Talking about the weather....

[EC]

Whilst fishing near seacombe ferry on the mersey tonight, we had lots of snow, a fresh wind and temps of about -1degC.

It was hard going and not a night for tying knots as the windchill was quite severe.

Anyways, after fishing a few hours, all of a sudden in the space of 10 minutes the wind becomes a whole lot warmer, easily a few degrees C increase, cue hands coming out of pockets, 10 minutes later hands are going back in pockets and some tarts are hiding back in their cars again as the temp plummets again!

Explain please weathermen?

 

[Phil Hackett HC/PCPL, SCT with Pride]

Battling of two fronts - a warm one from the west and the cold easterly we?ve had for a few days.
Daft as it might sound the westerly coming off the sea is warmer than the land temperature. What I think you got was a pocket of warm air blast off the sea, then the cold air from the land chilled it and regained its temperature hold.

 

[Matty C]

friggen cold weather.. single digit degrees just arnt cool.
went out fishing on tuesday.. was sitting there doing some trotting and it was snowing so hard that I could barely see my float.. caught a few roach though, so it made it moderately worth while I guess.

 

[Graham Whatmore]

Its always warmer by the sea anyway Eddie as you will have noticed, being close to it. I'm not a meteorologist so I can't give a reason but having spent nearly 10 years at sea I know this to be a fact. Its unusual to have heavy snowfall on the coast and in all my time on the watter I never ever saw snow, not even in the Northern Isles above Scotland in the depth of winter, cold yes, but never snow.

Its probably something to do with the warmer winds coming off the gulf stream I should think, that would be my guess anyway. Its always colder over land mass but there must be a point where the warmer air off the sea meets the colder air over the land, which just happened to be where you were last night!

 

[EC]

Cheers fellas, I didnt notice a change in wind direction, but I get your gist Phil. It was almost like someone flicked a switch, all along the prom the fairies got out of their cars then as quick as a flash all got back in again.

 

[Frank "Chubber" Curtis]

We've had snow falling here until about 4pm but not as heavy as a few miles inland. Warmer air off the sea I suppose.

It's definitely warmer tonight and pissing with rain so the Wensum will be in flood for a week or so. S**t, f**k, bollocks!

 

[Matty C]

weve had rain all day today too here in Guildford.. might do it some good though to be honest.. the river is super clear and super slow, and quite low too, so a day of rain might give it enough to think about, to get a little colour, n maybe a touch more pace.. might encourage the fishies to feed some..

will have a look at it tomorrow, n will see how it looks..

As far as warm air off the sea goes, Im not too sure how that would work personally.. It probably depends which coast youre on and in which direction the wind is blowing.. Also the topography of the land might come into place.. hills n mountains n stuff etc..

who knows..

 

[Alan Tyler]

The main reason it's usually warmer by the sea is that the sea is a huge "thermal mass" which takes months to warm up and cool down.
Add to that the fact that the sea around our coast has drifted up from the Gulf of Mexico, or thereabouts, and you've got a nice, big radiator!

 

[Fred Bonney]

Probably, the same reason we had a clap of thunder and one lightning flash, earlier on in the week in the middle of a snow shower.Warm air meeting cold I mean.

I was going to be on the Wensum sometime this coming week Frank,with a pal of mine from Dereham,looks like the tidal Trent is a better option.

 

[EC]

Am aware of that Alan living close to the Irish Sea/River Mersey, I was just very surprised at the sudden temp change the other night (v.cold to warm), and then for it to change back again in 10 minutes or so!

 

[Alan Tyler]

Sorry, Eddie, I was responding to line 2 of Graham's post. Phil's explanation chimes very well with the weather charts,it's a shame you couldn't see what the clouds were up to - might have been quite a sight.
Remember the weather houses, in which a figure with an umbrella came out if the humidity rose, and a woman in a summer frock emerged when it dried? From your description of the "wildlife" there's scope for some rude whittling to update the idea!

 

[EC]

No worries Alan, it was cloudy, and snowing heavily mate, theres a fair bit of light pollution on that particular stretch of river, as such, clouds, stars etc are sometimes difficult to make out.