Is it going to be a really cold Winter?

[Flighttattendant]

It's been such an early Autumn, or so it feels...and is already really cold at night here.

I heard something about the Gulf Stream a while back - could anyone explain this to me and how it might affect us this Winter?

Or is it already doing so?

[Flighttattendant]

Spoilsport!

No it is definitely much colder here. Honest.

[whomovedmychocolate]

It's minus 2 here (Oxfordshire) and you can really feel the chill in the air. Especially as it was in the 20s yesterday. Will have to go harvest the green tomatoes and make chutney today as well because they will be frost bitten otherwise. :(

I think we will have a very cold winter actually but it won't hit till February really - when it will snow for eight days (stock up now)

[Flighttattendant]

Thanks WMMC

That's more like it

I love your garden btw, from the video you linked yesterday! And you are very pretty and sensible.

[whomovedmychocolate]

Indeed it was Riven and thank you. Did you not realise that was me you were chatting to on FB?

I am not sensible Flight - but I do hate paying £2K a year for oil.

[whomovedmychocolate]

It has a hatch at the bottom. The lid is unhelpful because creatures always get in but can't get out. Also because of the depth of it, the heat stays in - you can see it gently steaming away in the morning and if you stand next to it, you can actually feel the heat through the wood.

[ilovemydogandMrObama]

I've just turned the heating on.

[Rockbird]

Our heating went on yesterday briefly to take the edge off. I set it to come on if the temp dips below 12 indoors! Am in Surrey not Antarctica and there's a definite nip in the air now.

[mankyscotslass]

I think it's going to be another bad winter....no real reason or foreknowledge though! Just a feeling, plus the berries are plentiful again. Or is that an old wives tale?

I have been stocking up on cheap salt for the paths just in case.

A friend of mine said the long term forecast for Christmas looks cold, but they are not exactly accurate!

Where is OYBBK? What do you think?

[Rockbird]

What's the fur on the cat like? That's another indicator isn't it?

[whomovedmychocolate]

Thick fur on the wellymonster cat here.

[ilovemydogandMrObama]

In this crime ridden part of town

[amistillsexy]

I've just looked out and there's frost on the roof tops here!! I was freezing yesterday evening during Corriefest, so had DH make me 2 hot water bottles and wrapped myself in a blanket.
Mind you, I've been doing that throughout the summer, so...

[QuintessentialShadows]

wow, it is 5 degrees up here (coldest day so far), we have had 16 degrees and sunshine most of September, which is unusual, as it is normally colder. Today it is raining, and we have the first snow in the mountains.

However, I read an article about the effects of the weather following a vulcanic eruption. Apparently it will be overall cooler, but winters milder than usual, and more wet? (ie, not so much snow, more rain) We had a really cold summer btw. Much colder than the norm. It was the coldest july since they started tracking temperatures.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

last winter and through much of the year we had a negative noa I'm not sure if the pattern is going to hold. If it does then we may well be in for another cold winter - but as cold? I'm not sure.
At the moment it looks like many of us are in for a typically autumnal October with wet and windy weather.

[QuintessentialShadows]

in the Uk maybe, Riven, but not across the arctic.... Which means 16 degrees and sunshine is classified as "indian summer" up here!
The weather and the temperatures are just off, and doing strange things.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

The iceland eruption really wasnt enough to affect our weather patterns at all Quint. However if Katla went...

Riven - perhaps you read about average global temps while Quint is talking about locally?

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Quint - that is cos of the negative noa I was talking about. It is pretty much an unprecedented pattern.

[QuintessentialShadows]

Kitten, probably not globally. But the dust in the atmosphere above us are somehow filtering the sunshine making it less warm, whereas the same dust will be a having an insulating effect in winter, making it warmer and we will have more rain than snow. Apparently. Bear in mind we are on nearly 70 degrees north, and in summer we may have 25 degrees, and minus 17 is not uncommon in winter, From December to March it is rarely warmer than minus 5.