A year's difference

[HansV]

The same park in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Top: yesterday, 19°C (66°F). Bottom: a year ago, 0°C (32°F).

Park.jpg

[Rudi]

A bit too cold still to be in the water. Maybe this time next year we'll have some water skiers on the river.

Yesterday seemed to be a LOVELY day! It looks very pleasant and people look nice and relaxed. (Was it a public holiday or something?)

[HansV]

No, it was not a public holiday, but we had three days in a row (Monday to Wednesday) without a cloud in the sky and with temperatures some 10°C above normal - it was weather we normally experience at the end of spring, late in May. So everybody went outside during coffee breaks, lunch hour etc.

[Doc.AElstein]

Crazy here as well, very strong Sun… I can’t make up my mind whether to close down the winter activities for this year or wait for some unexpected Siberian Weather at Easter…

[StuartR]

This week I have been in London and Copenhagen. Both had hot bright sunshine.

[HansV]

And now it's almost mid-April. The maximum temperature today was 7.8°C (46°F), and we had a (tiny) bit of snow...

Vineyard.jpg

[Doc.AElstein]

The last few days it was a bit cold outside, temperatures around 0, ….. I almost thought I had restarted the building season a bit too soon.. . And when it started to snow lightly on me this morning, I thought ….. Ah, like the good old days, the pretty Winters until Easter. But it didn’t snow much :(
Snow in April 2019.jpg : https://imgur.com/7aMcjdU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

April Snow 2019.jpg

Tomorrow may be a bit colder, with precipitation.. ….. who knows.. maybe a last snow sweeping of the year

[Doc.AElstein]

May 2019 Hof.JPG https://imgur.com/PQSq2yL" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

May 2019 Hof.JPG

A Snowy Building Site in Hof.JPG https://imgur.com/HrwxS9H" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A Snowy Building Site in Hof.jpg

A Snowy Afternoon in May 2019 .jpg : https://imgur.com/gYhtjyp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A Snowy afternoon in May 2019 .JPG

[Rudi]

Could be expecting Santa Claus soon.

[ChrisGreaves]

The same park in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Top: yesterday, 19°C (66°F).

... On the other hand, I really hate the Dutch! (grin)

Signed "Still thawing out" of Bonavista.

[ChrisGreaves]

This week I have been in London and Copenhagen. Both had hot bright sunshine.

... and the English!!! (grin)

Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

Could be expecting Santa Claus soon.

I'm too old for that.

Bonavista_IMG_20190504_163800981_HDR.JPG

I'm almost too old for digging, but Saturday afternoon I dug out three shovel-widths of lawn (then sat down and had a cuppa on my lawn chair in the sunshine).
This morning before heading in to the office I opened a packet of bean seeds and a packet of Swiss Chard seeds⁽¹⁾ and stared at them. Maybe tomorrow ...

Cheers
Chris
⁽¹⁾ I'm told one should talk to one's plants, so I got Swiss Chard to practice my French and German.

[Doc.AElstein]

Has anyone in Europe had any real Winter weather yet this Winter …
We have barely had a few light frost so far. If the Winter weather does not come soon here we will have missed it completely here for this season.
Just now, a lot of people on the national news here are finally agreeing that that global warming is now responsible for a lot of current weather extremes…

Looking at our recent Weather forecasts, I am wondering if I might be able to go Sunbathing in a few days

[StuartR]

I was thinking exactly the same thing this morning Al. My spring bulbs are all coming up, and we have had just a few days of very light frost.

[stuck]

Has anyone in Europe had any real Winter weather yet this Winter …

No sign of real winter where I am. We've got a couple of snowdrops in bloom in our garden already. Worst we've had has been a couple of frosty mornings.

Only last night, after dinner, I sat down and listened to Marillion's 1997 album 'Season's End', specifically for the title track.

Getting close to seasons end
I heard somebody say
That it might never snow again
In England

Ken

[Doc.AElstein]

When I was little I used to build Snowman in South England in Winter.
When I came here 25 years ago, I almost died with weeks of temperature under -10 C day and night.

I might not be able to make a snowball here this year.

I wonder if the kids might lynch some of us in a few years..

[HansV]

No winter weather to speak of here either. A few frosty mornings in early December, very mild since. The snowdrops are flowering.

[ChrisGreaves]

Has anyone in Europe had any real Winter weather yet this Winter …

I can't speak for Europe, but ...
It is official: At last night’s Town Council meeting the mayor announced that this was the deepest (or longest) accumulation of snow in thirty-three years in Bonavista.
I didn’t question his definition of “deepest” or “longest” because I wasn’t at the meeting. But a friend told me …
My best guess is that one of the following applies:-
(1) We have not had such a long period between the snow falling and the rain coming to melt it all away. Snow blankets Bonavista for a week or two and then gets melted away, rinse, as they say, and repeat.
(2) We have not had so many centimetres of snow precipitation recorded between melts (say six feet, maybe)
(3) We have not had so many feet (say ninety centimetres, maybe) remain on the ground between melts.

Bonavista_IMG_20200113_110251172.JPG

On my way home yesterday I waved “Hello!” to the big-bucket front-loader guy who was collecting snow and dumping it into what will be a swamp come June, and he waved back.
When I rose this morning I found that someone driving a big-bucket front-loader had cleared away some of the large ice-blocks that traditionally block one’s driveway.

How I love this town!

Cheers
Chris (A chapped chap)

[ChrisGreaves]

My spring bulbs are all coming up,

[ChrisGreaves]

We've got a couple of snowdrops in bloom in our garden already.