Weather Eye

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January 28, 2006 By Paul Simons

IT MAY feel like the depths of winter, but snowdrops are beginning to pop up and spring is just around the corner.

The first indications of springtime are being surveyed in Springwatch 2006, launched last week by the BBC in association with the Woodland Trust and the UK Phenology Network. They are inviting everyone across the UK to watch out for the first signs of six key species: frog spawn, seven-spot ladybird, red-tailed bumblebee, peacock butterfly, hawthorn flowering and swifts.

Last year during Springwatch, more than 150,000 records came in, and gave a picture of springtime as it unfolded across the UK. They also gave some idea of how the climate is changing. Spring 2005 was early and warm: compared with 30 years ago, butterflies were seen about three weeks earlier, hawthorn flowered two and a half weeks earlier and swifts arrived a week earlier.

Another sign of the warmer climate is the bumblebee. The earliest and largest of our bumblebee species, Bombus terrestris, is not being recorded by Springwatch this year because it is now active all winter and is even raising an extra brood owing to the milder winters. Instead, this year's survey will focus on another species, the red-tailed bumblebee, which appears around March. www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/wildbritain/springwatch

Link to the source: Times Online

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January 30, 2006 By Paul Simons

LAST YEAR was the warmest the world has experienced since international weather records began. According to a study by Nasa, the annual global surface temperature broke all the records established in more than a century of instrumental measurements. This warming is in line with predictions of how the climate will change because of the greenhouse effect.

The largest increases in temperatures occurred in Alaska, Siberia and the Antarctic peninsula. Over the past 50 years, these polar regions have warmed by much more than the global average. One impact of this warming was highlighted in a recent study of the permafrost in Alaska, which revealed that the frozen ground is thawing and turning into puddles and ponds. The fear is that the waterlogged ground will encourage the peaty soil to release methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, driving global temperatures even higher.

Although Alaska is now in the grip of an intense freeze, elsewhere in the Arctic summer-like temperatures are being reported. The Norwegian islands of Svalbard, which lie deep inside the Arctic Circle. about 1,000km (600 miles) from the North Pole, are the most northerly populated place in the world. The average temperature so far this month has been minus 2C (29F), about 13C (24F) higher than normal. And Jan Mayen, an Arctic island north of Iceland, reported an astonishing record high of 9C (49F) last Wednesday.

Source: Times Online

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January 31, 2006 By Paul Simons

THERE was great relief last week in northern Italy, where heaps of snow fell at Sestriere, in the Alps near Turin.

This is the site of the coming Winter Olympics, starting on February 10, and where, despite some freezing temperatures, the winter has been unusually dry until now. The snow this month has been almost half its normal depth, and the Olympics organisers have been trying frantically to revive the ski runs using artificial snow sprayed from snow cannons.

However, on Friday a vicious storm drove snow and strong winds across Western Europe. The fresh snowfalls revived Sestriere, with upper slopes now 70cm deep in snow, and lower slopes with 30cm. But the heavy snows also paralysed road traffic across northern Italy. In France, winds gusted to around 110km/h (70mph) and heavy snows closed the airport at Toulouse in the south. The heavy snowfalls also resulted in avalanches that killed five people in the French Alps over the weekend. Large parts of Spain also got covered in snow and northern Portugal was on an extreme weather alert with sub-zero temperatures. It is too early yet to give a reliable weather forecast for the period over the Olympics. However, high pressure has re-exerted control over northern Italy, giving some brilliant sunshine, with freezing temperatures preserving the recent snowfalls.

From Times Online

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February 1, 2006 By Paul Simons

IMAGINE a tsunami of ice rising up out of the sea and crashing on land with slabs of ice as large as a car. This was the terrifying sight last Tuesday, January 24, when the Arctic Ocean erupted with a surge of thick ice that smashed on to a coastal road in Barrow, Northern Alaska. Blocks of ice were hurled up to 75m (250ft) inland and piled up into a wall of ice reaching 12m (40ft) high for miles along the coast. Fortunately the ice attack happened late at night and no one was injured.

