SATSIGS

[summer blizzard]

Oviously i cannot give out an official warning, as that is left to Strattos Ferric, but given his absence, i am putting out a level 1 alert unoficially.

Ramping is to be expected all over Scotland, extending as far south as Carlisle, expect ramping over the next few days with the possibility of ramping extending into the West Midlands. Ramping levels are expected to increase over the next few days and are already bordering on level 2. Should Pete Tattum not be burried under several inches of snow, he and several others should be placed under quarantine in the Rampton hospital as will several others.

Ramping is very contagious and spreads fast, please take care when entering the model discussion zone.

[frozen_north]

Oviously i cannot give out an official warning, as that is left to Strattos Ferric, but given his absence, i am putting out a level 1 alert unoficially.

Ramping is to be expected all over Scotland, extending as far south as Carlisle, expect ramping over the next few days with the possibility of ramping extending into the West Midlands. Ramping levels are expected to increase over the next few days and are already bordering on level 2. Should Pete Tattum not be burried under several inches of snow, he and several others should be placed under quarantine in the Rampton hospital as will several others.

Ramping is very contagious and spreads fast, please take care when entering the model discussion zone.

I'll second that motion.

[Roger J Smith]

The climate of Fantasy Island is quite fascinating. Although FI is at the same latitude as Great Britain, it experiences a much colder winter.

Reasons for this cold winter can be found in the unusual atmospheric dynamics at work over the Fantasy Sea and Improbable Ocean. Strong northerlies have little problem maintaining an arctic chill as they create a surface inversion that prevents the Rapidly Shutting Down Current from having the sort of rapid modifying influence that keeps Scotland so mild despite its high latitude. Evidently the Gulf Stream is much more reliable than the RSDC. Meanwhile, easterly winds often howl across the Fantasy Sea and blanket Fantasy Island with 10-20 cm snowfalls, building up the sort of base that has made the Alternate Pennines one of Pretend Europe's leading ski resorts. This can be blamed on the much stronger highs that regularly form over the glaciated expanses of the Arctic Zone north of not'Copenhagen, which is a forward base for glacial research and tracking the ubiquitous polar bear of Fantasy Europe.

Low pressure systems come screaming in from the Improbable Ocean from time to time, creating the ideal synoptics for frontal snowfall events that make heavily populated southeast Fantasy Island come to a virtual standstill and regularly coat the southwest with the white stuff. Subtropical vegetation is only found in southern Ivebeeria and there only on south-facing slopes protected from the harsh northerlies that regularly sweep in from the icy Gulf of Biscuits.

Even westerlies can bring huge snowfalls to Fantasy Island. It is a wonder that commerce has managed to survive at all, given the harsh conditions, not to mention the frequent 40 degree heat waves in the long, hot summer of Fantasy Island.

Little wonder that my parents chose to leave Fantasy Island in 1957.

[JJB McCabe-deluxe edition]

I am formally calling for a SATSIG level 2 alert to protect the fens. Many would argue the discussions on the model thread would only earn a stage one but my attention has been drawn to places such as the Lesta area and Herts which are definately up to stage 2. I shall now check the weather rod to see if the shrimps on the end of it have turned blue, a sure sign snow is on the way.

JJB

[WhiteFox]

May I be an honorary SATSIGS member from the US? If so, can I nominate this from the venerable Joe laminate floori?

It is getting darn cold in western Canada..... Widespread and out-of-season cold may take over the pattern next week.

It's coming in pulses as it often does.....by the weekend the first in a series of number-busting cold shots is on the way.

....However, it will be next week that things may really get very cold.

Edited November 8, 2006 by WhiteFox

[Evo]

I happen to have spotted a cheeky ramp from a well respected forecaster in a certain general chat area that, in the wrong hands, could easily push the SATSIGS needle off the scale. Batten down the hatches SF

[Supercell]

Definite signs of rampitudinal waves beginning to emanate from the model discussion.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

Time for a ramp raid?

[Stratos Ferric]

May I be an honorary SATSIGS member from the US? If so, can I nominate this from the venerable Joe laminate floori?

Trying to accommodate on the map last year strange ripples from the colonies was a very irritating distraction, but nonetheless amusing. I think canada may well get a mention on the update.

[Stratos Ferric]

SATSiGS RAMP WARNING

SATSiGS 1 - actual: location NE England

SATSiGS can report the first RAMP of the season. Early indication as of a level 1 event emanating from Co. Durham at 1330h 061111. This event was a near-time call for snow despite local temperatures being too high for snow, probably even in Telford.

