mike Meehan

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/new-evidence-suggests-stone-age-hunters-from-europe-discovered-america-7447152.html I believe there was virtually a land/ice bridge crossing the North Atlantic at that time - no doubt needs more investiation but I would not kick this idea into touch.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/sahara-forest-project-that-breathes-life-into-deserts-claims-climate-week-2012-award.html Now this could be interesting - let's just hope that first of all it works, that it is economically sustainable and that local politics does not put the carbwash on it all, otherwise it will have to be re-located to East Anglia.

Found the below on France Meteo's site: L'hiver a été très sec sur l'Espagne, le Portugal et le Sud de la France, en raison des conditions anticycloniques perdurant plusieurs semaines. L'Espagne, très affectée par le manque d'eau, a connu son hiver le plus sec depuis les années 1940. Les conséquences sont visibles : incendies précoces de forêts et broussailles en Galice et en Catalogne, ou baisse parfois spectaculaire du niveau des retenues d'eau. En décembre, les réserves "étaient au quart du niveau nécessaire" pour une saison normale, selon l'organisme de gestion des eaux d'arrosage de la région de Sarinena. Cumuls de pluies en mm pour la période hivernale (décembre 2011 - janvier et février 2012): Espagne : Huesca : 4 mm (dont 0 mm en 2012) Barcelone : 13 mm Madrid : 15 mm Léon : 14 mm Séville : 16 mm Saragosse : 17 mm Grenade : 25 mm Alicante : 26 mm Valladolid : 26 mm France : Sète : 5 mm Perpignan : 6 mm Montpellier : 8 mm Nîmes : 14 mm Portugal : Faro : 21 mm Lisbonne : 24 mm

En route to Capestang and stopped for the night at Issoire just before the Massif proper. There was still the odd patch of snow left above 500 metres in the Clermont Ferrond area, although temps up to +11C here. Wondering what tomorrow will bring as we travel the rest of the A75 reaching up to 1125metres. Will report back if there is anything interesting.

What if the recent set up were to have set in during, say the beginning of December? Perhaps it may happen one year that the Russian and Scandy winter comes early and build a mega high pressure system keeping us in the easterlies from December until March. It has happened before and no doubt will happen again - I believe that the last 3 winters have shown us that despite the global warming which is supposed to be affecting us the weather is still capable of throwing extreme low temperatures at us. I am now coming up to my 70th year on this planet and do not recall any December being as severe as the one in 2010 - in fact until the late noughties I never expected any meaningful snow falls until after Christmas but the snow at the end of October 2008 changed that. I am wondering now whether the likes of Joe laminate floori were right in predicting a series of cold winters up to about 2035. If this is right we may just see a snow blanket from Dec to March one year - I'd love to see another one full of ice days and powder snow punctuated with clear blue skies before I pop my clogs, provided I still have a few shillings left to put in the gas meter.

I note that Accu-Weather have re-vamped their site - it givers more information more easily, though it takes slightly longer to get the 15 day forecast at a glance but on the whole a great improvement. I still miss that Joe laminate floori's blogs and there doesn't appear to be anybody to take his place in this respect. Has anybody heard anything of him recently?

During this summer I have seen snippets (100 years ago today) relating to the weather during the years of 1911 when it appears they had a long dry hot summer. Today I saw that there had been heavy snow in southern France which would have been on 21.09.1911) with a reported fall in temperature from 63F to zero in just a few hours, though I am not sure if they mean zero C or zero F, which would be -18C. Does anybody have any access to European records of that year?

Scientists have discovered a planet with two suns, one of which is a dwarf star: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/us-astronomers-planet-two-suns-171449073.html An interesting concept - I wonder how the varying gravitional pull would affect such a planet as this - I suspect it would be more geologically active and if say it was the earth there could be much more variation in climate and weather.

In today's Daily Express there was an article relating weather control: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/268429/Can-we-really-control-weather- At frst sight it sounds like it could be great to control the weather as we would like it but I wonder what the side effects could be - the weather does not occur in isolated pockets of air but interacts widely, so in our attempts to control the weather in one particular place could result in unforeseen effects in another,

There was a recent report on the radio, of a star, I think in our galaxy, going super nova, discovered in the last few days. Does anyone have any info on this?

Just watched a series of programs which were broadcast Monday night, concerning Stephen Hawkins, black holes and the Big Bang which I find to be a fascinating subject, though completely ignorant of the maths involved. Apparently Stephen Hawkins postulated the theory some 30 years ago and devised a formula to support that all matter going into a Black Hole is irrecoverably lost and that as time goes by the universe is losing matter, paradoxically though it is expanding at the same time. This theory was not accepted in all quarters since it went against the concept that energy or matter cannot be destroyed, though it can change its form. An American scientist argued that information relating to the matter was not lost but retained on the event horizon. Now Stephen Hawkins say that his original theory was not totally correct and brings a multiverse, some with black holes and others without, or at any rate not in corresponding positions, into the picture but we are waiting to hear more details. I find it difficult to believe that the entire universe evolved from a single singularity without any external force, though I accept that massive suns can collapse to a point of singularity when they die and form black holes. Now I have always thought that the idea of parallel universes was feasible and wonder in fact that different universes interact with each other. For instance it could have been such an interaction which brought the big bang into existence in the first place and secondly if we accept that matter cannot be destroyed when it goes into a black hole, is it possible that it could emerge into a parallel universe? Now I have only a little brain, which although I can think of questions, I have nowhere near the intellect or the expertise to come up with any real answers and would appreciate any other opinions, at any rate it would make a fascinating subject to explore.

