Brrrr!!

It has been a bit chilly today to say the least, and this map from the Met Office shows that there are warnings of severe cold weather in place across much of the country.

The cause of the cold weather is the high pressure system that is currently sitting over northern Russia...





The Year 8 geographers have been looking at air pressure and how it affects the weather, so they should be able to tell you all about what's happening at the moment.


However cold we might think it is here though, we come off pretty lightly... Temperatures in eastern Europe have reached -32oC in places, Hungary is experiencing the lowest temperatures it's seen in 65 years, and more than 70 people have died as a result of the cold temperatures.

There is a fantastic set of photos here of the coast of Romania, where the Black Sea is frozen!!

Weather....

Not the greatest of weather for this time of year at the moment, but what is quite great is this new Met Office/Google Maps mashup...

The "Weather Visualisation" is part of Invent, which is the Met Office's showcase of some of their plans for new ways to present weather information and forecasts, and allows you to turn a variety of layers (the one above shows the rainfall forecast for 10.00am today) on and off, and also to view forecast and weather warning information for specific regions.

Thanks to Ollie Bray for the tipoff.

Should the Met Office be sued?

Yes, according to the author of this article from The Times. Earlier this year, the Met Office announced that we were in for a "barbecue summer"... But there has not been much evidence of that so far - in fact, it's been quite the opposite!

The Met Office revised their forecast earlier this week, claiming that they had only said that there was a 65% chance of a hot summer, and that the media had mis-reported the seasonal forecast. Here is their response to the recent criticism they've received...

Nice article here, with some excellent photos.... Kayaking round a campsite anyone?

Twitter Snow Map

I mentioned the other day about Twitter and the UK snow map, and also about the arrival of Google Earth 5. The two have been rather neatly combined to produce this nice animation:



And there's more snow on the way, according to the Met Office... (Although still actually rather sunny outside at the moment here.)

Cold...

You will probably have noticed that it's been a bit chilly of late... Some pictures I took last week at Scar House in Nidderdale:

And it's been pretty cold in Paris too, judging by these fab pictures courtesy of my sister who lives there:

However... the "Arctic blast" has casued huge disruption across Europe, and the cold has been blamed for the deaths of at least twelve people...

The decision by Russia to shut down gas supplies via the Ukraine has affected fifteen countries and left hundreds of thousands of homes without heating.

Closer to home, cold weather payments, issued when temperatures fall to 0oC for seven consecutive days, have caused controversy...

The Big Freeze Round-Up from the Met Office is a good summary of the weather of the first fortnight of 2009 - which is predicted to be one of the five warmest years on record!

Storm Surge Warnings

It's probably a good thing this evening that we are almost as far away from the coast as is possible... This is what the Environment Agency's Flood Warning website looks like at the moment:

There are currently 6 "severe flood warnings" in place in Norfolk and Suffolk, with threats of "extreme danger to life and property", as well as 9 "flood warnings" and 24 "flood watches" along the east coast of England, and the Thames Barrier will be closed later this evening.

The reason for all this, according to the Met Office, is a combination of north-westerly winds exceeding 50mph, low pressure and high tides. Tide levels are predicted to be almost 3 metres higher than normal tide levels - something that happens, on average, once every 20 years.

More from the BBC here.

Anyone for Alton Towers?

Looking at the weather forecast, it seems that Yr9 will be in the best place as far as trips are concerned tomorrow... Severe weather warnings have been issued (again!) for the whole of England and Wales - looks like Alton Towers and Drayton Manor will be fun!!

Year 10 should be able to look at the pressure chart below and explain why they are getting wet, whilst Year 9 are inside ski-ing and snowboarding!

Click on the picture to link to the Met Office website to find out more... And don't forget to let us know what the weather is like where you are!

I don't think I want to go camping....

Just checked the Met Office website, in the hope that it would tell me that the rain was going to stop before the D of E weekend away... But instead...

What's it like where you are??

Happy camping??

The D of E group are off for their assessed expedition this weekend... After our last couple of lessons, Year 10 can hopefully predict from the pressure chart below whether it'll be my waterproofs or my suncream that I'll need!


Click on the chart to go to the Met Office website for more clues...

Wet Weather!

As you might possibly have noticed, there's been a fair bit of rain in the past couple of days! The map shows the regions where severe weather warnings have been issued by the Met Office. Click on the map to link to the Met Office website to find out more - Year 10 should be able to explain the causes of the miserable weather!

7RPr should be able to use what they learnt this morning to predict what the effects of the heavy rain might be... Check out the BBC News site for more...

There are also very severe floods elsewhere in the world including China and Australia... Let us know if you find any good coverage, photos, etc.

A Rather Blustery Day...

It sounds like it is a bit wild and windy outside...

Year 11 (and others!) should be able to explain why - look at the satellite image below to help you out!

If you click on the satellite image, it will take you to the Met Office website, where you will be able to look at other satellite images and pressure charts, as well as a wide variety of other weather-related bits and pieces!

The Ten o' Clock News does Climate Change...

Just seen on the Ten O'Clock News that they have linked up with the Met Office to monitor climate change over the coming year and see whether predictions that 2007 will be the warmest year ever are true...

They will be taking measurements and lots of photographs from the pagoda at Kew's Royal Botanic Gardens...

Wild and Windy Weather!

Violent storms - with winds of upto 80mph - have caused chaos across Britain today (in case you hadn't noticed!).

The red areas on the map show where severe weather warnings were issued by the Met Office. Click on the map to visit their website, where you can check out the latest forecast together with satellite images and pressure charts.

Whilst my hour-long journey home and collapsed garden fence are annoying and inconvenient, I was very lucky compared to many people.

According to the BBC, at least 7 people have been killed, and others injured. Thousands of people have been left without power, ports have been closed and roads blocked -
resulting in traffic chaos. The picture above will take you to the main story on the BBC website, where you can also find other photos and news clips of the weather.

And it's not going to get much better next week, it seems... According to Sian Lloyd, temperatures on Monday will be "bone-bitingly cold"... And we might even see some snow!