Blackie

Paul - as per my post just now, check out the projected wind direction for later today on xcweather (sorry, it is .co.uk and not .com as I said before). Maybe a chance for us after all? They are pretty accurate with their projections usually.

Yes LS, very frustrating! And as Paul S says, it will be agonising today watching that train of showers skirt past us. However, if you check out the wind forecasts on xcweather.com, you will see that the winds turn much more easterly and even a touch south easterly along the Thames Estuary later this evening. If the snow showers are still going then, that could give us a better chance. Just as long as it doesn't snow too much to stop me getting to Brentwood for an important meeting tomorrow afternoon... Neil - very impressive for a Digital Rebel, obviously bought in the US. Not tried HDR myself, although I like the look of the images. Bit of a traditionalist myself. I posted a thread in the weather photography section last night you might be interested in. (Sorry for straying off topic, Paul)

Like LeighShrimper, I can see those clouds from here in Shoebury too - almost within touching distance yet tantalisingly too far for us. Looks like we had a few flakes earlier this morning, though, judging by the ground and cars. But I am optimistic we will get snow this morning. A good night's sleep obviously helped. By the way, Neil, you were complimented on your HDR photography by new member Halling Weather last night (page 1 of this thread). I added a post on the next page agreeing. Super stuff. I should get your cameras out ready to snap snowy scenes. I took mine when I went on a New Year's Day walk along the sea wall from Chalkwell to Old Leigh. Absolutely beautiful with the light dusting of snow. And so crowded it was like a summer's day!

You've missed NeilSouth, HW. He's gone to bed - overexcited by the propsects of all that snow next week, or possibly not! But I agree, I took a look at his HDR photos and they are amazing. Not tried that myself as yet. I am a Canon man myself - and you might want to see a post I just put in the weather photography section. As for the snow, while I would love it to come down by the bucketload as I remember it doing in some celebrated winters of old, it certainly does appear as though we are not going to fare well from the current set-up. At least in the short term. Fingers crossed things improve from mid-week...

Sorry - a couple of the links don't appear to be working properly. This is the correct link for the Blog Talk Radio podcast: http://tobtr.com/s/813241 And this is the one for the Travel Press Awards winners: http://www.e-tid.com/News-Home/Travel-Press-Awards-winners-announced.aspx

Hi all A few weeks after the event, but I thought this might be of interest to fellow NW members. I was very honoured to win the title of Travel Photographer of the Year in the inaugural and prestigious Travel Press Awards at the end of November. I had to submit a portfolio of up to five photos which had been published during the preceding year, so for my entry I chose a couple of the photographs I took while on the first Netweather storm chase tour in 2008 with Michael Fish - which were published in the March/April issue of The Travel & Leisure Magazine. For those who don't know of it, the magazine is distributed in London and the Home Counties as well as being online. I was asked to take over as editor of it at the beginning of 2009 after the previous editor sadly died very suddenly from cancer. We then relaunched it as a bi-monthly publication (it was previously quarterly) starting with the March/April issue. That issue is no longer online, but I am attaching a link to a PDF of the article. Riders on the Storm, The Travel & Leisure Magazine March-April 2009.pdf I am also attaching the two photos in question, both of which were of the same supercell in Southwest Kansas. In case anyone wants to see the others, there is one of traditional feluccas sailing on the Nile (used as the front cover shot in the May/June issue of The Travel & Leisure Magazine) plus two taken in Guangxi province in China. One was of hot air balloons over the Yulong River and the iconic karst mountain scenery of Yangshuo (published in travel trade magazine TTG), and the other was of a vividly-illuminated rock formation called the Crystal Palace in Reed Flute Cave, in the city of Guilin (published as a double-page photograph in fah Thai, the in-flight magazine for Bangkok Airways). I can post PDFs of those articles, should anyone be interested in seeing them as well. The awards announcement is online on this link: http://www.e-tid.com/News-Home/Travel-Press-Awards-winners-announced.aspx. The local Evening Echo newspaper ran a story on me winning the award last Wednesday, with a couple of the photographs from the portfolio. I managed to get a mention of Paul Sherman in it. The story is online on this link: http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/4825705.print/ I was also interviewed for an hour by an American internet radio station, Blog Talk Radio, just before Christmas. It was for a show called Adrenalin Living. The presenter was very interested in the storm chase, so I talked about Netweather and the storm chase tours during the interview. This is the link for it: http://tinyurl.com/yjfnjba. The Times was going to run a story on storm chasing they commissioned from me, based on the 2008 NW chase, in an adventure supplement last spring together with a number of photos from it. Sadly, lack of advertising meant it got canned at the last minute. I don't know if they will try to resurrect it for this coming spring, but will post an alert about it if they do. All the winning images from the award are on my website (www.peterellegard.co.uk). And although the storm chase issue of The Travel & Leisure Magazine is not online now, you can view the latest issue by going to www.tlmags.com or clicking on this link: http://en.calameo.com/read/00005930157a24798b81a Happy New Year everyone - and happy storm chasing for those who go in 2010. And if you are thinking about it and haven't made up your mind yet...go for it. You really will have a fantastic time in the company of some very knowledgeable and friendly people. Blackie (aka Peter) PS...Paul/mods - please move this to the appropriate area if this is posted into the wrong section. PPS...I have a gallery of photos from the 2008 storm chase I can upload if anyone would like to see them.

