UK Winter preparedness & weather predictions 2013/14

[link to www.theaa.com]


Winter emergency kit

Blanket, rug or sleeping bag

Shovel

Bits of carpet or thick cardboard to place under driven wheels to help regain traction on ice or snow

Salt, sand or cat litter – to help clear snow and ice

Reflective jacket(s)

Ice scraper and de-icer

Torch and batteries

Tow rope

Snow chains (if you live in a remote or rural area)

Battery jump leads

Bottled water

Snacks – chocolate or cereal bars

Extra screen wash

Last Edited by Nanna-Ree on 08/24/2013 06:41 PM

(from another thread....)

this made me

hoping for snow, more snow, did I mention snow?


According to my electric bill received today, August this year in our area was

5 Degrees COOLER than last year!!! Way to go, Delmarva Peninsula!! Keep it up!


Not sure how to post link to my electric bill - I have resisted the push to abandon paper - but our electricity provider is

[link to www.delmarva.com]


somewhere on this website they may have the information about your billing period's temperature this year versus last year.

Its never to soon to start thinking about winter preping...especially if your on a bugget and know that there are things that you will need...by planning and starting sooner you wont be caught out last min by a sudden change in the weather...that the metoffice probably didnt forcast...

[link to www.theaa.com]

Check your car

Antifreeze – check coolant level regularly and, if required, top-up with a mixture of the correct type of antifreeze. Your garage should check concentration to ensure adequate cold temperature protection.

Battery – the most common cause of winter breakdowns. A battery more than five years old may struggle in the cold - get it checked and replaced if necessary to avoid the inconvenience of an unplanned failure.

Fuel – keep at least a quarter of a tank in case of unexpected delay.

Lights – check and clean all lights regularly to make sure you can see and be seen clearly. Carry spare bulbs.

Tyres – should have at least 3mm of tread for winter motoring. Consider winter tyres for improved safety. Check pressures at least every fortnight.

Windscreen – reduce dazzle from the low sun by keeping the screen clean inside and out. Now is a good time to renew worn wiper blades.

Screen wash – use a 50% mix of a good quality screen wash to reduce the chance of freezing in frosty weather.

Locks and door seals – stop doors freezing shut with a thin coat of polish or Vaseline on rubber door seals. A squirt of water dispersant (WD-40) in locks will help stop them freezing.

some random UK snow facts...

On 25 September 1895 snow was reported to have fallen at London and Wallington in Surrey making it the earliest fall of snow on the capital.

On 2 June 1975 snow showers forced the abandonment of several cricket matches across the country.

The snowiest winter of the twentieth century in the United Kingdom was 1947. Between 22 January and 17 March snow fell every day somewhere in the country.

"UK Winter preparedness"

A few yrs back I bought a Subaru Impreza 'wagon'.
Not a stupidly fast boy-racer jobbie - just a atraightforward normally aspirated 2 litre (it has higher ground clearance than the fast turbo models)

Best thing I've bought in decades.
Last couple of winters, cars all around me getting stuck, but I just happilly drove around them and went on my way.
Brilliant 4WD system, superb on snow and ice - and when the snow is gone, it drives (and looks) like a normal estate car, so I don't get '4X4 hatred' from the eco-mentalists.

there was a thread on here where some person was prophesising all sorts of random stuff, which I know is half of the GLP posts but this one caught my eye because for the UK specifically it forecast a death that would shock many followed by an extremely hard winter.

Drummer Rigby's death shocked many, and the signs in the UK currently from a weather perspective are of an extremely hard winter, so if we do get a hard winter then I'm hunting down that thread to see what else was said.

From a UK perspective, I reckon we'll see the hardest winter in decades, based purely on our weather now and how nothing is ripening.

i would be VERY interested in seeing that thread if you could find the link...very interesting...thank you

[link to www.netweather.tv]

September ..is currently expected to be a fairly benign one with plenty of settled weather on offer.... Overall temperatures are expecting to be close to or above average, with a generally drier than average month likely - abeit with some local exceptions possible...


October
..temperatures will fall away from the warmer than average months we've seen of late to be below average in many regions. Rainfall is again expected to be below normal levels for the majority...

November
..at this stage with a strong high pressure anomaly to the north of the UK being shown this would point toward a cooler/colder than average month with rainfall levels close to average in the south/to below average further north... the pattern for high pressure to the north of the UK (northern blocking) is something to watch...

A glance at Winter
..CFS2 model we use is currently giving an ongoing strong signal for northern blocking to be prominent this winter, meaning another cold winter season is a possibility..

