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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

October 30, 2003

By Paul Simons

DESPITE the rain this week, the year has been one of the driest on record in South and East England.

In fact, conditions are so dry that small dust bowls have been created in some places.

Last week on the A130 north of Basildon, Essex, a cloud of dust darkened the skies and cut visibility to only a few hundred feet as strong winds whipped the soil up from ploughed fields.

“I thought it was a heavy shower of fine rain because the street lights were blurred by a driving mist,” one motorist said.

“As I got closer, dust was drawn into the car air-con intake and I could smell the earth.”

It is faintly reminiscent of the American dust bowls of the 1930s, which were created when chronic drought and intensive farming led to soil erosion on a colossal scale.

The drought began in 1931, but on November 13, 1933, the first gigantic dust storm blew up and created a monstrous cloud of dust, which stretched from the Great Plains to New York.

Many more dust storms blew up over the following several years, turning the plains into a desert and forcing the migration of more than two million people.

It was the biggest natural disaster in North America’s recorded history.

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Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam
October 30, 2003

By Paul Simons

DESPITE the rain this week, the year has been one of the driest on record in South and East England.  

In fact, conditions are so dry that small dust bowls have been created in some places.  

Last week on the A130 north of Basildon, Essex, a cloud of dust darkened the skies and cut visibility to only a few hundred feet as strong winds whipped the soil up from ploughed fields.  

“I thought it was a heavy shower of fine rain because the street lights were blurred by a driving mist,” one motorist said.  

“As I got closer, dust was drawn into the car air-con intake and I could smell the earth.”  

It is faintly reminiscent of the American dust bowls of the 1930s, which were created when chronic drought and intensive farming led to soil erosion on a colossal scale.  

The drought began in 1931, but on November 13, 1933, the first gigantic dust storm blew up and created a monstrous cloud of dust, which stretched from the Great Plains to New York.  

Many more dust storms blew up over the following several years, turning the plains into a desert and forcing the migration of more than two million people.  

It was the biggest natural disaster in North America’s recorded history.

A Times reader :wink:

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

October 31, 2003

By Paul Simons

“NO spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace, As I have seen in one autumnal face” — John Donne’s The Autumnal.

The tree leaves are blushing with autumn colours and holding on surprisingly well after the long drought and high winds. However, fungi are not doing so well.

Mushrooms and toadstools usually sprout in the mild, damp conditions of autumn, but the lack of rain over September and October in much of Britain hit them hard, and even the recent rains came too late for many species.

However, there is enough dampness in woodlands to bring out the smell of decay as fungi get to work. In birch woodland in Sussex last week, it was a real thrill to find fly agaric, its outrageous scarlet caps splashed with white spots just like a fairytale picture; the drought actually helped the toadstools keep their striking colours, which are prone to wash out in heavy rains.

Tiny bird’s nest fungus were growing on damp wood chips, and they need rain to splash their spores out of their cup-shaped fruiting bodies.

In the grass there were a few boletes and inkcaps, but the usual puffballs, overpowering stinkhorns and delicious chanterelles were nowhere to be seen.

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

November 7, 2003

By Paul Simons

THE Sun erupted on Tuesday with the biggest flare ever recorded, shooting titanic jets of charged particles far into space. This came after two weeks of major solar storms, the most violent bout seen on the Sun, and responsible for the spectacular aurora over Britain on Wednesday last week.

Another sign of the Sun’s tantrums is a rash of sunspots on its surface, which behave like magnetic volcanoes spewing out solar flares. The numbers of sunspots also wax and wane over decades and centuries.

A new study reveals that sunspots have, since the 1940s, been at their most active for 1,000 years, as found from ancient glaciers which carry chemical signals from past solar storms.

This discovery adds fuel to the controversy about the causes of global warming on Earth. Some scientists say that the Sun’s tempestuous behaviour is the sole cause of the world’s warming climate. But most experts blame greenhouse gas pollution and relegate the Sun’s fluctuations to a minor role.

After all, if changes in the Sun were significant then global warming should have taken off in the 1940s. In fact, the world was relatively cool then and it was in the 1980s that temperatures soared.

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

November 8, 2003

By Paul Simons

THE Moon will turn red tonight — a lunar eclipse is going to take place, and Britain will get a grandstand view of it.

The eclipse will happen when the shadow of the Earth blots out the full Moon.

Unlike a solar eclipse on Earth, the Moon will not turn completely dark because some of the Sun’s light is bent around the Earth’s atmosphere on to the lunar surface, giving a surreal brick-red hue.

However, the exact colour varies from one eclipse to another, depending on how much dust is floating around in the Earth’s atmosphere — after a volcanic eruption, large amounts of dust can make the Moon look much darker.

