With the media frenzy over the past week, you’d think we were about to experience the Second Coming rather than a short period of frozen precipitation. It’s easier to be cynical about exaggerated snow reports when you live in (mostly) snow-free London, but I know that part of my cynicism is actually a result of ENVY. I love snow! Some people like to watch or listen to waves breaking on a beach; some like watching fish in a tank; some prefer to meditate and listen to whales farting. I prefer to reach my chillout zone (haha!) by watching snow fall. I could sit for hours, watching the distant grey speckles gradually getting closer… larger, whiter, fluffier. And that’s why the largely incorrect weather forecasting for this part of the country has been particularly frustrating for me. I want to play in the snow!
I’ve never quite understood where we Brits get our reputation for talking endlessly about the weather. I rarely speak to anyone about the weather, except to comment when I’m particularly hot/wet/cold. On the odd occasions when I do take an interest, though, I usually find Metcheck to be accurate and comprehensive. This week, excited at the prospect of PLAYING IN THE SNOW, I’ve been checking their site regularly and finding it to be… mostly wrong.
On Wednesday evening, I was delighted to see that Metcheck were forecasting a period of heavy snow for my postcode area, beginning at midnight that night. It didn’t snow. I checked the site again around midnight, but the forecast had changed… the snow was due to start at 6am. I awoke on Thursday morning to pouring rain. Checked the site to find they’d backtracked again, now forecasting snow for 9am. It rained almost all day.
As you can see from the picture (taken at 6:45am) we now have snow. According to Metcheck, though, I should be expecting, between the hours of 6am and 9am today, heavy cloud and precisely zero precipitation. Doh!