The native Inuit of Alaska call these violent ice surges "ivus". They are among the Arctic's most feared natural phenomena and have resulted in fatalities. However, they happen rarely, with certain combinations of wind and ocean currents. In Tuesday's event, strong winds from Russia and ocean currents pushed pack-ice southwards, forcing it onshore at Barrow. The winds have died down now and the danger of further ivus has subsided. Interestingly, global warming probably helped to avoid significant damage. Much of the ice last week was fairly new and 1m (3ft) thick at most. But in the days before global warming made a significant impact on the Arctic, the ice offshore was older and much thicker — the last ivu in 1978 struck with ice 3.5m (12ft) thick and thrust more than 135m (450ft) inland.

From TIMES ONLINE

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February 2, 2006 By Paul Simons

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright,

Winter will have another flight,

But if it be dark with clouds and rain,

Winter is gone, and will not come again.

TODAY is Candlemas Day, when folklore says that the weather predicts what the remainder of winter will be like. There may be some truth in this, at least in the short term. A sunny winter's day is often cold from a high-pressure system, whereas grey skies often come with milder air from an Atlantic depression. Hence another saying:

When the cat lies in the sun in February

She will creep behind the stove in March.

This means that if the weather is fine and frosty at the beginning of February, more winter lies ahead next month. Candlemas Day marks the end of the three months with the lowest daily amounts of energy from sunlight. For the next three months solar heating grows significantly stronger, bringing on spring. This could explain why Candlemas Day folklore is widespread through Europe, and in the US is best known as Groundhog Day. If the groundhog comes out of his burrow and sees his shadow, he is supposed to return to sleep for another six weeks of winter. But if there is no shadow, he stays outside ready for the arrival of spring.

From TIMES ONLINE

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February 3, 2006 By Paul Simons

FORTY years ago today the US launched its first weather forecasting satellite, Essa-1. And by coincidence, on the same day the Soviet Union made the first landing of a spacecraft on the Moon.

The first weather satellite, Tiros, had been launched in 1960, but it could only take snapshots of the Earth and often missed the most interesting or critical weather. Essa-1’s launch marked the first use of satellites for daily forecasting. Essa’s cameras could be pointed at particular areas of the globe and photograph the cloud cover for meteorologists to use. Although those satellite pictures look grainy and crude by today’s standards, in the late 1960s they were a revolution in forecasting, revealing dramatic patterns such as swirling storm clouds and weather fronts. But on February 3, 1966, the world’s attention was gripped by a far more dramatic event further away. The Soviet Union’s Luna 9 unmanned spacecraft landed on the Moon, showing that man-made objects would not sink into the lunar dust, as originally feared. Panoramic views beamed back from Luna 9 showed a landscape peppered with rocks stretching away to a horizon about a mile away. It was a spectacular coup for the Soviets in the space race with the Americans, but in the long run the weather forecasting satellites proved to be far more useful.

From TIMES ONLINE

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February 6, 2006 By Paul Simons

THIS year marks the 150th anniversary of a remarkable achievement by a schoolteacher in Tennessee, who worked out why Britain and many other places in the mid- latitudes are swept by westerly winds.

William Ferrel was the son of a poor farmer who taught himself science from books. He became a schoolteacher but grew fascinated by the world’s wind patterns and in 1856 published an essay on how the atmosphere cycled around the globe in big loops.

Warm, wet air rises at the equator and pushes away high in the sky to around 30 degrees latitude. There it sinks and dries, creating vast deserts such as the Sahara. The air then returns to the tropics as the trade winds or heads off towards the poles. But these winds do not go as the crow flies — they are deflected by the spin of the Earth, creating the prevailing westerlies in the mid-latitudes. The air also rises upwards again at these latitudes and returns to the deserts or heads up to the poles, where it makes a third cycle. The deflection caused by the Earth’s rotation explains how storms spin and winds circle around pressure systems. It is called the Coriolis effect, after a French engineer who worked on spinning machines. The only tribute to Ferrel is the circulation of air in the midlatitudes, the Ferrel Cell.

