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I heard that seven days of subzero weather i March had a particular name. Can anyone confirm that and tell me what it's called? I'm living in Sweden; I suspect that it could be a regional/local thing so that might be important information. Any help will be much appreciated!

New thread for the Ireland regionals. Ramp away, discuss the ever changing Ireland weather and snow prospects. Be good, no arguing or I'll be chopping heads. Getting colder as the day is coming to an end here, fingers were getting numb under the gloves.

Here ye go scallywags, so Christmas just round the corner with a possible N/NW incursion soon. Discuss.

Hi guys I got a Fine Offset WH2080 for Christmas and was very happy with it, loved the USB feature being able to update my twitter and use Cumulus, all was going swimingly until new years when the Anemometer packed in. A few questions 1) Is the reliability of this model good or are there common problems? Reviews seem fine on the internet and 2) I have a budget of around £200, however if it was a really good one i could squeeze further than that, im really looking for one with USB connectivity however this is not crucial, i notice the Davis Vue is very good but without the pc interface at base cost. If anyone could help me i'd be very greatful, would love to have a station set up for the potential of mid january onwards Thanks in advance Ed

Resume discussion for the newly started Autumn season. Well, summer has flown through and Autumn shades are imminent. Well......so it was about 18 hours ago. What does everyone think about the upcoming Autumn for Ireland. Wet and Windy, a Late Summer, or just a mix mash? Personally I think it will be drier than Summer as a whole and with above average sunshine. A few deep depressions in the mix, mainly in October. November likely to be the driest Month.

At this moment we have a significant cold period. The temperature dropped last night tot -8°C at the Ardennes. Today we will have some more frost and tonight we are going to -10 or -12°C. Upcoming friday we get higher temperatures (approx: 6 - 8 °C) A daily weatherupdate on www.noodweer.be (warning: dutch) Leave all of your messages here dutch people.

Hello. Long suffering wife of a weather watching addict (acknowledged, he could have worse habits!). I was wondering if people around these parts have any experience with home weather stations. I'm after a gift for him for Christmas - we've got an old fashioned barometer in the living room and he got himself a small digital weather box a couple of years ago, but I see there are "Professional Weather Stations" (to use Maplin's words - I'm looking in particular at this USB touchscreen machine). I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this model or something similar? Should I be looking elsewhere? I can probably stretch to about twice this price if I need to.

