@courtenay sorry you had to cancel. You will love it when you do get there.

Posted by: @coracle

@courtenay sorry you had to cancel. You will love it when you do get there.

The Lake District, you mean? It wasn't really a terrible blow to cancel that trip — I go there pretty often, as it's one of my favourite parts of England, and these days I live only a couple of hours' drive from it! I really wanted to revisit a bakery in Ambleside — called, fittingly enough, the Apple Pie Bakery and Cafe — which serves THE most delicious apple pie I've ever had, especially the version with sultanas and mixed spices, which tastes very Christmassy. But they serve it year-round and it will still be there, as will the lakes and fells and all the beautiful places I love, when I next get there...  

Posted by: @courtenay

Posted by: @coracle

@courtenay sorry you had to cancel. You will love it when you do get there.

The Lake District, you mean? It wasn't really a terrible blow to cancel that trip — I go there pretty often, as it's one of my favourite parts of England,

Oops, make that 'when you do get BACK there.

Back to the topic of weather  ...

Posted by: @stargazer

There's something about the first big snowfall of the season, isn't there @jo?  Especially when it comes near Christmas. Rain this time of year is pretty unusual for us Northerners. ...

Our amazingly warm December continues. It actually rained the other night! ... The long range forecast calls for a possible record high temperature of 46F/8C on Christmas Eve - so any white Christmas hopes here are slim indeed.

There certainly is something about the first big snowfall, indeed. But, aside from the good 10" dump, we have not had any further accumulation. Flurries some days, yes, but now, right around Christmas Day, the temperatures are 'soaring' for December, similar to your area, stargazer. Christmas Eve night is going down to 4C / 39F, but Christmas Day (get a load of this!) is forecast to be 10 degrees C / 50F, which is unheard of here in the north, and simply not right.   The only advantage of these warm temperatures is that the millions driving for celebrations won't be encountering slippery conditions anywhere in the lower half of Ontario, at least. But, oh man, we miss having a good snowy Christmas this year, that's for sure.

Later this coming week the temperatures finally drop to near freezing. January is our snowiest month, with December a close second, but so far this year, December has lost big time. Here's hoping January will make up for it!  

Merry Christmas to all!  

Merry Christmas!

Yesterday (Christmas Eve) was cloudy with plenty of rain (!) in the late afternoon and evening, but we still set a record high of 55F/13C, crushing the old record of 46F/8C set in 1957. It was warm region-wide; even the Canadian border (western Ontario/eastern Manitoba) areas were close to 10C. No white Christmas there, even in areas with a 98% probability of that.

Today continues warm (already 50F/10C at local noon) but there is a big storm in the Colorado area that may be rain or snow over the next few days (models remain uncertain). But it looks unseasonably warm through the end of the year.

@Stargazer: Today continues warm (already 50F/10C at local noon) but there is a big storm in the Colorado area that may be rain or snow over the next few days (models remain uncertain). But it looks unseasonably warm through the end of the year.

You never know what might happen. Yesterday, which was Christmas Day, on this side of the planet, the Central West district of New South Wales, (around Cowra, Grenfell etc) did have an unexpectedly white Christmas of sorts, due to the series of storms crossing the continent. Only it was hail, not snow. 

For the first time that I can remember EVER, it's snowing at my house on Christmas Day. (Not enough for a "white Christmas", but still fun to have it falling from the sky.)

Rain for us here, too, @stargazer, much of Christmas week. 'Tis very unusual for our part of the world at this time of year. But! New Year's Eve, when all our kids were home, snow fell—a magical, Narnia snow—that covered everything white and thick. Only a few inches came down, but this has stayed all week because of our now colder temperatures. It's so-o-o pretty, and great to walk in with the winter's hush over the white landscapes and farmers' fields all around. 

I can't remember the last time we saw the sun—at least a couple of weeks ago. This is fine by me, 'though many are missing that bright orb. Except I sure do miss viewing the always stunning night sky: the  heavy cloud cover has prevented this. When we finally have a clear night, all the stars, constellations, and planets will have shifted, so I will need to get used to 'the new look'.  

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Only it was hail, not snow.

Yikes! Any damage that you have heard? 

@fantasia, I love that you had snow on Christmas Day! Were the kiddos able to roll balls into a snowman, or was there not enough even for that? 

I am loving these long nights. My walks at either end of the day are not rushed because of trying to fit in walking the hour in the dark either before the sun rises or after the sun sets very late (I'm usually in bed before the sun finally sets in the summer.  ) I could live with this current night/day mix all year long.

We will be getting some light snow tonight; flurries tomorrow; and the rest of the week? cloudy with flurries, but possibly more snow on Tuesday. And hovering right around the freezing mark during the day; -2 to -5C (28.4 to 23F) at nights. Great walking weather!

@johobbit: Yikes! Any damage that you have heard? 

