December Severe Cold Spell Thread

[brianb]

Very odd here last night - temp varying wildly & rapidly between -7C and +2C seemingly independent of cloud cover - probably a cold land breeze fighting the northerly drift which is (relatively) warm after contact with the sea, whose surface temp is around +11C.

[martinastro]

Heavy snow showers on and off last night here, then today I ventured out to find that the Lough Neagh shore at Ballyronan Marina has frozen over for the second year in a row, very far out too in places around the distant boats. The ponds in Magherafelt park are also frozen with ice. Some amazing scenes today with the snow, ice, freezing fog, and friendly Robins. Large icicles over a foot long hanging from rooftops in places too.

[paulster78]

Snap Martin!  I've been out today as well, i concentrated on rivers and tried a few locations and came across lots of frozens rivers and ice together with the ice on trees and blue skies, it made for some beautiful scenery. Had to negotiate some lethal road conditions on the minor roads too, filled a 4gb memory card so whoever asked to see more winter pics could be regretting it whenever i sort through them 

[JohnC]

Crack on with them,Paul..we're all waiting. 

[markt]

Crack on with them,Paul..we're all waiting. 

Indeed! 

[martinastro]

I will second that, get cracking man  . Thanks for the text message today, it was good to hear from someone else out shooting, when I got your message I was photographing the snow and ice at Lough Neagh at the time, it put a smile on my face when I read that you were doing the same. Sounds like you had amazing photo opps with the rivers, I really like the sound of those trees and ice with blue sky - proper Winter opps.

My own shoot wasn't so good, took over 250 images, mostly of the frozen Lough, not to mention many attempts at trying to catch a Robin up close with a 18-55mm kit lens which was fun. I have a shot showing 8 Robins in the one tree - a first for me. Of course some of the finest sights I saw was when I was driving and couldn't stop the car due to snow on the roadsides, these last two days have produced the most amazing sunlit fog/snow scenes which were simply incredible, I got a few not so good quick snaps using a filling station to get parked, then the owner came out staring at me with dirty looks. I'm going to miss all these Winter scenes with the thaw. I hope the next cold spell moves in fast. Looking forward to seeing your images.

In retrospect it has been amazing, for me it's been 15 days of snow, ice, frost, severe temps, 6 nights of thundersnow, big icicles, record temps, and now Lough Neagh frozen again for the 2nd year in a row, last year it was a 60 year event which indicates how severe things have become. I have a feeling the best is yet to come this Winter!

Excellent image of trees covered with rime ice in todays Daily Mail

[martinastro]

Joe Bastardi is now talking about a 'serious' and 'severe' cold event likely for UK and Europe next week until 2 or even 3 weeks into the future, he stressed that he hoped people were prepared. Will be interesting to see if he's correct.

[markt]

Joe Bastardi is now talking about a 'serious' and 'severe' cold event likely for UK and Europe next week until 2 or even 3 weeks into the future, he stressed that he hoped people were prepared. Will be interesting to see if he's correct.

Thanks for the heads up Martin - heres the link http://www.accuweather.com/video/704630559001/bastardi-europe-gets-hit-by-extreme-cold.asp?channel=vbbastaj

[markt]

And the previous forecast from a day or 2 before http://www.accuweather.com/video/700277018001/european-then-you-are-a-freezing-the-next-couple-of-weeks.asp?channel=vbbastaj  (sorry to post out of context).

[markt]

Michael Fish latest video forecast for the coming days http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=michaelfish;sess=

[martinastro]

Serious winter weather is in store for both UK and Ireland this week, a south plunging cold front on Thursday will bring rain, sleet and snow across much of the country. Behind it frigid polar air moves in rapidly causing freezing temps and big snow showers all across the country with cold air convection looking strong enough to produce two days and nights in a row (Fri-sat) of thundersnow storms over the Ocean, coastal regions, and even inland. This could be quite a spectacular week of photogenic weather action if the models continue with this trend. Here's the snow charts from Neweather GFS for Thurs 

[martinastro]

Met Office severe weather warnings already out for all of UK from Thurs-Sat

There might even be tornado potential from the cold front on Thurs.

[markt]

This cold spell looks like it's going to be pretty nuts!  I've been following the discussion about it on the netweather forecasting model discussion on their forum.  Looks like it has the potential to be the 'prefect storm'. 

[paulster78]

Have been following the chat as well Mark, the initial cold front and the sudden temp drop look significant not to mention heavy snow showers and blizzard conditions. Good chances of another thundersnow event happening Martin. I hope they do push more inland in the N and N/W flow. This could be a busy thread in the coming week!

[martinastro]

Arctic blast warning out for Thurs from Netweather...

http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=forecast;type=alert;reg=7

Some people are saying this set up is rare and a once in a life time event for this country!