Really low pressure

I decided to tap my barometer last night because I haven’t set it in a while. Tapping it allows the (black) pointer to move. It was on change, but it flew down to much rain last night. It’s been raining all morning and the pressure has not risen again. I think this is because another named storm is passing over the UK again, the second in recent days. It’s called Herminia. There is a third heading our way tomorrow. What fun (not).

Low pressure

Low pressure over us, the barometer fell last night from changeable to much rain, and rain it did this morning. There is flooding in the English midlands and snow melt has added to the problem.

I tapped the barometer again this morning  and the indicator didn’t move. The weather just hasn’t been good, it’s cold and wet. But the temperature has risen a bit from the freezing conditions we had a few days ago. I hope the barometer goes back up again soon.

Low pressure

Just looked at my Barometer, it’s dropped to 957 millibars which is the lowest I’ve ever seen it. The pointer has dropped all the way down to “stormy”. And yet fireworks are going off all around us. It will be bonfire night, or Guy Fawkes night in the UK tomorrow. (Remember remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot). This was in the reign of James 1st when Guy Fawkes and fellow plotters tried to blow up the houses of Parliament by getting gunpowder into it’s cellars. The British people celebrated the failure of the plot by burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes and letting off fireworks.

So the weather isn’t good for it tonight. I doubt there will be many bonfires because of all the rain we have been having. But the fireworks are crackling and banging all over the place, and it’s not even the 5th yet!

Wet!

There is a saying ‘in like a lamb, out like a lion’ (and vice versa) when it comes to March weather. We also talk about March winds.

After a very dry February, March has turned wild. It started quietly, but as the month has progressed the rain and wind has blown in over the Atlantic, causing low pressure systems to scud over us with record levels of rain falling.

Last night the wind was howling, one of the cats ran in, his coat glistening with rain. He looked like an otter that was just out of a river! He slept under the cover of my chair, like it was a little cave to keep warm in. He knows when to stay warm despite seemingly loving the awful weather.

Sunset

It’s cloudy again tonight, any sunlight has been stifled by cloud. I’m looking forward to a good, colourful sunset. But if we get that it means we need high pressure and less clouds. That means the sky will clear and heat will be lost so we will get colder weather and frosts. At the moment we are getting gusty winds from the south and scattered heavy showers. It’s knocking the old leaves off the trees. I hope it does clear up, apparently the Taurid meteor shower is due.

Anyway when did this blog turn into a weather forecast? Hmm, must think of something else x

Low barometer

This was probably the biggest drop in pressure that I’ve seen on my barometer I have two electric ones that measure the pressure too and they were actually reading 962 and 958! What a drop! The gold coloured marker was what the reading was twenty four hours before. Something like 22 millibars? The result was a three inch dump of snow over the Midlands and south of England and Walesby. More snow is due tonight, but probably in the East and up in Scotland. Might be fun over New Year….

More thunder forecast.

DSC_2837

Could it thunder again?

Is it possible?

It’s forecast.

I sit waiting.

Listening for rumbles.

Bright flashes.

It’s rained heavily,

But no bangs and crashes.

No flashes or smashes

Pent up heat

Humidity.

Pressure is high

but falling rapidly.

If I sleep

Will I wake

To fireworks or whizz bangs!?

Annamometer / weather station

Spinning cups in the wind

Gale force blowing across the land

Pressure dropping

Rain falling horizontal

Waves whipped into crazy foam

Crashing over coastal roads

Trees bending over fences

Birds cowering in hedges

Cold is the storm

Ready to snow?

Gales are unfriendly

Viscious and fearful

Great, gusting blow…..

Barometer reading

My barometer pressures have dropped from about 1010 yesterday to 970 on my traditional barometer and 959 on my electric weather station. There is always a discrepancy of about 10 (millimeters of Mercury?) between the two.

What is ‘pressure’. Pressure is air pressure, the weight of the air pressing down on us from the top of the atmosphere downwards.

The guage on the traditional barometer has gone from fair (gold pointer) to rain with the black pointer.

How is pressure measured? One ‘bar’ of pressure is the average air pressure at sea level. It’s also measured in millimetres of Mercury.  There was a historical experiment to find out about the air pressure. The experimenters put a tube of  mercury upside down in a glass dish. This can leave a vacuum in the top of the tube. If you have the tube and dish at sea level the Mercury will be at a lowed level in the dish. This is because a larger weight of atmosphere is pressing down. Go up a mountain and the level in the dish will rise, because the air pressure up there is lower (less depth of atmosphere).

There is lots of information on sites like Wikipedia about air pressure. They probably describe how the air circulating in the atmosphere causes areas of low and high pressure. The weather is also influenced by the sea and its temperatures and the heating of the Earth’s surface by the sun.

Looks like rain….. again!

sketch-1560966518858

Rain, some people never get any, others get monsoons. Here in temperate Britain we get our fair share but the South East gets less. Up here in the Midlands we usually have reasonable amounts and we rarely have hose pipe bans.

This year we had a really mild February followed by a wet and windy spell. Now in June the temperature is lower than usual and we are stuck under a low pressure area, so it keeps raining. Don’t expect to get enough vitamin D either. It’s overcast and grey.

Apparently the Jet Stream in the upper atmosphere if swinging backwards and forwards, sending Low pressure areas down riwards us or up from the bay if biscay. High pressure and a stable weather situation seem far away.

The weather in the east has been very bad for a change and there are floods in Lincolnshire. Rivers have burst their banks, and as a lot of the land is below sea level, the embankments and river edges are overflowing. Homes have been flooded. Life is interesting.