GFS Founded: 1988. Updates Per Day: 4. Range: 384 Hours. Full Name: Global forecast system. Introduction Mainly called 'GFS' is a global numerical weather prediction computer model run by NOAA. The model is run four times a day and is only the only one of the three main weather models that updates this many times a day. It also produces forecasts up to 16 days out however it is arguable that only up to day 5 or 7 is accurate. How it works The model runs from 0 hours to 192 hours at a resolution of 27km. After 192 hours to 384 hours it is run at 70km resolution. The GFS collects weather observations across the world then processes everything into a supercomputer to make a forecast. History The GFS model was originally called the Aviation Model (AVN) until its name was changed to Global Forecast System (GFS) when the Aviation model was combined with the Medium Range Forecast Model (MRF). Extra Information It is the only global weather model that is available for free in the public domain. Many weather websites across the world use it's data. It is one of the best medium range models available. GFS Supercomputer Sources http://en.wikipedia....Forecast_System ECM Founded: 1975. Updates Per Day: 2. Range: 240 Hours. Full Name: European Centre for Medium Range. Introduction Also known as the ECMWF or ECM is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 19 European Member States and 15 Co-operating States. At its headquarters in Reading, England, one of the largest supercomputer complexes in Europe is linked by high-speed telecommunication lines to the computer systems of the national weather services of its supporting States. The Centre's computer system contains the world's largest archive of numerical weather prediction data. How it works ECMWF uses the computer modelling technique of numerical weather prediction (NWP) to forecast the weather from its present measured state. The calculations require a constant input of meteorological data, collected by satellites and earth observation systems such as automatic and manned stations, aircraft, ships and weather balloons. The ECM does the first 10 days at 16km resolution which is why it is generally the most accurate model. The data is fed into ECMWF's databases and assimilated into its NWP models to produce: 1. Medium-range forecasts, predicting the weather up to 15 days ahead. The medium range data can be found on websites across the web but they only go to 10 days. 2. Monthly forecasts, predicting the weather on a weekly basis 30 days ahead. 3. Seasonal forecasts up to 12 months ahead. Both the 30 day and seasonal forecasts are not available to the public for viewing. History ECMWF delivered its first operational medium-range weather forecast to its Member States on 1 August 1979. It was produced using the CRAY-1A. This used about 5 hours of CPU time to produce a 10 day forecast, which was more than 50 times faster then the CDC6600, thereby making the production of 10-day forecasts a feasible undertaking. ECM's Supercomputer Sources http://www.ecmwf.int/ http://en.wikipedia....ather_Forecasts UKMO Founded: 1854 and started computer modelling in 1959. Updates Per Day: 2. Range: 144 Hours. Full Name: Met Office. How it works It gathers information from weather satellites in space and observations on earth, then processing it using two IBM supercomputers. It has a resolution of 1.25 deg between 0h & 72h and between 96 & 144h 2.5 deg. History The Met Office embraced the computer age in 1959, when a Ferranti Mercury, nicknamed Meteor, was purchased. Capable of doing 30,000 calculations a second, it was a major step forward in the evolution of making weather forecasts. For the first time, scientists were able to regularly use numerical methods to make their forecasts. Extra Information The Met Office's Global Model forecast has consistently been in the top 3 for global weather forecast performance over the past few decades in independent verification to WMO standards. Today IBM supercomputer which can do more than 100 trillion calculations a second. Its power allows it to take in hundreds of thousands of weather observations from all over the world. Met Office Supercomputer Sources http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Met_Office http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/ NOGAPS Founded: 1982. Updates Per Day: 4. Range: 180 hours for 00z & 12z. 144 hours for 06z & 18z. Full Name: Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System. How it works The acronym NOGAPS has been used since 1982 to represent the Navy’s global numerical weather prediction system, which includes components for data quality control, data assimilation, model initialization, and model forecasts. While the nature of the components has changed considerably over the years, NOGAPS has been and remains the central engine that is the heart of the Navy’s environmental prediction capability. History It has been performing poorly in recent years compared to the other global models, so it has been removed from the consensus models that the National hurricane center uses as of 2011. Sources http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/ http://www.wunderground.com/ JMA Founded: 1956. Updates Per Day: 2. Range: 72 hours for 00z. 192 hours for 12z. Full Name: Japan Meteorological Agency. How it works It has a resolution 2.5 deg x 2.5 deg. It like other weather models collects weather observations around the world then processes it using their own supercomputer to produce a forecast. History In 1968, the World Meteorological Organization designated the JMA as a Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre for Asia. In June 1988, the WMO also assigned the JMA as a RSMC for the Northwestern Pacific under its Tropical Cyclone programme. In July 1989, the RSMC Tokyo - Typhoon Center was established within the headquarters office, which dealt with the forecasting and dissemination of active tropical cyclones, as well as preparing a summary of each year's cyclone activity. JMA's Supercomputer Sources http://en.wikipedia....ological_Agency http://www.weatheron...ARCHIV=0&ZOOM=0 GEM Founded: 1991. Updates Per Day: 2. Range: 240 hours for 00z. 144 hours for 12z. Full Name: Global Environmental Multiscale Model. How it works The operational GEM model dynamics is formulated in terms of the hydrostatic primitive equations with a terrain following pressure vertical coordinate (h). The time discretization is an implicit two-time-level semi-Lagrangian scheme. The spatial discretization is a Galerkin grid-point formulation on an Arakawa C-grid in the horizontal (lat-lon) and an unstaggered vertical discretization. The horizontal mesh can be of uniform or variable resolution, and furthermore can be arbitrarily rotated, the vertical mesh is also variable. The explicit horizontal diffusion is -2 on all prognostic variables. History The GEM model has been developed to meet the operational weather forecasting needs of Canada for the coming years. These presently include short-range regional forecasting, medium-range global forecasting, and data assimilation. In the future they will include nowcasting at the meso-scales, and dynamic extended-range forecasting on monthly to seasonal timescales. The essence of the approach is to develop a single highly efficient model that can be reconfigured at run time to either run globally at uniform-resolution (with possibly degraded resolution in the "other" hemisphere), or to run with variable resolution over a global domain such that high resolution is focused over an area of interest. GEM's Supercomputer Sources http://en.wikipedia....ultiscale_Model http://collaboration...blic/index.html CFS Founded: 2004. Updates Per Day: 4. Range: 1074 hours. Full Name: Climate Forecast System Introduction The CFS is a long range model, it does 4 updates a day going out to 1074 hours. However it's long range forecast is capable of going out to 6834 hours ahead (9 months). How it works It has a resolution of 2.5 def x 2.5 deg. The systems works by taking reanalysis data (NCEP Reanalysis 2) and ocean conditions from GODAS (Global Ocean data Assimilation). Both of these data sets are for the previous day, and so you should be aware that before initialisation the data is already one day old. Four runs of the model are then made, each with slightly differing starting conditions, and from these a prediction is made. History Developed at the Environmental Modelling Center at NCEP (National Centers for Environment Prediction) in the USA, the CFS became operational in August 2004. Sources http://www.weatheron...ARCHIV=0&ZOOM=0 GME Founded: 2004. Updates Per Day: 2. Range: 72 hours. Introduction Global weather forecast model also known as the GME is from the German Weather Service. How it works It has a resolution of 0.25 deg x 0.25 deg. GME is the first operational weather forecast model which uses an icosahedral hexagonal grid covering the globe. In comparison to traditional grid structures like latitude-longitude grids the icosahedral-hexagonal grid offers the advantage of a rather small variability of the area of the grid elements. Moreover, the notorious "pole-problem" of the latitude-longitude grid does not exist in the GME grid. Sources http://www.weatheron...ARCHIV=0&ZOOM=0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This guide was made to give an easy, quick understanding of the weather models used across the world - weathermaster.

