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Weird Weather

blooming plants

The climate is very definitely off.

In our garden, we have oxalis and arum popping leaves out of the ground. My neighbor's watsonias are getting ready to blossom. A few blocks away Indian paintbrush is in full glory. And, I've noticed canna getting taller. Next door, iris are unfolding. The plum tree is putting out buds. For all these plants, this is the second blooming cycle within 12 months. That's just not right.

And this is December! If a hard freeze hits in January, there'll be more than a few dead plants come Spring.

This nation, especially, is in denial. It's as if the very wealthy think that they can breath their money if the atmosphere goes bad.
 
Just watching a round-up of recent football matches here.

Because of the threat of snow, the white lines on the pitch at Ipswich were painted Blue!
I've never seen that before.

(Ironically, although there are scraps of snow at the edge of the ground, there was not a flake to be seen in the air.)
 
Apparently the cold weather is being caused by melting ice at the north pole, so climate change is to blame. :roll:
 
Ronson8 said:
Apparently the cold weather is being caused by melting ice at the north pole, so climate change is to blame. :roll:
Click to expand...
More likely is that Climate Change is affecting weather both here in UK and at the Pole...

Unless you have any reference for your assertion...?
 
it was mentioned on bbc news yesterday, probably bollocks as usual.
 
Israel forest fire: at least 40 dead in one of country's worst disasters
At least 40 people were killed and dozen were injured as the deadliest forest fire in Israel's history swept through the north of the country.
By Adrian Blomfield, Jerusalem 6:00PM GMT 02 Dec 2010

A large number of the dead were believed to be Israeli prison wardens on board a bus who had been sent to evacuate prisoners from a local jail as a wall of flame advanced across the forested slopes of the Biblically fabled Carmel Mountains.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has appealed for international assistance as his attempted to come to grips with one of the deadliest disasters in its 62-year history.
"This is a disaster of unprecedented proportions," he said.

The bus, which was carrying over 50 people, became trapped in flames fanned by a strong easterly wind and overturned, according to the emergency services.

....

Thousands of acres of brush and forest were destroyed as the fire bore down on the city of Haifa, forcing police to order the evacuations of homes, hotels and a university.
Firemen frantically built fire breaks in an attempt to contain the blaze, but such was its ferocity that the flames leapt across them.

Strong winds helped to spread the fire, which was able to take hold with greater ease following a prolonged drought that further dried out the already desiccated undergrowth. Israel is experiencing one of its hottest and driest winters since records began, with temperatures regularly reaching over 30c.

...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... sters.html
 
stunning photos:

Eye of the storm: The jaw-dropping image of an enormous 'supercell' cloud
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:12 AM on 3rd December 2010

It looks like something from the film Independence Day.
But although it may seem like an alien mothership, this incredible picture is actually an impressive thunderstorm cloud known as a supercell.
Windswept dust and rain dominate the storm's centre while rings of jagged clouds surround the edge.

A flimsy tree in the foreground looks like a toy next to the magnificent natural phenomenon.
The photograph is just one image from the portfolio of electrician Sean Heavey. The supercell cloud was photographed in July west of Glasgow, Montana, USA.
Mr Heavey, 34, an amateur photographer, created the jaw-dropping panoramic image by stitching together three photos from the 400 frames he took of the violent scene he witnessed in July
It caused minor damage, and lasted several hours before moving on.

Massive storm systems like this centre on mesocyclones -- rotating updrafts that deliver torrential rain and high winds.
The dangerous outbreak of weather raged for several hours and caused minor damage to local communities - while watchful Mr Heavey captured all its devastating beauty from a distance.

Taking photographs of storms for the past seven years, this year Mr Heavey and his masterpiece are up for a prestigious award from National Geographic.
Called the 'Mothership', because of the striking image's similarity to an alien space ship, the photograph was actually four years in the making.

