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There was snow on the ground this morning but there is also an evening now. I left work last night before it was completely dark: the first time this year. Tuesday is Candlemas. Still definitely winter but the days have already turned.

For the first time in ages, the sun is shining and there is blue sky. The snow has all gone after very heavy rain yesterday. It is still cool and wintry, but the heart lifts.

The temperature stayed just above freezing all night (the first time for a fortnight) and there is a very slow thaw. When I woke I was aware of dripping from the eaves of the house – an amazing sound. Despite this, there is still snow everywhere and more is forecast. We are not used to anything like a real winter in this part of England so it is quite a shock – especially as the various authorities seem not to have coped at all.

Snowy Garden, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.

Lots of snow here today. School closed and so I stayed in the warm (mostly). The snow is perfect. It compresses for making snow people, is dry to walk on and so not too slippery (though what it will be like when it has frozen hard overnight is another matter) and packs hard rather than goes slushy.
The country has ground to a complete halt, without really having an excuse. After a day working at my desk here I can feel the beginnings of cabin fever!

It started snowing about 8pm last night, but was only light. Around 10:30pm, the wind had picked up, the snow became heavier and we had a genuine blizzard. The snow was dry enough to be driven by the wind and came in sheets off roofs and from the ground to be blown across the road. It was like a film of the antarctic ice-sheet with lines of fine snow snaking across the surface.

This morning, there are 10cm here. Roads are blocked or dangerous and the forecast was for more (though this has not actually happened). So I closed the school and stayed in the warm at home.

The weather was exciting today. A deep low tracked from Cardiff South-Eastwards heading for the Channel over Wiltshire and Dorset, throwing off rain bands which in reality were lines of powerful shower cells with mammatus, hail, heavy rain and gusty winds. On the radar the system looked almost like a tropical one – with concentric rainbands around a clear low pressure centre – but no “eye” or eyewall structure.

I saw lots of rainbows, some spectacular hail and snow fallstreaks (though I was not under any), some inky black skies and some very vigorous convection with huge anvils and mammatus clouds.

This morning has the first real frost and fog this autumn. Trees are bare ( except older oaks) and there are carpets of leaves.