The eclipse will progress in three stages. Shortly after 10.15pm, sharp-eyed observers will notice that the Moon takes on a distinct yellow colour as it starts to enter the edge of the Earth’s shadow.

At 11.21pm the Moon slips into a darker shadow, and finally the deepest shadow of the Earth steadily moves across the Moon until it is totally eclipsed at 1.06am and lasts 25 minutes.

Unfortunately the South, East and central England will probably be cloudy but western parts, and especially northwest Britain, will be clearer.

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

November 14, 2003

By Jeremy Plester

EGYPT and northern Saudi Arabia conjure up images of vast expanses of bone-dry sand and fierce sunshine.

Indeed, much of both countries are, climatically speaking, desert, with meagre amounts of rain from one month to the next.

As much as 95 per cent of the population of Egypt are reliant on the Nile for irrigation while many Saudis drill deep underground or use desalinisation plants for water.

Every now and again during the late autumn and winter months, however, a weather system will pass through this arid region, transforming the desert from a dustbowl into a quagmire.

This happened last Tuesday. A cold front slid swiftly south through Russia and the Ukraine before developing further as it got tangled up with warmer, moisture laden air associated with the Mediterranean Sea.

By the time the disturbance reached southern Turkey it had developed into a full blown depression and as its associated cold front moved across Egypt, the Red Sea and eastward into Saudi Arabia, rain fell by the bucket.

Jeddah, which sits parched along the shores of the Red Sea for most of the time, was particularly badly hit as torrential rain left people and cars stranded by flash flooding.

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

December 13, 2003

By Paul Simons

IS IT going to be a White Christmas? One newspaper in London has confidently predicted snow on Christmas Day, but most forecasters hate sticking their necks out this far ahead.

True, there is a nip in the air, but if you are thinking of betting on a snowy Christmas, the chances are looking very poor.

Most computer forecasts currently show a tantalising cold spell created by high pressure sticking out in the Atlantic, but this will probably be pushed out by wet and windy westerlies.

“It’s a tricky one to forecast — it’s unsettled now, then it turns cold and changes mild again around Christmas Eve or just before,” the forecaster Bill Giles predicts. “So it looks like it’s going to be a mild Christmas.”

Piers Corbyn at Weatheraction.com takes a radically different approach, basing his forecasts on solar activity, but he also sees slim pickings for Christmas Day.

“I think the only chance of snow is in the North East, say around Aberdeen,” he says.

In truth, snowfalls in December have been growing much more infrequent as our winters have turned milder in the past 30 years or so.

All in all, it looks like being a good Christmas for the bookies.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam
December 13, 2003

By Paul Simons

IS IT going to be a White Christmas? One newspaper in London has confidently predicted snow on Christmas Day, but most forecasters hate sticking their necks out this far ahead.  

True, there is a nip in the air, but if you are thinking of betting on a snowy Christmas, the chances are looking very poor.  

Most computer forecasts currently show a tantalising cold spell created by high pressure sticking out in the Atlantic, but this will probably be pushed out by wet and windy westerlies.  

“It’s a tricky one to forecast — it’s unsettled now, then it turns cold and changes mild again around Christmas Eve or just before,” the forecaster Bill Giles predicts. “So it looks like it’s going to be a mild Christmas.”  

Piers Corbyn at Weatheraction.com takes a radically different approach, basing his forecasts on solar activity, but he also sees slim pickings for Christmas Day.  

“I think the only chance of snow is in the North East, say around Aberdeen,” he says.  

In truth, snowfalls in December have been growing much more infrequent as our winters have turned milder in the past 30 years or so.  

All in all, it looks like being a good Christmas for the bookies.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

Have you copied my thread from the TWO site? :lol:

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
December 13, 2003

By Paul Simons

IS IT going to be a White Christmas? One newspaper in London has confidently predicted snow on Christmas Day, but most forecasters hate sticking their necks out this far ahead.  

True, there is a nip in the air, but if you are thinking of betting on a snowy Christmas, the chances are looking very poor.  

Most computer forecasts currently show a tantalising cold spell created by high pressure sticking out in the Atlantic, but this will probably be pushed out by wet and windy westerlies.  

“It’s a tricky one to forecast — it’s unsettled now, then it turns cold and changes mild again around Christmas Eve or just before,” the forecaster Bill Giles predicts. “So it looks like it’s going to be a mild Christmas.”  

Piers Corbyn at Weatheraction.com takes a radically different approach, basing his forecasts on solar activity, but he also sees slim pickings for Christmas Day.  

