2015 – a stay at home year

 Holidays, In the garden, Weather, What I do  No Responses »
Jan 052016
 
2015 - a stay at home year

Despite having over a dozen overseas places on my ‘must visit’ list, 2015 was a year in which I stayed on these shores, unless you count the Channel Islands as abroad. Although outside of the United Kingdom, I don’t regard our annual holiday in Herm as a trip overseas. Holidays Apart from a day trip to Llandudno in April, my first holiday was a repeat trip to the Outer Hebrides, this time on an organised rail and coach trip. The last time I was in the Hebrides, Sandra and I flew there and drove the length of the Isles from Barra to Stornaway. [Read more]

Weather bomb dumps 9 cms of snow on Selston

 Weather  No Responses »
Dec 272014
 
Weather bomb dumps 9 cms of snow on Selston

A weather bomb is defined as an intense low pressure system with a central pressure that falls 24 millibars in a 24-hour period. This phenomenon is known to meteorologists as ‘explosive cyclogenesis’ and often leads to high winds and heavy rain, or snow, if the temperature is low enough. On Boxing Day evening, this is exactly what happened as the ‘bomb’ tracked across North Wales, the North Midlands and South Yorkshire. Unfortunately, the southern edge of the system passed over Bracken House resulting in nine centimetres of snow falling between 17:00 and 02:00 the following morning. The maximum pressure recorded was 1030.0 [Read more]

The Sun goes into reverse – it’s the Winter Solstice.

 Stuff and nonsense, Weather  No Responses »
Dec 212014
 
The Sun goes into reverse - it's the Winter Solstice.

At 22:03 tonight (December 21st 2014), the Sun will shine directly over the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere, which is the southern-most position the Sun reaches before reversing its direction and heading back towards the Northern Hemisphere. This is called the Winter Solstice, or Summer Solstice if you’re reading this in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also the day with the shortest sunlight hours, or longest if you’re in the south. Solstice comes from the Latin solstitium, meaning the Sun stands still.  In the Northern Hemisphere, astronomers and scientists use the December Solstice as the start of the winter [Read more]

Will 2014 have a White Christmas?

 Weather  No Responses »
Dec 052014
 
Will 2014 have a White Christmas?

Around this time of the year, newspapers are awash with weather related stories, after all, weather sells copies. The prospects of a White Christmas is always discussed in these reports, but how likely are we to have one this year? Firstly, we need to decide what the definition of a White Christmas actually is. To most people, it means that snow is falling on to a ground already covered with snow. Robins will be hopping from post to post looking for scraps of food on the surface, while squirrels scratch in the snow looking for previously buried food. Unfortunately for snow-lovers, [Read more]

Weather review – December 2013

 Weather  No Responses »
Jan 022014
 
Weather review - December 2013

December was a remarkable month in which, for the first time, the temperature never dropped below 0°C. Apart from being extremely mild, it was a very windy month, with the highest gust speed record broken, while rainfall was well down on the average. A new barometric pressure low was also set in the month. The average temperature in the month was 5.8°C, compared to the mean of 3.6°C. The highest temperature was 12.8°C recorded on the 16th at 06:39, with the lowest being 0.0°C at 00:20 on the 20th. This was the highest minimum temperature and the highest average temperature [Read more]