On Monday, December 14, 2015 at 1:21:58 PM UTC, Lawrence Jenkins wrote:
On Monday, 14 December 2015 12:36:57 UTC, David Mitchell wrote:
Following up on my previous thread, we have now completed the purchase of our property in France, located close to Viam, within the Millevaches National Park, in the department of Correze at an altitude of 740 m.

I said I would do some occasional updates to give an indication of the weather over there, so here we go.

We were there from Thursday to Saturday to complete the purchase and at first it was a little dull and cool. Since Saturday it's been virtually cloudless. We arrived at the property Saturday morning from Limoges through some fairly spectacular fog in the valleys and a white frost at the property.. At noon we were sat in the sun outside, really feeling the heat from the sun, with the local station reporting 5c.

This month has been very dry, with the 2 nearest stations recording 3.8 and 4.4 mm respectively. The nearest to us is 5 miles to the South West (Perols-sur-Vezere) and the mean max this month is running at 9.4, while the mean min is -1.8. Yes, minus and about average for December. 9 air frosts to date with a min of -7.9c. (Wait and see what they drop to if a cold spell arrives!). The station 12.5 miles to the SSW (St Yrieix de Dejalat) has similar day max, but the min is +1.9 and only two air frosts. Both are about 750m.

I am a little confused by the vast differences in the night mins, but they are well represented on the temp profile maps, http://www.infoclimat.fr/cartes/obse...7/46.544/3.439

The Eastern side of the Millevaches seems to attract the lower temperatures, while the station at St Yrieix de Dejalat appears to be more open to drift from the plains of Southern Correze. But generally in the area there are some vast temperature differences, particularly at night, which are going to test my understanding of the weather, which is pretty much minimal at best.

The area seems to experience regular inversions. A couple of weeks ago the mountains of Auvergne about an hour's drive to the South West, were reporting max's of 17/18c, RH 2% and DP's of -40c and lower. In the strong sun there was very little snow melt apparently.

The ski resorts in the Auvergne were planning to have opened by now, there were some decent snowfalls at the end of November and early December, but the mild temperatures have hit it hard and the snow cover is pretty patchy and the forecast is not looking good.

The Millevaches experienced a light snowfall at the end of November, which hung around for a few days, but not much prospect of snow here either.

Otherwise, not a lot happening over there currently. The locals seem very happy with the dry, warm and at times, quite sunny weather.





Big step David, but on google maps the area looks idyllic. Can I ask if this is part of retirement?

In theory Lawrence. Definitely for quality of life, it is idyllic, but I can see the prospects of developing a few ideas, but nothing too strenuous!