“I think the only chance of snow is in the North East, say around Aberdeen,” he says.  

In truth, snowfalls in December have been growing much more infrequent as our winters have turned milder in the past 30 years or so.  

All in all, it looks like being a good Christmas for the bookies.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

Have you copied my thread from the TWO site? :lol:

Infact I was thinking about Weather Eye before the thread you posted in TWO this morning, yes I did see your thread and did give me the inscentive to post today's weather eye on here, but when I saw it I went to My Favourites and copied it from there, if that's OK with you Kevin? :wink:

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  • 3 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

January 2, 2004

By Paul Simons

“IN THE bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan; Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.” (In The Bleak Midwinter, Christina Rossetti, 1872) The cold chill of winter is creating frost in many places and with it the danger of black ice on roads, a treacherous condition because the ice is almost invisible.

Frost usually looks white because it is peppered with countless tiny air bubbles reflecting light like tiny mirrors. Black ice, however, is a thin sheet of virtually solid ice with nothing to give itself away.

Black ice can form in many ways: sometimes from sleet or melted snow that freezes as a sheet of ice, or from freezing rain that turns to ice as soon as it touches solid objects.

It can also come from a hard white frost thawing in the sun, or melted under the pressure of car tyres, and then refreezing as black ice when conditions turn cold again.

Some of the worst places for black ice are on exposed roads and bridges, which freeze first in cold weather. Shaded areas such as cuts through hills and along banks or roads close to rivers and lakes are also places in which to take particular care.

The best advice for drivers, of course, is to slow down.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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  • 3 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

January 17, 2004

By Jeremy Plester

IN THE depths of winter there are people who find no greater pleasure than climbing to the top of a mountain.

Winter mountaineering is not everybody’s cup of tea, and care must be taken at this time of year when venturing up into the mountains.

Ice climbing provides one of the most challenging ways to get to the top. Many of the famous Alpine ice climbs are formed as snowmelt trickling off the peaks forms huge icy waterfalls.

Rime ice is another source of mountain ice, which accumulates even when it has not rained or snowed for days. It is common across the Scottish Highlands and is formed when minute particles of moisture, low temperatures and fresh winds combine with sub-zero rock surface temperatures.

When they unite, ice is welded to surfaces, leaving rocky outcrops with thick layers of hard ice and providing challenging routes for mountaineers. The stronger the wind, the thicker the deposit is likely to become.

This form of ice can be a problem for power companies. If enough builds up on electricity lines it can bring them down. In April 1984, 15cm (6in) of rime ice built up on lines in Newfoundland, leaving thousands without power as pylons toppled.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

January 24, 2004

By Paul Simons

SO FAR, this month has been fairly cosy, apart from the wind and rain.

Last week, air streaming up from the sub-tropics bathed Britain in astonishing warmth, and last Sunday, Leuchars, near Dundee, reached a heady 14C (57F). Spring flowers have poked their heads above ground and even hazel catkins were found blooming in Yorkshire.

But all that is going to change. A high-pressure system over Greenland is stretching a long arm down into the Atlantic and will pour freezing Arctic air across the UK, with Scotland hit especially hard from tomorrow.

The cold will really dig in on Tuesday, with daytime temperatures struggling to get above freezing, and it will feel even colder in a savage wind. Night could see temperatures plunging towards -15C (5F) in some places. Heavy snows are forecast across Scotland, spreading to northern and eastern parts of England, and possibly lighter snowfalls elsewhere. The cold spell will last at least until Wednesday.

It was almost exactly a year ago that a sudden cold snap brought chaos to the M11 and other eastern parts, when road gritters were called out too late and drivers were left stranded in the snow. At least the warnings are clear this time round.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

January 31, 2004

By Paul Simons

REPORTS about Wednesday’s ferocious snowstorm reveal that it was even more freakish than it first appeared. Arctic air smashed into warmer air so violently that it detonated an explosion of snow, thunder and lightning known as “thundersnow”.

That cold front stretched more than 100 miles and, as it marched south, barometer readings dived as air pressure fell and temperatures crashed from about 5C to -1C (41F to 30F) in a few minutes.

A massive burst of rain, snow, hail and graupel (snow pellets) fell as blue lightning and cracks of thunder joined in the mayhem: in South Molton, Devon, lightning punched a hole through the roof of a house. The storm also whipped up winds reaching 70mph: a cargo plane at Guernsey airport was spun round 90 degrees.

These gusts were generated by huge downdraughts as the rain, snow and ice dragged down cold air from the thunderclouds. At the leading edge of the downdraughts, known as the gust front, the winds may have caught small kinks and spun off into “gustnados” (gust-front tornados). Although less powerful than ordinary tornados, they can still cause damage.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

February 14, 2004

BY PAUL SIMONS

BRITISH heating bills this winter should be lower than usual because of the warm temperatures we’ve been having. Things are very different across the Atlantic.

