Until a few days ago I had nasturtiums, geraniums, erigeron, fuchsia and salvia in flower (Edit: and a few roses. Mustn't forget the roses). Hard to believe! Now they're all kaput - except for the geraniums, which are shivering in the greenhouse. Yes, even in balmy Wirral we've had hard frost and even a covering of snow. Conveniently for my grandsons, not on a school day; their front garden now boasts a fine snowman wearing a Tranmere Rovers scarf. A trip which should have taken me 25 minutes on Friday took an hour, as the first snow came down and the roads turned to rutted slush - unpleasantly skiddy. Yesterday the snow fell in great fat feathery flakes, as the temperature was very close to freezing. The colder it gets, the finer the snow apparently, which is why we so seldom have the fine powdery stuff. How have you all been getting on with it? It's a huge novelty here these days, but I suspect that's not so further north! Stay safe and stay warm if you can.
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just very very cold up here, -3, freezing fog last night, but not seen any snow at all. the strange thing is i used to live on the wirral, and when we left to move up here everyone would say ohh so cold in the north east! i still have plants in my hanging baskets and even have daffodils showing
No snow but thick frost here, apparently 0 to -5 today/tonight. Was foggy but seems to be clearing. Benson in Oxfordshire is always the coldest place in the south, was -9 last night.
Yesterday was a real challenge for me getting to work. I don’t work every Saturday, just about 12 a year and, really annoyingly, it was yesterday so I had to get from Liverpool to Chester through the heaviest snow I have ever seen in the 15 years I have lived here. When I got up and looked out the window at 6am I was really shocked to see several inches of snow and as I was driving down through Liverpool to the Mersey tunnel the flakes were falling rapidly. As I drove down the Wirral, it started to ease a bit and by the time I got to Chester there was only a light covering of snow which was totally gone by the time I came out of work at 5pm. However when I got back to Liverpool, there was still quite a lot of snow and looking out the window this morning, it is still there but I don’t think any fresh snow has fallen, it is just the remnant from yesterday that hasn’t melted away.
I know that other parts of the country experience this quite often but it was a real surprise for me as Liverpool rarely gets snow due to its low lying position close to the Irish Sea. I probably would have quite enjoyed it yesterday if I hadn’t had to drive to work through it! I find driving in the snow very stressful.
On Friday afternoon I went to Burton Manor to meet my cousin and she texted me to say she was delayed due to a freak snowstorm in New Brighton! Sure enough the sky was very dark to the east, but the sun was bright over west Wirral. An hour later it was a different story; down came the cloud, in came sleety snow and the drive back through Heswall was very slushy, skiddy and unpleasant. It's strange how localised it can be. Yesterday when it came down I don't think I've seen flakes that big and fluffy for a very long time.
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No snow yet here, but that's not unusual in this part of the country. Bloody freezing though, literally! Temperatures aren't expected to rise above -1 degrees all day. Much lower than we would normally expect here, although probably quite normal further north.
I spent the day yesterday volunteering on as Guard on a Santa-Special train on a Heritage Railway, and at least the train was warm. Beautiful atmospheric scenes along the line, with all the trees and fields covered in frost.
Snowy and sleet showers lovely!
There was a 10km run in our town park today which must have been chilly. Not for me, I gave up running years ago as one knee was giving problems. Walking is fine.
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
We woke to snow and fog in Rochdale yesterday. Early afternoon we drove to the north of Blackburn, the route over the tops was foggy but the trees were gorgeous. By the M65 it was snowing huge flakes, Blackburn ring road was bad. But it was clear at our destination. We came home M6/M61/M60 and that was pretty clear.
The BBC weather website for this immediate area is showing a predicted high this week of 4 degrees next Saturday. Until then it appears to be hovering around a high of 2 degrees. Only next Sunday is it predicted to rise to the seasonal normal of around 6 degrees. We have seen recent temperatures of -6 or -7 degrees, the like of which we don't often see at all and probably haven't for several years. All of this coinciding with the energy crisis!
Oh well, at least the frozen cobwebs on the bushes outside are pretty.
We are due to go to south Devon next Sunday. 2 stops en route, near the A303 in Hampshire and near Ilminster in Somerset. As long as me can get to the M1 it should be ok, hopefully.
This is what we woke up to this morning. Unusual for us. We are very close to the coast and the snow doesn’t normally settle or last here even when the rest of the county is covered
------------- Good cakes aren't cheap. Cheap cakes aren't good
a mere sprinkle this morning in Cheddar, temp' rose to a balmy 3 degrees and the frost eased up, but my lettuce and rocket in the greenhouse didn't take to kindly to the chill, but it will survive!!
------------- That's not a dog....... That's a Schnauzer
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