Weather 2008

[Martin Baxendale]

I'm starting to despair of ever seeing any decent snowdrops in the garden this season thanks to the awful weather! We've also had nothing but heavy rain  and strong winds since I can't remember when. Plus wet slushy snow on Friday night. And now we're forecast more torrential rain and gales for the rest of the week - plus flood warnings back on the local rivers and the people who were flooded in the summer in Gloucester and Tewkesbury are reportedly sandbagging their homes again in expectation of their second major flood of the year!!

Just about every snowdrop flower that's come up so far has flopped over on weak, drawn-up stems thanks to the low light levels and been flattened into the mud by the rain, wind and snow. One of the drawbacks of gardening on a south-westerly facing hillside is when we get a winter like this all the wind and rain hits us head-on from up the Bristol Channel.

I also put down organic chicken manure pellets round all the snowdrops, which turned to sludge in all the rain and is now splashing them horribly! In normal seasons it's not been a problem, and is a good gentle fertliser that won't burn emerging snowdrop leaves (useful when I forget to put something stronger on during the summer dormancy - which is every year!).

[Casalima]

My river picture isn't nearly as exciting as David's - but it's the highest I've seen the river for a few months. Seagulls 25 km inland, that means something, I believe ... Strange to see the river apparently flowing the "wrong way" because of the strong wind!

[Maggi Young]

That looks a lot colder that 14 degrees, Chloe 
What a pretty church that is.

[David Nicholson]

Local TV weatherman 2230 last night 'If you need to be out and about tomorrow is the day to do it, it will be cool but dry before Thursday and Friday revert to gales and heavy rain likely to continue throughout the weekend'

Good, we said, we'll take a trip to Duchy Nurseries in Cornwall and look at some new Camellias they have.

1030 this morning, black as night, rain coming down in stair-rods and the road outside bearing a strong resemblance to the pictures of the river I posted yesterday; this continued, and then at 1545, Moses like, the black clouds parted, blue sky appeared, before 15 minutes later all was replaced by clouds and rain again.

Mrs N, who shows all signs of becoming 'stir crazy' and has Hoovered, thrice over, all things in sight over the last few days hovered behind me, Hoover in hand. 'I'll Hoover your computer keyboard' she said. She doesn't realise that I have lovingly laid down this bed of biscuit crumbs over the past two years.

Notes to me:-
1. next time I'm out pick up a couple of pine cones and a strip of seaweed there is more to this weather forecasting than meets the eye. I speak as one whose scientific education stopped at 'O' level Chemistry-failed and 'O' level Physics, so bad they wouldn't let me take the exam.

2. Google 'rice growing', you've got the soil for it.

3. fix an appointment for the car too see a Psychiatrist, it's beginning to think it's a boat.

[Anthony Darby]

Glorious day here today. Builders are up to roof level with the kit. F...ing Sky "engineer" came and went for the fourth time without moving the dish.To quote the builder the man said: "Huh. I've just goat a service request here. Ah doan't hae the tools tae shift it" and he buggered off. (Apparently they get £11 for a service call but a relocate they get £35). They are supposed to be coming again on Friday! Meanwhile our dish is now inside the house....even though it hasn't actually moved, so no signal!

[David Nicholson]

You can't get the staff these days can you?

[Anthony Darby]

Let's hope it'll all be done by Friday?

[Maggi Young]

I wouldn't count on it, Anthony. We were getting a poor or actual loss of, signal on some channels.....mind you , we only have the most basic Sky package so we have fewr than most to lose ! Anyway, engineer said holly tree and birch next door might be blocking the signal somewhat to dish at side of house, suggested getting it moved higher, to chimmney stack... fine we said, on you go then.. no no, I can't do that, you'll need a "High Height" team... okay, send one.... ten days later this HH team arrives... takes one look at our litte roof and says oh, no, we can't go up there, elf and safety, innit?
And this for a house which I believe in  estate agent-speak is a "one and a half storey" that is, a ground floor with dormer windows in a sloping roof above... not exactly Everest.... not much wonder poor Sir Edmund Hillary died, he must have heard about these guys and died of shame. Seems we'll need to get in a TV aerial erctor... seems those guys are actually prepared to USE the ladders they carry around, unlike Sky's HHTeam   Since  the problem of the dodgy channels is worse in wet weather, roll on Spring!

[Anthony Darby]

Reminds me of the days of Radio Rentals. A pal of mine had his new rental TV delivered. Not only did he need to produce a plug (remember when electronic items were supplied without them) but the wally had to borrow a screwdriver too. My pal suggested he got another job. Bet he never brought a pen or pencil to school, when he was there, either!

Rather ironic, here I am on the weather topic moaning about something else!!!!

[Maggi Young]

You and me both, Anthony, let's wait and see if we get away with it!

[Lesley Cox]

Temps near Dunedin have at last climbed down from the low to mid 30ss and we have a coolish 20C today with some precious rain falling. Heaps more I hope, still to fall, else I'll be buying water by the weekend.

[Ed Alverson]

Here in Oregon today was a rare sunny day, though cold with temps not much above freezing.  More noteworthy is that here in Eugene, today is the first day since the winter solstice in which sunset has occurred after 5 PM.  So the days are starting to get longer, and spring is just around the corner!

Ed

[David Nicholson]

Lest it should be thought that I bang on about how wet it is here in Devon (this is a trueism!) I came across some annual rainfall figures the other day. Apparently the mean average annual rainfall figure for Ivybridge for the period 1961-1990 was 1363mm or roughly 54 inches, and undoubtedly will be higher now as one of the results of global warming. On the heights of Dartmoor it was a staggering 2278mm. No wonder I'm going rusty. We have had only two days without rain so far this year

[Anthony Darby]

Tipped down for three hours this morning. When I got back from work the kitchen table (all 7' by 3' of it) was in the hall and there were 12 white plastic buckets spread between the kitchen and the back sitting room as the absence of roof had caused BIG problems for the builders! Everything is soaked!

[TC]

After a week of rain, Wednesday was beautiful.  Blue skies, windless and a temp. of between -1c/+3c.  We needed to get out so we went to the Trossachs, about 1h 40 from Ayr.  There we had a two hour walk along the shore of Loch Katrine.  I had kitted up for cold weather but I had to take off my down parka and ended up in my shirt sleeves.  From there we headed along by Loch Achray towards Callander, then to Lochearnhead, Crianlarich and ended up at Rannoch moor, just before Glencoe.  It was too late to go any further although I would have loved to head up to Cape Wrath through the mountain scenery.  I had forgotten what a beautiful country we live in as we normally cannot see it for clouds.  Anyway, it was looking at its best with some snow on the peaks but not on the roads.  The deer were taken at a car park at the top of the Blackmount.  I thought they were plastic models to attract the tourists until they moved.  They obviously make a good living by mooching grub !  Only, they could be in danger of ending up on the menu if the meat ran out.