"Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote in message
.. .
Sorry to start a new thread, but I can't find the old one. I'm
surprised so many people seem to think major blocking episodes
in October are unusual. I suppose it depends what you mean
by unusual: if simply "not usual" I suppose I might be persuaded
to agree, but if you mean "rare" then I demur.

From the gliding point of view, this autumn has been very poor for mountain
wave flying in England and Wales for the simple reason that the "normal"
westerlies have been very scarce.

At the end of the thermal season, a lot of flatland pilots visit gliding
sites in to the east of major high ground such as Sutton Bank N.Yorks - (I
had planned a visit there myself) - or Long Mynd on the English/Welsh
border. But this autumn, you can count on one hand the wave days. There
have simply been very few westerly winds.

Scotland has fared slightly better with some southerly wave to the north of
the main mountains (eg Moray Coast, Cairngorm area), for example last week
when the anticyclone was over Scandinavia

Jack