Just nipped around the Stroud hills. Pretty much perfect conditions (for winter, anyhow). Not feeling too cold with the right layers and appropriate level of effort…
Just on the "i didn't need to clear the windscreen" comment.. that's because it's dry air, not because it's warm.
https://twitter.com/metoffice/status/968077102250708992
Bitter in northern Southampton (Swaythling) mid morning, we even had some snow flakes falling for a while, hands went numb despite wearing gloves.
Didn't stop me from doing ~1700 feet of very slow hill reps though on the way home, most I've done outdoors this year so far. Had two pairs of socks (inc. Sealskins), two pairs of gloves and two jackets (Altura Peleton Convert gillet under PX Hydrosphere) on with merino beanie and work trousers/shirt.
Getting warm again indoors for the last hour or so has been nice, let's see how things are tomorrow morning...
Quite chilly, but it is february for ****'s sake. What do people expect?
It was sodding cold around Oxted and The Weald today. Some pretty heavy snow as well although it didn’t stick around for long. Had a few moments when visibility was down to 20m or so. I suspect we might wake up to a sprinkling tomorrow morning but probably not enough that I can stay in bed 🙁
It was a bit chilly up on Winter Hill this morning...
Wait, back up a minute. Did someone say ‘Castle Coch’?
😁
Over here in the East (Lincolnshire coast) we have had snow showers on and off today, there is kind of enough to see lying in the fields, but it's not covering the cabbages. And the roads are clear.
Count Zero ...then please accept my apologies ..I hadn't realised.. but long trousers were a soft option and for that reason you can't be classed as hardcore.. 😉😁
Quite chilly, but it is february for ****’s sake. What do people expect?
It is significantly colder than average, as you can see from my graph, so yes it is unusual.
First casualty of the day when iIended up in sports direct buying gloves tbis afternoon. Second appears to be pizza express card machine
There were a few flakes at 7 this morning when I was out with the dog (Galphay, Ripon) but it soon stopped. Bright sunshine and hovering around zero all day at Thirsk. Just taken the dog again this evening round the fields and it was cold but still. The ground isn't frozen completely solid, although the outside taps are starting g to ice up. Just had a quick heavy snow squall.....could hear it hitting the caravan roof. Mrs S tells me it snowed this morning at Scapegoat Hill, but nothing now, and son in Shropshire tells me it snowed pretty much all day but hasn't settled. He loves the monicker "Beast from the East" as his twin sister is at uni in Hull, and has got much mileage out of the joke.
Don't worry - I can confidentially predict heavy snowfall on thursday night and friday morning as that's when i'm meant to be flying to Mallorca for a long weekend of climbing!
Meh. In Luxembourg it was -11 at lunchtime. In the sun. Predicted -18 overnight. It's manageable but... my beer froze.
This cold can stay. No need to clean the bike tonight after 16 miles down bridleways and the canal. Nice and dry with the light snow starting to stick. Got Friday off so will be out what ever the weather as I've just run in the Ice Spiker tyres. My god they are noisy compared to snow studs.
My brother has just been to Sainsburys and apparently it's like a swarm of locusts has hit it. It's ridiculous, especially as they aren't even forecasting much snow for here in West Sussex.
Well the beast passed by this way overnight ..and has promised to come back ..2-3 inches and a white blanket as far as I can see..
I knew something was up when the itv news truck was in our village yesterday evening and sure enough we featured on the local evening news .
This also provided much laughter when the proprietor of the local country store while being interviewed had his name flashed on the bottom of the screen as Prof.Chris Gray NHS..
In real life he is known as Terry Brown ( Broon)..but professor it is from now on ..🤣
My brother has just been to Sainsburys and apparently it’s like a swarm of locusts has hit it. It’s ridiculous, especially as they aren’t even forecasting much snow for here in West Sussex.
Since it seems to be eggs, milk and bread, I always think of it as preparing for National French Toast day.
F all in South Somerset so far, bar about 6 flakes yesterday lunchtime.
Throwing it down with big white floaty lumps of myth now in North Cardiff.
Sainsburys looked like it had by ram raided earlier.
That picture of Manchester... are people in the UK really bothered about that little snow?
Our office Glaswegian just declared 'tapps on'....
How are you acclimatizing Mike?!
That picture of Manchester… are people in the UK really bothered about that little snow?
Nah, I think 10 years ago faced with that level of 'travel chaos' outside their door most of the of the UK Population would have declared it a snow day and stayed at home to moan about how the UK grinds to a halt with a 'tiny bit of snow'. It was the perfect marriage of two of the most popular pastimes in the UK, slacking off and moaning.
Then we had those 2 'proper winters' ('09 and '10 I think) when it really was slightly tricky to genuinely dangerous to travel and we suddenly all morphed into Scott of the Antarctic, winter tyres became a thing in Britain, people bought sleds and kept them in the garage and almost expected it to snow every winter, only normal service returned - a couple of flakes once or twice a year, but post-'proper winter' we couldn't just run for home the moment someone shouted "IT'S SETTLING!!!!" Which was a shame really.
Anyway - in the UK, thanks to the gutter tabloids we only really associate 'Bad Winter Weather' with Snow - but that's not really the story with this, we might get some proper snow on Thursday and Friday, but the forecast is constantly changing as the info updates - of course the sort of people who read the gutter tabloids are screaming "why can't they make their bloody minds up!" as if forecasters set the weather and they let us know their plans "colder than average Winter in Spring, coming right up!" (Meteorological Spring starts on Wednesday). No 'The Beast from the East' is a wind, caused by the Jet Stream not doing it's job again - just like every other time we have bad weather.
We might have to get used to this sort of thing though, Moscow is about the same latitude as the Scottish Borders, it's only the Jet Stream that makes the UK as lot warmer than it really should be given the distance from the equator, if climate change changes it, we'll have to get used to being a lot colder - yes, 'Global Warming = colder UK". Funny how things work out sometimes.
I bet a few other countries are pissing themselves with laughter at the Beast from the East and Threat to Life headlines going on over here.
That picture of Manchester… are people in the UK really bothered about that little snow?
Bothered? Just completely unprepared and not able to deal with it, as pointed out this is not that normal especially low down 😉
A lot of side streets were not really gritted, there were massive hold ups with people taking 90mins to get 3 miles down stockport way this morning, plenty of knocks and bumps, M62 had a nasty one near liverpool. Imagine that a proportion of these people are on nice novelty rubber band tyres, don't drive in snow etc. and have no idea how to react. However up the road into the Pennies people have winter tyres, heaps of grit bins and lots of gritting.
As for the pic it was just the novelty for me, considerably different to the 32c it was in Melb today where my mate was winding me up from. 1 month into the UK and I've got a lot more warm clothes 🙂
I bet a few other countries are pissing themselves with laughter at the Beast from the East and Threat to Life headlines going on over here.
I doubt it, 10 Deaths in Europe so far and it's not really started yet.There are similar warnings being given in all countries effected by it.
It's all about expectation and planning, My SIL lives on Long Island, this sort of weather wouldn't cause a stir there, pretty much every winter they will see weeks of snow, temps well below freezing, but because they have it most, if not every year they're prepared for - their infrastructure is designed for it and the people who live there are used to it and act accordingly.
We, and by We I mean soft southerners, don't - there's no point having 100 Snow Ploughs on standby in London, because they'd go a decade between jobs usually. You don't need to be a Rocket Surgeon to know that if you're trapped in your car overnight without heat or appropriate clothing when it's -6c you may die. My SIL has a nice big blanket in her car, it's never less then 50% full of fuel and she's got some canned food etc, even though it's actually pretty rare to get stuck over there, they're used to it - here, the motorway will still be full of people without any of that, and every time it snows a couple of dozen people will spend the night stuck in their car.
We're not unique in the fact that we're bad a dealing with Weather we're not really used to - Sydney Siders can't drive in the rain in my experience (and it actually rains there quiet often) and in the middle east they sit around shivering in big coats if it's 15c because few of their homes have heating.
+1 nothing compared to 1947 and 1962/3.
The stats are mind boggling and would have millenials scrambling to build rockets for a new life on another planet 🙂
Fears that the English channel would completely freeze over ! It did freeze over up to a mile out and 4 miles out from Dunkirk! 6 inches of snow in MCR city centre in one day during the last week of December 1962 .I was born in central MCR that week,my mum will never forget it,she was worried that I might not survive that winter-no central heating just a coal fire in one room.Temperature below freezing for over 2 months.Record depth of snow measured in England over 6 feet or something ridiculous.1947 wasn't far behind either not just in the UK but all over Europe.The social history is intriguing too,millions of livestock lost,power cuts,death threats to government ministers and the US having to bail out a frozen Europe.
Apparently March 2013 was the third coldest on record but I can't recall it being that bad.
Every single flippin year I have to point this out:
Every country plans for its normal weather, and they don't worry about the occasional exceptional few days. We're no different. What would the point of us spending the same amount of money as Minnesota does on snow prep for a few days a year? You'd be whining about taxes being wasted, wouldn't you? And you'd be right. It's the same reason we don't have a tornado alert public broadcast system, and why Austria doesn't have a tsunami alert system.
+1 nothing compared to 1947 and 1962/3.
The stats are mind boggling and would have millenials scrambling to build rockets for a new life on another planet
And? Not sure what your point is caller. Wandering around Manchester last night it was getting bitterly cold and way beyond Feb expected, The impact on a lot of people is worth warning and dealing with unless you think they are expendable and should remember it's not as bad as 63. Given these events are very far apart and NOT THE NORMAL it is something a responsible government and press inform us about and give helpful hints TO THOSE NOT ABLE TO REMEMBER 63 what they should be doing.
Given the hectic state of the road and rail network and the mass of people that are now travelling much further for work every day compared to them the chances of an event snowballing (pun intended) into something are significant. A car getting stuck can mean 10 getting stuck, that then has an impact for emergency services and critical workers getting into work etc. I'd rather people planned well and we had hospitals and fire stations properly staffed and a few people coming in late rather than everyone getting up and rushing off in the worst of it.
Beast from the East a myth, yes, as much so as the Beast OF the East, that section of over named trail at Thetford.
Certainly gets people heated though, eh?
The stats are mind boggling and would have millenials scrambling to build rockets for a new life on another planet
Yeah, I remember how everyone was basically double hard and triple tough until 1983 when they put the ‘pussy gene’ in the water.
mikewsmith
🤦
Had an email from my daughters school, “snow is falling heavily and conditions are rapidly deteriorating - please come and pick your children up ASAP”. Looked out of my window thinking the forcast must be wrong expecting to see 4ft drifts and my road blocked . We had an inch at best. Welcome to Surrey.
Beautiful and dry, but temps down on the high ground.
Snow not lying, but anywhere that surface water drains down a trail is very icy.
-7 in Bristol at the moment and -10 out here in the sticks.
Today on Cannock chase we had sun and snow at the same time. I looked for a snowbow but didn't see one.
I was disappointed to see that this is called Storm Emma. I was hoping it would be called Ena.
I've had some commemorative mugs made. I call them Storm Ena Teacups...
Get coat, here all week, etc.
Hysteria from Siberia, more like. People were panic buying in the supermarket yesterday. In Dorset. It’s not even bloody snowy here. FFS.
Some snow last night, sun is out. Will be subzero all day.
Great day for a bike ride.
Thank you, Beast. 🙂
The shelves of our local supermarket were stripped bare in deepest Hampshire - we've had a cm or two and the driving gods are telling everyone on the local FB page to stay off the road so they can make progress.
-31.4c here during the night, up to a balmy -28c during the day. glorious sunshine though and crisp snow. Mid Sweden represent yo
Food shops where I live in south wales took a hammering yesterday - no bread on the shelves etc. Wife asked staff and they said it have been chaos with panic buying. It's minus 0.5, bone dry and sunny.
-7.4 on my way into work this morning, my bottle froze solid and my toes weren't far off. Nice enough though on conti nordic spikes.
Tomorrow looks like a nightmare though, will be trying to stay at home if at all possible, 40mph winds means too windy for the bike, and the trains normally stop working. Snow from lunch time means my already horrifically impractical 3 hour bus journey will likely be impossible.
It’s minus 0.5, bone dry and sunny.
Same here in NW England, stunning weather and supermarket was quieter than usual when I popped in yesterday AM.
Absolutely brilliant morning ride with the dog just now, ground frozen solid and barely any ice.
I could get used to this.