North America is being gripped by a brutal winter. Arctic air has launched repeated raids deep into the continent, sometimes leaving more than half of the US covered in snow, and even reaching deep into Mexico.

Some parts have had their coldest and snowiest winter in living memory: New York City had its second-coldest January in 70 years, and Grand Forks, North Dakota, had a record low of -42C (-43F) on January 30.

This month more savage storms have swept through the Plains and the Midwest, crippling road and rail transport, and a huge ice storm in West Virginia cut electricity when power lines collapsed under the weight of ice.

The bad weather continues this weekend, with more cold in the north east, snow showers in New Mexico, and a cold storm running along the Gulf of Mexico bringing possible snow showers in Texas.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

February 16, 2004

BY PAUL SIMONS

ISAAC NEWTON published his ground-breaking book Opticks 300 years ago this month in which he explained one of the great mysteries of meteorology: where do the colours of the rainbow come from?

Using glass prisms, he showed that light was made up of basic, primary rays, each with its own colour. Raindrops behaved in much the same way: as the Sun’s light hit a raindrop, the primary rays were bent at slightly different angles, splitting them and revealing their colours in a rainbow.

It was an earth-shattering concept. Since ancient times, rainbows had been seen as something divine: Noah was sent a rainbow as a divine message; the Incas saw them as gifts from heaven; the Norse believed they were a bridge into Valhalla, the paradise home of the god Odin.

By dissecting rainbows in such a clinical way, Newton seemed to have stripped them of their magic.

Even a century later, many of the romantic poets were fuming still about this perceived attack on nature, and John Keats wrote about Newton “unweaving the rainbow”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

February 17, 2004

BY PAUL SIMONS

JUST when it seemed as though winter had gone, the eastern Mediterranean had a nasty shock last week.

Blizzards battered Greece and Turkey, sinking two ships and leaving thousands of villages cut off by heavy snow.

Even Crete was hit by snow, where it had been as hot as 25C (77F) just a few days earlier. The storm then struck Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel at the weekend, causing havoc with heavy rains and snow but bringing a welcome boost to water supplies.

By contrast, Britain is having its calmest weather in weeks because of a stubborn block of high pressure that is sitting directly over the country. However, clearing skies will bring some very cold nights with some sharp frosts this week.

Even more ominous are developments brewing on the Continent. Some computer models are forecasting a blast of Arctic air erupting into the middle of Europe this week.

Although high pressure over Britain will largely protect us from the full onslaught of the cold, there is a chance that southeast England may catch some vicious easterly winds from across the Channel.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

February 20, 2004

BY PAUL SIMONS

I READ that a bizarre incident had struck St John’s, a suburb of Worcester, last Wednesday night.

A gigantic flash lit up the sky, which a witness described as “like a sheet of lightning”, sending electric appliances haywire in more than 500 nearby houses.

My immediate reaction was to check the weather that night: however, it was calm, there was no sign of any lightning, and high pressure was firmly in control.

But there was a strong temperature inversion — a lid of warm air trapping colder air near the ground — which could have bounced radio signals long distances between the different layers of air. This can play havoc with radio and television reception, but other appliances would be unaffected and it does not explain the flash of light.

Another explanation might be a meteor bursting in a bright flash. Its ionised trail can also produce its own radio waves and interfere with electrical equipment on the ground. Again, not very likely.

It now turns out that the incident was caused by a swan flying into power cables and short-circuiting them.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

February 21, 2004

BY PAUL SIMONS

FRESH snows have fallen across Europe’s main ski resorts and the outlook is for more next week. But behind the excellent conditions lies a threat.

Skiers relishing the conditions should not underestimate the danger from the Sun’s ultraviolet rays in the mountains. They carry a high risk of sunburn and, ultimately, skin cancer.

The cool mountain air gives a false sense of security; the higher the altitude the greater the UV radiation.

That is because there is less atmosphere to screen out the radiation.

Generally, for every 300m (1,000ft) climb in altitude there is 4 per cent more UV. As most ski resorts lie at or above 1,500m, they get some 20 per cent more UV than at sea level.

The UV rays can penetrate cloud, and snow makes conditions even worse because the surface reflects 85 per cent of the UV. Any exposed area is vulnerable, so the best protection is to cover as much skin as possible with clothes, hats, gloves, high collar, and wrap-around, UV-blocking sunglasses or goggles. Skin still exposed needs a regular application of sunblock.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

February 28, 2004

BY PAUL SIMONS

THIS weekend is going to be perfect for making snowballs, and British snow is ideal for the job.