From TIMES ONLINE

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February 7, 2006 By Paul Simons

SOMETHING quite extraordinary may be seen over the UK soon: rain is falling after weeks of bone-dry weather. For anyone who may have forgotten the experience, this will involve countless drops of water falling from the sky and it is advisable to carry an umbrella if venturing outdoors.

The change came about when the high pressure that has sat over the UK for so long was barged away by an Atlantic depression. This weather system is sweeping down from the northwest and feeding plenty of wind and rain, with Scotland facing a wintry onslaught. Behind the band of rain, a fresh flow of Arctic air will deliver fresh, chilly temperatures, but also blow away the monotonous grey blanket of cloud and bring sparkling clear skies.

But the threat of drought has not passed. Forecasters are expecting high pressure to become re-established on Thursday, with the return of desert-like conditions. This anticyclone may also drag down some bitterly cold air down the eastern side of the country, similar to conditions seen last month. How will the rest of the month fare? It needs the jet stream, a ribbon of wind several miles high, to punch through the block of high pressure and re-establish an Atlantic wet weather pattern again. How and when this will happen is extremely difficult to say as yet.

From TIMES ONLINE

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February 8, 2006 By Paul Simons

AN ELITE flying corps of pollution inspectors is being recruited by scientists to fight the notorious Los Angeles smog.

Twenty homing pigeons are being equipped with backpacks of pollution sensors, GPS satellite navigation trackers and mobile phones to report on air quality as they fly. The birds will even carry miniature cameras slung around their necks to take aerial pictures.

As the birds fly back to their roost, the sensors will measure nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide levels in the air. The satellite-tracking device follows each bird’s position, and the phone beams back the data every 30 seconds and this is uploaded to a website

Although it might seem that the equipment would be heavy enough to weigh down an albatross, the team of scientists from the University of California, Irvine, are planning to squeeze the components onto a single board. This will be small enough for the birds to carry in a pack weighing no more than 40 grams (1.4oz). But the miniature devices do not come cheap — each pack will cost $250, although the pigeons are being donated. The flock of pigeon wardens will give a picture of air quality for local neighbourhoods to read on the internet The inaugural pigeon flights are planned this August at the International Symposium for the Electronic Arts, to be held in San José, California.

From TIMES ONLINE

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February 9, 2006 By Paul Simons

IF YOU are driving along wooded roads, watch out for frozen squirrels falling from the sky. A survey of motorists’ insurance claims by Norwich Union described how one driver had a frozen squirrel crash through the windscreen and land on the passenger seat. The story sounds unlikely, but the insurers paid up.

In fact, all sorts of frozen animals have fallen from the sky over the years. On May 11, 1894, a gopher turtle 20cm (8in) across encased in ice fell during a hailstorm near Vicksburg, Mississippi. And a South Korean fisherman trawling off the Falkland Islands in 1997 was knocked unconscious by a lump of frozen squid falling from the sky.

In many cases, the animals were probably swept up high in the powerful updrafts of a thundercloud then frozen before falling down to earth. Birds are particularly vulnerable to their wings icing over if caught in a thunderstorm. In January 1978 two frozen pink-footed geese dropped dead in to a garden in Norfolk during a sudden snowstorm. “I thought at first it was a piece of wood off one of the trees”, said an eyewitness in the Eastern Daily Press. Worse befell Stuttgart, Arkansas, in November 1973, when dozens of frozen ducks tumbled out of the sky during a hailstorm, breaking windows and damaging cars. Fowl weather, indeed.

