Allow me to introduce you to Windy Wilson

[Denzil_DC]

https://twitter.com/WindyWilson88

He's an amateur meteorologist based in Auchterarder, Scotland who has a knack for interpreting and improving on the finer points of weather forecasts and whose Twitter feed gathers on-the-ground condition reports (and some great pics) from followers.

Being a relatively small island, it's surprising how the weather can vary across our thousand or so miles north to south. Windy's feed is a reaction to the parochial Met Office reports that can talk about a "bit of rain" in Scotland when in fact it's quietly blizzarding, or give the impression it does nothing but rain in the "far north," whereas anyone who's been lucky enough to hit the traditional two- or three-week sweet spot during May/June while visiting the West of Scotland can testify that it can be Mediterranean, and not a peep about it on the "national weather."

Although his feed focuses on Scotland, it may be of help or interest to those elsewhere in the UK.

If he's right (he so often is), having seen us through what he referred to as "Storm 5" (still blowing itself out here), this is what's to come in the immediate future:

Windy Wilson ?@WindyWilson88

COLD SNAP - Windy says Friday and Saturday will be cold, as will Sunday. But Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will be extreme !!!

He'll get more detailed as it happens. Stay warm!

You may have your own favorite weather sites or other outlets (my partner's a big fan of http://www.wunderground.com/ ), or pics of conditions wherever you are. If so, I'd like to see them.

I don't recall such a sustained series of violent storms in my entire 50-odd years on this planet, in this country.

Last night, I nearly got stranded on a 300-yard stretch of a local road that was like a (uphill!) skating rink in near-whiteout conditions, and had to zig and zag and draw on all my snow driving experience to avoid having to abandon the car or worse.

A couple of hours later, it was pishing with rain, several inches of snow vanished in a flash, and the latest wet, wet, wet hoolie roared in. No pics, but you can get the general impression by sitting in an icebucket in the shower with a fan on full-blast and taking photos through the shower curtain. Not through a gap, through the curtain itself.

[shenmue]

1. I love weather stuff!

Thanks!

[longship]

2. Please define "wet hoolie".

Us 'mericans do not speak that language.



My best regards. And bundle up.

[Denzil_DC]

3. Ah.

Heh. OK, I can see we might need to do this on occasion.

Here's a definition:

blow a hoolie

blow a hoolie v. phr. (of weather) to storm; to forcefully gust, blow, and rain. Editorial Note: The stand-alone hoolie ‘a severe storm’ is rare outside of the blow a hoolie construction. It is sometimes spelled hooley. Etymological Note: Perhaps connected to hooley defined by Jonathon Green’s Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang as “a rip-roaring party” and marked as originally Irish, though the sense has a history in the US as well. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

Thanks. It's winter. I'm always bundled up. The longjohns go on in October, and I cut myself out and dispose of them in May. If we're lucky.

Tomorrow, I may explain the expression "humping it down." Or "brassic," depending what it does.

[longship]

4. ROFL!

I live in rural western Michigan. And yes, it gets mighty cold here, often with masses of snowfall. Thankfully, this winter has so far been moderate -- last winter utterly sucked; it never fucking stopped snowing. But Lake Michigan (50 miles away) has a moderating effect, at least until lake effect snow reaches this far on shore. Then we get dumped on, rare but insidious.

Layer up and buckle down. And the best to you this season.

Skäl!

[Denzil_DC]

5. Greetings! And thanks.

The temperatures we're likely to discuss (along with any snowfall) are probably going to seem quite tame to you - Windy's predicting:

We'll see overnight RURAL lows of minus 12 - 15 degrees, and in towns and cities minus 7 - 9 degrees.

Daytime highs will be about minus 3 or 4 degrees

No idea what windchill will add to that yet.

The best/worst I've lived through was 10 days of minus 20 or so with a decent snow cover, can't remember when exactly, about 15 years ago. It was a dry cold, a good dump of clean snow followed by a stalled high-pressure system, so more bearable and excellent for getting out and enjoying it. We enjoyed it even more when our water pipes thawed after a few days, despite the resulting minor flood.