alr1970

Lovely outside in the sun, it's got some real strength now.

Very heavy wet sleet in south Manc. Only really obvious when you watch it melt on glass.

Yes, I too found some buds with colour in them in the lawn after the snow had cleared off. Plenty of snowdrops out and daffs budding too.

My last snow... That was fun, now I'm ready for spring.

Perfect snowman snow.

6cm here, that's the most on the ground since 2010.

This is more than last year's beast delivered.

I'm back in from a bike ride through the city centre, up to Debdale and back home along the Fallowfield loop. My highest point was 77m according to Strava, more like 30m at home. It's raining everywhere, what differs is what's mixed in. Higher up, there are proper snow flakes, lower down, more like sleet flakes. There's a thin slushy covering in places that the rain isn't warm enough to melt.

I hope you aren't all so fixated on the models on your screens that you've missed looking the window. It's lovely out, a perfect sunny winter's day, and the light is just starting to have a springlike quality, a bit brighter than a couple of weeks ago. All that's missing is some snow underfoot...

Very wet sleet here. Yuk!

I'm back from a week in Les Arcs where conditions were firm or icy everywhere all week. Temps were relatively mild for the first few days, just above freezing in the afternoon, but never warm enough for real slush anywhere. From Wednesday onward, it got much colder, -7C in the afternoon at resort level, colder higher up. That day we had a little snowfall on the lower pistes, as the temperature dropped it was cold enough to squeeze out the little moisture from the air, with cloud and some snow up to about 200m. It remained clear throughout our stay above that level, with almost blue skies every day. On Saturday we took a trip over to La Plagne, linked by the Vanoise Express telepherique, and the icy conditions were worse there, probably due to more of its slopes being exposed to the sun all day. In Les Arcs, slopes either face east or west, and with the low angle of the sun at this time of the year, don't ever get too cooked before cooling again. Right now, some proper snowfall is forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday. They really need it, snowmaking was in operation for the second half of our stay, which made a difference, but doesn't cover the whole resort. Temperatures are forecast down to -15C as well, which will be very trying.

Meanwhile in south Manchester we had a measly 1mm.

Mostly dry here for a few hours now. Just as windy as yesterday.

Estofex have issued a level 3 for Portugal for Leslie. http://www.estofex.org/cgi-bin/polygon/showforecast.cgi?text=yes&fcstfile=2018101406_201810122345_3_stormforecast.xml A level 3 was issued for parts of Portugal surrounded by a level 2 covering also parts of Spain mainly for severe to damaging wind gusts and to a lesser extent for (strong) tornados and excessive precipitation.

Frost on my lawn this morning, and ice on the car. That's pretty early in these parts.

After a break of a couple of hours, the rain is back, and the warm front has passed too, now 16c after being cooler all day.

1821 at Hull on Sunday. https://www.tide-forecast.com/locations/Hull-England/tides/latest

Wind of 5mph reported from Manchester airport. Thank goodness for that warning, eh?

Thank goodness there's a weather warning starting in 4 minutes, the wind here is unbelievable!

Video from the eye, pretty boring really...

The first proper wet day I can remember in ages. Think I might light the fire later.

Some astonishing images here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2018/sep/05/typhoon-jebi-batters-japan-in-pictures The pile of cars stands out to me.

A strong breeze, 24 and sunny here. Perfect for drying 5 sleeping bags that were rather stinky after a 2 week camping holiday.

Funnel cloud spotted over Macclesfield: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/macclesfield-tornado-twister-stockport-pictures-15009716

Funny, I went out at lunchtime and thought "this is ok, not that warm though". Turns out it's 26C, which would have seemed very warm 8 weeks ago. We're getting totally spoiled. The first proper autumn day will feel very cold indeed.