At this stage it would appear that the Mysterious zone of Sound Northern Thinking (MzSNT) moved very quickly, and in well co-ordinated fashion, to prevent any ripple effect, though SATSiGS will obviously continue to monitor this situation.

SATSiGS RAMP WATCH

Tantalising, though distant, promise of a polar incursion continues to be offered by GFS. If this continues it might land by March, and in the meantime some wild ramps cannot be dscounted. All should continue to watch for RAMP alerts, RAMP warning and, potentially, severe ramp warnings.

[russh]

SATSiGS RAMP WARNING

Very Impressed the first of the season

[The Eagle]

If I can just make an observation - Im wondering what this SATSIGs has to do with the weather. It appears to me its more to do with certain posters aiming to make fools out of those who incorrectly forecast a cold snap. I can see where this is going later on in the season.

[Rustynailer]

From what i have seen of STATSIGs i would call it the "I've got news for you" of Netweather. Sort of commenting on the high drama and ramping, cool

Edited November 11, 2006 by Rustynailer

[acbrixton]

Splendid stuff....can I be a sort of part time SW London spotter? I will allow you to call me PIPSQUEAK (Putney Implies Pathetic Snow Quantity Under Even Arctic...um...Konditions).

Incidentally, since there are so many over educated grown-ups in this not-so-secret-society, are we allowed to be (occasionally) pedantic without being accused of discouraging the youngsters.....and if so, can I point out, Stratos, that the acute accent in 'ingenue' is on the middle 'e', not the final one? And can we also be allowed to make lighthearted, even affectionate jibes without the absolute necessity of putting a smiley in to show we're not really being horrid? Woops, that didn't last long.

I rather think that SATSIG cannot have too many monitors: I was glad to have been co-opted last winter (my proudest moment being the reporting of a reference to a "sleet blizzard"). It is clear to me that for rather obvious reasons there is also a zone of Sound Metropolitan Thinking in and around London (there are, as always, exceptions mainly on the Kentish fringes: Mr Murr and Snowraven).

Quite agree re the smileys (but beware that if one types the letter "b" within round brackets the result is a hideous "smiley").

Regards

ACB

[Stratos Ferric]

If I can just make an observation - Im wondering what this SATSIGs has to do with the weather. It appears to me its more to do with certain posters aiming to make fools out of those who incorrectly forecast a cold snap. I can see where this is going later on in the season.

If SATSiGS instrumentation ever picks up a ramping forcast (sic) that turns into an accurate forecast then you can be the first to recalibrate our kit.

I spend my life dealing with far weightier matters than the weather, and I am often at pains to point out to my staff and colleagues that in our line of work lives are not ended, people don't die. And those matters are far weightier than the weather, evn on the most technically engaged chat room (no disrespect, but N-W is not that).

At the end of the day this thread, like all others, will only survive because the democracy of these chatrooms allows it to; but whether it is tolerated, embraced, or eschewed, one thing is clear - the weather will do what the weather does; no lives will end, nobody will die because of all the technobabble on here. If we cannot keep a sense of perspective, if we take ourselves too seriously, if we cannot occasionally look at ourselves and laugh, then we are missing the point, and the world will be a duller place because of it.

Given that the first snow for some of us NW members may occur between 2 minutes and 2 centuries from now I would be grateful if someone, perhaps even SF himself, could direct me to the SATSIGS official snow ruler website. Given that the most snow I have ever experienced is a vast 3mm, I would be appreciative if this year at least I can measure a dusting accurately...

I would hate to mistake a blanket of snow for a frost.

Kind regards...

More power to your ruler calibration. Not sure where this weighty tome was stored - last year it was pinned above the winter thread. Beter check with head prefect on this one: OON - are you there?

[Supercell]

Stratos,

What is your take on hail as wintry precipitation ?

[Stratos Ferric]

I rather think that SATSIG cannot have too many monitors: I was glad to have been co-opted last winter (my proudest moment being the reporting of a reference to a "sleet blizzard"). It is clear to me that for rather obvious reasons there is also a zone of Sound Metropolitan Thinking in and around London (there are, as always, exceptions mainly on the Kentish fringes: Mr Murr and Snowraven).

Quite agree re the smileys (but beware that if one types the letter "b" within round brackets the result is a hideous "smiley").

Regards

ACB

Far be it from me to agree with any comments regarding with people with "snow" in their moniker - even though, as has been proven previously by rigorous analysis, there is a correlation between wintry references and hopecasting.

