Weather Blog

More normal patterns to the North and East.

One feature that has been obvious in this apparent warming world of ours has been the milder winters here in Wales - and also in Northern Latitudes in general. As an avid watcher of weather web cams it was with disbelief I watched last year as a whole winter of well above average temperatures in Russia and Scandinavia were observed. There have been a run of recent winters in Russia that have been much warmer than the norm. Cause for concern although weather patterns rather than global warming seems to have been the cause.

One essential ingredient for snow lovers here in the UK is for these far distance shores to cool off substantially. No good having a wind all the way from Siberia if the air is not cold enough to provide us with enough cool to give snow lovers the snow they desire.

Cold lovers will be pleased to hear this year there has been an astonishing u-turn in weather patterns with the cold now well established in places that were last year - at least temperature wise - well above normal for time of year. Arctic sea areas have been freezing well after record ice loss reported during the last summer, and has more than made up for the losses with ice in most places being the same - or above last years level. Rovaniemi's Sillat river is now frozen and unlike last year when the snowman in Rovaniemi's Lordi's square had to be constantly patched up due to the warm temperatures, everything remains frozen. Good news indeed for those jetting off to Lapland with the children to visit Father Christmas. Svalbard in Norway's Arctic circle is much colder than last year and most parts of Northern Norway have had good snow cover. St Petersburg, Russia is well below zero as I write and the canals frozen - and Kemerovo, Russia is deep in snow.

Alaska is in the deep freeze and is in general much colder than during the same period last year. As I have mentioned in previous blogs weather patterns have this year been much different than for some while - so don't be deceived if the first half of December in the UK are more Atlantic driven and warmer. The winds and heavy rain of the last few days, and of the coming week to ten days, were to expected with a rapidly cooling Canada and Northern America. With temperatures as low as -20C in some places leaving these shores and heading towards the UK over a warm sea, a simplistic explanation is that moisture is picked up as the air moves over a warm ocean, depressions form, and the huge temperature differences between the north and us make for violent winds. The reason being that air will always try to equalise Of course the air is much warmer when it arrives into the UK. It is fact the UK at the latitude we live is a battle ground between the cold arctic air and warmer tropical air.

One things is becoming all the more certain this winter - and that is for there to be periods when the cold air will win - and for snow lovers to rejoice. But will the snow arrive in time for Christmas? Look out for my next blog when I will try to give an indication of the chances on Christmas snow.

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