Hello, my name is Oana Liviu, from Romania. I am currently studying GIS at West University of Timisoara (master degree), and my project is about implementing the WRF-ARW model over Romania and surrounding countries ; the link for the project is here : http://wrf.devip.net (experimental). Currently I am limited by a weak server configuration and I started a donation campaign to raise some funds for acquiring a performant server configuration for hosting the WRF model. My goal is to improve numerical weather forecasting, by implementing higher resolution digital elevation models, landuse and lancover data, developing severe weather indices, expand the forecast area to SE Europe (maybe entire Europe at lower resolutions). I am currently a founing member of Romanian Association for Monitoring Severe Weather Phenomena : http://rometex.wordpress.com and the implementation of the WRF model is crucial for chases and case studies. I came to this forum to ask if anyone is interesting in donating some money to this research project. If you like to help, please leave me a Private Message. If this message may be considered innapropiate tor this section, I kindly ask the moderators to move it or delete it. Thak You !

I have an amateur interest in psychology and was curious to know what type of effects weather has on peoples mood and general well-being. The effects of a lack of sunlight on serotonin and other neuro-transmitters in the brain is of course medically proven, and cases of seasonal affective disorder well documented. My own take is that the current weather is making me feel exceptionally tired, and physically and mentally drained and dispirited. I am finding it hard to get up in the mornings and get motivated. We have had a pretty much continuous spell here of dull, overcast, cool conditions with drizzly rain at best for the past four or five months and I wonder if this plays a big part in how I am currently feeling. In addition, as a six year member of the NSC, I miss the adrenaline rush and excitement of a good storm! I am interested to know other takes on this. In addition, I wonder about the levels of Vitamin D in people at the moment, especially children, and what effect this current weather might have on them. It was getting dark at 8pm here yesterday and by 9.15pm the streetlamps were on and cars had headlamps on! In high summer! Would welcome knowing how the weather makes people feel. It's a big big influence on our lives. Discuss....:-)

Has severe weather become more frequent across the British Isles? It seems from reading reports over the last few years that tornadoes have increased in frequency, more funnels developing, this could be because more people are reporting them since the internet, and more photos due to more mobile cameras, i don't know but i'm interested in your thoughts on this. Also droughts could be lasting longer, flood events becoming more common, we hear about floods more often these days than we used to. Significant change? Many strange things are going on with our weather patterns, i'm sure you have noticed some changes to your local climate, i have, and it's noticable for me to now study it more closely to find out what is causing it, it's interesting, more snow in winter, less summer thunderstorms, unusual sudden warm spells in February, colder summer months, we have had some severe winter weather over the last few years, something since 2007/08 has changed, maybe it's going to change again, back to the mild winters? lack of snow, increase in thunderstorms in the summer, who knows, but it's interesting! I would like to ask what others feel about all this, i feel something big has changed, this is significant.