From TIMES ONLINE

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BY PAUL SIMONS

ON SUNDAY New York had its biggest snowfall since records began in 1869. A blizzard dropped 68cm (27in) of snow, lit up by bursts of lightning and driven by winds reaching around 100kph (60mph).

The storm came as a greater shock because the city had been enjoying a mild winter. The storm developed as cold air flooded down from the Arctic and encountered warm, moist air off the Atlantic.

The resulting blizzard was reminiscent of the notorious snowstorm of March 1888. New York had been basking in balmy temperatures when Arctic air rushed in and snow fell furiously.

Within hours the city was reduced to a frozen hell as tram, phone and power lines collapsed under the weight of snow, and commuters desperately sought refuge in hotels, bars and even jails. Two hundred people died, some of them blown over in the street and buried in snowdrifts. Others became hysterical, possibly suffering from hypothermia, while thousands more suffered exposure and frostbite.

For three days, storm-force winds, up to 5ft of snow and sub-zero temperatures paralysed the eastern seaboard of the US. The damage was so extensive that New York and many other cities decided to replace much of their elevated train systems with underground networks.

Link to Weather Eye source

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By Paul Simons

“Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never

Remember to have heard.”

Shakespeare, King Lear

WHAT a relief to see the return of wet weather after weeks of desert-like conditions. Normal service has been resumed as westerlies stream in from the Atlantic with weather fronts dropping downpours over the UK. These depressions have lifted temperatures, as they feed in mild air off the North Atlantic Drift, generally known as the Gulf Stream.

To say we need this rain is an understatement. Southern and eastern regions have endured their second winter drought in successive years, and heavy rains are needed to make up the shortfall and avoid a drought later this year.

Another striking feature of this winter has been the absence of storms. Apart from a few gales glancing over the North West, and particularly Scotland, most of the country has faced very few strong winds for months.

The lack of wind and the dry conditions have been due to anticyclones — high pressure systems that became stuck in the same area, diverting depressions away from the UK. And what happened to the long-predicted cold winter? Temperatures from December to February have been around average — which makes all the fuss over a bitterly cold winter look like a storm in a teacup.

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.

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By Paul Simons

GERMANY, Austria and Denmark are the latest countries to report wild swans infected with the avian flu virus). The swans had been driven south by the bitter cold in Northern and Central Europe — on Monday, for example, temperatures in Minsk, Belarus, fell to minus 13C (8F). These reports have renewed concern that birds carrying the potentially lethal H5N1 strain of flu virus, might migrate to the UK.

However, the migration of the wild swans may ease now that temperatures are rising slightly in Central Europe — while in most of Western Europe it is relatively mild.

But health officials involved in tracking cases of bird flu must now consider the patterns of birds’ spring migration routes, some of which are altering because of climate change.

Recent winters in Britain have tended to be so mild that unprecedented numbers of warblers, blackcaps and chiffchaffs have given up flying to warmer climes and are staying at home over winter. For instance, 40 years ago the blackcap migrated from Germany to Africa for the winter. But now many of these birds fly instead to Britain, so in spring they have a shorter return journey to Germany. This means that they can establish themselves in the best breeding territories in the spring before the return of the the blackcaps that migrate to Africa.

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.

[Kiwi]

The impending easterly might bring a bit more than grey skies and a bit of sleet and snow!!

I'd have thought it quite likely that an infected bird is likely to hitch a ride on a fresh easterly and reach the UK from Denmark or N Germany without too many snags. :unsure:

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By Paul Simons

SKIERS in Europe can expect mixed fortunes this weekend. A big change in the weather has delivered fresh snows over most of Europe’s mountain ranges — even Scottish ski resorts have had some decent snowfalls after a disappointing winter. The bad news is that temperatures are so high that rain has fallen on many lower slopes and turned them slushy.

For several weeks Europe has been under the thumb of “blocking” anticyclones. These are so named from the way a strong area of high pressure blocks the path of depressions, preventing much rain or snow getting through. But the wet and windy weather that battered the UK last week has punched through and is sweeping through Europe.