Our snow tends to be wet, which helps to make the tiny ice crystals stick together into large snowflakes.

Those wet flakes then bind together well into a firm snowball, far less likely to fall apart than powdery snow.

Also, squashing the snow into a ball crushes the ice crystals and makes some of them melt.

When you stop the crushing, the crystals refreeze into a firm mass.

Strangely, giant snowballs can form of their own accord without any helping hand.

These are called snowrollers and look like rolled-up loft insulation reaching up to a few feet across.

Whole fields can be dotted with dozens of them, leaving behind wiggly patterns in the snow where they have rolled up.

Snowrollers form when strong winds whip up a layer of light new snow on top of a smooth crust of harder snow.

If the light snow sticks together, it rolls up into cylinders, in much the same sort of way as building a snowman.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

March 6, 2004

BY PAUL SIMONS

A FANTASTIC sight appeared at night in a remote part of northern Scotland.

A reader described how there were no artificial lights and rain was pouring down when a break in the clouds allowed a full moon to shine through.

“With my back to the Moon I saw a full rainbow,” she wrote. “It was all white. I could discern no colour in it at all.”

This was a lunar rainbow, when moonlight is bent into an arc by raindrops, like a normal rainbow. It happens only when the moonlight is strong enough, at or around full moon, and when the Moon is fairly low in the sky.

Lunar rainbows are rare because the isolated showers that create them are fairly uncommon at night. They are easily swamped by artificial lights. The lunar rainbow appears ghostly white because moonlight is much weaker than sunlight, so we cannot see the colours clearly; this is why moonlight often washes the landscape in a spooky white-grey colour.

If conditions are right, the next chance to see a lunar rainbow is around the full moon tonight.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

March 13, 2004

BY PAUL SIMONS

IT SOUNDS like a bad joke for mid-March, but a blast of snow really has swept through Britain.

You might think that snowy weather always comes from the North, but this time it sprang up from the South West, where a battle raged between warm, wet Atlantic air and cold continental air from the East. The cold air undercut the warm air, and precipitation tumbled down as sleet and snow.

It reminded me of early January 1982. An Atlantic depression drove up the southwest approaches of the Channel and collided with bitterly cold air, setting off one of the worst blizzards of the 20th century.

Southern Britain bore the brunt of the snow — South Wales was isolated for three days in drifts up to 6m (20ft) high, transport across much of Britain was jammed up and London turned into a ghost town as commuters failed to get to work.

But there was more chaos to come. As mild air crept into the South West, heavy rain fell on to frozen surfaces, creating sheets of ice across much of Devon, Somerset and Dorset. Many power lines crumpled under the weight of ice.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

March 20, 2004

BY JEREMY PLESTER

TUESDAY’S warm and sunny weather across southern Britain might be just a memory now that more typical wind, rain and even snow are back.

One of the features of Tuesday’s weather was the hazy nature of the sunshine, which was brought about by cirrus clouds. These are the highest clouds in the sky, where the air is supercold, and are made up of billions of minuscule particles of ice.

Blue sky can be seen through them and plays tricks on the sunlight refracting through the particles. This optical phenomenon is common, often producing a bright halo around the sun.

Cirrus comes in a variety of forms. More often than not it manifests itself as wispy, translucent clouds that do little to spoil the sunshine. However, on occasion, thickening layers of cirrostratus can signal approaching foul weather.

On Tuesday afternoon, the skies above London were crowded with extended wisps of cirrus. Cirrus clouds are at the mercy of winds high in the sky. When the ice particles are blown around they become organised into lines, hence the name “mare’s-tail”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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Posted
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset
  • Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

March 22, 2004

BY JEREMY PLESTER

A NASTY low-pressure system crossed the British Isles on Saturday, bringing rain and gales. No doubt many people spent Sunday morning clearing up after them.

Palaeo-climatologists suggest that this type of inclement weather would have been a lot more common during the last Ice Age, when ice sheets covered much of northern Europe and North America. Global average temperatures were 5C or 6C lower, but this does not paint the whole picture when looking at the Earth’s temperatures.

There is evidence to suggest that equatorial regions did not cool down nearly as much as the mid-latitudes and the poles — in fact temperatures at the poles barely changed at all. What this means is that there would have been a much greater contrast in temperatures.

Big storms feed from such contrasts in temperature: the bigger the difference, the higher the potential for huge storms to develop.

Spare a thought for Neanderthal man, then, who would not only have had to put up with the shivering cold but also constant storms and bouts of wet weather.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8823,00.html

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