Will it ever stop?

[citoyen]

I liked it when we went to Iceland in the middle of January and it didn't get light until well past 10am, then got dark again just after lunch.

Well, I say I liked it - it was fine for a short holiday. Not sure I'd cope if I had to live with it full time. And not being able to sleep in the summer because it never gets properly dark would also be problematic.

There is something enjoyably mad about swimming outdoors in naturally hot water while it's dark and -20ºC though.

[Mr Larrington]

In September 2018, as I stood shivering in a bus-shelter-stylee smoking area outside an hotel next door to Calgary airport a fellow snoutcast assured me that “this weather* isn’t typical for Calgary at this time of year eh”.  I ran off and hid in the airport all day where at least it was dry and warm.

On the same day Red Deer AB – about 150 km north – had already had 5 cm of SNO.

* 3 degrees, horizontal rain

[ian]

The first year I lived in the US, they got nearly 3 metres of snow. I learned to dig. Then came the ice storms and everything fell down. British weather is a bit meh after that. My first Ottawa winter saw -38.

I've always wanted to be Surrey's only storm chaser, tracking a drizzle front moving slowly through Wisley. Light rain reported in Guildford, let's go!

[Mr Larrington]

They do good rain too.  Heaviest I've ever seen was on the way to Oklahoma City in 2016, although Friedrichshafen on the weekend that the 2003 heatwave broke ran it close.

[quixoticgeek]

I must be the person who likes Autumn, it's my favourite season. I like the slow descent into winter, the closing nights, the tick-tock of the heating system, the unearthing of coats and jackets from the wardrobe, the end of exposed toesyness in favour of boots. Winter is OK, but I'll admit it starts to drag, especially the British winters where it just rains, rains, rains. I like rain generally, there's nothing more splendid than a walk through a forest in the rain, but it has to be proper rain, not the constant slow water torture of the tail end of a British winter.

I love autumn. Walking or riding through the woods of the Utrechtse Huevelrug or the Veluwe, hot chocolate by the fire in a pub to warm up a little, coming home to a nice hearty stew. Finding the acorns, conkers, and chestnuts you picked up on your ride in your pocket the next day when you put your coat back on.

Or waking up early and seeing the dew on all the spiders webs. The leaves changing colour.

i love autumn.

I don't like day after day of seemingly never ending rain. Esp when I don't have a waterproof jacket If I had my jacket I wouldn't really care, I'm not made of sugar, I can still ride even in the wet.

It's nice to have four seasons though. North America stutters between summer and winter, one day it's 30 degrees, the next -4. We always watch the Canadian weather in our house (there's an argument that this doesn't really help us prepare for the next day, but I know it's already snowing in upper BC and Alberta). In Britain we have a nice segue between seasons, they can sneak up on you. That's why you get the forecast refugees, standing there shivering on the platform at the station in shorts when it's 7 degrees and raining.

I'm not sure I could handle the tropics, where every day is hot, maybe a bit wetter, maybe not, but still hot.

Yeah, I said this on twitter recently. Winter is the price we pay for Autumn, Spring, and Summer. I wish we had proper winters tho, with actual snow, that settled, and was properly cold. None of this "It's gonna be -2°C today, then tomorrow it'll be 1°C, then -2°C, and the sky will be grey, more grey, and some grey on the sides..." Or that rain that seems to not be rain, but somehow still soaks everything. Mizzel, the really depressing miserable drizzel...

Soon SAD will be here to join us.  Twelve days.

I've already being using my SAD light a few times since the end of Summer. I'm glad I already had it, I expect them to be out of stock very very soon.

J

[Cudzoziemiec]

Northern European seasons were one thing I missed in India. Not that India doesn't have seasons, it even gets into single digit temperatures (where I was) but the change is less distinct and I think the crucial differences are they're not reflected in vegetation or (much) daylight length.

Autumn in England can be gorgeous. In Poland it's almost always gorgeous, Indian summer style. And so is the winter, until it goes on too long. The worst times there are each end of winter; November when it's grey and wet and cold but not crisp and snowy, and "pre-spring" when the snow thaws (revealing several months' worth of frozen dog shit and other litter ) and it's still cold and grey and everything's dirty as well. That passes very quickly into proper warm sunny spring though. You can go from winter overcoats to t-shirts in a day. And often back again.

[ian]

They do good rain too.  Heaviest I've ever seen was on the way to Oklahoma City in 2016, although Friedrichshafen on the weekend that the 2003 heatwave broke ran it close.

Yeah, there was rain. I remember a thunderstorm that lasted all night, and I didn't even live in a lively bit. Only one tornado though and it missed and we had to hide in a basement. Chiz.

The novelty of digging out my car (and the neighbours, they were old and had the sort of giant Buick that only old Americans ever drive) every morning soon wore off.

The fall colours in New England were impressive enough to offset my colour-blindness.

I don't mind days of proper rain, it's the all-pervasive drizzle. I don't remember drizzle in the US. When it rained, it rained. Otherwise it was generally a lot drier.

[tatanab]

I don't remember drizzle in the US. When it rained, it rained. Otherwise it was generally a lot drier.

