On Jan 6, 12:38*pm, Richard Dixon wrote:
On Jan 5, 4:39*pm, Dave Cornwell wrote:

Without drawing global warming into it, do you have an impression that
certain weather types, if any, in your area have become less frequent.
Until this week I would have said gales and that probably is still true
to a large extent. The lack of snow showers off the North Sea,
particularly any giving significant falls of snow and perhaps violent
thunderstorms with associated downpours and flash flooding are the most
significant here.

Night-time French thunderstorm imports in S/SE England - a regular
staple of summertime fear for me when growing up in the 1980s !

Richard

I thought that by the 80's such storms had become rather rare.
They were more common in the 50's and 60's and one in particular, June
12/13 1964 stands out. This may illustrate the problem with this kind
of memory in that one or two exceptional events make a strong
impression particularly if one is young. One then tends to think of
this as the norm whereas in reality it may not have been.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

"Dave Cornwell" wrote in message
...
do you have an impression that certain weather types, if any, in your
area have become less frequent.
Deep snow and multi-day sub-zero maxima. Oh, and cloudless days where the
sun makes the snow so bright you can't look at it for long, and yet no
daytime melting occurs.

I know we had days like this last winter (and a more limited supply the
previous winter), but they were the first for years - so they are still less
frequent (when compared to late 70s and early 80s), hence are still on my
list!
--
Freddie
Bayston Hill
Shropshire
102m AMSL
http://www.hosiene.co.uk/weather/cumulus/

In article ,
Eskimo Will writes:

"John Hall" wrote in message
.. .
In article
,
Lawrence13 writes:
Isn't a lot of the reason for lack of fog due to cleaner air. Even
Chuck Berry knew that when he sang ' No Particulate Place to Go'

In urban areas, certainly. But even in rural areas there seems to have
been a reduction, though not so great as in big conurbations.

We still get plenty of hill fog John with visibilities less than 10 metres.

Will

Yes, but hill fog is a very different animal from radiation fog, which
is by far the commonest form of fog in low-lying areas away from the
coast and what I was thinking of (but failed to specify).
--
John Hall
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism
by those who have not got it."
George Bernard Shaw

"John Hall" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Eskimo Will writes:

"John Hall" wrote in message
. ..
In article
,
Lawrence13 writes:
Isn't a lot of the reason for lack of fog due to cleaner air. Even
Chuck Berry knew that when he sang ' No Particulate Place to Go'

In urban areas, certainly. But even in rural areas there seems to have
been a reduction, though not so great as in big conurbations.

We still get plenty of hill fog John with visibilities less than 10
metres.

Will

Yes, but hill fog is a very different animal from radiation fog, which
is by far the commonest form of fog in low-lying areas away from the
coast and what I was thinking of (but failed to specify).

Yes radiation fogs are normally pretty thin affairs nowadays. 50 metres at
thickest usually in my experience.
Gone are the days of the 1 metre visibility of my youth in smoky Manchester,
1 metre I kid you not, filthy stuff, 5 minutes outside and you came back
covered in soot and coughing. My mum always made me wear something over my
mouth and a balaclava. By the time I was 16 in 1968 the fogs were already
noticeably thinner (you could easily see across the street). Now, on
Dartmoor it is back to 10 metre visibility fogs, but they are clean and
wet!

Will
--

In article ,
Eskimo Will writes:
Gone are the days of the 1 metre visibility of my youth in smoky
Manchester, 1 metre I kid you not, filthy stuff, 5 minutes outside
and you came back covered in soot and coughing. My mum
always made me wear something over my mouth and a balaclava.
By the time I was 16 in 1968 the fogs were already noticeably
thinner (you could easily see across the street). Now, on Dartmoor
it is back to 10 metre visibility fogs, but they are clean and wet!

Though I was born in 1948, I've always lived in a fairly rural location,
so I don't think that I've ever experienced visibility below about 20 or
30 metres. But even in the country radiation fogs certainly seem to be
rarer and less dense than once they were.
--
John Hall
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism
by those who have not got it."
George Bernard Shaw

Fog (and freezing fog) definitely. I remember the smogs of the 50's - in a
charabanc bound for an ice pantomime featuring Norman Wisdom in (maybe)
1953 - yellow smog so thick in London that I could not see the end of the
bonnet! But also in the early seventies country fog seemed more common. I
remember droving home to Yately and could not see the white line at the edge
of the road - very scary (especially for my lady) - can't remember that
density of fog happening since.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++

Yes! I remember my wife having to wind down the nearside window and warn
me when I was about to hit the curb.
Can you imagine the carnage there would be if that happened now.
Dave

Dave Cornwell wrote:

Yes! I remember my wife having to wind down the nearside window and
warn me when I was about to hit the curb.
Can you imagine the carnage there would be if that happened now.
Dave

Similar to when I was driving in thick fog, with my head out of the side
window and getting a nasty shock when I suddenly noticed the offside curb
about a yard away. As for carnage, this was on the A2 just south of
Gravesend - but it was about 1963.

Such conditions - not all that rare in North Kent up to that period, seem to
be completely a thing of the past.

Roger

On Jan 6, 2:54*pm, Tudor Hughes wrote:
On Jan 6, 12:38*pm, Richard Dixon wrote:

On Jan 5, 4:39*pm, Dave Cornwell wrote:

Without drawing global warming into it, do you have an impression that
certain weather types, if any, in your area have become less frequent..
Until this week I would have said gales and that probably is still true
to a large extent. The lack of snow showers off the North Sea,
particularly any giving significant falls of snow and perhaps violent
thunderstorms with associated downpours and flash flooding are the most
significant here.

Night-time French thunderstorm imports in S/SE England - a regular
staple of summertime fear for me when growing up in the 1980s !

Richard

* * * I thought that by the 80's such storms had become rather rare..
They were more common in the 50's and 60's and one in particular, June
12/13 1964 stands out. *This may illustrate the problem with this kind
of memory in that one or two exceptional events make a strong
impression particularly if one is young. *One then tends to think of
this as the norm whereas in reality it may not have been.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

I agree, the last few years have seen far fewer thunderstorms. I only
recorded only 5 days of thunder being heard in 2011, 4 days in 2010
and 6 days in 2009. The average is 16 days and 23 days in 2006 was the
last year which could be described as thundery. The lack of summer
French imports is compounded by a lack of thunder events in unstable
cool N.W. or westerly situations. Home-grown instability thunder
events such as sea-breeze fronts seem to be lacking too.

Hail has been lacking in recent years owing to the lack of good
unstable convection. These days, strong convection Cb's just seem to
miss this area or potentially unstable synoptic setups just lead to
capping and much strato-cu as was the bane of last summer.

Fog is rare too and anticyclonic conditions just seem to result in low
cloud. A decent winter 'high' with calm and frosty weather has been
lacking in recent years, the last being in January 2009.

Snow has generally been rare but the last three excellent winters with
the emphasis on February 2009, January 2010 and December 2010 have
brought snow and severe cold I thought I would never be lucky enough
to witness again after the memorable winters of 1981~82, 1984~85,
1985~86 and 1986~87.

Finally, decent warm and settled summer weather has been lacking since
2006 as the summers since have all been mostly 'Atlantic' dominated.
With the exception of 2007, none of these summers have been especially
wet either.

G. Hurst. Guildford, Surrey.