mike Meehan

We may never know, if it struck the sea, apparently the sea bed renews every 200 million years or so and there has been a lot of tectonic movement since then, so evidence of a crater could well be lost but such an event could easily have been a catalyst to set off others such as increased and global volcanic eruptions and other nasties which go with them.

If it is that good I can't understand why the idea is not taken up by a manufacturer, developed and sold to the public as an alternative means of domestic energy, especially in these days of high energy costs and pressure for people to become less dependent on fossil fuels. I know little about electricity but the following does suggest that Tesla's ideas have been in the public arena for quite a long period of time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Coil

Could have been asteroid strike, we are only just being able to find out more of these now with the advent of satellite studies and I would not think it too unreasonable for the shock of the impact to trigger volcanic eruptions, so we end up with something rather globally catastrophic and that is without mentioning the initial heating then cooling of atmosphere, plus all the crap in the air which would not do the biosphere a lot of good.

The problem was that it was for a relatively short period of time.

Personally, I never thought a repeat of '47 or '63 was on the cards for us and I was never surprised that the cold really didn't extend any further into the North Sea. Although the cooling in Scandinavia came, eventually, for most of the time it was restricted to there, with most of central Europe, except for the more northern parts of Germany, Poland, Baltic States and the far east of the EU really not developing that much in terms of cold. What we really need to get those kind of winters is more extensive deeper cold which is longer lasting. Not sure what the anomalies are in the North Sea but I would have thought that with the mild weather we have had there would have been above average and this would have hindered the expansion of the Scandy cold pool. If I recall correctly the sea temps in '63, when I was plotting these charts was mostly about 4C, though down to 3C in parts on this side and down to near freezing in the eastern parts near the Friesian Islands but now I believe we have 7's, 8's and 9's. In short the Atlantic had too much puff for us and never gave the continent much chance to cool down and for a good part of the winter that extended to western Russia.

I've noticed that in the past week or so Anchorage has had max temps in positive territory, as had Moscow for most of the winter with the exception of the past 2 or 3 weeks, then they descended to the norm for this time of year but are getting back up towards freezing level. Couple that with the cold of North America, our rainy season and it seems that there have been some quite exceptional goings on this season, however we are getting closer to the time when the northern hemisphere should start going from a deposit to a credit in terms of solar energy being received - I dare say that this will start to trigger changes in the circulation but in what way, who knows - we will probably get more unexpected results.

What if all the rain we have this winter fallen as snow I just wonder how it would have turned out - no doubt it would have kept the coldies happy although it may have been some would not been able to get out of their own front door 25 mm of rain approx equivalent to 30 cm of snow, more if it is dry

See that the cold patch for Scandi/NW Russia has declined quite a lot over the last day or two - I reckon that our chances of getting a nice easterly cold spell are pretty well scuppered - the only real chances of getting anything much now will be a blast from the north. which usually develop a little after the equinox but that is rarely sufficient for us down in the SE where such blasts rarely amount to much. I reckon the best we can do is to turn out attentions to the 'sun god' now and hopefully 14/15 will be better.

Well most of the time but they can get frost very occasionally damaging the orange crop - like a lot of other places when the wind is in the,right direction.As for me I would settle for Southern France - normally ok from April through to October

What has struck me is the lack of 'ice days' lately - that is those with a max of about -5C - although we had some periods of snow last winter there were no such ice days - it might be worth making a check, 'cos my view is it ain't any good id the snow falls only for it to melt again within a short space of time. We need time for the snow, the powdery stuff that is, and the drifts to develop so we can take our time in appreciating their beauty and there is no beauty in slush. Funny enough when it is dryer and colder, it does not feel as cold.

Bloody awful

I liken it to that rather tragic song a few years ago - ' A pub with no beer'

Got my allotment for this winter whilst driving over the Massif Centrale above 900 metres - not really expecting anything to speak of at Watford, perhaps some from the northerlies in the spring but not likely to amount to much - will most probably be wet, that us if it settles. Next real opportunity probably the return trip over the Massif in April. If anything looking forward to a consolation prize of a long hot summer now, who knows?

I keep tellin' yer what I want - that's a Scandy/NW Russian high blowing in a dry continental air, picking up a bit of moisture over the channel to give us a streamer depositing dry powder snow, drifting nicely at Watford with a max temp of -5C, nothing less. Yoos can keep yer slushy daffy snow. Then a warm spring developing into a bootiful summer with endless blue skies and max's averaging 30C - don't want much really.

I'm getting absolutely p'd off with the weather this winter - I'm quite pessimistic about getting the snow I really like i.e. lovely fluffy stuff with a temp of -5C, so now pinning my hopes on a barbecue summer with temps 25C+ and wall to wall blue skies.

Until I read that article I accepted the theory of black holes without any question but thinking about it; we do not understand exactly what dark energy and dark matter are, only that measurements of gravity and the movements of stars and galaxies etc suggests that they exist. In addition, despite a hell of a lot work nobody yet has come up with a theory which unites quantum mechanics with the physics as we understand it. As far as my little brain can work out at the moment there is such a lot we do not know about things which may or may not have an effect on these theories so we cannot be that certain of the nature of black holes. It's all very confusing but a great challenge for the physicists.

It seems that the Scandi High is not giving up without a fight - the projected movements of these fronts from the west have slowed and it is still dry here at Watford.

Not proper snow like

I'm not sure what the anomaly is but with the sea temps being pretty well above usual on our side of the North Sea - 7C off the North East Coast and 9C down to the Thames Estuary area - would this give a greater chance of picking up moisture allowing the more privileged areas to get streamers?

If this could be developed it would be an excellent way to generate more sustainable power - there are no doubt a number of suitable sites around the globe where this could be practicable.

Otherwise they will think you have been reading the Daily Express

I reckon that what is going to happen over the next 2 weeks is anybody's guess - The westerlies are losing strength and at long last Moscow is getting some proper cold and this is working west, meanwhile Scandinavia is cooling down quite well, so we have the opponents in the blue corner. In the red corner, there are still lows in the Atlantic with the Azores high below that, so the scene is set for a battle but part of the problem as far as we are concerned is that the North Sea is above average temps and there has been no real cooling over the UK as yet. From the looks of the charts it looks like the front lines are being set up over the North Sea, making us tantalising close to the cold air but not quite making it at the moment. The battle looks like going on for a little while but a lot depends on how well entrenched the cold becomes and whether it continue its westwards path, or is the Atlantic going to get another lease of life? It must be a difficult job being a forecaster under these conditions

I suppose it could happen the temps in Scandinavia have cooled quite lot in the last few days as has North West Russia and cold temps are good for building anticyclones, so we may just be in with a chance

That chart is all very well for those hard men who wear skirts without underpants but it ain't doing so much for us soft southerners

We see now that the Scandy temps are now falling to normal winter levels but such is the fickle nature of the beasterlies, the cold ones appear to be over SW Norway and in the big scheme of things only a short distance from the UK - it is obviously the scene of a battle but as to which side will win - who knows? If it carries on like this I will be looking forward very much to the warmer temps of Spring, or will the northerlies creep in and give us a cooler Spring than Winter?