This has refreshed the slopes at the Winter Olympics near Turin, but spectators will be straining for a good view as low cloud and snow reduce visibility. And, as with the rest of the Alps, high temperatures have turned lower slopes heavy from wet snow or rain. But spring is not here quite yet. Much colder air is likely to invade Britain as a low pressure system tracks southwards through the English Channel, dragging cold air down from northern Europe. Weather fronts embedded in this depression will deliver more rain, with the possibility of some sleet or snow in southeast England on Monday.

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.

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By Paul Simons

FOR years, strange lights were seen occasionally over the tops of thunderclouds at night. A report published in 1886 reported that “continuous darts of light . . . ascended to a considerable altitude, resembling rockets more than lightning”. In recent times, airline pilots reported seeing lightning shooting upwards from clouds, but because the phenomena were never caught on film, the scientific community generally ignored them.

However, in 1989 scientists were testing a special low-light video camera designed for recording images of stars, when they recorded a peculiar “upward lightning flash”. Cameras on board the space shuttle were trained on thunderstorms and they, too, recorded bursts of lightning shooting upwards.

The phenomenon was called a “sprite”. It is an electrical discharge, generated by powerful thunderstorms, that bursts up above the thundercloud just as a lightning bolt strikes the Earth below. Sprites are usually red, shaped like a carrot, turnip, or jellyfish and soar up to 95km (60 miles) high, often raining down “tentacles” to about 30km. But because they last less time than the blink of an eye they are difficult to see. Sprites have been recently captured on film by researchers using an ultra-high-speed camera and reveal a giant undulating “jellyfish” with its “tentacles”. An example can be seen at http://quicktime.oit.duke.edu/news/sprites.mp4..

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.

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By Paul Simons

THE big talking point in February 20 years ago was the bitterly cold weather. Indeed, this month in 1986 turned out to be one of the coldest Februaries of the past century.

The month began ominously when parts of the Midlands were hit by an ice storm that coated everything on the ground with thick ice, turning roads into skating rinks and bringing down power lines at Buxton, Derbyshire.

Over the next three weeks there were regular outbursts of sleet and snow, temperatures plunged and, on February 21, Elmdon, near Solihull, recorded minus 11C (12F). On February 27, the lowest temperature of the month in the UK was minus 21.2C (-6.2F) at Grantown-on-Spey in the Highlands.

The big freeze came from biting easterly winds fed from a high-pressure system over northern Europe — a “blocking” high so-called because it blocked the path of depressions, mostly mild and wet low pressure systems off the Atlantic. Not a single bout of Atlantic weather broke through during the entire month, leaving many parts of western Britain bone-dry and clear. But the cold February of 1986 did not confirm the truth of the old saw: “If February give much snow, A fine summer it doth foreshow.” The summer turned increasingly cold and wet, with the wettest August Bank Holiday on record.

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.

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By Paul Simons

“AS THE days grow longer, the cold grows stronger,” goes an old saying, and certainly it has come true this week. Spring feels tantalisingly close as the daylight hours grow noticeably longer, but a bitter northeasterly wind is sending a raw chill as an anticyclone sweeps down cold air from northern Europe.

In fact, this is typical weather for the end of February. The seas surrounding the British Isles are reaching their coldest of the year, and the sunshine is still too weak to lift temperatures appreciably. As winter progresses there tend also to be more outbreaks of northerly or easterly cold winds.

Last February was particularly bad, when Arctic air flooded the country. Outbreaks of snow hit the eastern side of Britain with blizzards on February 23-25. The cold weather continued to the end of the month and heavy snow swept across Kent and parts of Sussex. Road gritters were out in force, and snowploughs were needed to clear many roads in East Kent, where up to 15 cm (6in) of snow fell. Anticyclones also made February 2005 very dry, particularly in the South, where Portsmouth recorded just 8mm (0.3in) precipitation. And despite the showers yesterday and last week, we could be facing an even worse drought this month as the long run of dry weather continues in southern and eastern regions.

