So far this winter, we have already had a substantial amount of snow in some areas during October. After the past few warm days, the BBC’s Countryfile forecast (starts at 47mins via the Iplayer) are predicting drastic changes to the weather starting on Friday.

The Iso-bars swing round to the north and basically make a perfectly straight line straight down from the arctic circle drawing in bitterly cold air from the north, and because the iso bars are so straight and close together, the winds will be strong. Its at this point the weatherman mentioned blizzards driven by “viking winds” covering most parts of Scotland andrightdown the East cost of England with temperatures predicted to be around +2C, which I’m sure you will agree is rather cold! Taking into account the windchill factor then its definetly a day to be putting on the long johns and thermal underwear!

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Its hard to forecast snow, but sometimes nature can give us some clues as to whats around the corner.

For example the early, arrival of large flocks of Waxwings (in the 100s) and the Feildfairs (in the 1000s) can signify theonset of a colder winter, since they have come from Scandinavia where it is usually colder than it is in the UK. It’s not just a local way of thought about the arrival of the Waxwing to these parts, just have a look at the BBC’s post from 2003, when london endured the worst snow fall during that winter for 12 years. That year the winter was preceeded by an influx of these scandinavian birds which retreat to these parts to avoid the bitterly cold winters in the more notherly regions.

Also, earlier on in the autumn stags were starting the rut, which is also seen as a sign an early onset to winter.

With this in mind and my previous posts about the UK generally being cooler this year it adds weight to my predictions for a more snowy, cooler, and possibly more arctic winter than has been seen recently.

If you get tired of never seeing any snow, then there are places not too far away where you will get pretty much garuanteed snow after christmas, just check out this example of swedish snow fall, this took only a few hours to accumulate!

After last night’s low of -5Celcius, freezing fog formed and lingered around for a good part of the morning, especially in dips and valleys wehre the sun hadn’t quite reached.

First of all, you may be thinking what is the difference between mist and fog? Well they are both made up from water droplets, the main difference being that fog is much denser than mist, and hence has worse effect on visibility when its bad.

Freezing fog, is where the water droplets cool below freezing point, but don’t freeze. Don’t ask me how this is possible, thats just what happens! A noteable effect of freezing fog are the ice formations it leaves behind on surfaces like windscreens and lamposts. This distinctive ice formation is called “rime” and looks quite streaky and rough to touch leaving almost “feather like” patterns.

The photo was taken beneath the Whitecard viaduct in Glagsow. As you can see there is remarkably reduced visibilty beyond about 300 metres. This was taken at 9am and the fog lingered around until about lunch time.

Other types of fog you get are Advection, Radiation Fog. I will explain these one soon.