[b]No this isn't an entry about the fall of social taboos! [/b][color=#000080]In fact I am talking about fahrenheit! This week parts of the north-east will experience temperatures in the mid 60s fahrenheit (17-19c). It doesn't sound impressive, but bear in mind temperatures have struggled to get past 12c during the last few weeks, and the brisk northerly winds have made it feel like February![/color] [color=#000080]Happily the weather improves this week, and although those of us on the east coast will see more cloud and lower temperatures, it will nontheless be a substantial improvement. What happens after this weeks warmth is anyones guess, but a return to the cold dross we have seen for most of May looks unlikely, thankfully.[/color] [color=#800000]On to sport, and a big congratulations to York City for their [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18049175"]play-off win[/url] over Luton Town yesterday. York now return to the football league after an 8-year absence, and while you have to feel sorry for poor ol' Luton, it is terrific to see York back where they belong.[/color] [color=#800000]Plenty of golf action occured yesterday, with the booming Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts [url="http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/story/2012-05-20/volvo-world-match-play-championship-nicolas-colsaerts-beats-graeme-mcdowell/55093180/1"]beating[/url] Graeme McDowell in the Volvo Matchplay Final. Colsaerts takes home his biggest paycheque to date and moves to just outside the top 30 in the world rankings. Meanwhile, Jason Dufner [url="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/golf/2018252094_golf21.html"]won[/url] the corresponding PGA Tour event in Americaland.[/color] [color=#006400]On a wildlife note, it has been more than a little disappointing on the insect front. I still haven't seen one damselfly or dragonfly adult yet, and although I did see a few butterflies around during late March and early April, the first (and in some cases only) generations on the wing have really [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18101581"]suffered[/url] in the brutal weather. Happily, birdlife hasn't suffered too much, with plenty of swallows, swifts, house and sand martins about - great to see![/color] [b]That's all from me for now, thanks for reading[/b] [img]http://cdn.nwstatic.co.uk/forum//public/style_emoticons/default/dirol.gif[/img]

(I think I posted this in the wrong forum earlier today. So re posting here. Hope that's ok) Hi all. This is a long shot but I guessed this was the best place to ask this question. I have a blog about thunderstorms, a very amateur affair, but I need some help. Where would be the best place to get information about weather conditions in the York/Yorkshire area for the years 1959/62? Somebody (over 50) from that area may remember a particularly violent thunderstorm, I know it was August, it lasted all Saturday night and into Sunday morning. I was only a child but I remember our house being flooded and the lights dimming, but I do not know the year. It was roughly as above as I was very young. Oh, and there was torrential rain. As I say, it's all a bit vague but I hope someone can help perhaps in pointing me in the right direction. Thanks in advance Jess.