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.

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By Paul Simons

THE men’s curling contest has been one of Britain’s best hopes for a medal at the Winter Olympics, and some of their success is owed to a group of scientists studying how things slip and slide on ice.

Curling involves sliding a big polished stone on ice towards a target zone, while team members sweep a path in front of the stone to speed it on its way. The sweeping creates friction that melts the ice slightly to create a thin film of water on which the stone glides.

Scientists at University of Edinburgh helped the curlers to brush up their sweeping technique by developing a gadget for measuring how hard they were pushing against the ice.

Then the scientists looked in great detail at what was happening to the ice using a high-powered microscope. They found that the temperature of the ice plays a crucial role in how objects slide across its surface.

At around -5C (23F), friction creates ripples in the ice surface as some of the ice melts and then refreezes quickly. But at colder temperatures, at around -23C (-9F), the ice surface starts to crack up. These results may help to design better skis and ice skates, which can slide better. In contrast, tyres and shoes might be made with a better grip on ice, and the scientists are working now with Ford and Jaguar to improve anti-lock braking systems for cars.

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.

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By Paul Simons

TODAY is St Matthias’s Day, a crucial date in the old agricultural calendar, when signs of spring were watched for. If it was mild: “St Mattie sends sap into the tree”, although the weather could change: “Matthias will break the ice when he finds any, and will make some when he finds none.”

However, winter could hang on if it was cold on this day, as this chilling saying described: “If it freezes on St Matthias’s Day, it will freeze for a month together.”

Perhaps there is some truth in this, because anticyclones often become stuck over northern Europe at this time of year, bringing cold snaps to Britain. This is the driving force behind our current cold spell. An anticyclone stretching over Scandinavia is feeding down very cold air, and shows every sign of hanging on for the rest of the month. This might explain why the nights in late February used to be called “steel nights” in Sweden, because of their cutting severity. In Roman times, today was also the date for adding a leap day. The Romans referred to February 23 as the 6th day before the beginning of March, and the extra day inserted on February 24 was called the “second sixth” day, or “bissextile day” in a “bissextile year” (leap year). But it seems to be sheer coincidence that the weather forecasts of St Matthias also fell on this date.

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.

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Today's column is dedicated to I Can't Believe It's Not Better

By Paul Simons

ONE OF the strange things about public weather forecasts is the way Celsius is used for temperatures but wind speed is given in miles per hour. This is one of many glaring anomalies that the UK Metric Association points out in a report urging the use of kilometres on road signs, ready for the 2012 Olympics (report, February 23).

In fact, the British have mistrusted the metre ever since it was devised after the French Revolution. Two French astronomers had proposed basing a metre on the length of a meridian from the North Pole to the equator, a 90-degree slice of the Earth’s circumference, then dividing that by ten million.

However, it was impossible to survey the distance between the North Pole and the equator — for one thing, no one had ever been to the North Pole. So they planned to measure only a significant piece of a meridian and calculate the rest.

By sheer luck, there was an ideal line from Dunkirk to Barcelona, which covers about a tenth of the distance required. But the work was made highly dangerous by the French Revolution, and the scientists with their arcane instruments on top of high points were often arrested as spies. After seven years of gruelling surveying the length of the metre was confirmed in 1799, though needless to say, Britain, at war with France, wished to have nothing to do with it

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.

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By Paul Simons

WINTER seems to be tightening its grip across the UK, as bitterly cold winds drive straight down from the depths of the Arctic. But it was only a fortnight ago that spring plants were starting to bloom, so when will spring return?

If the pattern of the past two years is repeated, spring may not reappear for another fortnight or so. In both 2004 and 2005, the last half of February was freezing cold, with frequent bouts of snow, and it took until the middle of March before the country finally shook off the winter.

