Got your hip boots ready?:)

I don't even have a winter coat that fits. All past winter, including through the snowy periods, I wore sweaters and vests. No scarf, no mittens/gloves, no boots, no coat.

Really, to see all those people each morning with heavy coats on, scarfs around their neck and gloves on... only because it's 7C. Find it weird that people get the flu? They have no resistance this way.

Nay! The reason they get cold/flu is because inside, in winter, the building is sealed so every sneeze and cough hangs in the air longer than a drafty one open in summer. Also all that hot very dry air makes the nasal passage dry out much faster. No liquid snot to catch the nasty bugs so they burrow in to the nose and the bloodstream. At lest that is the theory. YMMV.

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two winters ago we had -23 C in mid January - even the Russians say Berlin is cold!
Of course, just now it's 13 C outside and if you want white Christmas you'll need a lot of icing sugar.

Then again, maybe the Indios have it right http://www.physiologus.de/schneemau.htm sorry german only. I know the story as 'die sechs Fragen die der Weisse und die sechs Fragen die der Indianer stellte' and it is a folk tale from the Mapuche indios in the south of Chile.

Yup, -9F is cold.

This season, we've been as low as 7F so far, and that was in November. December hasn't been lower than 17. Right now we're below freezing for the first time in a couple of weeks. Supposed to stay like this through Saturday and then go back up a little next week. Doesn't look like a white Christmas here.

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It all depends upon how you define a white christmas.

Met Office

Well, using the MET office standard, Sunny California will have a white Christmas ... http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-120.3556319580078&lat=39.337971864646704#.VnMZtlIiZJl

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Wrong thread, eh?

Wrong universe too, I suppose.


Meowsigh...

Doin' fine this morning, kids....
Slept well, read my story in my thread.
Other than that, have a fine day y'all.

Meow.

It all depends upon how you define a white christmas.

Met Office

That's a far cry from the standard around here. Wikipedia says "In the United States, the official definition of a white Christmas is that there has to be a snow depth of at least 1 in or 2.5 cm at 7:00 a.m. local time on Christmas morning, and in Canada the official definition is that there has to be more than 2 cm (0.79 in) on the ground on Christmas Day."

They're saying we're more likely to have a wet Christmas. Highs in the 40sF and rain Wednesday and Thursday.

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Have a fine one without me and the kitties.
This is going to be a rather bleak Christmas season for the kitties.......
Might have some fun dishing.

The NSA and I still have some things to dish out.

I once had more clearance than JFK.

You know what that got him.........they are coming scary fast for me as well.

I have had comms...........might be my last post here. OR ever,.



Mewo....................................meow.

While you are pondering my previous post/////////
Why do you think I own one of the largest home owned computing networks on the planet? Not just to do Seti, I assure you.;


Best get your shorts in order, kids.

What I show online is just a tidbit of what I am running here.

I have more online than the NSA will admit.

They know me, I know them.
A rather pretty arrangement, but could crash at any moment.

The only way I get away with this is that I am eyeballing them at this very moment.

I know them.\

They know me..................

Looking at the forecasts, this Chris(t)mas is going to be a wet one. But no lines of coke. Oh, not that snow?

As for Mark, people, he's had his final warning. It's either, or, and all his own decision.

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Well, my energy company isn't liking it because I am using way too little gas to warm the flat. Of course, having just installed a new HRE central heating installation, meant that we're already using less electricity and less gas than before with the VR installation. But with no cold to speak of - we even had the doors open today - I don't think they like having to pay me back €150,- on my end-of-year energy bill.

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I do not understand, Jord.
I looked before I posted that, and I seemed to see that you you were allowing some active link posts...
My bad, buddy...........my bad.\

I do not understand, Jord.
I looked before I posted that, and I seemed to see that you you were allowing some active link posts...
My bad, buddy...........my bad.\

And I suppoze it is rather a grazing glance when I have another post open for youtube posts.
Just another mod making a line in the useleass sand, I think.
Could not move them.............do not wish to be my slave............
And who does it hurt, exactly?
My posting in the 'wrong tread'///
I know I was almost mortally wounded in doing so..............you might consider that.

Meowmortallywounded.