As time goes on I am fearing that the Model Output Discussion is going to degenerate into the usual summer fare, where the UK's weather is over-simplistically divided into two types: "settled" aka "good", and "unsettled" aka "bad". The main problem is that the desire for "settled" weather, for most people, is tied in with images of clear blue skies, warm sunshine by day, and evenings spent in the garden with the barbeque going. Of course, high pressure can bring such weather, and many of us will have memories of that phenomenal spell at the back end of March this year. [url="http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/2012/Rrea00120120326.gif"]http://www.wetterzen...00120120326.gif[/url] But in fact we only need to think back to the last third of July 2011 for an illustration of how we can be "bitten" by being too simplistic about this association. The forecast models showed a fairly sustained settled period with high pressure close by to the west, and the model output thread was buzzing with posts insisting that we were in for a lot of barbeque-type weather. In reality, though, for many of us the spell turned out dry and cloudy with a chilly northerly wind which left those BBQs gathering dust indoors. The problem is that for high pressure to bring us "BBQ weather", it really has to be in the right place. Here's one synoptic chart: [url="http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1991/Rrea00119910515.gif"]http://www.wetterzen...00119910515.gif[/url] Let's be brutally honest, how many people would look at a chart like that and not think, "sustained settled spell- barbeque here we come"? In fact May 1991 was one of the dullest Mays on record as well as one of the driest and most settled. Another stark counterexample occurred during June 1988. This was an often-forgotten warm sunny month across much of Scotland (leading into that infamous washout July) but also an often-forgotten dry cloudy one across most parts of England, characterised by high pressure in the wrong place: [url="http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1988/Rrea00119880610.gif"]http://www.wetterzen...00119880610.gif[/url] [url="http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1988/Rrea00119880625.gif"]http://www.wetterzen...00119880625.gif[/url] Also, you don't actually need a sustained strong area of high pressure to bring this sort of "barbeque weather". The last week of June 2010, for instance, had a lot of this type of weather, but was only weakly anticyclonic: [url="http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/2010/Rrea00120100623.gif"]http://www.wetterzen...00120100623.gif[/url] And on relatively rare occasions, you don't even need any high pressure at all. I remember that in Tyneside (where in some summers, like last year's, we struggle to justify getting the BBQ out at all) I had a nice BBQ on the evening of the 4th July 1999: [url="http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1999/Rrea00119990704.gif"]http://www.wetterzen...00119990704.gif[/url] ...and how many people would see a chart like that and think, "oh dear, dull wet unsettled dross"? That spell in early July 1999 turned out generally warm and sunny but with sharp thundery downpours, so as long as you timed your BBQ well you were okay. In fact it isn't all that unusual for the most "settled" spell of a month to end up being the cloudiest, if the unsettled weather is mainly bright and showery and the settled weather has high pressure in the wrong place. The dullest spell of this April so far was the relatively quiet one over Easter when high pressure (in the wrong place) ridged across from the west. It can even happen, more rarely, during a generally dull unsettled month (the dullest spell of August 2008, for many of us, was actually the relatively warm settled one near the end). Some of it probably stems from how we were brought up. I know that when I was at school, we were taught, "high pressure is settled (good) weather, low pressure is unsettled (bad) weather". I realise that, as a big fan of convective type weather, I am always going to be less enthusiastic than most others about sustained spells of high pressure (which have a habit of being convection-free). However, that consideration shouldn't affect the above analysis- I've deliberately looked at it from a "hoping for warm dry sunny BBQ weather" perspective, and shown how flawed/over-simplistic it is even from that perspective.

I hope that this summer will be a hot one but at the moment i have not got a clue which april has started okay today but will soon be crap, i want this year to be a great for t storms and funnels, has any got any info on what this summer will be like?.

Ok, after the winter of 2012, my family moved to Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. I will keep you updated with photos and reports. I'll also try to throw in a few pictures Anyways, im going to start with the 3 upcoming days Thursday, April 12, 12 Max T: 19 C Minimum T: 10 Am showers with T going down to 9 or 8 C Overcast and patchy clouds at around noon, T around 19 C Clear and cold night, T around 10 C Friday, April 13, 12 Max T: 20 C Minimum T: 13 C Wonderful morning with T around 16 C Sunny and clear Noon with T around 20 C Mainly clear and mild night with T around 15 C Saturday, April 14, 12 Max T: 24 C Minimum T: 18 C Wonderful and clear morning with T around 19 or 20 C Hot noon with T reaching up to 22 C, however a hot afternoon will be witnessed, with T around 24 and a high humidity level. Cloudy night with T around 18 C, with small showers at around 3 am to 4 am

All clear for new NASA Satellite monitoring the climate - looks like some amazing datasets will arrive back from this piece of equipment. NPP will record sea and land surface temperatures, track atmospheric ozone and dust levels, measure changes in vegetation productivity and monitor sea ice, land ice and glaciers around the world. Homepage http://jointmission.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Equipment VIIRS– Visible Infrared Imaging spectro Radiometer Suite CrIS – Crosstrack Infrared Sounder ATMS– Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder OMPS– Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite CERES– Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System Mission Objectives http://jointmission.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/5Objectives.html

