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COLDEST IN MY LIFETIME
As days grow longer, the Cold grows bolder…
From Dec 19 to Jan 3, it’s been nonestop, question is when will it stop?
We’re sitting at 22 degrees as of 9am after a low of 21 at 8.45am. Glasgow is at 25 degrees. This cold wave is growing long and I know people are becoming tired of it, hang in there, ok?. This is now surpassing anything I can remember in my 26 year lifetime and we still have plenty more winter left, in fact there is still another nearly 3 months of winter left. My statement of snow cover remaining on the ground until February may hold true, that would be unprecidented stuff for sure. The air mass over us now appears to be growing stronger as northerly wnds are pulling down reinforcing waves of Arctic air out of Scandinavia, all we can do is stay warm and venture outside with extreme care. Pavements and roads are like skating rinks, you don’t need me to tell you that I know.
According to the BBC Weather Center’s latest forecast the lows at night for Glasgow won’t be any warmer than 21 degrees, two nights (Mon and Thurs) are down to 18 degrees. I am calling for every night with the possibility of falling into the teens here. Outlying areas of cities and towns may see some of their coldest nights of the season this upcoming workweek and those numbers are quite cold. The snow and ice packed hard into the streets and snow covering the fields is helping release heat at night back to space. I would have garenteed if it weren’t for wind last night our low would have dropped into the mid-teens here…
This is a cold period but we will get there, summer won’t be long round the corner and believe it or not, days are growing longer so even to keep spirits up whilst we ALL trudge through snow and frozen slush, we have days growing longer and nights growing shorter…
Why have we been so chilly? Blame a nice warm pool (High Pressure) centering itself over Greenland, like a rock in a stream, the cold air from the pole has simply dropped south as this High pushes north into Greenland. The warm air driving north, pushes the colder air south. We here in the United Kingdom and across the eastern US from the Plains to East Coast are enduring winter because the blocking high over Greenland is forcing colder air south over us…
What’s making this winter different to anything seen in likely the past 20 to 30 year period is that the stage in the oceanic cycles of the Pacific and Atlantic. Cold Pacific, lookwarm Atlantic combined with the perfect cold air attraction to here, the El Nino and what I believe could be one of the biggest factors is the Near record low solar cycle.
The solar cycle which goes up and down and when factoring in the fact that during quiet times on the sun, our planet cools, is telling me that because this is one of the quietest times on the sun since the 1800s, I can’t help but believe this has a lot to do with this winter we’re having.
What about the future? Well this winter in my opinion is just the beginning to a long line of “tougher” winters and as an actual fact, this may be just a harbringer of things to come. Some scientists are telling us they believe a mini ice age may occur in the next 30 years. Across a large portion of the scientific community that agree our planet’s warming the past 30 years is natural are also agreeing that we are already turning and that over the next 30 year period our earth will be a much colder one.. Ironic with winter 09-10? The fact that the majority of the Northern Hemisphere is colder than normal and when all is said and done, January may be one of the coldest since the last cold cycle ending around 1979 tells me a lot about the potential situation we’re heading into.
I strongly believe our winters as well as the US and across the world will become severe once again like endured back in the 60s and 70s as well as possibly those winters back in the 1800s, now those winters would reshape our lives of those kind’s of winters return. This winter is just a “taster” to what we may see in the not so distant future.
Many countries including Great Britain may have brand new all-time record lows set and winters never seen in the last 100 years…
Thanks for reading.
-Mark
>I have a hunch that Fife Council has run out of salt/grit. Despite heavy snowfalls yesterday, I have not seen a gritter out. The roads remain slushy here in Kirkcaldy. Buses are running though. It has been said that people were abandoning their cars in the likes of Dunfermline and Glenrothes last night. There were a few hairy moments as I tackled the roads between Kennoway, Leven and Kirkcaldy during heavy snow showers, all of which were white with snow. I had several skids, problems climbing a hill in Kirkcaldy and problems having any kind of control over my car in a street in Kennoway, which has uneven ice under the coating of snow. THis meant I could not drive in a straight line, but more like in a zig-zag fashion with parked cars either side. My car tyres offered almost zero grip at times. For the first time in my life, I became stuck on an ice covered brae outside my Fathers house. Problems are usually due to snow on the brae and not simply black ice. More snowy weather is forecast for the Kingdom this week.