Winter 2018/2019 - General Discussion

Cold and damp here in Laois, no frost.

davidsr20 wrote: »

Wtf is hoar frost lol

http://www.letmegooglethat.com/?q=Hoar+frost

:P:p

Nice sunrise this morning

highdef wrote: »

As the streetlights are LED, the colour is so much nicer looking than the horrible orange sodium lamps that are slowly being replaced.

I very much disagree, am saddened to see the end of the Low pressure sodium lamps.

My god what a horrible day, just raining in Galway with no let up, and none any time soon. Met Eireann are saying "patchy light rain and drizzle", which is a fairly sizeable understatement.

highdef wrote: »

As the streetlights are LED, the colour is so much nicer looking than the horrible orange sodium lamps that are slowly being replaced.

Agreed. Our Snow photo's around the house at Christmas 2010 would have been so much nicer if the snow wasn't orange, especially the 3 inches of icing sugar snow capping the hedges around the perimeter. Our Sodium streetlamps were replaced with nice white LED's a year or two later and I looked forward to some day taking shots of the house with white instead of orange snow. Thought that day had come with the snow of Feb/Mar 2018 but it was not to be. 99% of the time living literally on the Seafront in Bray is the best place to be for so many reasons but in terms of the Snow its more often than not disappointing even compared to a few hundred metres further into Bray. The gales blew in salty sea spray with all that snow that acted as antifreeze up to about 500m inland so it never accumulated where I am beyond a dirty slushy 2 inch deep mess which also meant zero icing sugar accumulation on top of the hedge. Cousins 500m in from the Seafront and 50m higher that avoided the salty sea spray had 12 inches on the level and 3ft snow drifts in their gardens! Grrgghh!!

Heres my Orange snow capped hedges from Xmas 2010.

I just don't like the bright hue from the LEDs they're using. A lower colour temp would be fine.

In any event, the snow to be lit up would be a nice start!

Periscal wrote: »

I have recently moved back to Slovakia after spending more then a decade in Ireland. We have been blessed with plenty of snow and temperatures below -15C occasionally. Some areas seen snowfalls of decadal proportions. Here a recent video which will reach hearts of all winter and snow lovers https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sqEsLJrEIck

Can't agree more with the sentiments in that video. During severe snow events (like last winter/spring), the local community where I live, which is rather rural, all help each other and people meet up and interact with each other more than with any other scenario, weather or non-weather related. Despite being literally snowbound in my village when heavy snow strikes, knowing that you're going to meet up with some many neighbours for a catch-up, whether it be just popping up for a few hot whiskies or calling into an elderly neighbour for a chat and to ensure all is ok with them really gives me such a great feeling.

The community is so close knit here that any person who might run into difficulties during a severe weather spell is more or less guaranteed to be assisted and get their issue sorted, whether it be that they've run out of home heating oil and don't have any solid fuel......neighbours will donate some of their own. Or if they've run out of baby food and don't have a suitable vehicle to travel to the nearest village/shop......someone, usually a farmer with a tractor will get to the shop for the essential supplies. During the severe snow last year, a local neighbour made a 14km round trip by foot to the nearest village, through drifts several metres high in places, to get baby food for their neighbour. That person deserves a medal. The neighbour who didn't stock up beforehand has hopefully learnt their lesson!!!!

Monkeynut wrote: »

I say they wouldn't accept it. They seem like very good people. Most are modest when it comes to that.



She had another baby? :eek:

I would agree with that first statement!

As for the baby comment.......Hahahaha

Yeah, Saturday is looking very unpleasant and Sunday not particularly good for outdoor pursuits either. The rest of the run is also very much a "meh" run and is in complete contrast to yesterdays' pub run, which further backs up the fact that the pub run can throw out literally anything is rarely to be trusted.

Deedsie wrote: »

The LED street lights are worse for light pollution. Id prefer the light off them than the sodium lights myself.

We should probably be installing streetlights to minimise light pollution.

Assuming the lamp holder/projector is well designed they are better in terms of light pollution/wastage with more light where its wanted on the ground and less is wasted to the sides and up into the sky. So for naked eye viewing of the stars they are better. However the problem for astronomers amateur or otherwise is that LED lights are full/broad spectrum and can't be easily filtered whereas the Sodium lamps can be very efficiently filtered out with the appropriate filter on your telescope eyepiece.