Backtrack's winter forecast 2011 Hi everyone. This forecast has been created from the trends and patterns of numerous model outputs ranging from the GFS,ECM,CFS and a couple of other factors too. Please don't slate my forecast if it does not show what you would like to hear, I have put a lot of hard work into creating the forecast and think you will find it fairly accurate up until January at the least. At this stage confidence falls drastically, with January looking likely to go either way at this stage. My confidence in February is surprisingly high, not just based on the CFS anomaly charts' trends, but also due to the fact that I believe we are long over due a cool February. And whilst weather doesn't follow a set of rules, I certainly cannot see this month being mild at the very least. Hope you enjoy reading it, sure I'm an amateur and you will find that RJF's forecast and BFTP's (when he does his) forecasts are likely to be much better, but hey, it's all in good fun! Also, on a side note, I am a massive coldie fan, and writing the forecast for the first 2 months was painful for me, not only am I confident in their accuracy, but I am unfortunately expecting little cold for Western areas for some time. I've spoiled it enough. Good luck. October: 21-30th - This period is likely to be mild and windy at times with the best of any brightness in the East, with the West seeing cloudier conditions with rain, heavy at times. Temperatures remaining around average for the time of year, perhaps slightly above average at times in the far South. November: 1st - 10th - Numerous outputs, trends and patterns point to a North/South split during the first third of the month. It's looking very likely that it's going to be very average in the North, day time temperatures hitting 8-10C, but above average in the South, temperatures hitting 13-16C. Precipitation wise, the first start of the month looks like being very wet and unsettled, perhaps making up for the drought in place in Eastern areas. An Atlantic dominated first third, night time temperatures unlikely to bring any frosts at all away from the coldest of hollows. 10th - 20th - This period will follow the same theme as the first third for a time at least, with temperatures being pleasant enough in the South for T-shirts to be worn. In the North though, it's again very average for the time of year until the mid month point at least. Temperatures again 8-10C, 13-15C in the South. It's the mid month point that may bring some interest to you with the first frosts of the month likely, temperatures still recovering to average by day. This third is likely to be the windiest with frequent gales, especially in the West. 20th - 30th - Another dissapointingly average period with little in the way of Winter to be shown just yet. Temperatures again remaining oh so average, although temperatures may be down a little way at least, 5-9C in the North, 10-13C in the South. Rainfall should be around average for the time of year, as should sunshine amounts. A cold spell is likely around the end of the month (The very end of the month) giving the first low level snow to Northern & Eastern areas, this may also mark the start of the Cairngorm skiing season. Frosts are also likely towards the end of the month, but Western and Southern areas are going to have to wait to see anything remotely in the way of snow. CET - 7.7C December: The first third of December will be dominated by a North Westerly flow, bringing Western Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Western England their first snows of the season. The cold spell will not be anything remarkable with temperatures still managing to climb to 2-5C during the day, any lying snow is likely to be short lived, with hail showers becoming a very dominant feature for Western areas during the period. The second third is likely to me average with little snow away from the highlands. Rainfall and sunshine amounts are looking around average, rainfall slightly above. The Christmas period is a great day to feel the full effects of Winter as Santa makes his way down your chimney to make many boys and girls happy. Unfortunately santa may melt in England, as there is likely to be no snow away from the hills. For Northern Scotland, a white Christmas is looking likely with snow actually falling on the day! The last 5-6 days may see the return of Northerly winds but confidence in this stage is very low. A North Easterly lasting 4-5 days seems the most likely scenario at this stage with snow showers for Eastern areas in particular. CET - 5.4C January: January is likely to be a cold month. Where as December will struggle to get any decent frosts, there will not be a shortage of these in January as high pressure takes control of our weather for a time at least, bringing some painfully low night time minima, and temperatures struggling to make average during the day. Sunshine amounts are likely to be above average, where as rainfall is looking likely to be below average. Snowfall throughout this period is going to be a premium. The second third is when things start to get interesting. We start with winds switching to a morth North Westerly element, and as the week goes on, they switch around to North, followed by North East. This is likely to be the snowiest period, with much of the country seeing a good total of snow by the time the spell has finished around the 20th. The last third is looking increasingly Atlantic dominated, with rainfall above average, and sunshine at a premium. Snow over Northern hills. CET - 3.5C February February will see Winter in full force, with frequent cold spells and snow for many. Frequent Easterly winds will bring some impressive totals to Eastern areas, with the West having to wait a while to see anything wintry other than frosts. The second period is likely to keep the Easterly theme going but perhaps snow showers for the West as the wind kicks in, sending the showers over the Pennines. The last half is likely to be Atlantic dominated with frequent gales and above average rainfall. CET - 2.9C Overall an average Winter is looking likely. Nothing like the last 2, with the overall CET likely to be bang on, or VERY slightly below average. Thanks, Backtrack.

