances it would have been a great thing to witness.

Pretty much the opposite here with a reasonably bright and dry morning turning into a showery afternoon. A slight improvement on yesterday though Made sure that I got my fence panel order in first thing this morning although fitting them will have to wait until early finish Friday and a bit of daylight.

Seems to have died down a bit here now so hopefully the worst has passed through now. certainly been a wild afternoon though and probably warranted the various warnings.

Hope so.

Just managed to use a 10 minute lul to retrieve a bit of fence panel before it joined its mate in flying off but it’s wilder than ever now so not sure whether it will hold.

Just got back home after being out since mid morning and for now at least, I can count my destroyed fence panels on one finger but it’s certainly wild out there and we’re not out of it yet.

Torrential rain at the moment and just had a loud ish clap of thunder.

Amber is north of here but unfortunately I’m going just north of here to get the car serviced so it looks like a blowy day to be wandering about waiting for it. That said, the full region looks likely to feel the effects of a brief but wild spell of weather.

Meto have just issued an amber for parts of NI for tomorrow morning. nothing different for the northwest yet but I wouldn’t be surprised if that changes overnight.

Even the Granada local forecast was playing this down to an extent with little mention of anything that puts it out of the ordinary. no doubt we will know by this time tomorrow and maybe it will end up being a middle ground event anyway but given that there was little mention of it happening until today; it shows that even with the technology now available, these things can pop up at short notice and certainly confirming the track can be a problem.

Just watched the regional weather forecast at the end of the BBC northwest news and either she knows something we don’t or didn’t get the memo about Debi. It probably won’t go down as being a Michael Fish moment but “it’ll be a bit blustery throughout” might not quite cut it if the threat of 80 mph winds comes off. at least the national forecast afterwards made amends but I’d have thought that it should really been the other way round.

Well it never arrived so the service was a bit of a damp affair but nothing that a decent jacket couldn’t take care of and certainly nothing compared to the sacrifice made by those who we were remembering.

Sounds a bit nicer being in Cumbria though

Wrong side of the river now but didn’t it used to be in Lancashire. a bit like Manchester and Liverpool are both still in Lancashire in all but administration. anyway you’re up north somewhere and it’s going to be windy tomorrow so better get those hatches battened down.

A pretty defined back edge to the rain is not far from here now and it’s starting to look a bit brighter out the west. hopefully it arrives before the towns remembrance parade and service starts although I think that’s pushing it a bit.

Reached here as well.

This front is moving in at a fair old speed, just hope it clears through with the same urgency.

They seem to be confident on the positioning now and it looks like much of our region along with the IOM are right in the firing line. yesterday, everything seemed a lot further south with the storm centre crossing here and the strongest winds over the midlands and another 50 miles in either direction will make another difference to who gets what but as is stands, a wild few hours and potentially a far bit of damage for our patch. certainly one to watch and maybe an upgrade to amber will happen nearer the time.

Looks a bit nasty. off work tomorrow and was hoping to do a bit of walking but I don’t think I’ll bother.

Plan was to be at this special place at 11am for the 2 minutes silence but I ended up being in the check out at Tesco instead. never mind though, a quick change and then a 50 minute walk and I had the Deerplay War Memorial, at 440m said to be Englands highest official cenotaph all to myself apart from a flock of sheep. As already said, a fantastic day to be out and about although cold on the way home when the sun was hidden by the hillside a decent couple of hours walk. These hillsides are the gathering grounds of River Irwell and the field beyond the farm house contains the official source before it heads down the valley towards Bacup and onwards towards Manchester and Salford. All in all, one of the special places around these parts and probably only bettered with a covering of crisp snow underfoot.

A decent day here although a cold feel to things, even with a fair bit of sunshine. most importantly though, dry throughout and it’s good few days since I could say that. Thanks to the sterling efforts of the repair crew, the water was back on again this morning after yesterday burst cut it off across most of the town although it took 30 minutes of continuous running for it to clear from looking like something that is regularly dumped into the rivers. Just glad I’m not on a water meter.

Spoke to soon about it being pretty much dry today and with almost the full town being without water since mid afternoon, there’s far more coming out of the sky than out of the taps. still waiting for my text from UU though and only bothered to check the taps when I saw pictures of water lifting a pavement on Facebook. thankfully though, even the slowest of trickles will fill the kettle if you wait long enough but chances of a shower are looking less likely than snow tonight.

A couple of lightish showers this afternoon but most of the heavy ones seem to have stayed north and south of here so all in all, a lot better day than yesterday. A cold feel to things though and although probably seasonal, it’s certainly not pleasant.

A wet late morning, early afternoon but something a bit brighter since and it’s felt cold and raw throughout.

To quote Supertramp, it’s raining again.