Winter 2017-18: Discussion

Rock Lesnar

Dry sunny and cold, perfect weather for me

nacho libre

It's funny to hear a californian resident complaining about rain. When i was there it only rained 2 days over the 28 days.
I must say the mostly brown landscape over there got tedious to look at after a while. I would get sick of a climate that had sunshine all the time. It's good for a holiday, but to have it all the time, no thanks. We all complain about not having great summers here, but when we do get warm and dry weather we sure make the most of it. The perfect climate for me would have the following; some good thundery episodes in summer, some warmth, but not hot, a windy autumn, and of course a cold and snowy winter with the snow up past my knees.

nacho libre

and on the subject of cold weather, here's another reason why it's great:

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/frozen-bubbles-boiling-water-freezing-explained-bomb-cyclone-bombogenesis-winter-weather-viral-videos-spd/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/cold-bubbles-freezing-52095597

and finally.... this dog knows how to have some fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLKMliEub4c

MJohnston

nacho libre wrote: »

It's funny to hear a californian resident complaining about rain. When i was there it only rained 2 days over the 28 days.
I must say the mostly brown landscape over there got tedious to look at after a while. I would get sick of a climate that had sunshine all the time. It's good for a holiday, but to have it all the time, no thanks. We all complain about not having great summers here, but when we do get warm and dry weather we sure make the most of it. The perfect climate for me would have the following; some good thundery episodes in summer, some warmth, but not hot, a windy autumn, and of course a cold and snowy winter with the snow up past my knees.

I've a theory on why I hated permanently sunny weather, I've probably posted it here before but anyway - Irish people are psychologically conditioned to feel guilty if they "waste" sunny weather by not going out somehow, but that doesn't leave you when you move away to a sunny place (at least not for years). So you're sitting in this permanently sunny place on a Sunday feeling guilty because you've been working all week and you just want to relax and watch Netflix.

And of course you're surrounded by Californians eating kale, drinking wheatgrass smoothies, and going out for a quick triathlon after work.

Oneiric 3

With regards some of the posts above and the perception that Ireland is a rainy country, the statistics actually say otherwise. Just looking at my own database,for example, rain is recorded only about 3 or 4% of the time, based on recordings that are logged every minute. The same trend occurs on the met eireann's minute by minute database (available on their site) for most of stations dotted around the country.

Personally, I find the long stretches without rain (usually in late spring and throughout the summer period) quite unnerving.

Oneiric 3

MJohnston wrote: »

I've a theory on why I hated permanently sunny weather, I've probably posted it here before but anyway - Irish people are psychologically conditioned to feel guilty if they "waste" sunny weather by not going out somehow, but that doesn't leave you when you move away to a sunny place (at least not for years). So you're sitting in this permanently sunny place on a Sunday feeling guilty because you've been working all week and you just want to relax and watch Netflix.

And of course you're surrounded by Californians eating kale, drinking wheatgrass smoothies, and going out for a quick triathlon after work.

This is a good and true point. I to share that guilt a little but I guess with us all, the older you get, the less you give a ****. Have never been the biggest fan of sunshine, which is just as well, since the west of Ireland is one of the dullest places on the entire planet statistically.

dinorebel

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

With regards some of the posts above and the perception that Ireland is a rainy country, the statistics actually say otherwise. Just looking at my own database,for example, rain is recorded only about 3 or 4% of the time, based on recordings that are logged every minute. The same trend occurs on the met eireann's minute by minute database (available on their site) for most of stations dotted around the country.

Personally, I find the long stretches without rain (usually in late spring and throughout the summer period) quite unnerving.

You obviously don't live in Donegal.

Oneiric 3

dinorebel wrote: »

You obviously don't live in Donegal.

I live in Galway...

JCX BXC

14.2mm/h rain rate at the moment in West Clare, it's lashing out!

M.T. Cranium

I agree about the heat and humidity comments, but you get up a little further north into the central Great Lakes and that's not quite as frequent in the summer, so with all the variations in weather at other times of year, I think it's nearly the ideal weather weenie climate.