'I have two storm chasing friends I met through my wife Toni and they've been badgering me to go out with them for that long,' explained Sean.
'I normally rely on simply being in the right place at the right time for my photography, while I'm out working. But in July I finally decided to do it and thankfully this picture was the result. We don't usually get weather like this out in Montana, it felt like the perfect storm.
'The power was awe inspiring.'
'I felt that if you could walk inside the rain and the wind right into the centre of the storm and stare up, then it would have been like looking into God's eye.'

Known as the 'mother of tornadoes', a mesocyclone can be up to six miles wide and can produce as many as 60 tornadoes.
These severe thunderstorms form where cold dry air meets warm moist tropical air.
The wind coming into the storm starts to swirl and forms a funnel. The air in the funnel spins faster and faster and creates a very low pressure area which sucks more air - and objects - into it.
If the cyclone runs out of wet, warm surface air, it dies out. If it does not run out of this fuel, however, the rotating cloud stretches toward the ground and may become a giant tornado.

Mr Heavey, 34, is an electrician, working in the west of the American state in a town named Glasgow.
Taking photographs of storms for the past seven years, this year Sean and his masterpiece are up for a prestigious award from National Geographic

'The 'Mothership' picture is a super-cell storm that was around five to ten miles in diameter with hurling winds of around 85 mph,' said Mr Heavey, who moved from bustling Seattle to sleepy Montana for a quiet life four years ago.
'I photographed it for over two hours as it traveled between Glasgow and the town of Hinsdale.
'I can honestly say that the photograph does not do it justice. I caught the shot just as the sun was setting which brought out the colours so vividly.
'I felt that if you could walk inside the rain and the wind right into the centre of the storm and stare up, then you would be able to see God's eye.'

As an amateur photographer, storms have been Mr Heavey's obsession since he was caught under a huge thundercloud on a visit to relatives in Ohio, which is part of America's famous 'tornado alley'.

'I felt the sheer power of that storm as a young boy and I am not ashamed to admit that it scared the living daylights out of me,' he said.
'Since I moved to Glasgow I travel a lot in my job as a electrician. The clients that I visit are well aware that I carry my camera with me over the state and they are more than happy to help point out gathering storms on the horizon which they think will be great subjects for me.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ntana.html
 
World of two halves! Map shows most of Northern Hemisphere is covered in snow and ice
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:54 AM on 3rd February 2011

It looks like a graphic from a Discovery Channel programme about a distant ice age. But this astonishing picture shows the world as it is today - with half the Northern Hemisphere covered with snow and ice.

The image was released by the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Association (NOAA) on the day half of North America suffered in the grip of a severe winter storm.
The map was created using multiple satellites from government agencies and the US Air Force.

Stretching from the west coast of Canada to the eastern shores of China, the white stuff has rarely been shown covering this much ground.

The startling image was released on the same day Al Gore stepped up to defend his claim that global warming causes more snow. Thirty states in America were affected by a two-day blizzard.
'As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming,' Gore wrote on his blog Al's Journal.

His response came after Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly challenged the former Vice President to give his thoughts on 'why southern New York has turned into the tundra.'

Mother Nature's wrath is not confined to the top half of the world, of course.
Cyclone Yasi, with a destructive core of more than 20 miles wide, is walloping Queensland in north east Australian with 186mph winds. Authorities are calling it the worst storm to hit the country for generations. Tens of thousands of people are tucked away in evacuation shelters or their homes and the country is braced for many casualties.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1CsuS38m7
 
Cold snap chills northern Mexico

Freezing weather and snow have paralysed much of northern Mexico, which is experiencing its lowest temperatures in more than 50 years.

Thousands of homes have been left without electricity and water, and schools and factories have been closed.
At least six people are reported to have died from the cold.

Among the worst-hit cities has been Ciudad Juarez, which is already suffering the worst violence in Mexico's drugs war.
Temperatures in the border city have dropped as low as -18C (0F).
"There have been cold temperatures in the past, but nothing that has lasted for so many days. It's been 40 years since the city has seen an emergency like this," city's civil protection chief Efren Matamoros told Reuters news agency.

