Looking for the winter

Winter in the UK is a rare thing these days especially in the south west. We have now lived in the south of the country for nearly 25 years. Formerly in South Wales and now in Cornwall. 

The problem that I have with this is that I love winter weather and we do not get it here! 

Our experience of winter is summed up perfectly by the title picture. I always hope for a prolonged spell of the cold white stuff. I never bother dreaming of a white Christmas as a dry cold one would do. What we normally get is high winds, unusually warm temperatures and ridiculous amounts of rain.

The popular media weather people infuriate me over a number of issues and winter is one of them. The seasons have always been marked by natural occurrences. That is the solstice etc. Winter begins when the light hours reach the shortest and summer when the daylight hours are at their longest. Spring and Autumn follow suit. hat has always been the case and so round about the 21st of December denotes the first day of winter, 21st March is Spring, 21st June Summer and 21st October is Autumn. That has been the case until now when our weather men and women are telling us that winter begins on the first of december and so forth.

They usually tell us that extreme weather conditions are the result of man's activity. Now please do not burn me at the stake for heresy but weather conditions change from season to season and year to year. The earth has warmed and cooled since it's creation and it is still doing so. I do not believe that man should pollute our beautiful planet but he equally should not arrogantly think that he is the source of all that is good and bad about our world. There are natural forces that abound which will cause most of the atmospherics that we experience. 

This year we are experiencing the strongest El Nino on record which for us means possibly the most extreme winter conditions ever. 

This time the effect has been wet, windy and warmer than average weather that we have been in the grip of. 

This winter so far and as yet (according to my old fashioned thinking it is less than a month in) we have had no real winter weather. We want snow! But the jet stream is wound up by warmed up seas in the pacific and that means that we are being bombarded by storms from the Atlantic. there has even been a hurricane in the south Atlantic which is only the fourth ever recorded. 

But 

We did last week benefit from the jet stream dipping south which in turn brought arctic winds down over the country. Looe even experienced a couple of frosts with the temperature dropping to the depths of minus 1 degree. That gave me the opportunity, winter must be somewhere and by chance I heard that somebody was snowed in on Dartmoor. so off we went onto the moor and we were not disappointed, we almost very excitedly got stranded but a grtiiting lorry came to the rescue. We did enjoy our winter:

I am sorry for the rant but it was so nice to enjoy the beauty of a snowy landscape. We are now in the grip of wet and windy weather for which we are grateful in many respects. Our water supply is once again secure for months to come which many countries never experience. The UK is one of the most amazing and beautiful countries in the world. It is a stunning part of God's great creation, we are blessed in so many ways and sometimes even the weather is not a hindrance to normal life and activity.