Yeah I see it now on the GD page. But most of the time I just look at my User CP so that's why I didn't see it. The "Important Forum Announcement" only got 20,000 reads though and the "Forum Upgrade - Update" got less than 5000 reads so out of the 600,000 users on here not many must have known about the change.

Excited about the changes though. About time it got updated. No doubt some will moan about it though. Maybe that will include a visual refresh as well maybe? And the forum search definitely needs fixing.

I think most of the regulars will have read it. With regard to that 600,000 you refer to, if you ever looked through the list of users based on post count, which you used to be able to do, you'd have seen that more than half only ever posted one or two times, or many, none at all.


It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. I'm certainly looking forward to the search function being fixed, and am wondering if the poll option will still be available, as currently, it's vanished.

Im surprised that so many people sign up to a site only to ever post one or two things and never return. Really hope they don't get rid of the poll option as I've done some great polls over the two years I've been on here.

Latest GFS op. run has an interesting take on Christmas Day. There's a 955Mb low crossing the outer Hebrides and northern isles with force 11 storm force winds up the Irish sea and heading east!

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/de/topk...id=OP&h=0&tr=3

Of course, it will change but these medium or long range charts are fun to watch, sometimes.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Today's air quality map is looking fine over the UK - https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/forecasting/

What the heck is going on around Paris to soar the index to a max 10 today though?

I always enjoy a good fog and love biking through them and the silence they create. Think of fog as "ground clouds" and be thankful it's not pre-1956 before the clean air act came into effect after the killer smog of December 1952.

Have just checked my stats for yesterday (ending midnight) and the mean wind speed was a record low for here, 0.1 mph! There were several long periods of flat calm and my highest gust was another record low for the site, 4 mph! I only have 3 years of wind data here though.

No thick fog, just misty at times overnight... we are slightly elevated so thick fog isn't that common.

Yet, according to prospects in your post earlier today for Christmas Day itself, anyone with outside festive lights and decorations north of Birmingham can expect to have them blown asunder for the big day.

Well a lot can happen in a week!

Yes, hopefully everything will be ok for travelling by train this coming Friday 23rd December as I'm away for the Christmas and New Year period travelling from North East England to the West Midlands.
Ian.

down to the breeze and sun id have thought more then a definitive number.

i was roasting yesterday, out in the fields, sun on me, no breeze.. the actual temp was in many ways immaterial. you can be a lot warmer or feeling warm in 1c with sun/calm then you can in 8c but cloudy, wet and windy.


unsettled is the theme from midweek onwards, average temps but after crimbo it might get milder again...but unsettled with no proper cold.

No wonder that's where all these newspapers such as the DE get all the crazy stupid weather predictions from. They'll see something like that and blow it out of all proportion.




Something like this....


XMAS BLAST - STORM FORCE WINDS TO BATTER UK ON CHRISTMAS DAY IN WORST STORM OF THE CENTURY

Published by Nathan Rao, Sun 11:27, 18th Dec 2016


We will all be getting an extra surprise this Christmas Day. It's a present from the Irish Sea just in time for Christmas... A deep area of low pressure named "Storm Barbara" is forecast to cross the Outer Hebrides and Northern Iles on the festive day with FORCE 11 STORM FORCE winds heading South East straight for Scotland and Northern England.

It is forecast to be one of the worst storms this century, possibly on par with or even worse than the disaster of 1988 in which 18 people died. The pressure in the eye of the storm could be as low as 955mb, almost as low as the pressure in the English Channel during the Great Storm of 1988.


The forecast this time comes from our weather expert "d'@ve" on the Digital Spy Forums website. He was very observant in spotting a 955mb depression on the GFS Weather charts heading our way that even the Met Office have failed to spot.




While it will likely not turn out as bad as what is forecast (as most of our weather predictions are complete shite) we cannot forget the famous line BBC Weather Forecaster Michael Fish said before the storm...

"Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way... well, if you’re watching, don’t worry, there isn’t!"

"Having said that, actually, the weather will become very windy, but most of the strong winds, incidentally, will be down over Spain and across into France."


That evening saw the UK battered by the Great Storm of 1987, in which 18 people died in winds of up to 122mph.

Around 15 million trees were blown over, blocking roads and toppling on to cars and buildings, and thousands of homes were left without power. The damage bill for the UK was estimated at £2 billion.



So if you are fed up with our crazy weather predictions not coming true by now, by all means do absolutely nothing about it do whatever you want - Visit your relatives, relax with friends, cook a turkey, eat mince pies, whatever.

Just don't blame us when your house collapses on top of you and all you have left is a copy of The Daily Express to read with the headline "We told you So".


Goodnight.