Places like Cowra & Grenfell are right out there in farming & grazing land. Apart from roofing tiles, solar panels, & perhaps food crops, not to mention passing cars, likely not as much damage as would occur in the cities, & considerably less than the floods we've been having in Southeast Queensland & also up north in Cape York Peninsula. Also, in soggy Melbourne, they have also been getting rather wetter weather than expected. 

We are now being told by the Melbourne based official Bureau Of Meteorology (ie BOM), that the cloudy, stormy weather which has cooled down our threatened overheated summer, somewhat, so far, is due to a "SAM" that is to say, a Southern Annular "M" something or other, whizzing around the Southern Ocean, just to unpredictably annoy the weather forecasters, who were threatening us with a summer worse than we had in 2019-2020. On the other hand, the annual Boxing Day Sydney to Hobart yacht race can't have enjoyed pleasant sailing, though all eventually arrived safely at Constitution Dock in Hobart. 

I don't mind a light & sound show in the evening instead of that. We were supposed to have drier weather due to a positive IOD (Indian Ocean Dipole) in the West, as well as El Niño in the East. 

I'm glad to see that you got proper snow in the New Year. Good weather to be snug in warm clothing indoors, reading a book, or organising a nice warm dinner. Though it is not weather that I would choose to drive in. 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Also, in soggy Melbourne, they have also been getting rather wetter weather than expected. 

Oi — bit rich to talk about "soggy Melbourne" when Melbourne almost never gets actual floods, unlike certain other parts of Australia...  

Meanwhile here in the UK, which does have a deserved reputation for rain, we've had an awful lot of the same, including flooding of people's homes, mainly in the south. But the last couple of days have been clear and sunny and cold, down to freezing at night. It's a rather mild winter so far, except when it's not. The weather in this country is extremely changeable, at the drop of a hat, as they say. Reminds me of Melbourne, really.   

@Courtenay: Oi — bit rich to talk about "soggy Melbourne" when Melbourne almost never gets actual floods, unlike certain other parts of Australia...

Yes, I agree that Melbourne is not nearly as soggy as the North of Queensland normally gets at this time of the year. And Melbourne must sound like heaven, by comparison to our Deep North, when on the news there was an item about someone in Mackay finding a crocodile in her backyard chicken coop. But I also notice that Melbourne also doesn't seem to be affected by drought as often as Sydney. 

Yes, we did see a weather warning for extreme cold for England, a day or two ago, with temperatures going down as low as minus 30 C. I hope they were exaggerating in the Daily Mail item, when that sounds as bad as getting as hot as 49.7C in January 2020. The El Niño we are supposed to be having seems to be wetter than normal at the moment, for Sydney. 

We finally did get some snow and now there is a winter weather advisory.  I like a little snow, but I don’t care that much for driving through a snowstorm. In January winter can still be interesting, but in February I usually get kind of tired of it. I feel kind of sad when the Christmas lights are taken down. I do like sunny winter days though and the cheerfulness that they bring. 🙂

I know, eh, narnian78, seeing the Christmas lights come down can be rather dismal. To counter that, we have some beautiful white bulbs we put up outside the rest of the year, at the front and back. They are bright and cheery and welcoming. Plus the evergreen we have in the front yard still has its bright green LED lights on it. We may leave them up for awhile yet. But the rest of our many outdoor coloured lights were taken down a week after New Year's. Some folk in our village still have  Christmas lights up. Very pretty. Especially with the snow we have been getting lately. 

This week is one of ups and downs. We started off with a few very pretty inches of snow yesterday morning, but in the afternoon the temperature rose to above freezing, when it all changed to rain, which continued very heavy overnight, with strong winds.

This morning, as I was driving very early to the pool, I saw the temperature drop five degrees within seven minutes, during which the rain became snow again. We are to have periods of snow tomorrow, then a lot more on Saturday, when the temps are plummeting, which means that snow will stay, hurrah! Good ol' January. I must admit, I love the wintry weather and the longer nighttime hours.  To me, this time of year is highly invigorating.

However, I can't recall the last time we saw a clear night sky. Cloud cover has dominated for weeks now. I'm absolutely fine with that during the day (especially if those clouds bring snow), but at night, I would love a glimpse at the stars and planets again, periodically.  

After two months of late Autumn and early Winter weather in England, I'm home in NZ in the hot summer.  Its 32 degrees, a huge contrast with the 5 maximum in London a few days ago!

It's been cloudy here, too, @jo, for much of the last month. But today the sky is a brilliant blue and there is a strange bright orb in the sky. (I'd love to see the stars tonight for the first time in weeks, but winter weather advisories and warnings are up so it's likely to be cloudy).

It's almost mid-January and winter has largely been a no-show. But that's about to change. The storm track has been to the south, bringing lots of snow to places like Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa rather than here.

But we're in line for 3-6 inches (75-150mm) of snow tonight. That's fairly routine for us, but it will be followed by the coldest temperatures since last winter. Highs will struggle to get to 0F/-17C all weekend, with lows closer to -12F/-24C. Again, not terribly unusual for us, but it will still be a shock after this warm winter so far.