The cold weather has shut down units at 17 power stations across northern Mexico, the Federal Electricity Commission said.
Factories have been asked to reduce their consumption of power, and there have been blackouts in some areas.
Mexico has also withdrawn an offer to temporarily supply electricity to Texas, where power stations have been hit by similar problems.

A huge swathe of the US and Canada has also been hit by a massive winter storm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12370717

But here in Cornwall the cold spell has passed; strong SW winds off the Atlantic bringing balmy temperatures of 12 deg C!
 
In December 2010 we had a lot of snow. I studied it closely and I have this unsolved puzzle. Do you have a plausible theory?

Both links go to the same picture:
http://uair01.blogspot.com/2011/02/snow-pattern-puzzle.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uair01/5437709397/

Pictures 1-4: Here the snow copies the pattern of the underlying surface.

Pictures 5-8: Here the snow also copies the pattern of the underlying surface, but in an inverted manner.

I have only vague ideas what might cause this:
- the hollows in the underground conduct heat differently than the tiles and protect the snow from melting,
- the hollows in the underground cause eddies in the air-stream and this accumulates more snow.
 
Test to see if you can trust the weatherman
If you have ever found yourself sheltering from the pouring rain and cursing the weather forecaster who promised blazing sunshine, help may at last be on hand.
By Adam Lusher 9:00PM BST 09 Apr 2011

An independent, scientific evaluation is being devised to show which weathermen you can or cannot trust – including the Met Office and private competitors.
Following the washout "barbecue summer" of 2009 and the freezing December which seemed to catch many unprepared last year, the 'BBC Weather Test' hopes to produce the first league table ranking different forecasters for the accuracy of their next-day and season-ahead predictions.

Under the proposals, forecasts for maximum daytime temperature, minimum night-time temperature, daily sunshine duration, daily rainfall and maximum wind gust will be assessed, and the gap between the predicted and actual outcome recorded.
Forecasters' performance at six UK weather stations will be averaged, using a complex statistical equation, to get a 'mean absolute error' score on each of the five yardsticks.

Forecasters will also be examined on ability to predict specific events like fog, a score of one indicating they got it wholly right.
Zero would indicate the forecaster had done no better than someone just saying the weather would follow previously-recorded patterns.

Representatives of the BBC, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Meteorological Society, and the Telegraph's own weather expert Philip Eden have together produced the draft system for evaluating forecasts.
The test could be in action as early as this summer.

A parallel test for long-range forecasters will assess their predictions of temperature and rainfall across the UK.
Someone just guessing would be expected to get a success rate of one in three, so the forecasters need to be right more often than this to demonstrate that they are using an element of skill.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weath ... erman.html
 
A village of extremes: Wettest place in Britain has suddenly become the driest after no rainfall for a month
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:51 AM on 4th May 2011

Just two years ago, it was given the title of the wettest place in the UK after more than 300mm fell in the space of just 24 hours.
But now Seathwaite Farm in Borrowdale, Cumbria, is as dry as a bone after seeing no downpours for more than a month.
April was the hottest on record for England and Wales, according to the Met Office, with just 21 per cent of expected rainfall.
Temperatures have been the hottest on average since records began 353 years ago.

Seathwaite Farm earned its moniker for being the wettest place in the UK during the devastating Cumbrian floods in November 2009.
A massive 316.4mm of rain poured into the tiny village. The Met Office said it was the highest rainfall ever seen in the UK.
Now residents have contrasting fears - they are worried about a hosepipe ban as the sun continues to beat down on the Lake District hamlet.

Duncan Ellwood, 46, who owns the Grange Bridge Cottage Teashop, said: 'Customers have been chatting about the dry weather in the shop, and wondering if we may be facing another hose pipe ban.
'I have never known an April in Borrowdale to be this dry. In April you expect to be getting lots of showers, but it hasn't rained now in over a month.
'I am having to water my garden every day to stop it from dying. When it does rain here, it rains pretty forcefully. This is what we are hoping for soon.'

Patsy Lane, 64, a grandmother of three and retired teacher, of Ludlow, Herefordshire, said: 'We holiday in the Lake District regularly and come to Borrowdale a lot. We've been coming here on holiday since we were kids.
'I've never seen it as dry as this before in all the years I've been coming here - the rivers are noticeably lower and I think the prolonged dry weather is going to create major problems. It's very hot today and the weather is great for a holiday, we're not used to it being like this.'

An Environment Agency spokesman said: 'We are concerned that the continuing dry weather could affect wildlife, including fish and plant life that live in and around our rivers and lakes. We are keeping a check on this situation and will do what we can to alleviate such problems.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1LMzgcaro

(With pretty pics.. 8) )
 
Memphis on flood alert as Mississippi waters hit record peak
Police evacuate residents as Mississippi river spreads to six times its usual span, threatening the city's blues district
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent guardian.co.uk, Monday 9 May 2011 20.11 BST

The city of Memphis, Tennessee has been put on alert for record flooding as the waters of the Mississippi river reached a historic peak.
Police went door-to-door to evacuate people from low-lying neighbourhoods after forecasters said the river could reach its peak of 14.6 metres (48ft) by Monday evening.

Heavy winters in the upper midwest and an extremely wet April – with 600% more rain than normal in some southern states – have turned 2011 into a season of floods along the Mississippi's 2,320-mile route.

In Memphis, the river ran nearly three miles wide on Monday, about six times its usual span, with water lapping at Beale Street, the city's blues district.
Rising floodwaters from the Mississippi and its tributaries forced the evacuation of about 1,300 home. But many of the city's landmarks – including Elvis Presley's Graceland – sit on high ground and officials vowed to protect them.

etc...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... ippi-river

By way of contrast:

Soils of UK and Europe drying out
By Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent, BBC News

As much as we all enjoy the warm weather, some rain would be welcome.
The scale of just how dry the start of 2011 has been is evident in some fascinating data from one of Europe's latest Earth observation satellites.

Smos senses the moisture in the top layers of soil, and it is very clear in these maps that the ground across the UK and much of Europe is now gasping for water.

Last month was the warmest April on record in Britain.
It was also the 11th driest month, with on average just half the usual rainfall. And in parts of south-east England, there was less than 10% of normal precipitation.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13338174

It's a funny old world... :?
 
But at least the North west has now had some rain:

What a difference a week makes: Bone dry river bed is good for wading again after thunderstorms break dry spell
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:41 AM on 10th May 2011

Just a few days ago tourists could walk along this bone dry river bed in flip flops after one of the longest dry spells in decades.

But now, the River Derwent at Grange in Cumbria, is back to its wet, flowing self after a weekend of rain and thunderstorms.
In fact the water was such a novelty one delighted tourist had to feel it to believe it and insisted on taking a dip.

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1Lw4mCxs5

(Follow-up to http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1LMzgcaro )
 
Summer snow falls on summit of Snowdon

The summit of Snowdon under a white blanket of snow: it's a picture postcard cliche.
But if you thought this photograph was taken in the dark days of winter then think again.
The wintry scene, at the Snowdon Mountain Railway's terminus near Hafod Eryri, was photographed at 1300 BST on Friday - in the middle of June, days before the start of Wimbledon and just over a week before the summer solstice.

Around the UK this week counties have been declaring drought conditions after one of warmest and driest springs in memory. Parts of Wales, too, have been experiencing very dry weather.
No wonder, then, that there was an element of surprise among those working and walking at the top of Wales' highest mountain.

