Moley .. thankyou for your time and trouble posting your forecasts which are interesting to read.

I have been wondering if you would agree that weather forecasting has become a lot more necessary and in-depth now because of the more extreme weather we and the world experience? I would think that there is a lot more to study and 'get your teeth into' than the days when the seasons and weather was more predictable by the day.
Those were the days when we had mostly forecasts telling us there would be simply sunny spells and scattered showers. More seriously would be thunderstorms and gales and we would prepare for the worst with wellies, raincoats and umbrellas.
There were also the entertaining aspects for us, when children, forecasting sunny or wet days by hanging a piece of seaweed outside the back door or watching to see if it was the weather-man or lady who moved foreward onto the front of the little, ornamental weather-house. The weather-man 's appearance meant it was going to rain and the one we wanted to see appear was the weather-lady so that we knew it was going to be sunny ...or did we? We wanted to believe they were accurate, anyway.

Apart from the shipping forecasts with warnings of gales at sea, maybe there were not the amount of people like yourself, then, who would have taken such an interest and enjoy weather forecasting than these days. Were you always interested in weather-forecasting, even when weather conditions were more straightforward?

The last thing I thought of is that in days gone by, it was quite fun to wake in the morning and looking out of the window to see if it was raining or sunny, (if we didn't have a weather-house on the sideboard). The more serious weather conditions these days have created more anxiety rather than fun, but necessarily making it helpful to have the forecasts as you give them. Our reactions then are that we have been warned, or we breathe a sigh of relief that we have escaped what could have been something serious or, at least, inconvenient.

I hope that my thoughts on the weather-forecasting are not too boring but I have just been thinking about it recently and so I hope it is alright to let you know my own thoughts and ask you the questions I have.

Kind Regards .. Marian

^^ Marian.

My sincere thanks for your comments and thoughts in your post. It really is appreciated to know that my ramblings on here are not entirely wasted, and I will get back with a more detailed reply in due course.

*UPDATED AT 2205 HRS. SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 23RD 2012*

Ex hurricane Nadine continues to baffle and defy the experts as she staggers around The Atlantic like a drunken Aunt at a wedding. This storm has been around for over a week now, and has gone through several categories in that time.

Tropical storm/Hurricane/Sub Tropical Storm/.....you name it, she's been there and got the T-Shirt. Well it seems as though Nadine is about to intensify yet again, and return to hurricane status in the next couple of days. In all my years of weather watching, I cannot recall anything like this.

Closer to home the storm system Nadine has spawned ( now officially named Karin ), has reached the UK and is delivering some significant rainfall, especially in the South. After a brief lull Sunday afternoon the rain returned with a vengeance this evening.

Whilst its temporarily calmed down now Im keeping an eye on the next batch heading our way in the early hours of Monday morning. I wouldnt dismiss the possibility of a thunderstorm cropping up amongst it all either.

Thanks as always for reading and posting.

Moley

Hello again Marian, and I really appreciate your post. My apologies for the delay in replying, Ive been trying to keep up with recent weather developments !

You have raised a number of very interesting points, and Im not sure I can answer them all because despite what the headline says on this forum, Im not a a qualified meteorlogist, just an amateur who happens to have an interest in the weather.

To try and answer your first point, Im not entirely convinced that our planet is experiencing extreme weather compared to the past. The difference now is that with the internet available to millions of people, news travels fast and events that might have gone unnoticed in the past are now widely available within minutes.

Ive always been interested and fascinated by the weather, some folk might call that boring!!

Moley

We certainly missed the worst of it. Maybe because I haven't washed the car for a few weeks now ?

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Lets be careful out there !

^^ Compared with some places we certainly dodged a very large rainfall bullet down here in the South, though The Met Office have issued further warnings for London and The South East for Wednesday.

I wonder how SOT is getting on ? Some of the highest 48 hour rainfall totals have been recorded in Northern Ireland.

Moley

Hi Moley ..... I'm seeing reports of Ice and snow for next week Surely not ?? x

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I do not suffer fools !!!!!

Blimey It was a bit damp out there. I had to visit three building sites, one of which in County Down was somewhat elevated and rather exposed. This location heralded the worst weather, as the combination of wind and rain was extreme to say the least.

On one occasion during a heavy storm, a sort of whirlwind came across the site and picked up some lightweight builder's materials and dropped them in two neighbouring fields and a garden. I didn't see it as I was in a drafty portacabin at the time, but we felt and heard it for a very few seconds. Apparently, across a field of falling stair rod rain, the rain in the whirlwind was seen to be swirling upwards!!!!

To avoid taking more than hand baggage, I left my wellies at home and just took working boots. Whoops! I have never seen mud like it, so deep, copious and sticky, it made by boots feel as useful as flip flops. On one site, three lads were living in a caravan which was surrounded by a lake of flood water & mud for about 10 to 20m in each direction. In a typical stoic Irish manner, they decided it wasn't problem and the only change they would make is to wear wellies to the pub that night so they could get back to their beds

The guys on the Co Down site said I had missed the worst of it! I am back in February - Gods knows what the weather will throw at the site then!

Thankyou for your reply to my own ramblings and thoughts about the weather, Moley. The weather is a certainty to be a topic of conversation every day and anywhere and so, rather than your fascination and interest in weather-forecasting being boring, it can make the subject more interesting. These days, it seems only too easy to flit from one thing to another without going too deeply into any subject for us to learn more.

In the past, many people have studied and learnt about subjects dear to their hearts only to find that the subjects are boring now, probably because of modern technology making all things possible without much personal, individual effort. For you and your peers, therefore, you have an interest which can never be boring or ignored. The weather will always be here to discuss and so your thread here is destined to be endless.

Here my ramblings end and thankyou again
Marian

Hi Marian... I agree with Moley, the weather is no different from how it's always been, but we could all be forgiven for thinking otherwise from some of the rubbish that comes over the media. There have ALWAYS been extreme weather events. A lot of people would like us to think this is something new because they want to push certain political agendas.