Great storm of 1988 - that's left me scratching my head a bit. There was a gale in the North on 9th February that year, but nothing exceptional.

Lol I meant 1987! Even newspaper journalists make mistakes sometimes, especially ones that are called "Nathan" and work for the DE.

"Storm Barbara"? - already named I see

GFS operational run persists this morning with its 950 Mb storm centre crossing the Hebrides on Christmas Day, though only force 9-10 over the Irish Sea; the 11 is reserved for further north.

The other models have it north of Scotland though so not as nasty for us, though all have it windy. I'd imagine that the GFS has overegged the Christmas pudding and it will calm down a bit as we get closer, and confidence is not high after Friday, so we shall see.

Quick! Lets tell the DE and Nathan Rao about this!! They'll be wetting their pants with excitement!

And not about the white stuff this time....

Nope, we've had two storms this Autumn so far in quick succession, Storm Angus and then an unnamed Storm the day after.

Yup, it's official, the GFS 500hpa GPDM chart confirms it. Better board up the windows and put the Xmas Presents in the Cellar...
http://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twodata/datmdlout.aspx


There are two possible storms that could hit us, the first is currently forecast to pass over the north of us and has a low of 965mb at it's centre.

You can see it start to form to the west of us at 111 hours ahead, then with a low of 1000mb, before it gathers strength as it gets closer to us before reaching it's peak at 141 hours ahead at 965mb.


The second storm that is more likely to hit us (the one I think d@ve is talking about) will also form to the West of us - from the Eastern US - and will start to form at about the same time the other storm has reached it's peak - about 135-147 hours ahead. This Atlantic Depression will again deepen as it comes towards us and start to batter the far north of Scotland overnight on Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day, and with Stornoway looking to be the worst affected right in the eye of the storm with the 960mb low. Further South in Scotland might get a 975-980mb storm.

The good news is though that Southern England will likely get a minimum pressure reading of around 1000mb so it will likely just be typical Christmas Atlantic weather down there for them.

The weather is also likely to stay mostly Atlantic-driven after that, with a west to south-westerly flow most of the time, and there are other nasty looking storms out there that could hit us at ANY time including a very large nasty-looking 940mb low around Greenland at 264 hours ahead that looks like It could possible hit us. In contrast there could be a 1050mb high over Scandinavia at 360 hours ahead.

Just looking at the GFS charts at the moment it really is like a huge battleground out there between the "good" high pressure to the South and East of us and the "deadly" low pressure to the North and West and we're right in the middle of it all. It's a bit scary seeing just how exposed we are to the Atlantic, with only Ireland bravely protecting us. It's just down to chance whether you get hit or not.. Enough to give you nightmares just looking at it whenever you see lots of white circles tightly together with dark blue or pink in the middle heading towards us...

A bit like this: http://www.theweatheroutlook.com/two...500.png?cb=846

Eek!

What are you on about? "nope". That makes zero sense. Your own quote says "Barbara".

What are you on about?? You make zero sense. We've had Storm Angus so far but we haven't had a Storm Barbara. So that will be next in line should we get another Storm this Winter. Which we probably will.

Yet another GFS operational run (12 noon) has a Low <950Mb crossing the outer Hebrides on Christmas Day with a swathe of storm F 10 to hurricane F 12 winds over the northern Irish sea and off N. Ireland. Met Office will be watching this one closely already as it's been repeated in too many runs now to be ignored. The other models are yet to confirm its intensity though as they still have the low centre passing further north.

Both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are looking to be unsettled now, breezy on the 24th and windy on the 25th. No doubt with a fair bit of rain at times, too.

Yup, its official, Storm Barbara will hit the UK over the festive period bringing strong winds and heavy rain for most with snow possible over higher ground and in northern areas.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=st...spv=1&ie=UTF-8


http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/late...-chaos-Britain




http://www.express.co.uk/news/weathe...ter-superstorm




https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/242654...fog-take-hold/

Your answer was nonsensical. I made a statement about Storm Barbara being named and you said "nope" - a negative, it hadn't been named at all. Then you agree yes, it has been named.

It would have been logical to say "yes" not "nope". Be clear otherwise people won't klnow what the heck you mean.

Nothing is official, the really bad storm in the north is currently only being predicted by the GFS computer model - albeit consistently for the last two days. All the other main models have the main low centre well north of Scotland, with consequently lower wind speeds (though still very windy in many places, but not a major storm). It is also possible that we will get a double whammy - one storm on Christmas Eve and another on Christmas Day but we shall see.

Having said that, the latest 18Z GFS sticks to its guns, having a belt of hurricane force 12 winds over the northern Irish Sea and one wind arrow shows force 13 just off the Isle of Man north coast, so still, one to watch. But "the big one" is no more than a possibility at this early stage.