Suppose I'm used to the sunny weather of summer even up in B.C. it is fairly sunny most of the time in July to September, the odd rainy day to break it up a bit, and not quite so much kale although still the organic smoothies and triathlons going past, creates a breeze though.

M.T. Cranium

This gives you an idea of that variation you get in the weather in central Ontario, just from my own recollection of weather events in the ten years we lived in Lakefield which is about 150 km northeast of Toronto ...

In 1985, the big weather event was the tornadic cold front on May 31, 1985, that was very severe west of our region but still had some F-1 tornadic cells near us, we saw the green sky people talk about and went to the basement, but it missed us by one mile to our south.

In 1986, that was a very wet summer with several rainfalls of over 100 mm in 24 hours, otherwise rather boring weather.

In 1987 and 1988 we had hot, dry summers and record highs in the spring months also, like close to 30 C in mid-April. Those were also rather tame winters for the region, not much lake effect snow.

In 1989 the first memory of weather that comes to mind is that we had clear and cold weather for the big auroral display in March, that was so powerful that it knocked Hydro-Quebec off the grid, that resulted in some off and on power issues in our region as the wider grid tried to stabilize. Then in September we had a lot of rain and strong winds from remnants of Hugo and in fact the centre of that went right over our location, we had about ten minutes of calm between southeast and northwest gales, and over 100 mm of rain. No damage from all that though.

In 1990, we went from bitter arctic cold in early March to almost summer conditions where daily records were being broken by 5-10 degrees for a week, the snowmelt was very rapid and I spent two days basically diverting runoff from my driveway away from the house as the basement kept filling with water (there was a sump pump) so from about -20 to +20 in the space of a few days.

In 1991, there was a damaging windstorm from a severe thunderstorm some time around the May long weekend. Otherwise I just remember the year for a long, placid autumn that allowed us to keep golfing into November.

In 1992, that was almost a year without a summer, Pinatubo was blamed for that although I tend to think there wasn't enough of a dust veil to explain it totally, but we rarely broke 25 C all summer, and we had almost 100 mm of rain from the remnants of Andrew coming up at us from the southwest, in late August. We also had a 60 cm snowfall in one day around Dec 9th (I should look it up, not sure).

In 1993, that was a mild winter that turned very cold in February and I almost died of some infection that I caught, so I remember walking down to the pharmacist to get medication in -30 temperatures. And the summer was very, very dry but not overly hot, rather unusual.

In 1994, the winter was extremely cold, and we had -40 on two different occasions. This was the first -40 reading I had experienced since 1976 when I happened to be living in central Ontario that winter. Daytime readings failed to make it past -25 C in those colder spells.

Then in 1995, we had a mid-January ice storm, and some exceptional heat in July followed by a derecho that produced a tornado very close to our house, in fact I think it lifted off the surface just a mile west of us, still enormous wind gusts and continual lightning and thunder for 20 minutes. That was at 0300h on July 15th. And it was not predicted (I was not making predictions back then, no internet). The only reason we knew it was coming was that it was too hot to sleep and we could see the lightning off to our west, so I knew a big storm was coming when I saw the tops lit up by the lightning. Next day we went for a drive around and saw the damage from the tornado, it was an F-2. Quite lucky not to have sustained more than minor damage at our house.

So we were packed up and ready to leave for western Canada just around then, end of journal. I also lived through the 1978 superstorm (Jan 26th) and saw the temperature drop from +4 to -10 in two hours with damaging southwest winds and blowing snow in between (that was in Toronto at a weather office, I was actually plotting the map when this happened). And many, many other big weather events that I remember from about 1963 on, in various parts of Ontario.

Since we moved west, very few specific memories, just a couple of snowstorms in Vancouver and a windstorm or two. But we get long, long stretches of very bland weather in the west, that you would not recall years later.

nagdefy

M.T. Cranium wrote: »

This gives you an idea of that variation you get in the weather in central Ontario, just from my own recollection of weather events in the ten years we lived in Lakefield which is about 150 km northeast of Toronto ...

