egret

We had a gust of 54mph at 18:00 along with rain. We are slightly sheltered here so wind speed was probably 30% higher on the exposed side of Weymouth. By comparison the peak wind speed in storm Eunice was 61mph on our Vantage station, again about 30% less than exposed locations.

Severe wind?

I haven’t done as you describe but it is very tempting. I sometimes wonder if the best way to forecast at ten days out is to go for the opposite of what the charts are predicting!! just a brief comment on the ‘mid February is end of real winter’ thinking. whilst that is probably true for most of U.K., down here on the South Coast our best snowfalls are commonly at the end of February or even March. I put that down in part to the sea being at its coldest at that time of year, despite the sun being much stronger. I like others am surprised and perhaps a tad disappointed that the SSW has not resulted in easterlies showing by now in the models for the end of January.

Don't worry I have cracked it - turning off station one and turning on station 3 ( to match the channel 3 designation) did the trick.

I have bought a second hand Vantage Vue and as a start just want to get the station to talk to the console. It appears that a signal is received on channel 3 but nothing shows on the display. I have it set to receive station 1 but had assumed that the setting should be station 1 channel 3 ( not station 3 as channel 3 if that makes sense) any ideas what I may have done wrong / need to do to get the display to show data?

Data from Photovoltaic Generation is useful for comparing 'brightness/sun hours' year on year for each month. Last Autumn and winter has been below average here in Puddletown but these past few days should be redressing the balance somewhat. ( I think that data set is only about 10 years old) I imagine PV output provdes a good analogue for plant growth / photosynthesis. It will be interesting to see if the absence of aircraft contrails will make a discernible difference to generation. Certainly it is nice to see clear blue skies again.

Hawthorn hedges coming into leaf along the roadsides today and hedge sparrows busy nesting during the week ( collecting fur brushed out of our labs coat and left out for the birds)

I remember it as Feb 87 - a number of ice days and deep snow was close to the Thames (lake effect?) from Rettendon and Northwards it was only a couple of inches deep but blowing around each day as it wa so cold and dry. That August we had flash flooding ( our village was cut off for a couple of hours) and then of course the October storm so a memorable year in SE Essex.

Oh and I can add there are a reasonable number of wild primroses coming into bloom on some road and path edges. Blue tits have started nesti building in their box.

Great swathes of snowdrops round here are now in full bloom, chives are up and ready for harvest but, maybe most telling, we have had frogs 'calling' in the pond outside our house for nearly a week now. That is a good three weeks earlier than normal. Let's hope they don't get caught by a cold snap.

Reading the above (all of it!) with interest as the 'science' tends to get referred to in the media (how accurately?) but not published at length. Reference is made in posts above to the valuable stabilising effect of ice melt upon temperatures, and the impact of losing the latent heat element of ice. To what extent will this be offset by that heat behind adsorbed by latent heat element of water being turned to vapour? Trees are a major device for doing this as they can tap water stored below soil level. For me levels of afforestation remain a primary concern but I wouldn't love to see the calculations. Once ice retreats we must surely expect increase in afforestation especially in Northern Hemisphere and presumably greater rainfall globally?

Fascinating. I confess the bit that puzzles me is the apparent mismatch between historic studies ( ice and sediment cores) and current work which seem to give different projections. Is there close correlation between the two methodologies for the 20th century or are pollen analyses in modern times perhaps overly corrupted by large scale agricultural practice?

Do you have any comparative data on hours of sunshine monthly from October to end Jan? my impression for Dorset i s that we may be nearing a record low for that period - when not raining is has generally been about 100% cloud cover. Very few bright sunny days and last week possibly the first 'nearly dry' week through that period? what other counties similar?

Maybe also depends on where you live? In Essex I can only recall two winters between 1962 and 1980 when there was not at least one day when we went tobogganing at some point but often it only lasted a day and could be wet snow. We generally chose to go out tobogganing after dark when it refroze ( and still do given the opportunity, despite ever advancing years and generally mild weather here in Dorset) I agree that a week of cold and snow was the exception rather than the rule - maybe one in three or four winters.