I have to say, around the W / SW of London - where coincidentally I lived for several years, but of course that is ENTIRELY coincidental - there is something of a mysterious zone of sound thinking, which is clearly displaced from the north. We do need to agree on a name before we can chart it - as you say, VERY VERY carefully - on the map. What about the Peculiar zone of sound thinking displaced to West London from the north - it's a bit of a mouthful, but as WB would tell you, that's not always a bad thing.

Stratos,

What is your take on hail as wintry precipitation ?

Is this a mischievious trick question?

I'd say it's wintery in winter, and not when it's not winter. It may also depend on who's shouting about it of course. Soft hail (Graupel) is ALWAYS wintry though.

[Supercell]

Is this a mischievious trick question?

I'd say it's wintery in winter, and not when it's not winter. It may also depend on who's shouting about it of course. Soft hail (Graupel) is ALWAYS wintry though.

Hmm...It is just I have struggled to draw a line between wintry hail and the hail that typifies convectional conditions.

[Stratos Ferric]

Hmm...It is just I have struggled to draw a line between wintry hail and the hail that typifies convectional conditions.

Convective conditions on a cold day will clearly have you in a fit of the vapours then?

I'm just looking for the official SATSIGS calibration. I wouldn't like to make last year's mistake of confusing a single half-melted snowflake for almost a foot of snow which persisted for over a week. Please help this George Bushinaramous.

Now I think about it, last year it was pinned it the admin above the snow reports thread.

[Supercell]

Convective conditions on a cold day will clearly have you in a fit of the vapours then?

Absolutely...as will fog.

[Stratos Ferric]

=======================

SATSIGS ALERT

=======================

SATSIGs has detected a ramp event, epicentre around Peterborough, at around 21:06 this evening. Early indications are that on the ramping scale this ramp came in at about 1.8.

The ramp took the form of some bold forecasting of the forthcoming winter going down in the annals alongside "47, 63, 79...".

Peterborough is a well known hot spot for ramping, and at this stage SATSIGs is predicting a continuation of recent rampoptics in this region.

Edited November 17, 2006 by Stratos Ferric

[AtlanticFlamethrower]

=======================

SATSIGS ALERT

=======================

SATSIGs has detected a ramp event, epicentre around Peterborough, at around 21:06 this evening. Early indications are that on the ramping scale this ramp came in at about 1.8.

The ramp took the form of some bold forecasting of the forthcoming winter going down in the annals alongside "47, 63, 79...".

Peterborough is a well known hot spot for ramping, and at this stage SATSIGs is predicting a continuation of recent rampoptics in this region.

There must be a faultline in the area because I believe the same was said last year and the year before.

A cursory glance through my Introduction to Rampnomics 49th edition by Will B. Snow suggests this is possibly due to heightened forecasting movements in the media and meterological community at this time of year which results in a release of ramp. Similar minor events may be expected to reoccur every November until 2011 when, due to a mysterious 16 year rule, there is a much larger ramp.

Edited November 17, 2006 by AtlanticFlamethrower

[TEITS]

There must be a faultline in the area because I believe the same was said last year and the year before.

A cursory glance through my Introduction to Rampnomics 49th edition by Will B. Snow suggests this is possibly due to heightened forecasting movements in the media and meterological community at this time of year which results in a release of ramp. Similar minor events may be expected to reoccur every November until 2011 when, due to a mysterious 16 year rule, there is a much larger ramp.

Ironic though isn't it how excited the members of this forum have become at the prospects of an E,ly especially after the E,ly outbreaks during Dec/Feb these past few winters.

Didn't some say the E,lys in winter were extinct when I first joined this forum :o

[AtlanticFlamethrower]

Ironic though isn't it how excited the members of this forum have become at the prospects of an E,ly especially after the E,ly outbreaks during Dec/Feb these past few winters.

Didn't some say the E,lys in winter were extinct when I first joined this forum :blink:

I can't answer that. :blink:

However scanning the last chapter of Introduction to Rampnomics Prof. Snow speculates there may exist an heretofore undiscovered elementary anti-ramp force which one researcher in the field has dubbed "the wimp." It is measured on the SATSINGs scale, of course.

[The Enforcer]

Didn't some say the E,lys in winter were extinct when I first joined this forum

It's true that there have been easterlies in the last two winters, but in relation to the likes of 1987 and 1991, the fact remains that they have delivered very little in terms of snow amounts or longevity.

Edited November 17, 2006 by The Enforcer