In 1985, the big weather event was the tornadic cold front on May 31, 1985, that was very severe west of our region but still had some F-1 tornadic cells near us, we saw the green sky people talk about and went to the basement, but it missed us by one mile to our south.

In 1986, that was a very wet summer with several rainfalls of over 100 mm in 24 hours, otherwise rather boring weather.

In 1987 and 1988 we had hot, dry summers and record highs in the spring months also, like close to 30 C in mid-April. Those were also rather tame winters for the region, not much lake effect snow.

In 1989 the first memory of weather that comes to mind is that we had clear and cold weather for the big auroral display in March, that was so powerful that it knocked Hydro-Quebec off the grid, that resulted in some off and on power issues in our region as the wider grid tried to stabilize. Then in September we had a lot of rain and strong winds from remnants of Hugo and in fact the centre of that went right over our location, we had about ten minutes of calm between southeast and northwest gales, and over 100 mm of rain. No damage from all that though.

In 1990, we went from bitter arctic cold in early March to almost summer conditions where daily records were being broken by 5-10 degrees for a week, the snowmelt was very rapid and I spent two days basically diverting runoff from my driveway away from the house as the basement kept filling with water (there was a sump pump) so from about -20 to +20 in the space of a few days.

In 1991, there was a damaging windstorm from a severe thunderstorm some time around the May long weekend. Otherwise I just remember the year for a long, placid autumn that allowed us to keep golfing into November.

In 1992, that was almost a year without a summer, Pinatubo was blamed for that although I tend to think there wasn't enough of a dust veil to explain it totally, but we rarely broke 25 C all summer, and we had almost 100 mm of rain from the remnants of Andrew coming up at us from the southwest, in late August. We also had a 60 cm snowfall in one day around Dec 9th (I should look it up, not sure).

In 1993, that was a mild winter that turned very cold in February and I almost died of some infection that I caught, so I remember walking down to the pharmacist to get medication in -30 temperatures. And the summer was very, very dry but not overly hot, rather unusual.

In 1994, the winter was extremely cold, and we had -40 on two different occasions. This was the first -40 reading I had experienced since 1976 when I happened to be living in central Ontario that winter. Daytime readings failed to make it past -25 C in those colder spells.

Then in 1995, we had a mid-January ice storm, and some exceptional heat in July followed by a derecho that produced a tornado very close to our house, in fact I think it lifted off the surface just a mile west of us, still enormous wind gusts and continual lightning and thunder for 20 minutes. That was at 0300h on July 15th. And it was not predicted (I was not making predictions back then, no internet). The only reason we knew it was coming was that it was too hot to sleep and we could see the lightning off to our west, so I knew a big storm was coming when I saw the tops lit up by the lightning. Next day we went for a drive around and saw the damage from the tornado, it was an F-2. Quite lucky not to have sustained more than minor damage at our house.

So we were packed up and ready to leave for western Canada just around then, end of journal. I also lived through the 1978 superstorm (Jan 26th) and saw the temperature drop from +4 to -10 in two hours with damaging southwest winds and blowing snow in between (that was in Toronto at a weather office, I was actually plotting the map when this happened). And many, many other big weather events that I remember from about 1963 on, in various parts of Ontario.

Since we moved west, very few specific memories, just a couple of snowstorms in Vancouver and a windstorm or two. But we get long, long stretches of very bland weather in the west, that you would not recall years later.

Holy feck! That's weather experience. TG you didn't succumb to that infection in 1993.

Oscar Bravo

Beautiful morning . Nice frost and clear blue skies!

