THE WINTER OF 2005 -2006 IS GOING TO BE VERY COLD AND SNOWY LIKE 62/63 {if you are old enough to remember that}

[RTKMonherBROOMSTICK]

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THE WINTER OF 2005 -2006 IS GOING TO BE VERY COLD AND SNOWY LIKE 62/63 {if you are old enough to remember that}

Especially in the south and south east

So get your pipes lagged now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And get knitting

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Ooops! too late about the berries! Got distracted halfway through post.

lots of babies next Autumn too

Don't remember it myself, but know about it because February 63 was when Sylvia Plath killed herself-- the weather having played a large part in her depression!

Yikes.

Who was it that had their holly bush mangled last Xmas?

Snow like they had 62/63...please NO!
The village we live in is on the edge of Exmoor. In 62/63 the village was cut off for over a week and food parcels were dropped in by the RAF.
We have photographs of DH's grandfather standing in the snow and the tips of the hedges are just visible....the same hedges that are over 8ft high!!!

I better stock up on some cupboard essentials just in case!

Ah, but were they 8ft high then?!

Yippee! We live in London in a building with communal heating that was turned on 2 weeks ago. We have been boiling hot and if last winter is anything to go by, it doesn't get much better! We only felt comfortable last year when the weather got really really col. I for one am glad!

Well the rowan trees have been full of berries for weeks now. I don't think I have seen so many, and the old wives tale is that it means a harsh winter.

I don't know if I am looking forward to it or not. I do love snow but the thought of driving dst to nursery school each day isn't so pleasing. Perhaps I should look into getting that houseswap asap!

I'd love some decent snow this year but I'll wait and see!!

Btw Chicagomum, one thing I was always jealous of (especially after watching ER) was the amount of snow you guys seems to get! But I think the novelty would wear a little thin!

ER is filmed in Los Angeles but set in Chicago

The tube {L} is in LA too

as a film set

Yeah yeah smartypants but it snows all the time there!!

I've been led to believe by locals that do do indeed filmed in chicago with the el but the hospital used is actually nowhere near the center. The winters here are brutal several feet of snow and with the wind chill factor it gets as cold as -20. Quite a change from the summer which was in the 90's to 100 for most of it. Even now it is in the mid 70's.

Only like snow if I can stay indoors with a nice bottle of wine.

If I have to go out in it, it's bloody horrid!

Ooh chicagomum, brrrrr... okay. Maybe I'll just spent a week there one Christmas instead!

1947 was very bad - and NO - I wasn't born then!

ER piccys in Los Angeles

Have you all got sledges?

For you and children

Oh Chicagomum-i love your city.i don't think I'd like being that cold though

No sledges, we've nowhere to store them. Tough plastic sacks do quite well and it doesn't hurt so much when you come off them!

My dad once made me and my sister a sledge out of a tubular chrome coffee table. That thing was lethal! I'm surprised we didn't break our necks.

So was it cold all over or just in 'The North'.
Wherever I have benn in the country when the weather has been rubbish and snowy, I've usually missed it.
Shame! I love the snow

I remember 62/63. I can remember walking to school and sitting around the huge boiler type heater in the classroom, which, although working, had icicles hanging from it! I think I was one of only about 5 pupils who had managed to get there.

I also remember standing on a stool in front of the open door of our gas oven which was on full blast trying to get warm enough to get dressed. I'm sure Health & Safety would have something to say about that these days .

On another occasion I can remember finding sheets of corrugated iron which had been abandoned and using these as sledges. They were great but impossible to steer which meant that we ended up in gorse bushes more often than not.

DH is a climate scientist - he wandered through the met office web pages the other day to work out what the hype is about. He discovered the last time the same set of indicators were in place was ....... last year !

So much for long-range predictions.

However, given we haven't had a tough winter for a while it would not be surprising if we get an unusually cold one soon. The problem is we have forgotten how to deal with them.

Indicators scmindicators! I'm telling you, the squirrels know. Trust the squirrels. Switch your power suppliers, lag your pipes, locate your thermals, stock up your larders, hoard conkers. (That last one only if you're a squirrel, obviously).

Listen to what they're telling you, they're smart. They went mental in the Autumn of '62 and again ten years ago. Do what they do and get ready.

Do you think it's only some squirrels? We have loads of squirrels in our garden, but I haven't noticed much action recently - well, no more than usual.

Perhaps we have soft southern squirrels like Squirrel Nutkin. I seem to recall he was nutless when it mattered .

Well, no matter how much warning we get of a bad winter we still won't be prepared.

This counrty cannot cope with extremes of weather.

If it's hot we all flake out, with water shortages.
If it's cold we all freeze...actually everything frezzes.