It is difficult to say whether the same pattern will repeat itself this year, but it is remarkable how similar February has turned out so far.

Perhaps there is a silver lining to this weather: “February fill dyke, be it black or be it white; But if it be white, it’s better to like.”

This piece of folklore means that snow (“white”) is better than rain (“black”), taken to mean that a fine spring and summer will follow, although there is little evidence for this. Another interpretation has some science to it, though. February is one of the driest months of the year for much of the UK, and filling a dyke is important for soaking the ground ready for springtime. This February we need the dykes filled more than usual to avoid serious drought in the South.

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.

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By Paul Simons

THIS has been a strange winter. Early December was so mild that it seemed like an extra autumn as trees hung on to their leaves, but just after Christmas a bout of snow reminded everyone what winter can feel like. However, January and February passed off fairly quietly, despite the freeze across much of Europe that brought huge snowfalls there. But now, just when it seemed that spring was round the corner, a savage spell of snowy weather is about to descend from the Arctic this week.

Winter in the US has been even more spectacular. January broke the record books for unseasonally high temperatures, with Chicago soaring to 10C (50F). The warmth and humidity set off thunderstorms and tornados across many Midwest states, while winter cereal crops suffered in the heat. The bizarre conditions spread north to Alaska and Canada and the organisers of the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race were forced to shorten it because of lack of snow, in a winter that has been warmer and drier than usual. But on February 12 a surge of Arctic air flooded much of the US and set off a massive snowstorm. New York was hit particularly hard and broke its snowfall record with 68cm (27in) snow in Central Park, while on February 19 many places in the US broke their coldest records for the month.

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.

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By Paul Simons

MARCH can be a cruel month. With one foot in winter and the other in spring, the weather can switch dramatically — as the old proverb goes: “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.”

This is also a very deceptive month. It may feel like springtime as the early mornings and evenings grow lighter, but blasts of Arctic air can sweep down over cold seas, picking up moisture on the way to produce the sort of snow showers that we are seeing this week.

In fact, it usually snows every March somewhere in Britain, and sometimes quite heavily. Only last year the month got off to a frozen start, with sleet or snow in many eastern regions.

On March 2 the snow fell thickly over a wide area of northeastern and southern England and more than 15cm (6in) fell in Kent and Sussex, closing dozens of schools. Traffic was in chaos across much of London and the Home Counties, stranding motorists for hours on treacherous roads, with many bus and train services cancelled. Fresh snow fell early on March 4, but much of it melted later in the day, and another bout of snow showers hit the South East on the 6th. It was not until March 15 that the whole of the UK was free of winter, as spring swept in on a warm southwesterly breeze.

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.

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By Paul Simons

ON this day in 1963 Halifax Town FC opened its pitch as a public ice rink after the ground became completely frozen into a sheet of thick ice.

This was during the long hard winter of 1962-63, when so many football matches were cancelled that the Football Pools Panel was set up to judge what the scores might have been.

In fact, March can often be a cruel month for football, and not just for frozen pitches. On March 9, 2002, football fans at Birmingham City narrowly avoided injury when part of the stadium’s roof was blown off by a howling gale during the game — a chunk of the corrugated- iron roof crashed down just in front of a row of seats, and it was pure good fortune that no one was injured. The game ended in a 2-2 draw with Wolves.

On March 20, 2004, ferocious winds lashed football matches across England and Wales. At Arsenal turnstiles had to be closed when gale- force winds turned them into wind tunnels.

Many games suffered swirling winds that sent footballs soaring like balloons and gave an unexpected hand in many of the goals that afternoon. Goalkeepers had a nerve-racking time, none more so than the Watford goalie, who was about to take a kick when a gust suddenly swept the ball to an Ipswich Town striker, who scored. Watford lost 4-1.

Link to TIMES ONLINE - Weather Eye source.