How’s the weather?

[jjohnwm]

The area where I live in Blighty is barely going to get above 0°C for the next five days, with night time temps dropping as low as -7°C. On top of that we have snow forecast.

Then, around day six, temps rise slightly, which ensures no snow......just plenty of rain instead!!

The northern hemisphere sucks at this time of year!!

On a plus note though, we went and booked our summer holiday to Greece at weekend!

We're in the mid-negative-20's range, closer to -30 at night...and I'll have to say that I will take that in preference to your conditions. Cold is cold; you dress for it and you're okay. But that temperature hovering just at, or just under or just over the freezing mark always results in thawing/freezing/thawing/freezing and makes for some really dangerous driving conditions.

Why Greece in the summer...instead of in the depths of winter? Whenever you go, it sounds great!

 

[esoxlucius]

We're in the mid-negative-20's range, closer to -30 at night...and I'll have to say that I will take that in preference to your conditions. Cold is cold; you dress for it and you're okay. But that temperature hovering just at, or just under or just over the freezing mark always results in thawing/freezing/thawing/freezing and makes for some really dangerous driving conditions.

Why Greece in the summer...instead of in the depths of winter? Whenever you go, it sounds great!

Exactly, I'd take a very crisp -20°C anytime over the, as you say, hovering on the edge type temps, where you get the unpleasant freeze/thaw type situation. Mind you, I've never experienced what -20°C feels like, lol.

Greece at this time of year is, weather wise, very pleasant. Regular daily temps of around 20°C. Summer daytime temps, when we go, remain mid 30's °C.

The problem is, if we decided to take a winter break to Greece we'd struggle to get a flight to the island (Zakynthos). And even if we did manage to get a flight we'd unlikely get digs out there. And even if we did get digs there'd be nowhere open to buy provisions and such. And all the tavernas would be shut so we couldn't go for a lovely evening meal or anything.

The thing is, a lot of the popular Mediterranean holiday resorts, which are predominantly the Spanish and Greek isles, all close down during the off season period.

Flights stop going to the resorts and the shutters come down on all the bars and restaurants. The once bustling holiday resorts become ghost towns. Not all Mediterranean destinations are like that, some remain popular all year round, Tenerife for example (Spanish), is a very popular destination for the Christmas period.

The island we go to, Zakynthos or Zante, same thing, is an island which basically shuts up shop to holiday makers. If you go on Google maps and look it up you'll see how tiny it is.

 

[jjohnwm]

That's surprising to me. I've never been to Europe other than for a lay-over of a couple hours or a half-day, but I would have guessed that winter would be the prime time. In fact, when you said you couldn't get accommodations...I at first thought you meant that everything would be booked up solid.

Congrats on your choice of a holiday spot, though. Little non-tourist-trappy places like that are a lot more appealing to me than the major destinations. My wife and I have been to all-inclusive resorts in Mexico and Cuba that were small, isolated, remote from the nearest towns and very, very quiet and relaxing. No casinos, amphitheatres, racetracks...night life consisted of sitting on the veranda with a cerveza and watching the stars. If you know what you are getting into it makes for an absolutely fantastic vacation.

As far as what -20C feels like...well, it depends upon the time of year. In November or December, when it first hits, it feels dang cold! But by March...a nice balmy -20C feels like summer!

 

[pacu mom]

So...that's a high for this season? Or an all-tme high?

It looks from the pictures like you are well-situated on higher ground overlooking the river?

It's the highest we have seen it. And yes, we are way above the river, so were not in danger of flooding.

Sun room



This video of visiting neighbors was taken through the windows of our sun room. The river is way below our house.

From the road across the river, our house is barely visible

 

[krichardson]

.....neighbor's solar panels have become snow panels!

 

[esoxlucius]

Just got shut of storm "Isha" in blighty. Winds in some parts reached 99mph. Lots of structural damage, trees down, power outages, and sadly a couple of deaths too.

Thankfully It didn't last that long. However, there's another one on its way, "Jocelyn".

 

[jjohnwm]

I'm a bit amazed to read that ^. I realize that a tiny island in the North Atlantic is going to be exposed to some violent maritime weather, but had no idea that there were actual named storms affecting you on a regular basis. I'm guessing those are the remnants of named tropical storms that have moved northwards? The Atlantic coast of Canada has regular bouts with such storms and conditions can be extreme, so I suppose I should have realized that the same holds true on the other side of The Pond.

Birders are on the lookout after such storms, even far inland, because there are frequently southern birds that manage to get blown north in this kind of weather and are then observed in areas far from their natural homes.

In my area we are coming out of a cool snap into another period of stupidly warm (for January...) temperatures. The weather guys...who are never wrong!...are calling for daytime highs that actually climb slightly above the freezing point a couple times in the upcoming week. We won't be losing any noticeable amount of snow cover but it's gonna feel like summer! This was unusual when it happened a couple times in November and early December; it's very rare for January.

It'll certainly make for some dicy driving conditions on some of those days...freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw...slippery ice-covered roads...but as a retiree that doesn't really affect me. It's nice to be able to go where you want when you want; to me, it's even nicer to be able to stay home when I want.

 

[esoxlucius]

I realize that a tiny island in the North Atlantic is going to be exposed to some violent maritime weather, but had no idea that there were actual named storms affecting you on a regular basis.

It seems to be coming a regular occurrence these days. Gone are the days of just naming huge violent hurricanes, it seems the smaller stuff is getting in on the naming act too!

Usually our worse storms are the back end of US hurricanes which have passed over the Atlantic and lost most of their power. But even these extremely weakened hurricanes can give us a right going over.

However, I don't think that a lot of the recent storms we've had even started in the US as hurricanes. They seem to have started as weather fronts all on their own out in the Atlantic.

"Jocelyn" will be the 10th one to hit us in the past 5 months, and I'm not sure how many of those, if any, started off as hurricanes in the US.

 

[jjohnwm]

Do any of them actually originate in the U.S.? I thought all those big storms started in the tropics and came up through the Caribbean to hit the U.S. coast. Some of them continue northwards and still have enough ooomph left when they hit the Canadian Maritimes to be troublesome; I guess that others head off in a more eastward direction and eventually wallop you. And I suppose there are likely others that don't smack North America at all, just head straight for Europe and England?

 

[esoxlucius]

Do any of them actually originate in the U.S.?

Well they come to us from the US, but technically speaking none of them originate from the US. They all start in the Carribbean and then gather momentum as they travel over the ocean before hitting the Louisiana area, usually around there anyway. As they hit land they immediately begin to lose steam, but they're that big when they hit land it certainly won't feel like they're losing steam for anyone who's experiencing it!

I know what the weakened back end of an hurricane feels like, God only knows what Katrina felt like at full force!!