http://www.blacksatchel.com/winter Drew's Guide to Surviving Winter in the British Isles Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:21:42 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's a little early in the year to be waking up the Winter Blog, but I spotted an article this morning, and reckoned it was too relevant to pass. The headline is: More Cold and Snowy Winters to Come in Europe, Eastern Asia and Eastern North America, and here's the ... http://www.blacksatchel.com/winter/?p=63 The winter is having one final run at us this week, with what's potentially a nasty enough storm sweeping down through the Irish Sea, or perhaps along the east coast of Ireland. For once, this looks set to have more influence on Irish weather than that of the UK. Forecasts ... http://www.blacksatchel.com/winter/?p=62 It seems that the winter is not over yet - there's another cold snap coming in across the British Isles as I write. The Guardian cover the predictions in some detail, but the general gist is that it's not likely to be as deeply cold as the January cold. There'll ... http://www.blacksatchel.com/winter/?p=61 As the cold gets stuck in - and some weather models are saying it could stay for weeks more - here's a helpful (if slightly tongue-in-cheek) set of frequently asked questions for dealing with snow, from the Guardian. http://www.blacksatchel.com/winter/?p=60 For those in parts of the UK affected by snow, with public transport out of action or badly delayed in many areas, cycling may actually be a workable way to get around. Matt Seaton, writing in the Guardian, has a timely article on cycling in snow. Be careful out there! http://www.blacksatchel.com/winter/?p=59 It's been cold, properly wintery cold, since about the 18th of December. It's being touted as the coldest spell in Ireland for the last 50 years, and while there haven't been completely record-breaking low temperatures, numbers around the -9°C mark have been recorded. I'll also point out for my North ... http://www.blacksatchel.com/winter/?p=58 The 13th of December is still more than three days out, and therefore weather predictions are not reliable. However, most of the forecasts models seem to agree that the UK and Ireland will see some fairly cold, clear weather starting from next week, and lasting for at least a few ... http://www.blacksatchel.com/winter/?p=57 The British Isles have seen some spectacularly unpleasant weather over the last few weeks, with storms and massive amounts of rainfall. Cumbria in the UK, and most places west of the Shannon in Ireland, have seen serious flooding. Now it looks as though we're coming into the first real cold ... http://www.blacksatchel.com/winter/?p=56 We had the first frost of the winter yesterday morning, the 7th of October. Roofs of houses, cars, a touch on exposed grass, but nothing heavy as yet. If we get the same kind of hoar-frost this year as last, I'll try to get some pictures of it - it ... http://www.blacksatchel.com/winter/?p=55 For the first time this autumn, the Metcheck service has something on its FrostRisk pages for the areas I check. In fact, it's giving a 55% chance of frost in my home area tonight: And Met Éireann, although they don't use the word frost, are saying temperatures might drop to 4C, ... http://www.blacksatchel.com/winter/?p=54