Meteorite58

Back to the wind and rain on Tues, windy along the Atlantic coasts

Confused camel in the sahara desert after a snowfall!




https://twitter.com/severeweatherEU/status/950037309424128000

Gaoth Laidir

And snow on the Costa del Sol. Everywhere but Ireland...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1698738416827139/permalink/1801673526533627/

Heavy snow above at Mijas (1050 m)

https://m.facebook.com/groups/1004099239658188?view=permalink&id=1543316985736408

https://www.facebook.com/spanienidag.es/videos/782499301956814/

Gonzo

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

And snow on the Costa del Sol. Everywhere but Ireland...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1698738416827139/permalink/1801673526533627/

Heavy snow above at Mijas (1050 m)

https://m.facebook.com/groups/1004099239658188?view=permalink&id=1543316985736408

https://www.facebook.com/spanienidag.es/videos/782499301956814/

Very strange to see Fuengirola with lying snow. This year many places has seen snow including north africa, parts of southern Australia, Tasmania even had snow a few weeks ago during the start of their summer. The UK of course has seen quiet a bit of snow already and even central, southern, northern and western Ireland has seen some falls of snow. So far this winter has been a real kick in the teeth for snow lovers in the greater Dublin region. Parts of Dublin, Meath, Kildare have yet to see a single flake of snow.

George Sunsnow

Lots of southerlies and southwesterlies Europe wide on the ecm tonight
Very banal
It’s probably telling the truth this time

nacho libre

When it's showing mild dross, you can be fairly sure it's right. If only we could flip the spin of the globe from east to west, then every time the models showed mild weather we could likely discount its output.

Gaoth Laidir

Especially for Oneiric and Sryanbruen

https://twitter.com/ed_hawkins/status/947906030935126016

MJohnston

A very mild day in Dublin. Of course that also means it's horrible out - a fine misty rain in the air, total and very low cloud cover, and a lovely gusty winds to blow it all into your face.

But hey, I guess at least it's not cold like yesterday with its sunny and dry blue skies and near lack of wind.

BLIZZARD7

MJohnston wrote: »

A very mild day in Dublin. Of course that also means it's horrible out - a fine misty rain in the air, total and very low cloud cover, and a lovely gusty winds to blow it all into your face.

But hey, I guess at least it's not cold like yesterday with its sunny and dry blue skies and near lack of wind.

I wouldn't call it very mild out at all, not freezing cold but it's not very mild either, 7.1C here at the moment. Feels horrible as you said with that combination of dark grey wet muck and gusty wind.

Gonzo

I thought today felt really cold, just a horrible dismal day today.

George Sunsnow

Yes dull as ditch water today in Arklow
Lashing out
7.5c currently

Not bothering with the if this and if that of the models for now,it’s pointless

As a senior forecaster in glasnevin said to me about the ecm 240 charts not so long ago
Toilet paper at that range
Give your kids crayons in junior infants and they’d be more accurate
You can imagine what they said about gfs at that range

So if 4 or 5 days out MT’s outlook remains interesting for a few days on the trot
Then I’ll give them a gawk

sryanbruen

Gonzo wrote: »

I thought today felt really cold, just a horrible dismal day today.

Same here, dreadful day. Very dark, plenty of light to moderate rain and feeling cold.

fraxinus1

Such a miserable day. Cold with the blowing rain and drizzle. Horrible and dark. Looks like we are in this pattern for days to come. As if January isn’t depressing and dreary enough.

vistafinder

Beautiful for a couple of hours in West Cork today after the rain stopped. Nice heat in the sun.

Blackbird, Song Thrush, Great Tit, all singing away. Wren made an attempt too.

Spring is only just around a corner.

sryanbruen

vistafinder wrote: »

Spring is only just around a corner.

Yeah and it'll probably snow then instead of Winter for me.

Gonzo

sryanbruen wrote: »

Yeah and it'll probably snow then instead of Winter for me.

yep sounds about right, we will probably get our easterly/north-easterlys starting from mid March and into April like so many other years.

Elmer Blooker

Gonzo wrote: »

yep sounds about right, we will probably get our easterly/north-easterlys starting from mid March and into April like so many other years.

Thats right, a big Greenland high odds on in April.
The best part of the winter, low sun and long nights, once again gobbled up by a big fat Azores.
That Azores has become such a permanent fixture during our winters I would almost be tempted (I said almost!) to write off next winter too!
I see little hope for future winters as a result of climate change, apparently polar bears now have to scavenge dead whales on Arctic beaches because there is now so little sea ice where they used to hunt seals.