Your latest weather reports. Sky currently invaded by patchy cloud, and feeling cool with a temperature of 7.0*C. Gentle wind blowing from the South and the pressure is falling (as models predict low pressure out to the West to move further East over time).

For those of you who may not have seen it, Netweather was featured on BBC Breakfast this morning within their feature on how weather affects retailers. [attachment=120539:290831_10150282692605009_567450008_8149686_3556372_o.jpg] You can watch it here: [url="http://bbc.in/o686kz"]http://bbc.in/o686kz[/url] As well as the website and forum, Netweather also have a commercial arm to the business and one portion of that is our service for retailers. As described in the BBC feature the weather plays a huge role in everyone's buying habits, not just the simple connections like hot weather = more ice cream sales, but right down to small changes in temperature making for large swings in demand for certain products. You may think that wet weather can spell bad news for many retailers, but whilst this is true for many there are in fact some stores and product types which do much better when the weather is miserable (and not just umbrella and water proof sellers!), plus of course with online shopping now playing a major part for many retailers there's a relationship between demand through a website to demand through a store which again will be weather affected. It's not just demand for products either, staffing levels can be set based on the weather - a wet day is likely to mean an outdoor tourist attraction is quiet, so rostering staff accordingly can save a business a fortune across a year. Service is also important when it comes to keeping customers, and having enough staff available to deal with demand will keep customers coming back, so knowing when those peaks may be caused by the weather can be vital in creating goodwill and return customers. Many billions of pounds of retail sales every year are considered to be weather sensitive, so having the information and forecasts to be able to understand how demand will fluctuate is a very important tool and one which the major retailers are all taking advantage of these days. Unfortunately though, the smaller retailer often finds that the cost outweighs the benefit and that's where Netweather's retail products come into their own as we have a number of options tailored for the smaller retailer and priced with them in mind. Weather is a powerful beast in the retail world! [b]You can find more info on our retail solutions here:[/b] [url="http://bit.ly/oNTkGq"]http://bit.ly/oNTkGq[/url]