Pacific Northwest coastal, it can drizzle for days on end.  On a work visit to North Carolina in a September the thunderstorms were like scenes from Disney cartoons - splat, splat, big splat, bigger splat and suddenly everything is an inch under water.  I lived for a few months inland from LA, towards the edge of the deserts.  Temperature changes, yes, but no distinct seasons.  It was so nice to return to blighty after that, from a cycling perspective.

[Kim]

Also an autumn lover.  It's like summer but without the pollen.

Not feeling the love this year, though, as lockdown weight-loss has wrecked my what-clothing-to-wear-for-what-temperature calibration, and it seems to have gone from "Nice weather for a bike ride" to "WTF? Why is it so cold?" over the course of the last week of September.

Maybe I should just wear my waterproof jacket, like all those weird people who wear waterproof jackets when it's neither freezing nor chucking it down...

[ian]

I don't remember drizzle in the US. When it rained, it rained. Otherwise it was generally a lot drier.

Pacific Northwest coastal, it can drizzle for days on end.  On a work visit to North Carolina in a September the thunderstorms were like scenes from Disney cartoons - splat, splat, big splat, bigger splat and suddenly everything is an inch under water.  I lived for a few months inland from LA, towards the edge of the deserts.  Temperature changes, yes, but no distinct seasons.  It was so nice to return to blighty after that, from a cycling perspective.

True, I forgot the temperate bit. I lived on the east coast. New England doesn't really have an Old England climate. The weather is far more episodic. Dry then wet, little in between.

I'm not sure I'd fancy the regular pounding the gulf and Atlantic coasts get. Or the desert. I like the desert, just wouldn't want to live there. Phoenix now tops 40 degrees for a significant part of the year, too hot to really do anything during the day. And it's still bloody cold at night.

[Legs]

In September 2018, as I stood shivering in a bus-shelter-stylee smoking area outside an hotel next door to Calgary airport a fellow snoutcast assured me that “this weather* isn’t typical for Calgary at this time of year eh”.  I ran off and hid in the airport all day where at least it was dry and warm.

On the same day Red Deer AB – about 150 km north – had already had 5 cm of SNO.

Mrs L and I honeymooned in Alberta in early September 2008 - there was a heavy-by-our-standards (6") snowfall in Banff just before we got there.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

If you have any hatches now could be a good time to batten them.

Met Office warns of ‘danger to life’ from Storm Christoph

The Met Office has warned of “danger to life” caused by floods, gales and snow as Storm Christoph heads to the UK, with people warned to brace themselves for a period of unsettled weather.

People are being urged to prepare as an amber weather warning for rain was issued by the Met Office for Tuesday to Thursday for central northern England, affecting an area around Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield and stretching down to Peterborough.
A major incident has been declared in South Yorkshire in preparation for potential flooding.

[Mr Larrington]

It's even started blowing a bit and hurling rain at the windies of the Great Hall of Larrington Towers in balmy E17.

[andrewc]

I've not noticed the wind , but it's a tad  wet in Liverpool.  We appear to have a small lake in the car park & my friends roof is leaking.

[Canardly]

The forecast is not good and indeed somewhat biblical rain is forecast in the NW.

[ElyDave]

Not really been wet here yet, but somewhat blowy with a lot of fast moving cloud scudding past

[chrisbainbridge]

Not particularly rainy overnight I thought until I went to collect the paper this morning and found the village flooded!  We have a brook running through the village which often floods but usually in early spring rather than January.  Flooding also more extensive than usual with several roads impassable.

[quixoticgeek]

Was woken up by the building shaking in the wind, and the windows rattling. It's really hammering it down. Winds are gusting upto 66kph apparently...

Today's 70 minutes of intervals is going to be interesting...

J

[Cudzoziemiec]

Calm, warm and dry here. No drizzle in Brizzle. Apparently it was -25 in Warsaw the day before yesterday. 

[ian]

As we only look at the weather in Canada, it's toasty there. The great game of Canada (Trudeau's Troubadours) versus Russia (Putin's Tu-Tu's) for Who is cooler? has seen a very poor season for the Canadians, often barely breezing into the early -30s, even for their star performers like Pelly Bay and Baker Lake. The Russians have been blowing them out of the water, Yakutsk put one deep in the net yesterday with a chilltastic -54 degrees in the shade.

[Peter]

I think Yakutsk is the "cold-pole" of the earth, isn't it?

[ian]

I think it's the coldest city in the world. They have a woolly mammoth museum and because they don't have a bridge over the river have to wait for 'ice bridges' to freeze across it. I imagine the midges in spring must be spectacular but I don't want to find out.

[Jurek]

I've just had a wander around Yakutsk on Street View.
It looks pretty grim.
In the summertime.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I've just had a wander around Yakutsk on Street View.
It looks pretty grim.
In the summertime.

I'm sure you would get used to it.

[ian]

I've just had a wander around Yakutsk on Street View.
It looks pretty grim.
In the summertime.

You can virtually wander around the Mammoth Museum though. I suppose I should cancel my flights now I've done it. They've got a prehistory lion, which is brill. I didn't see a sabre-tooth tiger though.

I once got froze down to -38 and you couldn't actually breath air that cold without sucking it through a couple of scarves the thickness of bed mattresses (which freeze instantly), I've no idea how they do -50 (it's currently -51).