Not at all! A have noticed the warming on my own.
5-10 years ago here in Poltava the winter usually lasted from late November to late February, -10...-20C appeared often.
And in the last years the winter lasts from late December until mid-February, -10...-20C appears rare.
Just compare the average temperature in Poltava for Dec; Jan; Feb:
for many years: -4; -7; -6
2006/07:          +2; +2; -2
2007/08:             0; -4; 0

Superb photos, Paul.  As I see in the forecast, the water temperature was +13C - cold enough!

I like the sea photos very much! I have my own from Feodosija, Crimea (July 2007), I'll post them to a new topic.

I call it "the event of the year".

I will observe it from my home in Poltava.
12:10 - 14:15 (GMT+3); mid 13:13 40.9%

Hoping here for a good weather. Using my weather statistics (2006-07), I forecast +29C and 52% cloudiness on Aug.01

BTW, the next eclipse will appear:
in Poltava - on 2010 Jan.15 (02%)
in Ireland - on 2011 Jan.04 (70%, at sunrise), on 2015 Mar.20 (95%)

  Really amazing!

As Martin said: , I agree with it and even more, the studying at university will eat a lot of my time.
But when I have a time left over, I simply relax or I'm busy with my another hobbies (chemistry or cartography or else).
What do I mean under "relax": sleeping (ha-ha  ); watching TV or listening to music; I also like aircraft simulators (as Dave told about himself); simply walking outside and playing with my pets; working in the garden; going out for a trip if I have several free days; etc. etc. ... digging on the web or chatting here at this forum is also a kind of relax.

Well, the life is beautiful, and we'd never expect a situation when "it is nothing to do". If only we had time and energy for everything we want to do.

P.S. It is not a "Barby" forum!  

Hi Paul

The forum is the best idea for those people who are in the passion for a single hobby. And you have here 3 hobbies together!  Great job!

Some comments to the weather discussion here:
I had the same situation for 5 weeks in Nov-Dec 2007. But such troubles can happen in Ukraine only in late autumn/winter

Wow, I would never say something like this! If the weather is bad cloudy, it must to be of that kind. As for me, I like both the cloudy and the clear weather.
BTW, cloudy weather give us more time for the internet while not observing 

Sometimes these words could be the only existing truth.

Good work. I have never seen the rainbows at night.
John, how bright it was?
And could anyone say, how often such rare events occure? What special circumstances are important for a moonbow arrive?

Photo #10 looks very nice with a high contrast. I like to see such structures as imaged on the photo #2. I have imaged the similar "boiling" cloud on May.29.

Hi all!

Great work with the forum! I had been invited here by Martin McKenna and I'd be glad to get acquainted with everybody of you.

My name is Roman White. I live in Poltava, Ukraine (hm, yes, it's a bit distant from Ireland, but I think this wouldn't prevent me from living here on the forum). I am 16, and I am a student of university.

My hobbies are astronomy, tourism, photography, weather, chemistry and many more. I like the forum because its name - "Astrophotoweather" - sounds just like my hobbies are.
Astronomy is my main hobby. I was interested in astronomy since I was 5 yrs old, but seriously I got into it since 2004.
In 2006 I have bought my first telescope (76mm reflector), in 2007-2008 my astronomic hobby develops quickly as I have connected to the web and now I'm working on the creation of my site. I like astronomy in all aspects of it.

Photography wasn't one of my favourite hobbies until I had bought a good digital camera (Olympus SP-550UZ) a few months ago. What do I photograph? - the night sky; the daylight sky (weather phenomena); the nature (landscapes, flowers, animals, insects in macromode); and everything else which I find to be interesting.

Observing the weather always brings me a pleasure. But not only a pleasure. Since January 2006 I keep up a diary of weather statistics for my city. In a some time later I will upload it on my site.

I have just created my personal website devoted to astronomy & weather - www.poltava-astro.narod.ru. But it is only a few month old, so it doesn't look the way I want to see it. I will be working a lot with it and maybe until the end of 2008 my site will be 100% finished.

This summer I had my first experience with NLCs. The most part of my NLC observations is situated here: http://www.poltava-astro.narod.ru/weather/nlc.html

August was a great month with 2 eclipses, you can see the reports on my site too.

Cheers,
Roman White