Weather 2008

[Giles]

Dear Chloe,
That is seriously spooky as I was in Oxford then too (and yes it was 'very' cold, and the college central heating broke down too!!).
No ice sculptures here though: 4 blankets,2 duvets, hot water bottle and bed socks!

[Casalima]

Dear Chloe,
That is seriously spooky as I was in Oxford then too (and yes it was 'very' cold, and the college central heating broke down too!!).
No ice sculptures here though: 4 blankets,2 duvets, hot water bottle and bed socks!

It's odd that I don't remember feeling particularly cold. My main memory is of the frost growing thicker (or longer!) every day!

But even spookier is that my mother was from Northampton 

[Maggi Young]

dee dee de dee, dee dee de dee........ eek!

That winter was more than 25 years ago.... you were young ( hell, apart from the few who weren't born then, ALL of us here were young then!!)  ... the young don't feel the cold.... in the same way that in 1972 I didn't feel the heat of that lovely summer ......now I alternate between freezing to death and melting in a hot fug.....life's a bitch and then you die......
                       

[mark smyth]

This morning, frost on the car, one of my thermometers reads 0 and the other +2

[David Shaw]

Today's Press & Journal advises that there is a ridge of high pressure over southern Scandinavia and that this is pushing a cold central European airstream over northern Scotland. The worst bit is that forecasters predict it will last into the middle of next week .
It is quite bright now and about -5 so we are about to wrap up and go for a walk. No gardening to be done here for a while yet.

[David Nicholson]

+2C here at the moment with a very cold wind. There was a fairly heavy frost first thing but all gone now although the ground is still fairly hard. Greenhouse managed to stay above freezing though.

[David Shaw]

Currently -7, calm and sunny but magical walking weather.

[mark smyth]

I really like your photo of the trees.

[David Nicholson]

David, lovely pictures. In the whole of my life I have never before seen trees covered with so much frost.

[mark smyth]

In my pre teens we had weather like that or colder. There was hill where we used to slide down on cardboard. This was a year round event. I remember this period of cold because there was a lot of snow, hard frosts and freezing fog. While we play ice formed on our long hair. Long because the fashion was the long shaggy cut. Anyone remember?

I also remember rooks and jackdaws, Corvids, being active after dark. With the help of a black Lab I caught mice that were under the snow. He would poke his nose under the snow and plough through it. Mice would jump out and run over snow. I kept them in glass fish tanks in a rough green house made from corrugated plastic. The tanks had soil, twigs, moss, food etc to keep them happy. They were always gone the next day. I suppose they jumped out. I also saw barn owls when I went across the fields looking for foxes and badgers out in the snow

[Casalima]

Some lovely Scottish frost photos here too http://teach77.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/i-love-winter/

Warmish and wet here.

[Anthony Darby]

I like David's lollipops.

[TC]

I think we must all be going soft.  It is cold but nothing like what we used to get.  I have vague memories of the winter in 1947 in Glasgow.  I was never out of a balaclava and wellies until March.  The worst point was fuel rationing - we were rationed to one bag of coal a week, power cuts and a gas supply that was no more than a "peep" - a Glasgow expression that means a flame that can barely be seen. Central heating meant one coal fire in the house.
To quote MontY Python,  " coal fire, bloody luxury but we were happy then"
As a young adult, the winter of 1962/3 was a beauty.  Loch Lomond froze over and I can remember walking out to Inchcailloch island.  At that time I was working in a whisky bond in Dumbarton.  We could not have any heating due to fire risks and the temperature was -15C inside the warehouse - sticking your hands into over proof whisky hurt!  We used to stand outside for a heat.  It was only -10c in the open.  You have to realise that there were no smokeless zones and the accumulation of smoke from coal fires and factory pollution could give smog that could last for a week.
The last cold spell was about 27 years ago.  It was so cold in Ayr that the sea froze over for about 100 metres from the shore and the river Ayr resembled the Baltic with ice flows choking the river. 

[Anthony Darby]

1979 was the year the Lake of Mentieth froze to a depth of over 10" and over 1000 competitors had a 'grand match' in the last Bonspiel. There were even cars on the ice! Our last big freeze was January 1996 when the school heating broke down and we were farmed out here there and everywhere in Falkirk almost until Easter.

Here's some pics taken around about 4.30 p.m. today near the Gathering Stone on Sheriffmuir.

Still and hour and a half 'til the bells.

[mark smyth]

27 years could be the year that the sides of Lough Neagh and Lough Beg froze. I walked out to Coney Island on Lough Beg on the ice. Very stupid because I cant swim. Shooting was banned then, I used to shoot, so the birds could try to find food in peace. My dad told me about the cold winter of 62/63 when the two loughs froze solid. Drivers too short cuts across Lough Neagh 12x22 miles.