Winter Supplies...

DonnchaMc wrote: »

With winter coming in im sure every1 is starting to stock up on supplies etc.. Im just wondering how much is needed for 2people n 2dogs (the babys hahaha)

Thanks.

eth0 wrote: »

Where would I get some cheap water tanks I could dig in? or even some barrels for above the ground.

Paying 220 euros for a water butt isn't likely to pay off in the next 10 years..

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

got the chimney cleaned this morning, fire lit, finally, and chainsaw sharpened. 2 days of cuttin down trees next weekend should have a good stock of logs for the winter! Mate of mines da bought land which was 60+ acres of forestry, about 10 left and we can cut down as much as we like!! Happy days

Sparks wrote: »

......Mind you, the current long-term forecasts all say this winter will be much milder than last winter, if not milder than normal, so we probably won't see enough snow to put them on
But, just in case, did everyone remember to buy a snowshovel?

As is now becoming clearer on reliable time frame global forecast models, late October could be a lot colder than the past three weeks have been. That colder trend may fade out for part of early NOVEMBER with another mild spell, but colder weather with some snow may then return in the second half of November. In general this is not expected to be as dramatic as last year, and the severe cold is not expected to continue through most of DECEMBER; instead, there may be roughly equal spells of mild and cold weather with possibly a rather stormy theme and a wide variety of daily weather types that will include some strong winds, some heavy rainfalls and some snow or ice. The output for the Christmas to New Year period suggests a milder interval after some rather cold days about a week before Christmas.

JANUARY may be "the" month of the winter as our model forecast suggests some much colder than average weather through most of the month. The details may include a few brief milder turns which could involve snow to rain type breakdowns, but there are indications of cold spells with northeast or east winds that are often associated with snow in eastern counties, and in particular around Meath and Dublin. as well as Wicklow. The lunar components suggest that the week starting around 8th January could become stormy and cold enough for snow to be dominant by then, although the south could remain in more mixed precipitation. The greatest depth of cold, suggesting higher pressure building up from the east, should come a little after mid-January. More snow seems likely in the period that has delivered in some recent winters, around end of January and first few days of February.

The output then suggests a steady warming trend to produce a rather mild FEBRUARY once that early cold and snow comes and goes, and that scenario suggests some risk of flooding with the thaw and melt. Otherwise February may become a rather settled and almost early spring-like month with some of the model temperature output well above normal.

MARCH looks rather chilly especially towards the end, and could involve a minor return to winter or near winter conditions, so in terms of a seasonal "overview" the dominant theme might be variable but a colder winter than many in the "modern" period, perhaps a winter more typical of the colder climate periods of the past, but either not as extreme as last year, or if everything comes together just right (or wrong, depending on your point of view), a January that may remind us of the December of last winter, with some previews of that in mid-December. Wishing to remain a bit conservative, the monthly temperature forecasts relative to normal are set as:

NOV -1 deg (variable but trending cold)
DEC 0 deg (on balance normal but variable, stormy)
JAN -2 deg (cold, and potentially colder to -4 deg, depending on snow cover)
FEB +2 deg (after a cold start, mild to very mild)
MAR -1 deg (mild to start but becoming rather cool later)