weather warning

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tansy
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Location: La Manche, Normandy, France

weather warning

Post by tansy »

has anyone else heard the weather warning for Europe this winter? I heard on the BBC and other channels that the experts are predicting a winter like 1947 & 1962/63.

The experts are the ones that predicted all the hurricanes in Florida...only thing is, they said it was going to arrive 3 weeks ago...we've had really warm weather here - my busy lizzies are still flowering in November!

Has anyone taken any precautions in case it does happen?
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Vitraux
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Post by Vitraux »

Hi Tansy,

Haven't heard!, what were those years like you mentioned (too young to remember), I am presuming they were bad.

I am also in France and would be interested to know what the winter will be like seeing as how the price of fuel for my central heating has gone up 33% in the last 4 months due to - as the French lady at the fuel depot says "Monsieur Bush." :evil:

Thanks

Ann
You must learn from the mistakes of others.
You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

I take these predictions with a pinch of salt. Earlier this year my cleaner in France told me that this summer would be just as brutal as last year. I asked her where she got this information from and she said knowingly "The peasants..."

Apparently the peasants (which in France is not a term of abuse, 'peasants' means country people) can read the signs of nature. I actually believe in this system more than a long-range weather forecast. For instance there is a plant in the Alps that grows in the spring to just the right height so that in the winter only its head will pop out of the snow. But how does it know in the spring how much snow will fall in the winter?

Anyway, the peasants were wrong, the summer in my part of France was no hotter than normal. Let's see if the meteorologists are any better.
Paolo
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

I wasn't alive but I have heard about the winter of '47 in the UK. I am reliably informed that from 22 January to 17 March it snowed every day somewhere in Britain.

In 1962/63 it was even colder, and some harbours in the south of England froze over. That's cold!
Paolo
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tansy
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Location: La Manche, Normandy, France

Post by tansy »

I wasn't around - honest - in '47 but my father clearly remembers ice skating from Peterborough out to the wash...we did come back from living in Singapore in the winter of '62...I was a child but do remember the plane doors after a 48 hour journey...(in thoses days you walked across the tarmac!), opening to all the white stuff 4 foot high & we were in cotton frocks!!

Funnily enough whilst shopping this morning a local stopped me to ask me if I heard about all the snow in the East of France..that means it for here too - she's quite convinced!!

Will polish the blades on my old ice skates I think!
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John Borg
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Post by John Borg »

I too don't really take these predictions "as fact", though I have noticed some peculiar weather patterns this year. Malta is a normally predictable country for weather - Hot summers (around 35C), mild winters (around 15C) and everything else in between (around 22C).
This year we had a great summer streching from May till last week with the average temp stuck between 28 - 32 C. Now, in November, we had a couple of storms which is quite normal, though the temperature has only now dropped to around 20C and the weatherman says it will climb to around 23 again by the end of the week. Who's one to complain, but it is definately not normal. We have not had a proper winter for the past 3 years which may sound good to many, though this is leading to sporadic storms, violent at times instead of the normal weather. The effects of Global Warming seem to be catching up on us.
Malta – always in the sunshine!
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