Hi all you loyal LS fans. Having already posted this on the model thread I felt I'll keep it safe on here as it isn't too bad a summary for next week.Tomorrow evening looks interesting for anywhere from Fort William to Wick to Comrie to my location, as a band stalls over northeast Scotland for a number of hours before heading southwest. [url="http://expert.weatheronline.co.uk/daten/proficharts/en/nae/2010/02/15/basis12/ukuk/prty/10021700_1512.gif"][color="#284b72"]http://expert.weathe...021700_1512.gif[/color][/url]The southern extent is somewhere around Dundee, so potentially very interesting for the residents of two of the largest Scottish cities. Temperatures look impressively cold for where precipitation is falling [url="http://expert.weatheronline.co.uk/daten/proficharts/en/nae/2010/02/15/basis12/ukuk/tmin/10021700_1512.gif"][color="#284b72"]http://expert.weathe...021700_1512.gif[/color][/url] [url="http://expert.weatheronline.co.uk/daten/proficharts/en/nae/2010/02/15/basis12/ukuk/tmax/10021700_1512.gif"][color="#284b72"]http://expert.weathe...021700_1512.gif[/color][/url] so snow and quickly accumulating on frosty or icy ground is likely for anywhere inland. After this and IMO the UKMO looks impressive for some snowfall in eastern Scotland, with the low fairly close and an easterly wind kicking in [url="http://www.meteociel.fr/ukmo/run/UW120-21.GIF?15-18"][color="#284b72"]http://www.meteociel...20-21.GIF?15-18[/color][/url]The ECM is a lovely run and a better one for most areas. [url="http://www.meteogroup.co.uk/meteo/ecmwf/NSea/2010021512/NSea_2010021512_thgt850_72.png"][color="#284b72"]http://www.meteogrou..._thgt850_72.png[/color][/url][url="http://www.meteogroup.co.uk/meteo/ecmwf/NSea/2010021512/NSea_2010021512_thgt850_96.png"][color="#284b72"]http://www.meteogrou..._thgt850_96.png[/color][/url]The latter is interesting in particular as this is pretty much the same setup that brought 5 inches to central Edinburgh and 10 inches around the M90 from Perth to Edinburgh. [url="http://www.meteogroup.co.uk/meteo/ecmwf/NSea/2010021512/NSea_2010021512_thgt850_120.png"][color="#284b72"]http://www.meteogrou...thgt850_120.png[/color][/url]At +144 a brief northerly bout brings in more geniunely cold uppers across northern Scotland [url="http://www.meteogroup.co.uk/meteo/ecmwf/NSea/2010021512/NSea_2010021512_thgt850_144.png"][color="#284b72"]http://www.meteogrou...thgt850_144.png[/color][/url] , and at +168 everywhere north of Birmingham is under -5 uppers. In fact up to +240 -5 uppers are present across southern Scotland and northwest England [url="http://www.meteogroup.co.uk/meteo/ecmwf/NSea/2010021512/NSea_2010021512_thgt850_240.png"][color="#284b72"]http://www.meteogrou...thgt850_240.png[/color][/url]And even for those further south what's not to love about this chart? [url="http://www.meteogroup.co.uk/meteo/ecmwf/NSea/2010021512/NSea_2010021512_thgt850_192.png"][color="#284b72"]http://www.meteogrou...thgt850_192.png[/color][/url]Not quite what '93 was here but it could be pretty good for northwest England and Ireland if it came off. So in summary, nothing in these charts suggest mild, not even average for many areas, and potentially very snowy further north.

I was having a tidy up the other day in my room when I stumbled across a few printoffs from 2005, when I was eleven. It was, unsurprisingly to most on the forum, a five day weather forecast by the BBC and STV from the 2005 Boxing Day easterly. The date printed? Christmas Eve. It was at that moment that I realised just how obsessed I had become with the weather, moreso in winter than summer of course, from when I was just nine or ten. Another thought also crossed my mind, and that was that the 2005 easterly had largely been erased from my mind somehow, so that when people mentioned it on the model thread I would think 'that sounds like a situation which would deliver here but for the life of my I can't remember it!' I then realised that I was in Edinburgh on the 27th/28th which saw no lying snow while I remember getting home to find two or three inches of the stuff later on the 28th [url="http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/2005/Rrea00120051228.gif"]http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/2005/Rrea00120051228.gif[/url]It's a very nice chart though, like a watered down '87, and I guess Edinburgh does less well out of a southeasterly than Fife.But that's not the point of this entry at all. What I wanted to ask was at what age did you become properly interested/addicted in/to weather and why? It just seems such a peculiar interest to many other people my age outside the forum but the appeal to me seems fairly obvious - the drama of the changes in model output, the most innocent and pure pleasure of watching snow fall, the banter with those who also understand these, not to mention the fundamental connection between meteorology and almost every activity partaken on this earth.Will update the blog with NMM/fax charts if and when more interesting weather comes into the reliable timeframe i.e. 72 hours.Keep the Model Thread and hence all the other members and moderators happy by trying to stick on topic and avoid aggression/saying things for the sake of making a noise!LS

Thought it was about time to put another entry in my blog seeing as it has only been a year since the last one. Waiting with baited breath for the upcoming wintry weather this week and thought I'd enter it in the blog so I can look back on the usual rollercoaster this weather brings. Sunday night and waiting for the snow to come. Weather warning out by the met office for accumulations in my county above 100 meters. I live in a place that has a climate all of it's own. You could leave Belfast heading northe up the M" and as you rise up the side of Cave Hill towards Glengormley the weather just changes in front of your eyes from Rain to sleet to snow. I've lived here for almost 7 years now and my first winter here was the most impressive. Plenty of Ice days and large icicles hanging of the houses. Haven't seen any of that really since. Get the usual good wintry spell each year and I'm hoping this wont be the only one. Work tomorrow But not yet :blush: