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Will we get a white Christmas? That doesn't happen very often - even in my childhood in the late 1940s-early 1950s, our anticipation of seeing snow on Christams morning was usually cut short by deep disappointment - everything was still green.

Still, if we do get very cold and wintry weather this early, that would certainly give rise to some questions about climate change and global warming.

I lived in Canada for over 30 years. I do not miss the Canadian winters one bit. So I am not looking forward to the cold snap one bit - even though I have no problem coping with it.

Roll on Spring.

Snow has arrived in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. I now only wonder how I'll get home on my motorcycle? They are fairly small snow flakes, so I'm not giving up hope!

Be careful on the roads everyone.

Richard:

Thanks, for your weather forecaster on its reporting implications....


=Dennis Junior=

...and thank you Dennis for another of your world stopping comments, were would these ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ blogs be without your wistful contributions?!

Ofcourse, just because its warmer - dosnt mean we`ll get less snow. It could mean the opposite, and we get more of the white stuff.

If the Atlantic air is warmer and wetter than usual (which seemed to be the case for much of autumn), and the right conditions prevail - a cold high to the east, dragging in cold air - where this meets the warmer air mass - even more snow could be produced by the larger disparity between the air masses.....

hello it is snowing here in manningtree and guess what it been lighting and thundering as well as a blisard this seems scary to me.

I reckon an East/West split on teh white christmas, eastern counties will have extra happy children me thinks.

Conedia, would you ask similar questions about climate change if we had a heat wave in June?

Good grief! We've had a small amount of snow - and in winter, too. Would you believe it? Clearly, this means everything we thought we knew about global warming must be wrong. Tear up the textbooks and book a cheap flight right now. From now on, we can teach climatologists using material gleaned from the Daily Express.
Meanwhile, back in the real world....

As someone who rather eccentrically (in the eyes of others) takes regular city breaks in Poland and Germany in Jan. Feb, or March, may I express a fondness for the big blue mass of cold air from Russia which hits those countries EVERY year. Those struggling to negotiate our pavements and roads today, might care to visit [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator] where they can see webcam live-streams from across Berlin, where traffic appears to be running absolutely normally despite weather conditions similar to ours today!

Autumn/Winter "let us off the hook"? How South East orientated some folk are. Britain North and West was bombarded with violent rain storms.

#8. At 11:43am on 18 Dec 2009, Andrew Lockley wrote:

"Meanwhile, back in the real world...."

...away from Copenhagen........

Getting back on-topic... Must admit that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ are sending out mixed messages today, on the one hand they are repeating the advice not to travel (if at all possible) but at the same time they have decamped on-mass it would seem from studios across the country, we have seen a reporter from Nottinghamshire reporting about the snow in Northamptonshire whilst a news anchor has been sent from TVC to a field near Gatwick Airport - both of these reports added nothing visually that could not have been added by a regional ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ staff reporting 'down the line' from their own regional radio or TV studios...

10. At 11:49am on 18 Dec 2009, uk_abz_scot wrote:

"Autumn/Winter "let us off the hook"? How South East orientated some folk are. Britain North and West was bombarded with violent rain storms."

Yes indeed, and I seem to recall 'wall-to-wall' coverage of it's effects only a couple of weeks ago or so when the SE was also suffering for the raverages of the weather...

"winter might just let us off the hook."

I love the cold, as do many people I know. Especially when it snows - a kind of collective feeling goes around the office even if we all know it will be a nightmare to get home.

Winter might just let us on the hook in my opinion $:)

I live in Germany and we know how to cope with snow. Last January we had 12cm of snow which hung around for 2 weeks. Life does not grind to a halt as a result. Schools stay open, public trabsport runs. The gritters are out at 4 in the afternoon. People are responsible for clearing the pathways outside their property. If someone falls outside their house they are liable. Poeple put winter tyres on their cars and snow chains and get on with it. The English get a little bit of snow and everything stops, time we learnt from other countries!!

It's becoming a familiar pattern. A few inches of snow and the South-east grinds to a halt. Maybe they will eventually learn to cope, like the rest of Europe or even the more northern parts of the UK.

#14. At 6:33pm on 18 Dec 2009, Helen Matsell wrote:

"I live in Germany and we know how to cope with snow.[..//..]"


Indeed but Germany get that sort of weather every year, many of the parts of the UK that had these significant levels of snow last night can go several years between such weather - would the people of Germany know how to cope if it suddenly got a heat-wave one normally associates with Bahrain or the rain levels normally associated with Malatsia during the monsoon season?...

I'm happy winter is finally here!

Recent report about the US Midwest storm

"Humoungous"

Why, *why* do your scribes choose to air such a horribly diseased word? It is the epitome of vapid american uglification, and Aunt Beeb should be on her guard against this lurking evil. When Aunty Beeb sees it blow in from across the Atlantic and crawl into the house unbidden, she should take a firm stance and simply stab the vile creature in the eye with her broom handle. And then slam the door in its hideous, misshapen face before it has a chance to wreak destruction on our fine bastion of the English language.

"Massive"

Another instance of word abuse that irked me on the same issue was the abuse of the word "massive". Massive implies, well, mass. Its misuse to describe something that is essentially air causes great mental anguish. Language lovers and physicists the world over will, I assure you, shower blessings upon you if you desist from this ghastly misappropriation.

yours faithfully,
Pawan Jaitly

Richard:

Also, I know how the people across Europe/United Kingdom have felt; In the United States we have been divulged in the snow and the other wintry weather conditions also!

~Dennis Junior~

Is 'global warming responsible for the fact (or, at least, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ fact)that we no longer seem to get ground frosts? I've noticed recently on R4 weather forecasts that we sometimes get "grass frosts". Are these actually warmer and that is why the ground doesn't freeze?
Or, maybe, another explanation is that we have to conform to some practice elsewhere in the world where frosts are referred to in this way? Maybe the British population has become so stupid that they don't understand what a ground frost actually is? Can someone at ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ weather explain please?

We are funny here in the uk about the weather.I remember as a child sat infront of the tv just waiting for the weather to come on and hope with all my might that right over where i lived i would see a nice dark cloud with two snow flakes. If there was i would be over by the window watching and waiting to see if and when ha ha kids.

Happy New Year, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ....

I was just thinking to myself (a dangerous occupation but I thought I'd take the risk) that perhaps you and the Met Office could use all that "pristine" data you've collected in that "clever" programme you have to show the blade of the hockey stick pointing downwards.....

Would science then tell our political masters that we need dirty fuel and much, much more of it, with tax credits to anyone who consumes fossil fuel by the barrel?

Regarding Global Warming
Greatest part of the temperature rise in this country is a slow recovery from the Little Ice Age (1650-1700), and mainly by the rise in the winters’ temperatures. Overall rise in the summer temperatures was negligible, or about 0.15 degrees C, hardly measurable. Last 5-6 years shows stabilisation of the winter temps , while during the last 10 years the summer temperatures have actually fallen.

Any further warming in the winters could be only beneficial to the UK population by reducing heating bills and consequently less carbon consumed for heating.

I note the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is carrying an item with the headline "How the big freeze fits global warming theory".

In noting the operative word - fits - I am looking forward to the alternative item with the headline "How the big freeze demonstrates that global warming theory is tosh" appearing on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's website any time soon. Not holding my breath though.

All I can say is I'm so happy I left Europe to live in South Africa - sure I miss the occasional white Christmas up in Halifax but I would much rather the sunshine at 9pm in Cape Town over December any day!

Seems like no-one's mentioned the weather for a while so I will.
I'm sitting in Vancouver at the mo watching ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World and being informed of all the disasters going on in Europe with the extreme weather conditions that are complicating the whole system over there (at home).
I've just had a look at a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ weather mans' explanation as to how one should reconsile the present conditions with the actual situation on the ground, so to say, and I'm having a real problem understanding the chaps' explanation of the difference between the "Climate" and the "Weather".
The phrase "Global Warming" and what I'm being shown on the weather forecast JUST DOESN'T jell. Or does it??
Are we really sure that the "warming" business isn't just a facade for taking more money out of our pockets?

26. At 04:56am on 09 Jan 2010, Michael David Fox wrote:

..//..having a real problem understanding the chaps' explanation of the difference between the "Climate" and the "Weather".

I watched that 'report' too, I think it's called "Moving the Goal Posts", bit like those leaked emails from UofEA did/tried to do...

According to my Meteorological Encyclopaedia "climate" is the "typical weather in a place", i.e. for the UK it is "intermediate" or somewhere between warm and cold. We are not as warm as the Mediterranean but not as cold as, say, Scandinavian countries on the same latitude. I'd say we are wettish and warmish.

The debate is about how warm "warmish" is, and, topically, how wet "wettish" is. However the scientists have "conspired" to suggest that we are getting more like the Mediterranean every day, and so I guess the Greek islands must be knee deep in snow at this time too. Of course our weather is driven across the Atlantic from the USA who have also had a great deal more adverse weather than "normal". So North America and Europe, two prime contenders for "global warming" if there is such a thing are getting weather that goes very much against the grain of the scientific arguments, no matter how hard they try to twist them.

It'll be interesting to see how "cold" 2010 turns out to be, and just how science will manage to negotiate it out of the "hockey stick". I'm betting on a very poor summer following a milder than average spring. Kind of average for the UK really.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

To me it's clearer and easier to use. I Like it, and I hope ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ provide it for another countrie's weather, because I have lot's friend in another country. weather, climate, and global warming is one of our favourit topic.

Well we certainly got slammed this year with record snowfall all along the east coast of the US. Just as the global warming debate begins to gather steam the ice age is upon us! Go figure! Go get em' Al Gore!
Thanks
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