Its so cold that...

[Bruce]

-8.0C in the Chilterns this morning. Brilliant sunshine,too.

[Rod]

Not my bit! Only minus 6.6 :-(

[Jules]

I don't know, I was really surprised at how good wood stoves (for house heating) are here in the US - I grew up with open fireplaces in the UK, so had a lot of misconceptions about how good wood can be as a fuel. Get a nicely designed system and it seems to just tick over on very little fuel whilst still producing a high output.

Yeah, been there. At our old place it'd get about 3/4" thick on the inside. Our new place is better, but it's still all wood-framed single-glazed French windows which don't exactly do a lot of keeping heat in and cold out! Doesn't help that the previous owner had apparently never done any upkeep on them either, so all the putty's falling out :-)

cheers

J.

[Jules]

Does anywhere log UK snowfall logs by region? It'd be interesting to see as I remember some seriously deep falls back when I was a kid - but it'd be nice to know if that actually was true or if it was just a case of me being shorter coupled with it being uphill both ways back then ;-)

J.

[Stuart Noble]

I think the Met Office only does historic monthly rainfall, temperature, and sun hours as public information. No doubt they'll send you a price list for anything more detailed :-)

[Clint Sharp]

In message , mogga writes

Now that's impressive and rather beautiful as well..

Unfortunately my first thought was of Bubbles D'Vere and I almost didn't click.

[Invisible Man]

1963 we had snow on the ground for a long time in East London/Essex border. Only vehicle down our close for a couple of days was the milk float which was fitted with chains. Had some good drifts in Norfolk in 1979. They had to use diggers to clear the A140 past Norwich airport.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I just tried this, but found that blowing bubbles in the first place is harder than I remembered. What's a good solution? I tried some diluted fairy liquid, and some soap solution, but without much success (even indoors). Maybe my wire loop isn't good enough.

Any neighbours looking outside at me trying to blow bubbles when it's -4C or lower must think I've gone bananas. OTOH, they've probably suspected that for years...

[Tim S]

Andrew Gabriel coughed up some electrons that declared:

A little sugar with the Fairy solution can help, but I'm told the secret ingedient is glycerine. Lots of fairy too.

I tried this morning with real bubble liquid. -5C but no bubbles freezing in the air. Hoever, one bubble did land and sit on the fence and about 30-40 seconds later, it froze.

It was quite a sight - the process took about 10 seconds, freezing from the bottom upwards.

I've put some liquid in the fridge ready to have another go tomorrow.

Tim

[Andy Burns]

According to Guy (who photographed the original frozen bubbles) they freeze rather quicker if you use a machine to blow rather than filling them with hot breath, makes sense.

[Tim S]

Andy Burns coughed up some electrons that declared:

As it happens...

Hmm

[Tony Bryer]

In Twickenham we had snow on the ground for about six weeks. I was at an 1841-built primary school with frozen-up outdoor toilets, so school hours were reduced from 9-12 then rush home! Before then (and before my time) 1947-8, just 15 years earlier, was even worse AIUI, but in the last 45 years we have had nothing comparable.

[Dave Liquorice]

You need a bit of oil with the detergent, google for bubble solutions and you'll find some excellent sites about the science of bubbles and "bubble stuff".

Went out, late afternoon, with the kids and some commercial solution. No freezing bubbles but it was only -2C. Even when I let the wind blow the bubbles rather than me.

[Bruce]

1981-82 came close .. or was it 1982-83?

[Andy Champ]

[Mark]

I'm not sure which either. But I do remember that winter the snow drifting over the top of the ground floor windows.

I also remember going for a walk in the countryside and seeing someone digging in the snow. On getting closer I could see a patch of colour

- it was the roof of a car! You couldn't even see there was a road there!

[Huge]

Fabulous. Absolutely fabulous.

I have tinkered with trying to make snow with various combinations of pressure washer, air compressor and plumbing bits, but without success.

[Stuart Noble]

Coldest winters since 1914 (avg min temps)

1963 -0.2 1947 0.9 1979 1.2 1940 1.3 1917 1.4 1929 1.5 1941 1.8 1951 2.0 1942 2.1 1982 2.1

Quite interesting juggling the Met Office figures in Excel

[Bruce]

It was 1981-82, because according to the first page you linked to,

10 January 1982 was the date of the all-time record lowest daily temperatures in both England and Scotland.

Newport (Shropshire) -26.1C Braemar (Highland) -27.2C

At that time, I was working on a construction project in Lancashire. It was so cold that the sea froze, with sheets of ice forming on beaches as the tide went out, and ice sheets floated in the local harbour for several days.

There was a maximum/minimum thermometer on site. Overnight, it recorded a minimum of -18C with a maximum the following day of -8.5C.

I remember 1963. The cold snap lasted longer than the one in 1982, but obviously it wasn't as cold.

Thanks again for the links.

[Rod]

I had just moved into my first house (the first I had bought) - and the road froze with severe corrugations. Really nasty to attempt to drive over. Must have been very un-waterproof. Changed from reasonably OK to being in desperate need of resurfacing overnight. Don't think I remember anything quite so bad. Being a rail commuter at the time, had great fun with cracked rails.

If that happened now, it doesn't bear thinking about how long it would take to get done. There is a pothole brigade round here - and there are still major surface problems that haven't been mended in at least five years.