Britain likely to suffer from a double dose of severe weather next week

Gales are expected to hit much of Britain on Monday, followed by a brief calm and then a further period of high winds on Thursday and Friday. Britain is likely to suffer from a double dose of storms next week, as gales expected to hit much of the country on Monday are followed by a brief calm and then a further period of high winds on Thursday and Friday. A Met Office forecaster explained that successive bands of low pressure were going to hit Britain from the west. The weather at the end of the week could be even worse than the severe gales and heavy rain expected on Monday. He said: “It is going to be a very unsettled week. It looks like there is going to be a similar – or slightly more severe – repeat of Monday’s heavy rains and gales from Thursday, continuing into Friday.”Winds of up to 80mph were expected to ease by Wednesday, but even this lull was likely to be uncomfortable. The forecaster said: “When the wind and rain stops, the temperatures are likely to drop, perhaps touching freezing.”

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December 12, 2011 – LONDON – Britain was told to brace itself for the worst weather in 30 years – with forecasts of gale-force winds, snow, sleet and torrential rain. The Met Office issued a weather warning of gales as strong as 100mph and a freezing wind chill factor bringing the coldest week of the winter so far. Experts said there will be little respite until the New Year with more brutal weather during the run-up to Christmas. Motoring organizations urged the public to heed the warnings and plan journeys carefully to avoid the “carpet bomb” weather heading our way. And there were fears that already hard-hit retailers will take another financial wallop as Christmas shoppers may be put off by the extreme elements from stepping out on the high street. A double whammy of two deep Atlantic low-pressure systems is forecast to smash in from the South-west later tonight. High winds and rain will lash most of England with the South and Northern Ireland expected to take the brunt of the gales and storm-force winds. Snow and sleet is likely on higher ground as far south as Dartmoor and Exmoor and on the North Downs. Temperatures will drop to around 5C (41F) in the North and 7C (45F) in the South but it will feel colder because of the wind chill factor. While temperatures will not hit freezing in the weather system’s first phase, high winds and flooding are expected to make travel treacherous and cause structural damage. After a brief lull on Wednesday a second stronger bout will hit on Thursday night going into Friday. It is likely to cause more havoc. It will bring a drop in temperatures in the North to 1C (34F) and 4C (39F) in the South but wind chill will make temperatures sub-zero. Travelling conditions will again be treacherous with more flooding expected. Jonathan Powell, senior weather forecaster at Positive Weather Solutions, said: “These systems combined with the battering Scotland took last week represent the worst sustained outlook I have seen for 30 years. Britain is going to take a battering and we are going to be hit hard twice – on Tuesday night and then Thursday night. We are looking at some vicious weather systems which will effectively carpet bomb the country. “And I’m afraid there is more of the same on the way with our long-range data showing more low pressure systems coming in from the Atlantic until the turn of the year.” Aisling Creevey, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, said: “There’s a system coming through on Tuesday and again on Thursday – it looks as if they will be two stormy days. “We could see gusts of 100mph in some places – but there is very little confidence about exactly where.” -Express

Its gorgeous again today!

I read that it's raining apples in Coventry Floyd.

December 15, 2011 – WEST MIDLANDS, UK – An avalanche of more than 100 apples rained down over a main road in Keresley, Coventry on Monday night. The street was left littered with apples after they pelted car windscreens and bonnets just after rush-hour. The bizarre downpour may have been caused by a current of air that lifted the fruit from a garden or orchard, releasing it over the junction of Keresley Road and Kelmscote Road. One driver said: “The apples fell out of the sky as if out of nowhere. They were small and green and hit the bonnet hard. There were other cars on the road at the time too and everyone had to stop their cars suddenly. “It wouldn’t surprise me if some cars were damaged. I know the area well and there are no apple trees around.” Yesterday, the smashed apples could still be seen up and down the 20-yard stretch of road. Dave Meakins, a retired fork lift truck driver, said he thought the apples had been thrown as a prank by children. ‘I honestly don’t know where the apples could have come from,” he said. “I assumed kids must have thrown them because we do get the occasional egg and apple thrown but there’s way too much for that. I would love to know where they came from.” Some said they thought the apples had fallen from a passing plane. Keresley parish councillor Sandra Camwell said a freak black-out happened on the same road last year. She said: “Strange things do happen in this part of the world. I think it’s highly likely that apples did fall from the sky. We’re in an area with a spooky history, where there have been witches for centuries, after all.” The Met Office said it was possible the apples had been scooped up by a tornado. A Met spokesman said, “It’s hypothetically possible that a tornado could have picked them up and that they were transported in turbulent air until they fell.” Jim Dale, senior meteorologist, from British Weather Services, said: “The weather we have at the moment is very volatile and we probably have more to come. Essentially these events are caused when a vortex of air, kind of like a mini tornado, lifts things off the ground rising up into the atmosphere until the air around it causes them to fall to earth again. Returning polar maritime air is such an unstable condition and it basically means air returning from the polar regions which is very unstable.” –Telegraph

Better than cats & dogs?

or frogs, or fish...

A severe cold weather warning has been issued for the rest of the week and the weekend with temperatures unlikely to reach above 41F (5C) during the day.
The weather front due to arrive over the UK tomorrow will leave cold air over the north, with the north of Britain, Wales and the Midlands most exposed to the risk of snow.
Heavy snow started to fall today in Somerset while parts of Exmoor, Devon, also had a covering. The latest cold weather warning from the Met Office covered almost all of the country with even southern parts and London braced for wintry showers.

Dan Williams, Met Office forecaster, said: "The storm that was heading in is looking like it is going to take a more southern track. It means that on the northern side, there will be more cold air so that means there's a risk of snow that will cover much of the north, Wales and the Midlands. "We're also looking at some fairly suppressed maximum temperatures by Friday of about 39F (4C) as the top temperature.

"It's a similar story for Saturday, and overnight it will be 32F (0C) with some places going down to 30.2F (-1C).

"It is slightly below average for this time of year. The maximum average during the day for December is 44.6F (7C)."

The Environment Agency has flood warnings in place in the North East, North West and Wales for today, with alerts also in place in the Midlands, South East and South West. On Monday high winds and heavy rain battered England and Wales.The south of England and South Wales bore the brunt, with up to 40mm of rain falling in some areas in 12 hours.

read more at link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/8955606/Snow-and-ice-warning-across-country.html

It would be great if it rained guinness!

Its sunny and gorgeous again. It has been very mild.

The same happened last year, over Christmas there was one weeks of snow outside of Scotland but after that it was just like any other winter. In fact it went very mild. Im not expecting anything different this year and if the truth be known last year was not much different than the year before apart from more snow.

Im sure the Brits will moan about the weather though. We are very good at it. Its a national pass time!

Where exactly are you located Floyd? Sounds like the banana belt.