Wales - Regional Weather Discussion

[SnowStorm(Jamie)]

Got down to -0.5C at 7am this morning here in Swansea with a slight frost. Was nice to see the first frost of the autumn here.

[mikeocarroll]

Seems like the whole of Wales was pretty cold last night. Got down to -5.1c at 5.35am last night but then some cloud cover came over so not as cold as further north and/or west. Tried to take some pics this morning but camera batteries died. Will make sure I'm better prepared next time!

9.2c here at the moment - today's max so far. Has been pretty cool through the daytime though, felt a lot more wintry than of late. Cosy indoors!

[Stevetynant]

"Got down to -5.1c at 5.35am last night" wow that is real winter weather -still to break zero here in the Rhymney Valley this winter

[Coast]

WALES has amassed almost 200,000 tonnes of grit salt to keep the nation moving through the festive period in the event of another arctic winter. But doubts were cast last night on whether this would be enough to guard against the sort of weather that brought the country to a halt at the end of last year. Warnings of temperatures as low as -20C have been issued by some long-range forecasters for this winter. If this is the case, it will follow two arctic winters in which parts of Wales came to a complete standstill in temperatures that fell to -19C and were marked by widespread ice and snow.

The severe weather blocked roads, closed hundreds of schools, businesses and retail centres and left many festive travellers stranded at airports and train stations. According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) last year’s Big Freeze cost theUK economy between £600m and £1bn per day. Some councils were just days away from running out of grit salt last December, relying on last minute deliveries from abroad after crisis meetings were held.

But a spokesperson for the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) said there is confidence that salt stocks would be sufficient for the coming winter. He said the WLGA had collected around 190,000 tonnes of grit salt in September with little or none used since. It had amassed around 170,000 tonnes by this time last year. “Local authorities have stocked up on salt and are in a very strong position as we enter the winter period,†the spokesman said. “The steps that have been taken will ensure councils have greater resilience should there be another prolonged period of cold weather. “

But Paul Watters, spokesman for the AA, said: “That doesn’t sound like a huge amount extra, especially as individual local authorities in England have ordered up to 5,000 tonnes more. “I would like to think that the Welsh Government will have strategic stockpiles with which to replenish local authority supplies like the Highways Agency does in England. “The problem is that the system in Wales is quite complex with local authorities sharing responsibility with maintenance companies on some trunk roads. “The thousand dollar question is whether when councils call on more stocks they will be available.â€

Last January, Cardiff council leaders were criticised for their handling of the worst winter weather for 30 years. Official council figures showed how at the height of the cold snap before Christmas the authority came perilously close to running out of salt and how many roads went without grit for long periods. On December 20 and 21, as retailers warned that the chaos was putting livelihoods at risk, the council had just 200 tonnes of salt left after a delivery from Tunisia was delayed until January.

A Cardiff council spokesperson said: “Following an independent review of the council’s handling of the snow an action plan identified a number of measures for improving the resilience of the council and communities to future snow events that the council has acted upon. “The service is prepared to robustly deal with any potential extreme weather. “Cardiff council currently has 4,067 tonnes of salt in store. “A further 3,000 tonnes of salt is due to be delivered this month for storage.â€

Carmarthenshire council said it had 16,500 tonnes of salt in storage.

http://www.walesonli.../#ixzz1d6IoGekP

[mikeocarroll]

Quite a wet day across Wales today. We've only 10mm so far today here but much more on the way looking at the radar, and some areas have had some reasonable accumulations. It's 9 rain days out of 11 here for November so far.

[keithlucky]

Seems the met office are now falling in with the forecasts on other sites turning significantly colder last week of november ,interesting that it was mentioned on bbc how cold it is over eastern europe.

[A.J]

A wet evening for East Wales and the West midlands as a quite active weather front passed through, persistent heavy rain for about 2 hours giving the garden quite a soaking

[TonyH]

Guide to the weeks weather, west Wales and the Midlands: Sunday 13th to Saturday 19th November

Headline: Mostly dry and fairly mild, unsettled later.

Sunday and Monday should be very mild and mostly dry still with some sunshine, what with the UK between high pressure over Europe and low to the west - much as for the past month!

Temperatures as high as 16c on Sunday.

Subtle changes early in the week as the wind comes around more from the South-east to east, meaning it will cool off and feel quite chilly even during Tuesday and Wednesday, temperatures down to close to the average of 10c Should it clear at night, a touch of frost is possible, although it looks like there should be enough breeze to prevent this for most.

From Thursday the trough of low pressure is close enough to western Britain to bring the threat of rain for Wales, but the Midlands will stay dry. On Friday and Saturday the GFS model has a more vigorous low approaching Scotland bringing bands of rain or showers across all parts and strengthening South-west winds,while with ECM a complex low sits close to Ireland which would still mean unsettled weather to end the week, but milder than GFS would have us.

[TonyH]

Well I am in the Midlands now but am astounded at the temperatures this morning across Wales! 15c in places at 8am, its going to be a lovely day and exceptionally warm, 20c somewhere?!

