Any chances of a white Christmas?

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AW77
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Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by AW77 »

For the place where I will be celebrating Christmas the weather forecast predicts 12°C as maximum and only 8°C as minimum temperature for the 24th of December. Which means that my chances of a white Christmas are below zero percent and that the weather at Christmas will resemble a cold Eastern.

What are the chances for other TPF-members? Anyone lucky enough to have a white Christmas in 2013?
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DRT
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by DRT »

Weather forecast here is clear and cold, but above zero so very little chance of any snow.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by LGTrotter »

High energy in the Atlantic is producing intense lows which means there will be lots of storms over Christmas but no snow. Or at least that is what Em is saying who is a confirmed snow aficionado. There is a slim chance of snow on the back edge of one of these systems.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by DRT »

In 1987 Michael Fish wrote:Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC to say that she heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well, if you're watching, don't worry there isn't, but having said that, actually!
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by Andy Velebil »

Looks like we're in for a warming trend starting tomorrow. Forecast is for 80 (F) as a high on Xmas day here in good 'ol Southern California 88)
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by PhilW »

Between 0°C and 3°C (min/max) at our location on Xmas day, with ~40% chance of precipitation during the night/morning; more likely to be rain than snow.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by djewesbury »

We seem certain to get some snow in Northern Ireland. But for a white Christmas it has to be falling somewhere at 12 noon. We'll see.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by PhilW »

djewesbury wrote:We seem certain to get some snow in Northern Ireland. But for a white Christmas it has to be falling somewhere at 12 noon. We'll see.
Officially I seem to remember it's something like "a single snowflake falling on broadcasting house at any time during Dec 25th" - they probably need a formal definition for the bookmakers, if nothing else; For me it's just whether there is snow on the ground when I wake up and look out of the window on Xmas morning, or maybe if we get a "proper" snowfall during the day.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by djewesbury »

Ah typical. So even if the North is snowed in it only counts if it falls on the BBC.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by LGTrotter »

I realise that we have missed the timeframe of the title but Em tells me that cold weather may well be on the way towards the middle end of January. Something to do with the splitting of the polar vortex *fnar*. Not a cert but more likely than not.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by AW77 »

We narrowly missed white Christmas this year. It started snowing this morning (27th). Now the garden is covered with a thin layer of snow, but on the streets the snow luckily didn't remain on the ground. I read on BBC news that you in the UK had snow on Boxing day. Was anyone affected by this or is everyone snug at home with a glass of port?
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by LGTrotter »

It has been mainly unusually warm in Somerset with just a few frosts. But it is getting colder over the next few days, this is a high pressure with no precipitation. So not a sniff of snow here, thanks for your snow news as Emma is always pleased to hear about snow.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by djewesbury »

Plenty of snow in west Tyrone today. And when I came back to Belfast, although a few degrees warmer, within an hour our street, which is in the foothills, was froZen (TM). More snow forecast.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by DRT »

We had about 8" of snow last night which caused my Sky TV to stop working, a few brief power cuts and almost prevented us from going away for New Year. It was very strange that on Christmas Day I was walking around outside in a t-shirt and two days later I was freezing my buns off shoveling snow off the road with a band of neighbours who seemed equally keen to escape.

For the record, I still don't believe in global warming.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by djewesbury »

Derek, the mention, in a single post, of your buns AND you walking around in just a t-shirt is almost too exciting!
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Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by djewesbury »

And by the way, you don't need to believe in global warming. It'll happen anyway.

(We have some people like you in Northern Ireland: they don't believe in evolution. I keep telling them, you don't need to…)
Last edited by djewesbury on 00:59 Sun 28 Dec 2014, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by DRT »

djewesbury wrote:And by the way, you don't need to believe in global warming. It'll happen anyway.
I agree that the end of the last ice age is somewhat inevitable.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by djewesbury »

DRT wrote:
djewesbury wrote:And by the way, you don't need to believe in global warming. It'll happen anyway.
I agree that the end of the last ice age is somewhat inevitable.
(I edited as you typed.)
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by DRT »

djewesbury wrote:We have some people like you in Northern Ireland: they don't believe in evolution.
To be fair, that particular process seems to have stop in certain parts of that country so it is understandable that some don't believe it.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by LGTrotter »

DRT wrote:We had about 8" of snow last night
They won't let me delete it.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by djewesbury »

LGTrotter wrote:
DRT wrote:We had about 8" of snow last night
My wife wakes up to eight inches every morning.
That's beneath you.
Boom boom.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by AW77 »

One advantage of the cold weather is that in some regions ice wine will be produced. A quick Google news search tells me that vintners mostly in Franconia, Rheinhessen, parts of Rhineland-Palatinate and Luxembourg were lucky enough to have their grapes frozen on the vine. For some it was the first time in years that they could harvest ice wine.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by LGTrotter »

Temperature well below freezing, thank goodness for this old malmsey to keep the cold at bay, but regarding eiswein I thought it was regarded as not of the highest quality. Perhaps it's rareness is the more important ingredient in keeping the price up. Any thoughts Andre?
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by djewesbury »

Eiswein is very much a high quality affair. Since it is so rare, and since every grape (not just every bunch) is individually picked this is a very labour intensive operation. The Australians may just bung a bunch of grapes in the freezer. Not so the Germans. A bottle of this can fetch a very high price; in fact it's usually only sold in quarter bottles.
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Re: Any chances of a white Christmas?

Post by AW77 »

Hm, I think that a TBA (Trockenbeerenauslese) is the highest rung of the quality ladder:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_wine_classification
But an ice wine is almost on par with a TBA in terms of quality.
Ice wine can be made in any region where it might freeze below at least -7 degrees C. So it's not only in Germany that ice wine is produced. The Canadians are very good at it, too.
The price of the wine is not only determined by the extensive labour involved. In a news report that I read, one vinter told the reporter, that instead of producing 150 l of ice wine he could have had 2000 bottles of very good dry wine in late summer. So keeping some of your best grapes on the vine for ice wine is also a financial gamble (if it doesn't freeze, then you can write this potential investment off). I guess that the years in which the vintner looses his bet against nature will also affect the calculation for the price of the ice wine.
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