Just seen they have put it online now, Paul. Here is the link: http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local_news/4825705.Peter_snaps_up_top_travel_photography_award/ Have a great New Year and 2010 yourself. Likewise all other Netweather members

Typical! New year, but same old weather - all we got was more bloody rain in Shoebury! Maybe if I turn the gas heating down a bit it might turn to snow... Happy New Year everyone. By the way, Paul, did you see you got a mention in last night's Evening Echo? They finally did a story on the Travel Photographer of the Year award, and right at the end mentioned that a couple of the pictures were from the storm chase I did with you and Michael Fish last year. Must do that post in the Storm Chase section. First New Year's resolution! lol Edit: Woohoo, it's snowing!!! Small, wet flakes. But still snow. Maybe 2010 will bring something new after all

Still raining here in Shoebury, just harder than it was. All the snow from Thursday night is melting away

Raining here in Shoebury

Erm, I'm no weather expert but surely you mean 56-70mm per hour, not cm, Steve? :o

The wind is now due East at the Sandettie Light Vessel off the Kent coast and ENE in the Thames Estuary. Thames streamer come to daddy...pretty please?

The winds have already swung round to ENE here at Shoebury and off Kent, according to XC Weather (http://www.xcweather.co.uk/GB/observations). Looking good for a streamer, but we need it to shift more to the east for us to get hit - otherwise it all slides by and pastes North Kent and London instead.

Very light snow just started falling in Shoebury (the tropical SE corner of Essex)

Ok, Paul. PM resent. Strange how the Beeb has suddenly started ramping up the snow potential after virtually ignoring it only a few hours ago. But yet still not bringing it down into Essex or Kent. Fingers crossed they have underplayed that...

*Note to self: Get that weather station you got for Christmas 3 years ago out of its box and stick it up in the garden somewhere!* According to the xcweather site, Shoebury is +1C for both temp and dewpoint, Paul. Just looked outside and definitely no frost, unlike last night. So, yes, the tropical SE corner of Essex is keeping up its annoying tradition... And yes, I take your earlier point about 1987. That was a bit special, too. I remember breaking off 3ft icicles from the gutter outside the bathroom window to stop them from breaking off and spearing the postman! Ah, them were the days. Sigh.. Ps - Paul, did you see my PM earlier?

We got virtually no snow at all in Feb down here in Shoeburyness. It turned to sleet very quickly and melted anything that had fallen, so while everyone else was knee-deep in the stuff we didn't even have a covering. :lol: Hoping that things are coming together a little better for this to produce some more meaningful snow for us on Thurs night/Fri, and perhaps into the weekend. As with TEITS, I have always looked to East winds to give us the best snow here. New Year 1978 was a classic for that and will take some beating, with huge snowdrifts and no council workmen to clear them as they were on strike. Although I do remember the awesome winter of 1963 as a youngster, when we even had the sea freezing off Southend seafront. Wonder if we will ever see that again...?

Lovely sentiments, Tammy. And I would wholeheartedly agree with them after my storm chasing experience last year. I'm having withdrawal symptoms following this year's action, but it makes for great reading - and watching, now I can get the video streaming too. It makes me feel like I'm back there again. Good luck to the guys on Tour 2. I hope you all have as much fun as Tammy and the others on Tour 1, and as much as I did last year. Cheers Peter

Those Essex blokes get everywhere! :lol: And no, I knew you wouldn't be daft enough to try it, Paul. Not after seeing what happens to those who do...

Well, good luck whoever it is. I can't stay up any longer though. We will all want to see the footage tomorrow, so make sure you get it on video - including the throwing up afterwards! :lol:

Good luck, Ian :o

I managed to resolve the issue, thanks to Paul. http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif It turned out to be the banner ad blocking on my antivirus, Kaspersky 2009. I can now watch videos when I disable that, then I dimply enable it again. Paul sent me links to the Kaspersky forum with solutions, as it seems to be an issue for a few people trying to watch videos from various sites. I couldn't get the solutions they suggested to work, but now I know how to get it to work I don't mind temporarily disabling the ad blocking from time to time. Now for that elusive tornado...

I've given up with the live streaming too. http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif Tried the DNS approach, but that did nothing. I had already cleared the temporary internet cache before but did it again. Once again, no result. It is really strange and frustrating, as I was watching the streaming on the first day - and I have the fastest possible broadband connection, which is still giving me around 50meg according to the speed test results (I even got 171 and 246 on a couple of tests!). I can't see how having that installed has caused the problem, as I can watch videos from every other source I try and no other issues with Windows XP. Yet not only can I not view the live NW streaming I still cannot watch any of the briefings. Like John, I don't want to download Firefox. And as I was watching before on IE7 I don't see that the browser is the issue. Whatever...

I do indeed, Paul. Seems like only yesterday. Who needs Take That or Boyzone when you have NW's finest...?! :lol: