Beautiful light snow this morning in Cardiff falling on dry ground at -4 or so. Definitely heading out on the bike.
The air has been dry the last ten days or so, the trails were drying out before they froze. That's what I am enjoying the most - everything was so damp, I don't think I saw dry tarmac for two months never mind dry trails.
Wife asked staff and they said it have been chaos with panic buying. It’s minus 0.5, bone dry and sunny.
Wait til tomorrow!
I'm going to the shop today and will get a bit extra in case a delivery is missed on Friday, which is quite likely.
Shops up here were well stocked last night, off shopping soon for the oldies in the street. The North doesn’t panic at a bit of snow.
Molgrips, we were at afan at the weekend and it was beautiful. All the puddles frozen!
Back in the sunny south east it seems to be pretty regional- just shy 3" at work near sevenoaks, 2 if I'm optimistic once you made it past godstone and once I got out on the bike and headed west of the M23 I don't think there'd actually been any snow yesterday in the day. Most of the previous nights stuff on the south facing side of the north downs appeared to have melted.
Shelves were all bare in Abergavenny ysterday, both Aldi AND Waitrose. This weather panic knows no social boundaries. To be fair there was a dusting on the tops and it was -5. It is a different story here in the hills mind. Proper Arctic with a fair bit of snow lying, all pipes frozen, and a wind to cut you in half. Spare a thought for the sheep won't you.
Right, off to fill a trailer with water form the stream to give to the ewes in the barn. Thanks Beast!
I think this SNOWMAGEDDON!!! style of sensationalising the weather represents the dying convulsions of tradional news media. For some reason "the weather forecast" is still a legitimate thing to switch the news on for. You get videos from all around the country, a well spoken person telling you how bad it is and how bad it might get. The you get a meteorologist interpreting data from the met office with fancy graphics showing you what's going to happen. You can't argue with meteorologists, they're scientists!
Quite by accident/inactivity I watched 3 weather forecasts last night. On the BBC1 6 o clock news the forecaster made it pretty obvious that the north of Ireland would escape most of the snow. Then at the start of the local news they cut to the local meteorologist excitedly warning us that Northern Ireland would be hit by freezing tempratures, severe freezing conditions and snow. Then I flicked around the channels, caught the CH5 weather and nope, looks like the snow is missing Ulster almost entirely. This morning, well we have some snow, but it's not SNOW!!!!!!!!!
^ the truth is that the heavy snow showers can be quite localised and therefore impossible to forecast accurately. I imagine if one hits you then you will probably know about it.
I think this SNOWMAGEDDON!!! style of sensationalising the weather represents the dying convulsions of tradional news media
The TV media doesn't seem to be doing that generally from what I've seen. The worst ones are the FB social media type ones and the newspapers.
But as above - there is a lot of disruption all over the place - just some places have escaped it.
I think this SNOWMAGEDDON!!! style of sensationalising the weather represents the dying convulsions of tradional news media.
TBH it's been the same for decades. Extreme cold weather always leads the news because it's what everyone's talking about anyway. The thing about Brits and the weather is a cliche 'cos it's true.
the truth is that the heavy snow showers can be quite localised and therefore impossible to forecast accurately. I imagine if one hits you then you will probably know about it.
Yeah I've noticed that's the case with most types of weather.
But as above – there is a lot of disruption all over the place – just some places have escaped it.
That's my point, from the "national forecast" it was obvious Ulster would more escape it. The regional forecast however tried to the sensationalise the "chance" that there "might" be some snow.
TBH it’s been the same for decades.
I think it's getting worse and I think the ratio of extreme weather hype to bad weather is far more skewed to hype now than ever. In previous decades bad weather (snow in winter) may well have prompted a news item about closed schools etc, now arctic temps and widespread disruption that may be cause by weather systems that may or may not reach us and could do damage if they do........they're constantly crying wolf.
We've now got a little winter weather in lincoln and the city has come to a grinding halt. It's pathetic.
It's also a great showcase for inept drivers.
Enjoyed a good walk on snow ground last night; another walk this morning, stopped for coffee and will be setting off to return soon.
This morning (yep, should have done this weeks ago) I went to the homeless charity with some Winter clothing and noticed in the donation box was a bunch of flowers. What a nice and uplifting gesture.
I have to admit, that against my better judgement i did do a bit of panic buying whilst in Tesco's yesterday.
I bought a Kylie Minogue CD that was reduced to 2.99 for my Niece and a small selection of Tupperware boxes for my kitchen cupboard.......
Enjoyed my cycle into work, although the idiot that thought it was a good idea not to grit the roads heading into (and actually in) Central London needs firing. Looks like more snow due on Friday #excited
It’s getting properly spicy in Central Scotland at present - we live just north of Glasgow and we’ve got a proper blizzard going on just now. If this keeps up as forecast, things could be pretty interesting by tomorrow morning. My touring skis are sitting by the door on ‘yellow alert’ 🙂
Something occurred to me regarding forecasts, especially weather but probably economic, polling etc. too. It's fair to assume that the people behind such forecasts are constantly refining their predictions and learning from their mistakes. Therefore, regardless of whether the forecast was right or wrong on the last occasion it's more likely to be right this time and on subsequent occasions. Hence dismissing a weather forecast because "it didn't snow last time they said this" is slightly foolish.
So, to reply to the OP: I think it is probably fair to say that the forecast wasn't a myth
Something occurred to me regarding forecasts, especially weather but probably economic, polling etc. too. It’s fair to assume that the people behind such forecasts are constantly refining their predictions and learning from their mistakes. Therefore, regardless of whether the forecast was right or wrong on the last occasion it’s more likely to be right this time and on subsequent occasions. Hence dismissing a weather forecast because “it didn’t snow last time they said this” is slightly foolish.
A broken clock is right twice a day. If what you're saying is true the experts should be able to predict what will happen more accurately, more of the time. And yet what's happening is the media are sensationalising the potential worst case scenario conditions all of the time.
Without any real info or metrics it's hard to say one way or the other but I am of the opinion that more screen time and column inches are given over to dire forecasts using more sensational language than in previous years.
Without any real info or metrics it’s hard to say one way or the other but I am of the opinion that more screen time and column inches are given over to dire forecasts using more sensational language than in previous years.
You are also older. Co-incidence? Maybe not 🙂
Anyway, it was beautiful out on the hills tonight. Cold, dry, trails faster than they've ever been even the permabogs were hard and fast. Then a light snow shower dusted everything with dry snow in minutes.
the worst thing is actually the Express can say told you so (the only time in about 25 million headlines)
You are also older. Co-incidence? Maybe not
Do you mean that I am just more cynical and likely to view headlines with skepticism, or that my memory is failing due to years of concussion and alcohol abuse? I can actually remember two (maybe three) of the worst winters on record in Ireland so I actually have some context as to what a bad winter looks like, in this country anyway. I think generally our climate is getting wetter and milder (global warming?) so whilst I concede that actual winter conditions are becomeing more and more rare, and therefore more remarkable by comparison, it doesn't make them deadly arctic storms.
We can actually travel to or just look at places which have real winters and see how people deal with them. In many ways I think this is also becoming something of a self fulfilling prophecy - the weather forecast predicts extreme conditions and authorities and people respond to whatever happens as though that is extreme.
-8.3°c on my way home tonight, my phone completely stopped working and turned off because it was so cold it completely drained my battery in an hour with nothing running other than the iPlayer radio app.
I put it in my pocket for 20 mins and it came back to life. I’ve booked the next two days off, I’ll be able to get into work easily enough tomorrow but getting back might be a nightmare and I’m not willing to risk getting stuck at work.
WFH day for me today in Strathaven, got all my calls and doc reviews done and then hit a couple of local hills with my snowboard.
Our area hasn't been mentioned in any of the weather warnings and we've had snow since Monday. Many of the flurries have been mini blizzards and spin drift.
Many areas just have micro climates.
@dmorts agreed.
Also, if you follow someone like Liam Dutton on Twitter you get a lot more of an insight it to how it works - basically there are four respected weather models they use (I think, maybe more) and they’re trying to predict what will happen 2/3 even 5 days from now, they will predict further ahead but hey admit it’s not accurate.
All the weather people can say is “based on current models this might happen” now this Beast from the East has been on the cards for weeks, the Express will blow it all out of proportion weeks in advance for headlines “BBQ summer” “8 weeks of snow” etc but the respected weather people would never make such bold claims. But it makes a lot of the public put them all in the same basket and don’t believe anyone.
Well I'd say the Manchester forecast was about spot on, which means I'm trying to cancel the people trying to visit on Friday. Dont need people trying to get in if gets as congested as Tuesday.
Forecast spot on for Edinburgh, proper nasty this afternoon (good nasty for me though). I bet all the people thinking it was fake hype are the ones that were stuck in traffic for hours after ignoring the forecasts and warnings and blaming every one they can think of apart from themselves.
Do you mean that I am just more cynical and likely to view headlines with skepticism, or that my memory is failing due to years of concussion and alcohol abuse?
At a guess I'd say that Mol means that your interests have changed.
I completely agree with what you're saying, but, I also have to temper my feelings about the facile, hammy nature of news media by reminding myself that 5, 10 or 15 years ago I would not have been consuming news media with the same enthusiasm as I do now.
I may have previously noticed a naff headline or two but I would have been too busy socially to have taken a keen interest in media trends. Maybe the press has always been bent
Ten inches to a foot of snow in the garden here just NW of Glasgow,. Heaviest 1 day snowfall for the 27 years we have been in the house bar possibly Dec 2010.
Shit-the-bed I’m not saying it’s cold out, but I just popped to the shops for panic buy bread and milk and there were two dead Tauntauns in the carpark.
Proper cold in South lakes too, minus 6 and falling we're about 450 ft up and the difference from sea level is marked. Bitter wind and heavy flurries, quite beautiful but serious weather. Our water was frozen this morning and couldn't get up the track to the road even my cousins Landy was struggling and couldn't get traction to pull me out. So had to stay and sledge in the garden with the boys! Sweet. Got some grit this avo so track sorted for work tomorrow. Boo!
Nice to see you’ve stocked up on the essentials..
Who knows who else will need such..
I went into my local Waitrose earlier and the shelves were barron of bread and milk, I feel the MrMagoo types have been in and panicked.
Complete Morons.
No shortages in Tesco, Winch. Perfectly civilised there, fortunately.
Unless the Mr Magoo types are shit feared of being stuck indoors for a fortnight cos the pavements are iced and if they have a tumble they might never make it out of the hospital. Like 2009/10.
I got stuck in Falmouth for four hours today, trying to pick up a car.
The main roads were pretty good, some snow sitting so it was worth taking it easy, but when we, the colleague who was driving a car he’d picked up earlier and I got into the housing estate, the roads hadn’t been gritted, so there was about a centimetre or so sitting on the tarmac.
Which would have been fine at the top, where it was flat, but then we had to go down a steepish hill, with parked cars, and we found two vans in the road at the bottom. We tried to slow and steer around them and just slid sideways, we couldn’t reverse or even steer the car, it was so slippery. The vans, a Luton and a Transit were just slipping sideways, we, with some help, managed to get the Almera we were in onto an empty drive off the road for safety’s sake, and a rescue truck called out by the van drivers refused to even attempt to drive down there.
A BMW came down the hill, tried to take the slight bend we were on, slid sideways and nearly went into the front of a car parked up by us, only quick work by me and one of the van drivers stopped it and we pushed it away, and he kept on going and slid into the front of the Transit!
He got pushed away again, managed to get into a side road, then a little while later the stupid ass tried driving back up the hill he’d slid down, and only managed to spin his wheels and slide backwards again.
Eventually a bloke turned up with a huge 4x4 tractor and hauled the Luton out another way, after trying to go up the hill where we were, spun his tyres and slid backwards with the Luton attatched, which was a bit scary, there were houses behind...
He came back for the Transit, had to tow it out backwards because there was no towing eye available to screw into the front, then he came back for us, bless him, and that was bloody scary itself, I couldn’t get any grip, the steering was all over the place, and threading through cars parked on both sides of the road was a nightmare.
And that was with less than an inch of snow, but it was just turning to ice under pressure, the tractor driver went down on his back trying to walk back to his vehicle, and there were no grit bins anywhere on the estate.
By the time we got back into Truro, the roads were perfectly dry, there was barely a hint of snow to be seen, and that’s hardly any distance away, so it was very localised.
Its not something I want to do again, I was driving the car, my colleague and my team leader who’d come back to try to help both shook their heads.
Sods!
Shit-the-bed I’m not saying it’s cold out, but I just popped to the shops for panic buy bread and milk and there were two dead Tauntauns in the carpark.
😆
I've a family member who decided to travel half the length of UK yesterday to get back to Scotland, and is now stuck awaiting trains to restart. In denial the weather is that bad, apparently it's all the Government and Scotrail's fault, the weather is fine and they know better than all of us. The Beast is a pussy and we all need to get on with life as normal so they can get back to a really important meeting (which predictably was cancelled anyway). At one point last night there was a suggestion another family member should drive through the 'red zone' to save a night in a hotel.... 🙄
Both coffee machines are out of order in the local Waitrose and the Costa near it only have small take-away cups left !
bump.
so how is Everyone doing today. Lots of proper winter seems to be here. Bit unsettling to feel the tram skidding a little into the station on the way home. And now maybe getting off way early....
mikewsmith
so how is Everyone doing today.
I'm in a blind panic. The Taoiseach has told us not to leave the house after 4pm but I've run out of milk. And I fancy a some bacon. And to make matters worse when I ventured out earlier my 4x4 was spinning uncontrollably all over the place. Well when I say 4x4, I mean pickup truck. In 2wd. And when I say spinning uncontrollably I mean spinning in a very controlled fashion, like drifting, only slower. And in a pickup.
Been snowing persistently but small flakes all day. Got about 2-3" on the car but lots of difts of about 3-4". However our red zone heavy snow has yet to hit, but the wind has certainly picked up.
Situation is becoming dire here - 12 year old has been recalled back to base because, well, allowing children to play in a blizzard just looks bad, so far 4 doors slammed, 3 “it’s soooo unfair!!!” and a single “I hate this family”.
3 year old wants to play in the garden, equally pouting but gets over it pretty quickly.
I’m down to 2 cans of Heineken and some suspect looking spiced rum.
School “unlikely to reopen until Tuesday” FML...
I thought this was going to be about Cannondales...
Cold and windy but no further snow here. Main road was clear when I walked down to the village.
School off tomorrow and wife yet to return from work...