@ Coracle, the weather in UK sounds lovely. Apparently the Seine burst its banks in Paris. However humid it has become, all the rain we have had for a month is a few prickles that wouldn't even wet the back of the proverbial threepenny stamp. This drought-like weather is coming from the direction of Cape Town where their water supply is down to about 20%.

Off topic I know, but the remark about the game must be responded to. After watching the local team (The Vikings) almost lose in front a home crowd after leading for more than half the game, well, it just makes a fellow want to curl up and hibernate for a hundred years

Have a thought for the tennis players in the Australian Open which has just finished. Whatever the temperatures - and all too many have been well above 40C - those temperatures would be much higher running around on a bakingly hot tennis court, and there have been some serious concerns about the welfare of participants. Although we've had some reasonably nice mornings it has been rare for maximum temperatures to be less than 35C (96F), for nearly two months now.

Too bad we can't send some moisture (it is snowing again) or moderate that unthinkable heat for you just a bit.

The biggest sporting event in the US, the Super Bowl, is tomorrow just a few miles from here in downtown Minneapolis. Side events like concerts and NFL Live have been going on all week, and the local news outlets have enjoyed showing interviews with people not used to the cold. Tomorrow's high is predicted to be 8F/-14C, not unusual by local standards but still cold enough to make it the coldest Super Bowl on record (there have been 51 previous games, and the current record-holder for cold was also Minneapolis, back in 1992). In both cases the game is indoors.

The first 12 days of February were below average temperature-wise, but now we are having a short-lived thaw. It was a toasty 30F/-1°C the 13th and an even warmer 43F/6°C on the 14th.

It will be cooler this weekend with a potentially significant snowstorm by Monday.

The two day heat wave is coming to an end. I loved it! 70F and the doors were wide open! And the nice thing about the tiny periodic warm spell in the middle of winter is that there are no bugs.

The two day heat wave is coming to an end. I loved it! 70F and the doors were wide open! And the nice thing about the tiny periodic warm spell in the middle of winter is that there are no bugs.

Whaaat!? 70F a "heatwave"? How delightful your "heatwave" sounds!! 21-22 C is about the most comfortable setting for air-conditioning anywhere. But it isn't a heatwave until the atmospheric temperature is 95F or 40C, whichever is highest.

Enjoy anyway. Our temperatures are a bit milder now, that summer is coming to an end soon. I hope as autumn gets here we start getting some long overdue thunderstorms and plenty of rain. It has not only been overly hot but also rainfall is horribly down, and Cape Town in South Africa, on the same latitude South as Sydney, has been running out of water altogether.

It's a heatwave for the middle of winter.

We're having up and down weather this week. Some normal winter weather, . possibly some snow, alternating with almost short sleeve weather every couple days.

That 'heatwave' is coming our way early next week. By Tuesday, the temperature could be up to 13C/55F! Quite unheard of for this time of year in wintry SW Ontario.

We have had a very snowy February thus far. Last weekend it just kept on falling. Beautiful! Some days are verrry cold; others are just ... cold. I'm enjoying every storm that comes, because all too soon winter and its invigorating temperatures will be gone. However, the long-range forecast is for March to bring more snow (not unusual here), so I'll appreciate every bit we get.

But this coming week much of what we have should be melting as unseasonable temps and rain descend for a few days. By next weekend, though, we're back to just below freezing when all the rain will, uh, freeze.

When I was growing up, winters would never rise above freezing so any snow that fell (a lot!) would accumulate, rather than melt every few weeks. I do miss that type of winter.

"Do you want to build a snowman?"

That sentiment may be on a lot of local kids' minds as school dismisses this afternoon. A quick 6 inches/150mm of sticky snow fell overnight, and after a short break this afternoon, at least that much more is expected overnight tomorrow into Sunday.

The sun is out now and with temps hovering around freezing it's ideal snow for making snowmen and there is actually some melting going on as well.

Plenty of the white stuff in this part of "Minnesnowtah".
Cleared over six inches of it just the other day, and it looks like I have just as much, if not more to blow tonight before it's all done falling.
At least it looks like the light fluffy stuff, and not wet, and sloppy.
As strange as it sounds I worry about warm weather now. With all this snow a lot of melting can only cause problems. I have seen too many accidents due to puddles turning to ice when the sun goes down.

Nearby suburbs are reporting about 7 inches/175mm in this latest storm, but it sure seemed like more when we were shoveling it.

Warmer weather this week may melt much of it, however. Right now it's quite pretty outside.

I hope you have had a properly cold winter this year. It remains to be seen what sort of summer is on the cards next June. On the news we've heard that something called "The beast from the East" is arriving in UK, fresh from Siberia, which will allow Northern Hemisphere winter to go out with a bang, rather than melting with a whimper.

Autumn arrived yesterday with the first rainfall for months which has lasted more than 24 hours.

Oh yes, it is jolly cold out there.
On Saturday I went down to London, where the bright sun didn't overcome the icy cold wind blowing from across Europe, from ? Siberia.
Back home in Manchester it is very cold here. The temperatures are only a couple of degrees above 0 degrees Celsius.
The Beast From The East - very much worse than the usual Easterly I put up with back home in NZ (wind blows onto the land in the afternoons in summer).

Last week was the week of ice. We had three ice storms come through, each two days apart. We never had a large amount amass on trees and cause damage that way, but lots of traffic accidents.
This week is our first peek at spring. The kids and I have already been out a good portion of the afternoon. More to come over the next few days.

It was a balmy 44F/6C here today, with lots of melting. Such warm temperatures after a big snowstorm are rather unusual, since cold Canadian air usually comes in after a storm.

I've never heard of "the beast from the East," though if it's from Siberia our equivalent is nicknamed the Siberian Express.

I've never heard of "the beast from the East," though if it's from Siberia our equivalent is nicknamed the Siberian Express.

It may be something similar, though Siberia is also closer to you, west of where you are, which might confuse the issue somewhat. I see there was a good article in the Washington Post about the "beast from the east" , which Australian media are quoting from. It seems that there was an unusual pool of warm air over the North Pole, in the stratosphere dragging up more warm air and exporting cold air southwards. Sea ice in the Arctic has been at its lowest point ever in that part of the world.

The Beast From The East - very much worse than the usual Easterly I put up with back home in NZ (wind blows onto the land in the afternoons in summer).

I've been reading that this "beast from the East" isn't a usual weather phenomenon for UK, which seems to get most of its weather from the West. But it must have been an occasional enough phenomenon to perhaps inspire Tolkien, who, in his Middle Earth creations, seems to have regarded the East as the source of all evil.

Was the Easterly you put up with back home in New Zealand any relation to the Southerly busters which used to make Sydney summer days so much more bearable in years gone by, and which seemed to have vanished somewhat? Today is the last day of summer.