"Brac" wrote in message
...
I was thinking just the same - we seem to have a two season climate now in
East Anglia, 3 months of summer and 9 months of Auuuutuuuuummmmmmmnnnnnnnn..

Looking at an old climate atlas, it shows the Jan isotherms going roughly
North-South (coldest in the east, warmest in the west) as opposed to the
summer isotherms which run East-West. Traditionally in terms of temperature,
0m here was the same as 150m where my parents live in Worcestershire, or
450m on Dartmoor.

However, with the extension of the Icelandic low eastwards, and the
associated death of the winter easterly and battleground snow, the Jan
isotherms have shifted East-West, and the Suffolk climate has become a drier
version of Devon and Cornwall (snowless and near frostless, with 0m here now
equivalent to 0m in Devon). We must have experienced larger changes in
temperature and snowfall here than anywhere else I guess.

As to why it has happened, I don't know for sure but I surmise that the
winter easterly can be thought of as a density-driven current pushing west
against the prevailing wind regime. Now there is less cold air in Siberia
and what there is is less dense, there is less force behind it, and the cold
air is unable to reach us. Indeed the "battleground" region the last few
years seems to have been near Moscow !!

I was in Copenhagen recently and the Danes were complaining about the lack
of snow and the "English weather"....
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Yes I agree. One can also say the same thing about northerlies. But we have
to be careful it could all be down to synoptics.

One thing about Dartmoor though, even in mild winters we get snow, not as
much as in normal winters but still some. 2 days snow falling here (at 300 m
asl) so far this month. We also get a lot of rain, easterlies would give us
much drier weather with snow flurries, that would be nice!

Will
--
" Some sects believe that the world was created 5000 years ago. Another sect
believes that it was created in 1910 "
http://www.lyneside.demon.co.uk/Hayt...antage_Pro.htm
Will Hand (Haytor, Devon, 1017 feet asl)
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