Weather Eye

[grab my graupel]

From The Times February 19, 2010

The big story this week was snow — or lack of it

Paul Simons Weather Eye

The Winter Olympics in Vancouver are turning to slush as the weather seems more like springtime. The city reached 11C (52F), and even the mountains where the outdoor events are being held are above freezing. And high pressure this weekend will bring glorious warm sunshine, but no snow.

The problem is that the strong, high-altitude winds of the jet stream have shifted farther north than usual, allowing warm air from the tropics to sweep in. This is the hallmark of El Niño, when the tropical seas of the Pacific towards South America turn unusually warm, leading to turmoil in the atmosphere across the globe.

Contrast this with the eastern half of the US, battered by ferocious snowstorms. The record-breaking snowfalls in Philadelphia and Washington more than a week ago were followed by huge snowfalls across the South, with 30cm (1ft) of snow in Dallas, Texas.

Even the next launch of the space shuttle in Florida has been postponed because of the cold weather. Last week another big storm dropped 30cm of snow across the Midwest, setting new 24-hour snowfall records for many places. So severe has the winter been that on February 12 snow was on the ground in 49 states out of 50 — normally about half the country has snow cover in winter. But some good has come of it: the widespread drought across much of the country is largely over, especially in the West and South.

Snow also continues to plague Europe. Rome had a rare snowfall, up to 3cm (1.2in) deep, its heaviest for 14 years. However, southern Italy has had an exceptionally wet winter, and last week heavy rainfall set off landslides in Calabria and Sicily.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article7033943.ece

[grab my graupel]

From The Times February 22, 2010

The coldest winter for 31 years?

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Provisional Met Office figures up to February 15 reveal the average temperature for the winter in the UK was 1.7C This winter could be the coldest for 31 years. Provisional Met Office figures up to February 15 reveal the average temperature for the winter in the UK was 1.7C (33.8F). With biting cold winds looking likely to continue for the rest of this month, that figure is unlikely to change.

It may seem a long time ago, but December was in fact mild for the first ten days. But it went downhill when the winds turned from the mild west or southwest and came down from the cold north. Soon afterwards it began to sleet and snow over Scotland, East Anglia and the South East, and from then on the cold never really went away. True, there have been spells of less cold weather, the snows melted away and the snowdrops dared to appear. But even now that the winds have switched to the west again, we’re not seeing much sign of springtime on the way.

This is similar to the winter of 1978-79, when snows fell just before Christmas and January was tremendously cold, with blizzards, heavy snowfalls, freezing fog and temperatures even lower than this year. And February blew hot and cold, with spells of snow and much milder conditions.

But let’s hope this year does not repeat the rest of 1979. March was wet and stormy and spring did not really begin until early April, followed by a wet and cool May. And the summer veered between average and disappointingly cool.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article7036737.ece

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From The Times February 23, 2010

The mystery of the foo fighters

Paul Simons Weather Eye

UFOs reported in by pilots in recently released MoD files may turn out to be atmospheric phenomena. Files released by the Ministry of Defence describe many reports of UFOs (News, February 18). Among the most puzzling of these came from an official at the Air Ministry, who reported film taken in the 1950s by fighter pilots that showed strange atmospheric phenomena following aircraft that could not be explained.

This tallies with reports from pilots during the Second World War. On December 22, 1944, an American pilot flying over Germany encountered two “large orange glows” climbing rapidly towards him. “Upon reaching our altitude, they levelled off and stayed on my tail,” he reported. He tried to shake off the lights by diving and turning, but they stuck firmly by the plane. “After staying with the plane for two minutes they peeled off and turned away, then went out.”

Other pilots reported coloured lights chasing them over Europe and the Pacific. The Americans nicknamed them “foo fighters” after a comic strip character. Occurring singly or in groups, they always kept pace but never harmed the aircraft. German pilots also witnessed these phenomena — both sides thought they were enemy radar decoys or secret weapons.

What the foo fighters were remains a mystery. No technology at that time could perform these feats. The only explanation is a natural phenomenon such as ball lightning, a glowing sphere of light caused by intense electrical activity, seen during thunderstorms

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article7036738.ece

[grab my graupel]

From The Times March 24, 2010

Avalanche threat to soldiers in Italy

Paul Simons Weather Eye

The avalanche that struck a group of walkers in the Lake District on Sunday (News, February 23) was one of several avalanches in Britain this winter. And in Italy, avalanches killed three people last weekend.

The deadliest avalanches in history have been in Italy, during the First World War. The western battlefronts stretched across the Alps into the Tyrol region, where the Austrian and Italian armies faced each other in severe winters. “Some had ice on their faces: the conducting officer said that three or four of them were frozen to death nightly,” wrote one British officer visiting the Italian lines.

Avalanches were another threat. “Entire platoons were hit, smothered, buried without a trace, without a cry, with no other sound than the one made by the gigantic white mass itself,” described an observer. One of the worst was in December 1916, when an intense storm dropped huge snowfalls followed by days of avalanches. About 10,000 soldiers were killed, as whole companies of men, guns and animals were buried.

Some historians believe that avalanches were set off deliberately using artillery fire, although the risks to the attacking side would have been suicidal. Over the war about 60,000 soldiers died in avalanches — a third of all deaths in the higher parts of the Alps battlefront. Even today, the bodies of soldiers are revealed in thawing glaciers and snowfields.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article7038115.ece

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From The Times February 25, 2010

Disappearing fogs of the Pacific Coast

Paul Simons Weather Eye

In 1579 Drake was sailing the Golden Hind around the world when he discovered the West Coast of North America, although much of it was shrouded in thick fog. “Those thicke mists and most stinking fogges,” Drake’s chronicler wrote after they stayed there for nearly a month.

The thick fogs serve a useful purpose, though, because they feed the huge redwood trees that grow along the north Pacific Coast. The redwoods have dense bunches of fine leaf needles that soak up the water droplets in fog and also the minerals dissolved in them. Even more importantly, the leaf needles drip large amounts of water from the fogs on to the forest floor below — up to half the water falling on a forest over a year comes this way, which the tree roots can soak up. And the fogs are especially important during the hot, dry summer months, when the trees are highly susceptible to drought.

A recent study traced weather conditions on the Pacific Coast back to 1901 and revealed that the number of foggy days has shrunk by a third over the past century, which has led to a sharp decline in the growth of the redwoods. The fogs are created from a clash of very warm air from inland hitting the air over the cold Pacific waters, but quite why the fogs are disappearing is less certain. It does seem, though, that the temperature difference between the coast and land has declined in line with the loss of fog.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article7039749.ece