Daisy

I let the kids stay up until totality. They were so excited. When I was about their age I remember my dad letting me do the same. There is something very otherworldy about the moon now, the night sky could be a scene from a science fiction drawing. It looks much more of a sphere. Like an orange christmas tree bauble with twinkly star lights!

Well snow is still here, despite the rain it is taking a long time to thaw. Thought I'd post a photo of my hubbie from yesterday standing up to the top of his wellies in snow . It was about 9.30am and we'd already been sledging for at least an hour! Edit: well nearly up to the top of his wellies lol!

It's a bit hard to find some snow the kids haven't trampled through..... but have just gone out with my ruler-current depth about 4 inches. We have had lots more. Yesterday the drifts were over the tops of my wellies, but today's snow was very wet and sleety. I'm only 60m ASL (in between Kidderminster and Droitwich) so now the snow is thawing really fast. Folks around the Malverns, Halesowen and Dudley (SEDGLEY!!!) being much higher up have had more today, despite not being too far away.

Snow is now melting here dripping off the trees and bushes, have had loads though so mustn't grumble... Enjoy everyone else, it has been fantastic!

It has been sleety-snow all day since about 10.30am. Now starting to stick. The journey home from Stourbridge was fine until just past Hagley then even the main roads were a whiteout! Not driven in conditions like that for a long time. This morning the lanes were solid ice but at least the main roads were clear. Not much fun for rush hour traffic

It is coming down in variable spurts of activity! Have a covering now on paths and cars and it has only been snowing about 10 minutes or so. By the end of the night there could be a reasonable amount as long as the front doesn't travel too quickly.

Just started snowing, but quite small flakes, blowing around quite fast. I don't care how much we get. This is the first snow I've seen this winte.....sooooo excited!

Hey Pickles Snow!!!!!!!!!!

South-west midlands about 45 minutes drive from where I live (near kidderminster) direction Wales! Ops: Fender beat me to it!

Hi Pickles You are about three miles down the road fom me, according to the radar (postcode zoom) it should be snowing now but despite being cloudy and breezy nothing is happening as of yet. (Although we don't have street lights here so I have to keep going outside to check!) Edit: I take that back, according to the radar now all signs of cloud have disappeared in the last 2 minutes :ph34r:

I've been asleep and woken up again just to look for the snow, how sad is that! You'd have thought at my age that I might have a slightly more measured approach to the forthcoming event (or is that non event?). :lol: I gather from reading the last few posts that the outlook is not as favourable for heaps of snow as it was earlier this evening?

I have just heard that all schools in Dudley Borough are shut tomorrow. I think this is a brave decision but also quite a good call by the Chief Education Officer as parents know in advance and it will avoid last minute 'is school open' panic whilst trying to tune into local radio.

Makes a change! I can't remember the last time we had snow here. Here's hoping , but it would be fab if the whole country could be indulged at the same time. Then there would be no green bug-eyed monsters (the way I usually feel when everybody else gets loads!!)

Hi I left a garbled message on the NetWeather answerphone regarding renewing my subscription and keeping the same user name. Just to let you know that I've sorted it and renewed OK. Cheers 'Dizzy' Daisy

Love reading your updates, and I appreciate all the hard work you put into them. Cheers! Daisy

Thanks Mondy and GW, for all the extra info, interesting stuff. Need to read and digest properly now! So quite a rare event if a G4 storm only occurs 100 times each solar cycle? X40 that would be the biggest solar flare ever recorded? You'd have thought all of that energy would have had more of an effect. Even if a lot of it is deflected away... Looking forward to see what happpens in the next 11 years, if the solar activity is set to be as intense as anticipated.

Hi Mondy, Is this article about the same solar flare that caused the activity on the 14th/15th? An interesting read, I don't suppose you know if the fault on the space station is serious? It must be pretty worrying for the astronauts up there... This is what I love about NetWeather, I know nothing about the sun's activities but other people find stuff that is so facinating I want to find out more! Do you know if solar flares like this are an often occurrance and do they cause harm to our environment? Cheers D

Hello Xerxes and welcome! Lots of leaves have been lost by the huge oak by our house over the weekend, very blowy outside now, I am expecting to see lots more on the ground tomorrow ( better start sweeping them up soon -ho hum...)

Sloe jelly sounds good, would you eat it with cold meats too? Or is it more of a jam type jelly? I know it is too early but I couldn't resist sampling a very wee dram of my first ever home made attempt at sloe gin. It tastes very much like Benylin (is that how its spelt?) my childhood cough medicine that knocks you out after a teaspoonful. I have a feeling that in six weeks time my gin may do exactly the same! Does anyone know if you drink it neat or is it supposed to be drunk with a mixer?

Very much agreed! ( No need to reply C, just missed your updates and v pleased to see you again) Daisy

Really hard to make a choice, some absolutely stunning photos. Kelly F1 Essan 1 Coldfingers 2 PhilB2 XXS2

Thanks mushymanrob (unusual name!), for the info

Do you know if leaf fall is related to number of daylight hours, like flowering with some plants (photoperiodism)? If this is the case, then presumably temperature would not be the most important factor in leaf fall, and perhaps not be related at all? I don't know if day length does have an effect, maybe there are some botanists/ plant physiology experts out there who know more? I would be interested to know. Thanks D Edit: Just did a bit of quick surfing on the web. It does look like with some species day length is a factor that causes leaves to change colour see here

No system at all except perhaps a preference for the midlands! 25-12-06 Birmingham 1 (wishful thinking!) 05-01-07 Sheffield 3 10-01-07 Peterborough 2 24-01-07 Wolverhampton 3 30-01-07 Norwich 3 07-02-07 Aberystwyth 2 18-02-07 Lincoln 4 01-03-07 Derby 2 D