We left Issoire, Altitude approx 350 metres, just getting into the northern end of the Massif at 1030 hours this morning. Temp was +3C but extensive ice had formed on one of the headlights during the night. We moved off, temp initially rose to 4C, then we started the climb over the mountains and it fell again to a lowest point of +1C at about 1100 metres altitude. In the surrounding countryside patches of old snow were evident and as we got above 1100 metres there was frost on the ground and the trees, the weather being misty. Some 30 miles on, though still at about the same height the temp had risen to +5 to 6C and all evidence of any snow had disappeared. At the Millau Viaduct, height about 650 metres the temp was now about 12C to warm up further as reached lower altitudes and continued south until eventually we reached our destination, Capestang 34310, where it was a very pleasant +19C with lovely spring sunshine. Alas, the forecasts show that it is now mostly downhill for the next fortnight.

Can't find Joe laminate floori's link - what's happened?

I have suddenly thought, we all know that north of equator depressions revolve in an anti-clockwise manner and south in a clockwise manner but what happens when it crosses from one hemisphere to another; does it retain its original rotation or does something else happen?

I keep seeing the term Bartlett set up and I am not quite sure what it means - can somebody explain it to me please?

Has anybody any idea what this is - it does not look like a native species?

I'm putting this in the Autumn Section because officially it is still Autumn. I have been around for a goodly number of years but in all that time I cannot recall a sustained cold spell such as we are having at the moment (Yes a few frosts but nothing as sustained as this) and forecast for about the next week, which it appears will last for the last week in November to getting onto at least the start of the second week in December. I have always associated this type of weather with January, though December 1962 was quite cold. Perhaps those with access and time to examine the records could check and see what similar situations to this we have had in the past. It would be interesting to know.

We had about 5cms of the wet soggy stuff in our village 34310 Capestang though higher areas got much more. The press are praising meteo France for the precision in their forecast but to be fair this was also forecast by the met office. http://www.midilibre.com/articles/2010/03/07/France-Alerte-orange-dans-cinq-departements-du-Sud-Est-pour-cause-de-chutes-de-neige-1139003.php5 http://www.france-info.com/france-regions-2010-01-08-la-neige-est-arrivee-dans-le-sud-et-l-est-de-la-france-389397-9-13.html

I seem to recall that a little over a year ago we were invited to forward our guesses forecasts for the CET for 2009. I haven't found it again - is there any result or are we still waiting for it to be worked out and verified?

Is there anybody out there with access to past daily temperature records who can enlighten us on the periods of fairly sustained cold with a max of -5C or thereabouts in SE/Eastern England, if possible from 1940 onwards? It would be interesting to see whether any sort of pattern can come out of this.

A long time ago I was taught that the 528 metre dam on the 500 mb thickness chart was the "snow line" i.e. below 528 the liklehood was for snow and above more likely for rain and that all this was due to colder air being more dense than warmer air. On looking at the thickness charts on your site, it occurs to me that the sea level pressure could have a lot to do with this as well, for instance in an area of high pressure the 528 mb dam is likely to be higher because it is starting from a higher level of sea level pressure and vice versa for the low pressure. This being the case it would appear that the 528 mb dam is not quite the dividing line I thought it was and leads me to think that for a more definitive and accurate analysis the sea level pressure should be brought into account. If this were to be the case is there a formula to be applied involving sea level pressure and the height of the 500 mb dam which would give a more accurate picture?

According to averages, I understand that we are getting near to the end of an inter glacial period. We don't really know what kicked the ice ages off in the first place but just suppose that the conditions whatever they were were met, say within the next couple of years, what thoughts do you have on how it would progress and how do you expect the climate of the uk to change, considering the most northern parts were under about 2 kms of ice at its worst in the last ice age. As far as I am aware no plans appear to have made for this eventuallity but it will happen one day. Any ideas?

I find it somewhat surprising that San Francisco is recording max temperatures, mostly in the mid to upper teens, whilst to the north and south temperatures appear to be much warmer. e.g. a few days ago San Francisco was about 17C, whilst Seattle and Vancouver were recording temperatures towards 30C. Is because this city is in a constantly westerly wind with air coming off a cool Pacific, whilst further north they have perhaps been getting an easterly wind from a fairly warm continent?

Told me a lot more about snow than what I already knew. For my part I much prefer the small tablets of snow which form at -11c in relatively dry conditions and paradoxically it does not seem so cold when it is like that.

I just wonder because I am really an amateur on this forum, though I have had some weather experience but a lot of the terms and the argumements go straight over my head. From other blogs I have seen I suspect that I am not on my own and wonder whether it might be possible to set up a section for us amateurs where we can speak in more simple terms with perhaps the experts coming in from time to time to explain their views in terms more easily understood by us laymen and to explain a lot of the abbreviations used. That way a lot of us enthusiastic amateurs may learn a lot more.