Winter Weather

[Roma]

Frosty this morning, but they got up later.  Back to wind and rain again tonight.

[Yann]

This afterrnon I replaced the sheet on the small polytunnels and what's happen at 23pm? a new storm, i can ear the sound of plastic floating in the wind. Damn when does the temperature will drop.

[Margaret]

Very weird weather. They forecast a bit of frost here but we didn't get any. Instead there was a big fat bumble bee enjoying the Daphnes this afternoon and, amazingly, white fly on the Strobilanthes. Goodness knows how they weren't blown away with the fence and the various gales which followed.

[Maggi Young]

In NE Scotland we are veering between frosts and pouring rain  - which is not really that bad  though  some of us  ( me!) are feeling badly done by- but I was chastened by this message from a friend in Ontario.........

"I will gladly give you some of our winter.  We have had snow and cold from December on.  We were without heat for 5 days over Christmas so my poor husband had to man the generator to keep the heat in the greenhouse and hoop house above freezing,  The temperature on Dec 24 was -20 C so it was no small feat.  We did make it through but the temperature in my greenhouse went to 7 C Christmas day when we went off to our son's for dinner.  No heat means no turkey cooking for me.............   The best thing about the holidays is getting together with family and friends. 
Time is going slowly at this time of year but we will have lots of pruning to do after the ice storm.  At present it is too slippery and icy to walk out except with snowshoes on.............. "   

I've given myself 100 lines  -
 I will not moan about the rain
 I will not moan about the rain
 I will not moan about the rain ........................................................

[fermi de Sousa]

In the meantime we're moaning about a week of 40^oC days here in Southern Australia (Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria) with a huge increase in the fire risk! Rain would be nice! We got 4 mm yesterday but it was accompanied by a thunderstorm with lightning strikes starting many fires in parts of western Victoria!
I'm soooo looking forward to autumn - not just for the flowers!
cheers
fermi

[Robert]

Here in Northern California we are having an epic drought. We are now into our 3rd year of drought. Ugh! 2013 was our driest year in our short weather history going back to 1878 and all the reservoirs and rivers are now dangerously low. In addition, our daytime temperatures are at record or near record highs. This is our winter. Where is the snow? There is no rain or snow in the long range forecasts, going into early February.

The landscape is still brown when it should be green at this time of year. I should be able to keep the ornamentals alive this summer however with the extreme dry conditions our native plants may suffer. Right now I do not see much or any growth in our native bulbs and some perennials that should be up and started by now. I was a little farther up the mountain today and did see a tiny amount of snow and puddles of water.

The positive side is there may be something good to learn from this situation. I did survived the 1976-1977 drought years.

Robert

[GordonT]

Typical seasonal weather patterns have apparently vanished this season, and it seems to be the same wherever you are in this world! Our large ponds were frozen completely by December 13th, and the ice was thick enough to carry my weight last week. Blizzard hit on January 3rd and 4th, but you wouldn't guess any of it had happened at all today. All of the snow has vanished, and I'd have better luck skating on our ice cube tray- both ponds are completely ice free. If it weren't for the calendar, I'd swear it was early Spring.

What worries me are these bouncing temperatures.In the past two weeks, daytime high temperature here has ranged from -18C al the way to +12C. The freeze-thaw  cycle, with added doses of rain and snowmelt- along with an underlying layer of frozen soil at depth, is likely to be the death of some plants here. I just hope there will be some protective snowfall once winter returns!

[johnw]

Bouncing temperatures - the story of a Nova Scotia winter!

Hamamelis vernalis 'Lombart's Weeping' showing colour today, glorious weather. The rest could follow any day now.

Enjoy it, it's a long wait for April.

Snowdrops up an inch or more.

+5c here at 21:28.

johnw

[fixpix]

Very weather here in this part of Romania. (NW)
Can't really call it "winter".
Above freezing, no snow... in fact we complain it's too warm and dry, thinking of future crops like wheat, fruits and so on.
If trees start blooming soon and THEN the freezing winter comes, we're doomed!

