alr1970

Lovely bit of warmth in the sun today, if you can avoid the chilly breeze!

Yet another day of a quick look at the ensembles: nope, no change there.

Just a dusting from the edge of those showers here. Looks like the office was under more proper snow, glad I put my studded tyres on my bike yesterday.

Another 10mm this morning from that band of rain that really didn't want to clear, really heavy at times. Eventually it cleared but there were a few surprise hail showers in the following sunny gap. Brief, but most unwelcome given I was sawing logs with an electric chainsaw!

I think the Mersey is at its highest level since it broke its record last February: That was at 0845, it rose another 28cm after that at the measuring station in Nothenden. I did actually see a bit of sun on my ride to work, it was certainly a lot nicer than Tuesday when it rained all the way, and on the way home again.

Yeah, today was our last day, by staying above 2000m all day we managed to miss the hardest ice, but everywhere is very hard. Snow coming on Sunday, lots of it.

I'm in the Three Valleys this week and must pistes are open, thanks to altitude, the pre-Xmas snowfall and extensive snowmaking. But last night was the first since we arrived on Saturday that the temp has gone below freezing at 1850m where we're staying in Mottaret. There's extensive ice and very hard snow where the surface has softened during the day. Big piles of slush are the order of the afternoon anywhere down low. But this isn't all that unusual for very early in the season, I've skied in rain at this time of year at this altitude, at least it's not like that!

It's just down to geography. The sheer size of the North American continent is perfect for generating huge pools of cold air, which spill south and crash into moisture from the GoM. Result is big storms with huge snow potential. In Eurasia the moisture of the Indian Ocean is blocked by the Himalayas so the same thing doesn't happen. And here on the edge of the Atlantic the cold air just isn't there at the same level so we miss out.

Amazing how much warmer 2C and raining has felt!

Rain here now, but I think there was a brief spell of sleet sticking to the freezing road around 7.

According to the sailing club Whasapp chatter, the tracks in the ice are from a swimmer...

Spot the Manchester lowlands!

Sorry guys, I've just ordered a couple of studded tyres for my bike, as they were cheap at Wiggle, so that's probably it until next winter!

Saw my postie as I left the house this morning, still -3, he was wearing shorts. I'm under the MAN flightpath at the office, can report that the "freezing fog" on the report is more like freezing low cloud. Thinning too, I think I can see a blue tinge to the sky now.

Just a couple of wet cm at home, so I headed to Macclesfield Forest with my son for a walk up Shutlingsloe. This was just at the end of the streamer, so good winter conditions without having to contend with too much taking snow. Got a bit heavier around half three as we got back to the car.

Reminds me of a Christmas do where they renteed one of the party boats out of Manchester. It was supposed to go down the Bridgewater and through the lock to the Ship Canal, thence to Salford Quays. But it was dead cold and snowing, and once we reached the lock they discovered the gates were frozen shut, so they just took us back to Castlefield. One workmate slipped on ice when drunk and gashed his head, turned up on Monday with stitches, and I was too ill with some virus to drink any of the free booze. What a night!

A thin veil of cloud here prevented perfect views of the occultation, but I could just about make out Mars before it hit the edge of the moon. Nice to be able to view it from indoors!

It would be great to get in some deep cold to freeze the ground to a decent depth before any snow falls on it. And I would love some ice days and hard frosts by night to kill off some of the whitefly plaguing my brassicas.

Continuation of the cold out to the 17th on the 12Z run, that's a couple of days later then the 00 and 06 runs. Not much precip though.

A few chinks of blue showing though here now.

Much nicer here than the "cloudy" that was (and still is) on the MetO location forecasts yesterday. The sky's almost clear, lovely! Also, it's the time of year I have the low sun right in my eyes on the cycle to work, reflecting off wet roads too. Even sunglasses don't help too much with that.

I was in Dublin for the weekend, was woken by rain on the window about 2am and it's been following me all the way home on the ferry and train. Train roof was leaking at one point!

Picked up here too. Just popped to the shops on my bike before lunch and it's horrid out, wet and cold. I'd forgotten what that feels like!

Just light rain here, nothing like Tuesday. Quite predictable given the easterly: all the heavy stuff is being dropped on the Peaks.

Nearly stopped here, we must be in that hole in the radar.