Harsh Winter Ahead?

[Cheryl]

I read in the press the other day that the met office are predicting a warm winter this year - after their "barbecue summer" predictions earlier this year I did wonder about immediately putting in an order for thermals

There seems to have been masses of berries this year: rowan, sloes, hawthorn, pyracantha and I've always thought that that was an indication of a harsh winter ahead - or is that just an old wives tale?

[Kayleigh]

I think there were lots of berries last year and it wasn't that bad so I will wait and see what happens..

[eeyore]

well its flipping cold out on the downs tonight and i passed a gritter on my way way home so quite possibly

and last year we had over two foot of snow here so that qualifies as a hard winter in my book

[Geoff F]

The theory was that berries fatten up the birds ready to face the winter. So a lot of berries was just nature 'forward planning' to get the birds really fat to face a bad winter.

Nothing logical there.

Last winter we had the worst snow for several years here, in the deep south - nearly 5 mm one day, and it laid for several hours!

[david156]

Originally Posted by Cheryl

I read in the press the other day that the met office are predicting a warm winter this year - after their "barbecue summer" predictions earlier this year I did wonder about immediately putting in an order for thermals

There seems to have been masses of berries this year: rowan, sloes, hawthorn, pyracantha and I've always thought that that was an indication of a harsh winter ahead - or is that just an old wives tale?

I always thought that you got a good amount of berries if you had ideal conditions in the spring and summer before and berries are only the atractive casing for the seed within.
Good conditons early=loads of berries=loads of new plants when eaten and digested. Not forward planing by nature, just nature being clever as usual.
See. thats why its mother nature. only a woman could be that organised!

[ron1863]

I take no notice of the forecasters - we were forecast a long hot summer, it lasted for two days. As for a Harsh Winter Ahead, we are having it now.

[Elean0r]

I think it's going to be quite a cold winter.

The wind seems to be coming from the east again, it was very much colder today.

[foxy mars]

Elean0r, how right you are about a harsh winter on the way. I go to work on a twilight shift whilst you lucky people go to the pub or stay snug around the fire on the cold dark evenings, whilst I cycle to work in the cold damp weather.

Anyway, I've been into the Go-Outdoors store today and got some softshell water/windproof over-trousers. I was going to wear them for the Sunday ramblings, but I have some Paramo Fuera windproof trousers which will do for that instead, so I will start wearing the Hi-Gear trousers tonight for work. It was foggy on Teesside early this morning.

[James M]

The berries thing is an old wives tale, more of an indication of the weather that precedes them.

I'm hoping for a cold winter, wouldn't mind one similar to last year, we had quite a bit of snow at time .

I really wouldn't put much faith in any long range forecasts, atm I'm keeping an eye on the El Nino currently developing in the Pacific, it's moderate at the moment. A top end mod/strong El Nino tends to mean a mild winter for us in the UK, and in turn a strong flat Jet Stream across the Atlantic bringing in depressions, but there are lots of other factors to play so we'll just have to wait and see!

[david156]

Saw the long range winter forecast a few days ago. They said "it would be marginally better than average but an average is just that with good spells and bad spells."
So from that i think we will have cold snaps followed but wet times followed by warmer periods but it could be in any order.
Just like a normal winter then!
I think i'll prepare for the worst and just take each day as it comes!