[François Lambert]

We are at the peak of the solar cycle, which normally results in higher temps here on earth, and at the same time we have the global warming.  The current solar cycle is rated to be somewhat 'weak' by specialists, which I read as 'it could be much warmer'.  The recent polar temps in large parts of the USA are somewhat in contradiction with these two facts, but definitely there is something changing with the climate.

[art600]

We are at the peak of the solar cycle, which normally results in higher temps here on earth, and at the same time we have the global warming. 

Why do you add global warming - there has been no increase in temperature for at least the last 14 years.  I believe this is forecast to be the situation for the next 30 years.

These conditions are certainly unpleasant - and I feel so sorry for anyone who has been flooded - but they are not that unusual.

[François Lambert]

The discussion about wether there is or is not global warming has taken religious proportions.  And as a result you find convincing studies blaming us completely as well as convincing studies saying we have nothing to do with it.  Personally I think it is happening.  But climate is something extremely vast with loads of complex interactions.  But I see the following stats for Belgium : for 7 out of the 12 calendar months the (new) record high average temperature has been measured since the Year 2000 while the record lowest max temps almost all are dating back 100 years or older.  Indeed, I do not see that many recent records when it concerns average rainfall or wind speed, these seem not influenced by the current average temps.
I used to do a lot of hiking in the French & Swiss Alps in the nineties and have seen how the glaciers are melting.  I went twice to the 'glacier blanc' in the Massif des Ecrins, and with something like 5 years between the two trips the end of the glacier had withdrawn by several 100 meter.
In my opinion, if we do not feel yet to be cooked by the global warming, it's because some other factors temporarily reduce some of the warming effect over here.  Solar activity is low, we receive a little less energy from the sun than say a few decades ago.  Early 19 th century the solar activity was even much lower and it was also much colder on earth.  Similarly the Maunder minimum between 1650 & 1700 is said to have been a period with much lower solar activity (zero sunspots during several decades) and is referred to as the little ice age.  Additionally, the Gulfstream has lost a quarter of it's strength as a result of the melting water of Greenland's glaciers which slow it down on it's return to the South, so less warm water is sent to our side of the world which again keeps us a bit cooler.  It's hard to predict what will happen with the solar activity, it's even hard to predict what will happen with the glaciers of Greenland, but when these will have melted completely or have shrinked so much that much less melting water gets to the see, the Gulfstream may recover full strength and heat us up.
And yes, there are cycles, 6000 years ago it was much warmer on the planet with monsoons in the Sahare desert, in some way things are repeating themselves.

[art600]

Today in my immediate neighbourhood we have had localised flooding - something that has not happened for 30 years.

As the main A20 was flooded our road became the only way through the village, but even this was difficult.

Found this item on the BBC to be interesting

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25771510

[art600]

My nephew took some photos of the local flooding.

The first two show the A20

Third is a local road with the flood water from the A20 passing through the front garden and continuing through to my road.

Last photo is taken at the top of the slope  - my house is the one with solar panels on the right.  It may not look deep and curiously is on the slope not at the bottom) but I can assure you most cars and vans went onto the pavement and have ruined the grass verges. 

[ashley]

Why do you add global warming - there has been no increase in temperature for at least the last 14 years.  I believe this is forecast to be the situation for the next 30 years.

Here we go again.  This '14 year lull' is nothing on a climatic time scale, and is due to lack of measurements from arctic regions.  It ignores entirely the significant warming (& acidification due to more dissolved CO₂) in the oceans.

Found this item on the BBC to be interesting
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25771510

If we are going through a solar minimum which should mean cooling, but actually have steadily increasing global temperatures then the implication is that global warming is more severe that we thought before, not less.

I'm not trying to have a go at you personally Art, but to me climate change denial in the face of so much evidence is wilful ignorance. 
However I think most people understand that specific events (like your local flooding) can't be attributed to man-made global warming without doing research (which requires funding and political commitment).