[TonyH]

A sunny 17c back home in Ceredigion, can anyone top this?

[Cwmbran Eira]

_{Just hit 18C in the car here in Cwmbran. Not the most accurate of readings I know. Better than my ill positioned outside thermometer though}

_{It's telling me 25c at the moment. It's basking in direct sun light. Been meaning to move it for a while}

[SnowStorm(Jamie)]

Indeed certainly impressive high temperatures for the time of year. Looking at the Met Office latest observations it shows Valley @ 17.9c!

Taking a look at the Met Office Fax chart for today below we can see why we are getting this warm weather:

You can see the Atlantic trough to our west with that blocking high towards our east drawing up South Easterly winds. As we head further in to next week the models show that trough towards our west pushing gradually eastwards towards the UK which would result in more unsettled weather with rain for Wales.

[J10]

It felt springlike outside yesterday, warm, perhaps even balmy.

The best thing as well is that the best days recently have been at the weekend.

[mikeocarroll]

Max of 15.1c here today - very mild but not the super mild that some have been getting. It's a very mild night for the time of year as well, 9.9c here currently.

[andymusic]

Hi folks - hope you've all been enjoying the sunny - mild conditions - thought I'd just touch base - no sign of any real winter weather just yet - but I'm sure it'll be knocking on the door once we get into December!

[alijoe]

Hi folks - hope you've all been enjoying the sunny - mild conditions - thought I'd just touch base - no sign of any real winter weather just yet - but I'm sure it'll be knocking on the door once we get into December!

Hi Andy,,, nice to see you back ;-)

[andymusic]

Hi Andy,,, nice to see you back ;-)

Nice to be back Ali - and amongst my weather friends again - waiting to see what the season will bring us this year - we'll see whether this low solar activity will continue the harsh winters we've been getting - with one again this winter - or will we get a blip and a mild one? The models are giving nothing away at the moment and keeping things fairly mild - so we wait and see!

[alijoe]

Nice to be back Ali - and amongst my weather friends again - waiting to see what the season will bring us this year - we'll see whether this low solar activity will continue the harsh winters we've been getting - with one again this winter - or will we get a blip and a mild one? The models are giving nothing away at the moment and keeping things fairly mild - so we wait and see!

Yes, it is going to be a very interesting rollercoaster I expect. Not looking too good as yet but the one thing with the weather is it will do what it wants to and when it wants too, Cannot believe it has been nearly a year though when we were having our first snow..... omg how time flies. Fingers crossed for another slice of winter in the not too distant future.

[welshwizard]

hi all i also cant get over its been a year since we were all talking about the snow cold etc, i have now moved only 2.2 miles but i am now at a very high m asl so hoping we get a bit ov snow just to ring my mates and say how is it down in the low lands haha. any idea wat the experts thing is going to happen this winter,i know it cannot be done deal but any news from the top guys?

[Blackjack]

There must be a sniff of the white stuff in the air or at least a fleeting glance way out in FI...AndyMusic is here.

I'm glued to the model and winter threads at the moment. I'm quite happy with a mild Nov. Last year was very unusual for Nov and not long after New Year we had no snow and it was mild. Only about 4 - 6 weeks of proper winter.

Gut feeling based on no facts whatsoever......a rapid change to cold temps mid to late Dec and possibly as late and New Year. Then a snow fest through Jan and Feb.

An above average winter just doesn't feel right. Something is brewing out East. Look at all the snow in Russia.

[keithlucky]

Snowed in Holland north and south yesterday not forecasted, December looks wintery ,typically good british weather 15c today could be 4c in 2 weeks .

[SnowStorm(Jamie)]

Certainly a cooler feel out there today as some cooler surface air filtered around that area of high pressure to our East, delivered to us on a South Easterly flow off the continent.

Just been looking at the Met Office observations and i noticed that Lake Vyrnwy only got to 4C at 2pm:

http://www.metoffice...st_weather.html

The lake is surrounded by hills of up to 400m though.

[welshgritter]

I own a scaffolding business and today was absolutely freezing. Pont Henri first thing then Bridgend......really cold..... fleece on.

[J10]

I have posted a synoptic summary for the next 7 days, for the Alpine blog, and this is no cold weather for the foreseeable.

[andymusic]

There must be a sniff of the white stuff in the air or at least a fleeting glance way out in FI...AndyMusic is here.

I'm glued to the model and winter threads at the moment. I'm quite happy with a mild Nov. Last year was very unusual for Nov and not long after New Year we had no snow and it was mild. Only about 4 - 6 weeks of proper winter.

Gut feeling based on no facts whatsoever......a rapid change to cold temps mid to late Dec and possibly as late and New Year. Then a snow fest through Jan and Feb.

An above average winter just doesn't feel right. Something is brewing out East. Look at all the snow in Russia.

I'm here Blackjack, but only to "sign in" - really - there's no sign of any real cold effecting us for the moment - wait another week or so - may be the models will start getting into the Christmas/winter spirit - right now - no show!