Thanks OP! This reminds me that I need to hire a chimney sweeper soon.

I know its only August but as i have already said, the sooner you plan (esp when times are hard and money is short) the less chance of being caught out...

eg, nothing angers me more than dropping the kids off at school and seeing children that either dont have a coat or only have a thin summer coat still...and the weather has turned cold and their parents havent prepared for it and got a winter coat yet...and u can see they are cold...ok its another expense when u have uniform to by this time of year...but what about next payday(end of sept)...ur have had a months break after they go back to school, but its not yet turned too cold...and ur not yet into christmas pressy mode so why not get ready so that ur child is sorted....or maybe thats just me?

(rant over..sorry)

i know many of you will have heard all these tips and hints on how to prep already, many of you will think its common sense...but this is as much for the newbies who this is all new too...as much as it is a reminder to the rest of us...we all know how quickly time flies and one min its summer the next its all changed and winter is knocking at the door and we have been caught out....

so i hope no one minds but i am going to keep adding to this as and when i think of thinks
as well as weather updates and and predictions along the way too

It wil be the opposite of what the met office says.

It's stil to early to tell, to many factors involved

oh i dont put alot into what the met office say...they r a bunch of prats lol

hi there,your comment perked my interest! I just love subarus,their the only car to drive confidently in the snow.where did you buy yours from? My husband and son are known on the net as ScoobyKing....have you heard of us lol?

Just get yer winter woollies on and stop whinin'

No doubt about it - this year's temperatures are going to reach a record low! I don't read 'experts' - I look at the nature around me. Every year I've been right. Last year I couldn't pick a single blackberry, there just weren't any, and the rowan trees were bare. This meant an unusually mild winter, which it was. But this year! There are enough blackberries to open a fruit factory, and the rowan boughs are bent with the weight of berries. Means a damned big chill.

As we have seen here many times over the decades, the UK Winter weather is partly a reflection of the previous summer.

This summer has been long and very hot, especially here in the south-east of England, so I predict a generally mild winter.

And I bet I'm right.

bump to keep this thread going. I do not know what our winter will be like.

Further to this, the 2009-2010 UK winter, when we had record breaking cold and snow, the previous summer had been cold, cloudy and wet.

The following year, again the summer was trash and we had a cold snowy winter, infact the entire month of November was below zero here (-0c).

I watch from time to time, the Accuweather forecasts, which are generally quite good and they are not predicting anything to "shout home about", so to speak.

Last winter 2012, was nothing compared to the previous two (2009/10 and 2010/11). So I guess we are going back to the mild winters and hot summers.

For a few years at least.

Well , I've bought my son a thick Winter coat , checked his wellies/snow boots still fit , he is Home Educated so no early morning school runs for us , but we have a dog that we walk whatever the weather - last year its was freezing and snow on the ground here , we were out as my crazy 10 year old loves sliding around on icy frozen puddles , poor little Shih Tzu spent half the Winter with icicles hanging off her belly......
Best thing to do is be prepared , I always stock the freezer this time of year , a little extra each week ready for the bad weather , although it doesn't get THAT bad here in the South East , but at least if we do end up with excessive snow/ice , I m sorted......

I totally agree with ur theory...and yes, i had noticed that amount of berries compared to last year is much bigger

I just hope its not like last winter...we had the most awful floods last November...in the 15+ years iv lived in the town iv never seen anything like it.....and that was after the local countryside/farmland had spent from may-sept under water that year too...didnt do a great deal for the local economy

up untill that happened i too had related a cold wet crappy summer to mean a cold icy winter...but last year throw a spanner in that idea so not sure anymore

Last Edited by Nanna-Ree on 08/25/2013 10:33 AM

2 years ago we had a bumper crop of berries and nuts and they all said that meant a freezing winter. In fact it was one of the mildest ever. Coming after one of the coldest. Nature cannot predict months in advance, only hours.

Thread: UK to experience hard winter 2014

great thread, join with his one if i may, and look at the Essex floods today.

this year will be colder than last year, and next year will be colder again

ice ages creep up on you

Final Autumn 2013 Forecast - [link to www.youtube.com] - Gavin Partridge - [link to www.gavsweathervids.com] ...will be interesting to look back and see how he did...

Already had the chimney swept ahead of time. The sweep said he's been inundated with calls from people to book a sweeping which is unusual for August.

Going to get the cavity wall insulation done before winter sets in. Last winter was long and bitter. Really ate away at me.