"It started hailing around lunchtime, then it snowed for about an hour," said Jonathan Tyler, manager of Snowdon Mountain Railway's visitor centre at the summit of the mountain.
"It wasn't cold, but people were arriving at the summit looking quite bemused. It was summer at the bottom of the mountain and winter at the top."

Given the vagaries of the Welsh weather and Snowdon's 1085m (3560ft) altitude, experts say such climatic contrasts are to be expected from time to time.

"It's not common but it's not unheard of," said BBC Wales weather presenter Behnaz Akhgar.
"We are going through a little bit of a cold spell at the moment, with temperatures of 12-13C when the average temperature for this time of year is 18-19C.
"It looks like heavy showers on top of the mountain dragged down colder air and into that came sleet, hail and, yes, even snow."
Ms Akhgar warned hillwalkers in north Wales to check weather forecasts before setting out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-nort ... s-13731216
 
Warning: extreme weather ahead
Tornados, wildfires, droughts and floods were once seen as freak conditions. But the environmental disasters now striking the world are shocking signs of 'global weirding'
John Vidal guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 June 2011 19.59 BST

Drought zones have been declared across much of England and Wales, yet Scotland has just registered its wettest-ever May. The warmest British spring in 100 years followed one of the coldest UK winters in 300 years. June in London has been colder than March. February was warm enough to strip on Snowdon, but last Saturday it snowed there.

Welcome to the climate rollercoaster, or what is being coined the "new normal" of weather. What was, until quite recently, predictable, temperate, mild and equable British weather, guaranteed to be warmish and wettish, ensuring green lawns in August, now sees the seasons reversed and temperature and rainfall records broken almost every year. When Kent receives as much rain (4mm) in May as Timbuktu, Manchester has more sunshine than Marbella, and soils in southern England are drier than those in Egypt, something is happening.

Sober government scientists at the centre for hydrology and ecology are openly using words like "remarkable", "unprecedented" and "shocking" to describe the recent physical state of Britain this year, but the extremes we are experiencing in 2011 are nothing to the scale of what has been taking place elsewhere recently.

Last year, more than 2m sq km of eastern Europe and Russia scorched. An extra 50,000 people died as temperatures stayed more than 6C above normal for many weeks, crops were devastated and hunderds of giant wild fires broke out. The price of wheat and other foods rose as two thirds of the continent experienced its hottest summer in around 500 years.

This year, it's western Europe's turn for a mega-heatwave, with 16 countries, including France, Switzerland and Germany (and Britain on the periphery), experiencing extreme dryness. The blame is being out on El Niño and La Niña, naturally occurring but poorly understood events that follow heating and cooling of the Pacific ocean near the equator, bringing floods and droughts.

Vast areas of Europe have received less than half the rainfall they would normally get in March, April and May, temperatures have been off the scale for the time of year, nuclear power stations have been in danger of having to be shut down because they need so much river water to cool them, and boats along many of Europe's main rivers have been grounded because of low flows. In the past week, the great European spring drought has broken in many places as massive storms and flash floods have left the streets of Germany and France running like rivers.

But for real extremes in 2011, look to Australia, China and the southern US these past few months. In Queeensland, Australia, an area the size of Germany and France was flooded in December and January in what was called the country's "worst natural disaster". It cost the economy up to A$30bn (£19.5bn), devastated livelihoods and is still being cleaned up.

In China, a "once-in-a-100-years" drought in southern and central regions has this year dried up hundreds of reservoirs, rivers and water courses, evaporating drinking supplies and stirring up political tensions. The government responded with a massive rain-making operation, firing thousands of rockets to "seed" clouds with silver iodide and other chemicals. It may have worked: for whatever reason, the heavens opened last week, a record 30cm of rain fell in some places in 24 hours, floods and mudslides killed 94 people, and tens of thousands of people have lost their homes.

Meanwhile, north America's most deadly and destructive tornado season ever saw 600 "twisters" in April alone, and 138 people killed in Joplin, Missouri, by a mile-wide whirlwind. Arizonans were this week fighting some of the largest wildfires they have known, and the greatest flood in recorded US history is occurring along sections of the Missouri river. This is all taking place during a deepening drought in Texas and other southern states – the eighth year of "exceptional" drought there in the past 12 years.

"I don't know how much more we can take," says John Butcher, a peanut and cotton farmer near Lubbock, Texas. "It's dry like we have never seen it before. I don't remember anything like this. We may lose everything."

etc...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ju ... ghts-fires
 
That kind of links to my post on the the chat section, where I bemoaned the poor weather in the NW of England compared to everywhere south of it. A map was shown that illustrated how dry everywhere in England was. However, around the Lancaster/Morecambe area it was green (very wet) still. Another poster mentioned micro-climates and I have notieced watching the weather on TV recently how there can be a 5 to 7 degree difference between Kendal and Manchester, which isn't that great (in distance). Our weather here is generally terrible, something is definitely happening.
 
This is supposed to be due to the 'rain shadow' caused by the hard rock of the granite 'dark peak' Pennines. The prevailing wind in the UK is apparently wet South Westerly and the clouds basically bang into the impermeable hills and dump rain.

The lower, softer rock of southern hills, even the southern, limestone, Pennines doesn't have as much of an effect, but the west is generally wetter than the east in the UK.

Manchester's been known as a rainy town for a long time. When I lived there and travelled regularly over into Yorkshire it was remarkable how the weather frequently changed dramatically the other side of the moor.
 
Thank you for that info, at least I know a bit more about why we are so wet here.
 
British weather is notoriously variable, but so are our forecasts, it seems!

I generally look at the forecast for my postcode area on the local BBC website, and the one on the local paper website, and they often differ quite a lot. Today is a case in point:

The BBC gives fog and mist all day (which in itself is very unusual for here), while the local rag gives sunshine and some cloud, with vis up to 10 km. So far the BBC has it right, but it's still early!

Edit: the Beeb has now changed its forecast to allow for some sun early evening.
 
The mist has lifted, and now we have a continuous overcast of white cloud - a bright area shows where the sun is. While we await developments, some relevent reading matter has popped up:

Come rain or shine, they keep on forecasting
It's 150 years since the first public weather report. Paul Bignell and Matt Thomas mark a stormy history
Sunday, 26 June 2011

Who would be a weather forecaster? The barrage of abuse, the outpouring of scorn that greet the men and women of the Met Office when their predictions are less than accurate is enough to put off the most committed of presenters. Yet, since the first public forecast, 150 years ago this summer, those indomitable weather men and women have carried on, come rain or shine, seeking to predict that most unpredictable of phenomena.

Next week the Royal Meteorological Society's annual conference will celebrate a century and a half of forecasting. From Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy's first storm warnings for shipping in 1861, to the latest scientific advances which allow us to receive five-day forecasts on our mobile phones, it has often been a tempestuous journey.

They are blamed for the merest wisp of cloud on a sky-blue sunny day or a spot of rain on a bank holiday when none has been foretold. Lynchings are darkly hinted at when Icelandic volcanoes ruin our summer holidays or droughts prevent us from watering our gardens.

Nobody remembers when they get it right – which they often do, particularly as technology and know-how have raised their game to stratospheric levels. No one needs a weatherman when the wind blows in the right direction, the saying goes. When it blows – strongly – in the wrong direction and they haven't predicted it, they are rarely forgiven. Just ask Michael Fish. ;)

etc...

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 02860.html
 
We've had sunshine and plenty of blue sky for the last few hours, so I reckon on balance the local rag website wins this forecasting contest!
 
Smile! It's an upside-down rainbow... but you can see there's no pot of gold at the end of this one
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:28 AM on 4th July 2011

Seen just a handful of times this stunning phenomena is known as the 'smile in the sky.'
Freak weather conditions created this reverse rainbow in Leicestershire where it was pictured by antique dealer William Freeman.
But while the sight looks like an upside-down rainbow, it is actually caused by light shining through tiny ice crystals in the clouds.

This is one of only a handful of occasions where an arc has been spotted in the UK.
And only a small group in the garden of a restaurant saw the shimmering arc for a few minutes in the sky in the early evening on Friday.

Mr Freeman, 35, who owns an antique and fine art gallery, said: 'I had just finished dinner when I went outside and saw what appeared to be an upside-down rainbow.
'Everyone was stunned - I've never seen anything like it. It was a very bizarre sight on such a lovely sunny evening with no rain.
'I grabbed my phone and took a photo but within minutes it had completely disappeared.
'I feel very lucky to have seen this weather wonder and to have captured a picture of it.'

But unlike a rainbow, the sky has to be clear of rain and low level clouds for a circumzenithal arc to be seen.
Relatively rare in Britain, the arc only appears when sunlight shines at a specific angle through a thin veil of wispy clouds at a height of around 20,000 to 25,000 feet.
At this altitude the cirrus clouds are made of tiny ice crystals.

Meteorologists say the clouds must be convex to the sun, with the ice particles lined up together in the right direction, to refract the light.
This results in the sunlight bouncing off the ice crystals high in the atmosphere, sending the light rays back up and bending the sunlight like a glass prism into a spectrum of colour.
The arc is generally only seen in the artic circle - and this is one of just a handful of instances where the arc has been spotted in the UK.

The 'rainbow'' is also much brighter and more concentrated than a rainfall rainbow. Rainbows are formed when sunlight is refracted in a raindrop.
But in a circumzenithal arc, the colours are in reverse order from a rainbow, with violet on the top and red at the bottom.
The arc usually vanishes quickly because the cirrus clouds containing the ice crystals shift their position.

William said: 'It was literally only there for about eight minutes before it disappeared completely. 'Everyone in the garden was starring up in the sky just admiring it.
'Everyone in the pub was talking about it afterwards, no one had ever seen anything like it before, and I don't think I would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!'

Ice particles in high cirrus clouds occur all year round, but circumzenithal arcs are usually obscured by lower level clouds.
A spokesman for the Met Office said: 'Circumzenithal arcs are seen relatively rarely in Britain because they can only be seen at the right combination of atmospheric conditions.
'It is quite rare to see an arc as clearly as this in the UK. Visibility of these arcs can vary greatly with someone ten miles away not being able to see it.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... z1RJtWYb6X
 
Friday last while driving near Twycross Leicestershire spotted a sundog only second one I have ever seen. Double suns very bright and clear me and my partner stopped the car and got out for a better view but no one else seemed to notice it!
 
Where's my shed gone? Pensioner's garden falls 40ft into river after violent storm
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:25 PM on 25th July 2011

A pensioner has had a lucky escape after her garden shed was swept away by a violent storm just five minutes after she had been inside it.
Patricia Howe, 72, had walked back into her home in Wetheral, Cumbria, from the shed which was situated at the end of her garden.
But when she looked out of her kitchen window just moments later, it had disappeared along with large chunk of her patio into the raging River Eden below.

'The rain was absolutely horrendous,' said Miss Howe. 'I had gone through to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. I turned on the kettle and thought I would feed my two cats.
'I was reaching to the kitchen sink for a knife and happened to look through the window and a big part of the garden had gone.
'There was no noise at all. I didn't hear a thing - no crack, no bang, nothing. The whole lot - including my shed and a big chunk of the patio - had fallen down into the river. The bird table was teetering on the edge of what was left of the patio.
'Five minutes earlier, I'd seen the wall through the window and it was there. Afterwards, I was so frightened by what happened that I was shaking.'

etc...

The Met Office has confirmed that the Wetheral area experienced the heaviest rain in the UK on the day of the incident, July 17, with more than two inches falling in just a few hours.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... storm.html
 
Last night at 8.55pm approx a power outage struck a large section of Norfolk. I know for a fact that the power was out in Norwich and gorleston. I'm between those places - great Yarmouth - but I'm not sure how far south or west the outage struck. The power was off for just over an hour but there was some strange lights up in the sky during this time.
Firstly it was raining lightly with a high covering of grey cloud. Above this cloud one could see flashes lighting up the whole sky, some in the distance and some directly above our house. Some of the flashes were White and others orange. Along with the high altitude flashes were a few much slower, dark orange pulses of light, still above the clouds that built up slowly over 3 seconds or so then disappeared but lit up the cloud cover below them. Also I saw what looked almost exactly like a Chinese lantern slightly below cover but it was motionless and hung there for about 15 seconds, got darker then flashed bright before dissapearing. Ball lightening? There was certainly a weird, charged atmosphere in the air after the power outage. The rain and clouds cleared about 10 mins after the power came back on.
Is this anything unusual? There was absolutely no forked lightening and no sound from the sky at all...
 
New Zealand blizzards 'heaviest in 50 years'
Wellington and Auckland blanketed by once-in-a-lifetime weather
Associated Press in Wellington
guardian.co.uk, Monday 15 August 2011 19.42 BST

Blizzards in New Zealand have grounded flights, closed roads and shut off power in what forecasters are describing as once-in-a-lifetime conditions.
The cities of Wellington and Auckland saw their first snow for decades after an Antarctic blast moved north from South Island at the weekend, with the cold snap predicted to continue until Wednesday.

MetService head forecaster, Peter Kreft, told the New Zealand Press Association: "It's a once in many decades event. We are probably looking at something like – in terms of extent and severity – maybe 50 years," he said.

Services across the country were disrupted on Monday, with electricity cut to thousands of homes in Wellington and north of Auckland. Schools, universities and courts were closed across much of the lower South Island.
Flights and mail delivery had to be cancelled as well.Police warned that the snow would freeze overnight and create unsafe driving conditions.

Residents took to the streets with cameras and cheers, enjoying the unusual conditions, while Wellington Zoo veterinarians took advantage by giving Happy Feet, the emperor penguin they found sick and starving on the west coast last June, a chance to enjoy the ice. :D

Stephen Fry, who is in Wellington filming The Hobbit, described the atmosphere on Twitter. "It's been an exciting day here in Wellington. Snow. That's unusual. NZ is same latitude as Melbourne so it's rare."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/au ... iest-years
 
No wonder they started calling it climate change instead of global warming. :roll:
 
So that'll be the Blizzard of Oz then!

Oh no hang on, it's New Zealand....The Blizzard of Nz!?

Damn, that doesn't work either :?

I'm sure there's a joke there somewhere
 
For British snow, this on iPlayer:

The Weather - 2. Snow

A journey into the world of the snow crystal, as science explains a notorious episode in British Rail's history and why a British company is the world's leading snow producer. (R)

Documentary series about the weather. This episode looks at snow, that most fleeting and beautiful of elements which endlessly fascinates us.

Using rare footage, we journey into the microscopically small world of the snow crystal, finding out how a snowflake forms and why it is always six-sided.

The science of snow tests British Rail's claim that the snow that crippled their rolling stock in 1991 really was the 'wrong type of snow', and explains how, thanks to a scientific discovery, a British company became the world's leading producer of snow.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... ther_Snow/

Some forgotten history there as well:
On 27 December 1836, an avalanche occurred in Lewes, the worst ever recorded in Britain. A large build-up of snow on the nearby cliff slipped down onto a row of cottages called Boulters Row (now part of South Street). About fifteen people were buried, and eight of these died. A pub in South Street is named The Snowdrop in memory of the event.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewes#Natu ... and_events
Click to expand...
And for some of you youngsters, the winter of 62-63 will be before your time as well. 8)
 
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