Karen Politte
EF5
Well this hit home with me. I thought I would post about it seeing as it is such an historical event. Apologies in advance if this is the wrong place for this post - but I looked around and this kind of post seems to be allowed in this section.
Great Britain is currently in the clutches of one of it's most severe and long-lasting winter weather events of all time. I have been receiving regular updates from my family who live in the Highlands of Scotland since the beginning of December on the weather situation. Most areas received their first snowfall of the season on December 1st last year, and after that the temperatures plummeted to -10oC. There have been brief periods of above-or-around freezing temperatures since then, but mostly their daily highs have been in the -8oC to -3oC range, and their overnight lows have been in the pipe-burting categories. In my small hometown alone, my father's pipes froze and he had no water, a local attorney's office had water pouring out of their front entryway, people's shower drains have stopped discharging because they are frozen up, and the roof of one of the local pubs caved in from water damage. This is unprecendented.
What is so interesting (or worrying, if you live there or have family there) is that with each successive snowfall, the pattern has gone on to colder lows and more frigid temperatures. They had an initial snowfall of about 2", then it froze hard, then another fall of 6" and rock hard freezing temps. About a week later another fall of around 6" around Christmas basically shut everything down - and since then they have been below freezing ever since almost. Since then they have had regular dustings and modest snowfalls to this day.
Now, admittedly if you look briefly at Scotland's latitude on a global scale, you may not be all that surprised or shocked by the weather news. However - the UK's climate is historically very temperate, with the Gulf Stream seeping on to the west coast of the country and keeping things relatively mild for the location. There are even some ornamental gardens on Scotland's west coast that have managed to foster palm trees (although they do look rather odd amidst the glaciated landscape)!
Yesterday saw the lowest temperatures so far. The lowest temp recorded was at Altnaharra, in the extreme north of Scotland. They recorded a low of -22oC (-8.1oF). Now, with the elongated period of severe winter weather, local authorities are beginning to run low on supplies such as road salt/grit - and there have been some rumours of supplies of natural gas dipping to record low levels also. They are only gritting major roads and are beginning to stop clearing secondary routes. I have never known the country to take such drastic measures.
Another interesting point of view from one who lives in the U.S. now is the source of the UK's cold snaps. Their pattern basically works the reverse from ours - as the U.S. sees the vast majority of it's cold air filter down from Canada and the north-northwest. Britain's primary source of cP and A airmasses is from the Russian continent - which means that they must have an easterly source of air for them to get this cold.
The attached photograph gives an illustration of the scale of the event. From coast to coast, east to west, Land's End to John-O-Groats, good ol' Blighty is under a full-on snow assault!!
I am wondering if any of ST's UK members have any observations or stories they'd like to share??
KP
Great Britain is currently in the clutches of one of it's most severe and long-lasting winter weather events of all time. I have been receiving regular updates from my family who live in the Highlands of Scotland since the beginning of December on the weather situation. Most areas received their first snowfall of the season on December 1st last year, and after that the temperatures plummeted to -10oC. There have been brief periods of above-or-around freezing temperatures since then, but mostly their daily highs have been in the -8oC to -3oC range, and their overnight lows have been in the pipe-burting categories. In my small hometown alone, my father's pipes froze and he had no water, a local attorney's office had water pouring out of their front entryway, people's shower drains have stopped discharging because they are frozen up, and the roof of one of the local pubs caved in from water damage. This is unprecendented.
What is so interesting (or worrying, if you live there or have family there) is that with each successive snowfall, the pattern has gone on to colder lows and more frigid temperatures. They had an initial snowfall of about 2", then it froze hard, then another fall of 6" and rock hard freezing temps. About a week later another fall of around 6" around Christmas basically shut everything down - and since then they have been below freezing ever since almost. Since then they have had regular dustings and modest snowfalls to this day.
Now, admittedly if you look briefly at Scotland's latitude on a global scale, you may not be all that surprised or shocked by the weather news. However - the UK's climate is historically very temperate, with the Gulf Stream seeping on to the west coast of the country and keeping things relatively mild for the location. There are even some ornamental gardens on Scotland's west coast that have managed to foster palm trees (although they do look rather odd amidst the glaciated landscape)!
Yesterday saw the lowest temperatures so far. The lowest temp recorded was at Altnaharra, in the extreme north of Scotland. They recorded a low of -22oC (-8.1oF). Now, with the elongated period of severe winter weather, local authorities are beginning to run low on supplies such as road salt/grit - and there have been some rumours of supplies of natural gas dipping to record low levels also. They are only gritting major roads and are beginning to stop clearing secondary routes. I have never known the country to take such drastic measures.
Another interesting point of view from one who lives in the U.S. now is the source of the UK's cold snaps. Their pattern basically works the reverse from ours - as the U.S. sees the vast majority of it's cold air filter down from Canada and the north-northwest. Britain's primary source of cP and A airmasses is from the Russian continent - which means that they must have an easterly source of air for them to get this cold.
The attached photograph gives an illustration of the scale of the event. From coast to coast, east to west, Land's End to John-O-Groats, good ol' Blighty is under a full-on snow assault!!
I am wondering if any of ST's UK members have any observations or stories they'd like to share??
KP
