Weather winter 2010/2011

[johnw]

Armin - I've never seen the great link you posted.

My grandfather at the time had horses and was in the barn that morning when he heard the blast. One of the barn doors jumped off the hinges at the same time. He was in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island!

The short film gives the impression that the blast happened immediately after the collision. Unfortunately there was a time lag and many rushed to their windows to see the fire, many went to the waterfront to witness it including fire brigades. Many people were injured by flying glass and this led to a School for The Blind being founded here.  BTW there was a second explosion here during the second world war when the ammunitions storage dump caught fire and exploded, it caused a tremendous amount of panic as the first was still in memory. 

johnw - +7c cloudy and calm.

[cohan]

i think northern europeans might be tougher re:indoor temps than canadians

I'll say. My friend in Numansdorf, Holland record +4c in her kitchen last week and had icicles hanging from the showerhead.  

johnw

brrr! i can deal with our cold outside--rare -40, and -20 isn't even worthy of comment, but please, i need to be warm indoors!`....lol

[ChrisB]

I guess being warm indoors does compensate, but I'd sure like to get rid of the white stuff here, and when it melts I'll be finding out the magnitude of repairs that need doing as a result of it too.   Already there are drips in the garage roof that will need attention, but I'm sure there will be more to deal with than that!

The compensation is that I'm hoping my garden benefits from the snow melt, which I remember reading earlier this year the last time we went through all this, is beneficial to many plants.  Lots of my general perennials did very well after the snow last spring.  I shall try to keep those positive thoughts as we endure more snow tomorrow....

[cohan]

good luck with the snow, chris, and all dealing with unusual conditions! still cold here (with ups and downs, but not too far up) but luckily no significant snow since the original 20cm or so after mid november..that is still hanging around, of course, and wont likely go anywhere til late feb at least, though you never know...
upside for the plants  is that we had the snow before temps got below -20, which isn't always the case...

[Stephenb]

Armin - I've never seen the great link you posted.

My grandfather at the time had horses and was in the barn that morning when he heard the blast. One of the barn doors jumped off the hinges at the same time. He was in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island!

The short film gives the impression that the blast happened immediately after the collision. Unfortunately there was a time lag and many rushed to their windows to see the fire, many went to the waterfront to witness it including fire brigades. Many people were injured by flying glass and this led to a School for The Blind being founded here.  BTW there was a second explosion here during the second world war when the ammunitions storage dump caught fire and exploded, it caused a tremendous amount of panic as the first was still in memory. 

johnw - +7c cloudy and calm.

I was interested to read this for two reasons. First, I remember visiting Halifax many years ago. It was the first conference I attended in my new job in Norway (still in the same job). I remember reading about the explosion about which I knew nothing and had forgotten until today! However, I didn't know about the Norwegian ship's involvement! I wondered if there was anything about this in Norwegian web sites and right enough there was an article on the 90th anniversary in one of the national papers: 

http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article2135776.ece

You can probably use Google translate, but the "punchline" is how the ship's dog Ralph had saved the life of a Norwegian seaman - the main story's there too!!!

[Stephenb]

...and today the air temperature momentarily rose above zero for the first time in 3-4 weeks and it's snowed for the first time in the same period (very dry). However, the temperature's now due to plummet again....

[David Nicholson]

We have had little snow here (about a couple of centimeters last Thursday which had gone by Saturday morning after a slight "warm-up") but frosts have been heavy and this is not normal in our part of England. On quite a few days frosts have persisted all day when, normally, by 10.00am they have cleared. For the past three days the greenhouse has been covered in white frost which has never cleared.

Today we drove up to Bristol to do some "big city" Christmas shopping and, although the motorway was perfectly clear of snow and frost the surrounding fields were white (frost, not snow) and the trees were covered in white cloaks. I have rarely seen this before apart from on visits to Scotland. From the Somerset levels to the outskirts of Bristol freezing fog was the issue with the car temperature gauge showing -5C in some parts and this persisted all day.

If this kind of winter is going to be the norm for the next few years I'm really going to have to re-consider my greenhouse growing conditions which, at present,  are quite simple,-close up the roof vents and throw a bit of fleece over the dormant pots of summer growers!

[Anthony Darby]

I took my mum to the panto in Edinburgh on Sunday - oh yes I did - and the temperature on the road from Dunblane to Doune dropped to -12^oC when I took her home. It has been -9^oC all day today. Colder now.

[alpines]

Puss In (Snow) Boots? Anthony?
Oh to be in England for the pantomime season.

[Anthony Darby]

Actually you have to be in Scotland to see the best pantomimes. Many English pantomimes are really quite amateurish with so-called celebrities "dragged" in to swell audiences. Alas, Stanley Baxter is no longer treading the boards and Gerard Kelly is no longer with us (he was always fantastic, especially with Elaine C. Smith as a foil), but I've not laughed so much as I did at The King's on Sunday night.  Alan Stewart (who co-wrote the script) as Dame May McTrott; Andy Gray as King Crumble and Grant Stott as Fleshcreep were brilliant.

[mark smyth]

The UK is going to get +6 on Thursday. I hope it stays

[angie]

The UK is going to get +6 on Thursday. I hope it stays

Is that Scotland or England, I hope it's us as I am so fed up with this cold.

Angle 

[TheOnionMan]

Puss In (Snow) Boots? Anthony?
Oh to be in England for the pantomime season.

Alan, can you summarize for this American, what is "the pantomime season"?

[Martin Baxendale]

Puss In (Snow) Boots? Anthony?
Oh to be in England for the pantomime season.

Alan, can you summarize for this American, what is "the pantomime season"?

You don't have pantomime in the U.S.? Oh dear God, where to start, where to start?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKquDOSt15E[/youtube]

[alpines]

Alan, can you summarize for this American, what is "the pantomime season"?

In simple terms....and I'm sure you will see other references.....a pantomime is a musical, theatrical performance, usually presented over the Christmas and New Year period, based on children's stories/fairytales. Comedic in nature, and played out primarily for a young audience, accompanied by their parents, grandparents, great grandparents....who generally have more fun than the children. Very slapstick, extremely funny and potentially side-splitting. You really do have to be there to appreciate them. Corny jokes, ugly sisters, fabulous costumery and sets, wonderful audience participation etc. and so on.
Sherba and I, together with Cliff (Mr. Buttercup) and Sue have had great fun together at these performances. In fact we spent our wedding anniversaries in England going to see them together.(We were married Dec. 28th)