Yes, some sad episodes due to freak weather this year. I'm always moaning about muddy dogs, and my muddy old car, but really should count my blessings.
You and that squirrel both back on the norty step Gareth. NOW! [And what is the weather like in Wales?]
The clocks go back to winter time tonight and today the weather changed from hot summer yesterday to a big drop in temperature and rain most of today. So far though the threatened "medicane" that made landfall in Egypt earlier is apparently decreasing in strength and it not certain whether the predictions of heavy rainfall, strong winds, and flooding across the country will bear out. Fingers crossed for an uneventful night and also for tomorrow, but I believe the UK is/will be hit by storms so I hope everyone keeps safe.
Steady heavy rain for a couple of days has led to pretty extensive flooding in Staffordshire. We were showing at Stafford Showground today and had to drive through several 'fords' on the way there, though roads were a little better coming home. I believe that some of our local roads had been closed as the water was too deep to drive through. A sad sight was the farm fields on each side of the A roads, which just look like lakes. No animals were out, as far as I could see, but how long it will take for these fields to drain, I don't know. A real worry for the arable farmers if the rain continues.
Meanwhile, huge areas in Central/Northern Australia are enduring drought conditions. If wildfires break out, there will be no water to fight them with. This is a crazy world that we live in!
We are expecting high winds and it is very dry. They are shutting off power to millions of customers, I think I read 7% of the state will be blacked out, to prevent broken power lines from starting fires, although there is already a very large fire 100+ miles north of me, and we have gotten a little of the smoke from that, but nothing like last November, when it was dangerous just to breathe the air outside
In contrast, today we've had clear blue skies and sunshine. Beautiful if crisp day. I hope you avoid the black out Marc.
I live off, grid so I had no power outage, but my neighbors on grid are blacked out. Strong winds, lots of branches on the ground but I didn’t hear any trees come down, yet... you can smell a little smoke outside, but better than yesterday.
We had the heavy winds last week. Scary when it brings down the branches. Another clear blue sky day here, but getting colder every day now. Kitted out for winter already with the big coats and thermal tights. Last year, it didn't get much below our current temperatures all winter, but it was a very mild winter. They are tipping that we won't be so lucky this year
The threatened "medicane" [hurricane from the Mediterranean] fizzled out before it arrived here, although there was the usual flooding in the Negev from the rain on Shabbat. Yesterday was delightful because it was sunny and warm but without the scorching heat that we have had for months, and today has been similar. This is the odd time of year when you never know what clothes to put on in the morning - typical autumn and spring being just a few weeks between summer and winter, then winter and summer again, when the weather can change from one to the other and then back again each day, although at the moment the forecast is for it to get hotter again as the week goes on.
A really hard frost here this morning. It would have meant scraping the car, and the dog rugs would have been cold and damp, so we opted for our local walk through the old disused graveyard, and back through the wood at the bottom of the road. It started to thaw around midday, but it is starting to freeze again now. We should be at a show tomorrow, but we are both feeling like having a break until the new year. I possibly might venture forth next Saturday though, as the brand new North Staffs Canine Society is holding its first ever show, and I would like to see it succeed - we are losing so many of these local clubs.
It is still very much in-between weather here - hopefully it will not get cold yet as my winter clothes are still packed away and I have to wait until the Ninja has time to get boxes down from on top of cupboards, help me sort out some more not-going-to-wear-that-again stuff for him to take, then pack away summer stuff and get out winter stuff. There is no way I can get out my stepladder let alone climb up even one step to reach any of the boxes now - one more thing to the impossible-to-do list but I do hate having to ask for help. I really do not like this time of year, especially as it gets dark so very early.
Winter is definitely here and it is cold. Nir came round this morning and checked all my a/c units - two needed the filters cleaned because of all the dust that accumulated since he last cleaned them although they were not too bad. The other two were OK and all can now be used when necessary. But of course I forgot to ask him to please hoik up my mattress to get a duvet out from under it as I really could do with it now as it is definitely cold during the night. The Ninja had gotten the boxes down so at least I have my winter clothes now but I had also forgotten to ask him to get a duvet out when he was here. I hope everyone is OK and not too cold and/or flooded.
Very cold here too, Juli. We've had enough rain since the beginning of autumn to sink a battleship. Really fed up of it now and we've a long way to go before we get to spring
In the Midlands we don't seem to have been free from fog and mist for the last couple of weeks. Freezing fog turned to the wetter variety, but at least the forecast snow hasn't put in an appearance - yet! A good year for Snowdrops, and the Daffodil heads are plumping up nicely - does this mean an early Spring, or will we be fooled again?
What a glorious picture Carole - how do you get the Beags to pose so beautifully?! I am totally useless at taking photographs and have just about given up trying to get a decent one of Tikva. It has been a fairly good day again today - not very warm but it was nice and sunny until the sun went down. It will not last though as rain is forecast again for Tuesday or Wednesday.