You've got two or three threads that you can post your Youtube links into, there is totally no use to put them in this thread. Especially not since it irritates some people, who do not want to read your stuff.

This isn't the first weekend-start that I am moving multiple of your posts to your own thread(s). But it will be the last.

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Looking at the forecasts, this Chris(t)mas is going to be a wet one. But no lines of coke. Oh, not that snow?

Same here...disappointing. Being that we travel just over an hour to my wife's family home, I don't really want snow on the streets but a little on the grass would be nice.

traditional Xmas scenes with snow like they portray on Xmas cards.

Traditional Christmas in these parts has always been a green world. Real (astronomical) Winter has only just begun 4 days before Christmas, how do you expect to have snow immediately then?

Seeing all the statistics everyone puts out, the chances for a white Christmas are, except for in Antarctica (!) low all over the world. It's more a fluke of weather than it is something that needs to be. No matter what Bing sings.

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In terms of the Seasons, they are based upon the Solstices and Equinoxes. In the Northern Hemisphere, the 4 astronomical seasons are:

spring - March Equinox to June Solstice; March 1 - May 31;
summer - June Solstice to September Equinox; June 1 - August 31
autumn - September Equinox to December Solstice; September 1 - November 30
winter - December Solstice to March Equinox; December 1 -February 28 (February 29 in a Leap Year).

You'll find that those are the meteorological dates.

Meteorological winter is a three month period that runs from Dec 1st to the end of February. It is the coldest three month period of the year in the northern hemisphere. Astronomical winter is what we all refer to when we talk about the winter season and this is based on when the sun reaches the most southern point on the globe, the Tropic of Capricorn. If you are located right on the Tropic of Capricorn at 12:00 noon on the first day of astronomical winter, the sun will be directly overhead. Also, on the first day of astronomical winter, the sun is at its lowest point in our sky at 12:00 noon and, of course, it is the shortest day of the year. Obviously, it is the first day of the summer season in the southern hemisphere.

(source)

Tuesday, December 1, 2015, 10:39 AM - According to the calendar, the First Day of Winter isn't for another 20 days (21 if you're in Atlantic Canada), yet for meteorologists and climatologists today - December 1 - is the start of Meteorological Winter. Here's why.

The way that we typically track the seasons is by their astronomical definitions. No matter whether you're in the northern or southern hemisphere, Spring starts on the day of the Vernal Equinox, when our tilted Earth is just in the right spot in its orbit that the Sun appears to cross the equator, headed towards being higher in the daily sky. In the north this is in late March, while in the south, it's in late September. The Summer Solstice is when the Sun reaches its peak height in the sky, in late June in the north and late December in the south. The Autumnal Equinox is the exact opposite of the Vernal Equinox, as the sun appears to cross the equator, and is headed towards being lower in our daily skies, and the Winter Solstice is when the Sun reaches its lowest height in the sky and the cycle repeats.

The only part that varies with this cycle is that the exact day - the 20th, 21st, 22nd or 23rd of the appropriate month - can differ from year to year.

However, while that works for us in the astronomical sense, it doesn't necessarily work with our weather and climate. To better account for how temperatures change throughout the year, atmospheric scientists set their 'seasonal calendar' a bit differently.

Meteorological Spring begins on March 1, Summer on June 1, Autumn on September 1 and Winter on December 1.

(source)

The exact time and date of the December Solstice in 2015 is 4:45 UTC on Tuesday, December 22.

Because of the timing of this particular solstice, different parts of Canada will actually start astronomical winter on different days this year!

For anyone in the Eastern Time Zone and westward (UTC-5 or greater) it will still be the night of Monday, December 21 when the northern hemisphere reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. Thus, they start Winter first.

For those in the Atlantic and Newfoundland Time Zones (UTC-4 and UTC-3.5, respectively), however, the clock will have already ticked over into the early hours of December 22.

Not to worry, though. This won't mean a longer winter for anyone. Since the March Equinox happens at 4:30 UTC on March 20 in 2016, we'll repeat the same pattern. For anyone who keeps time by EST or westward, winter ends on the night of March 19, while in Atlantic Canada, it will be after midnight on March 20.

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Asteroid to fly past Earth on Christmas Eve, but scientists dismiss claims that rock will cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

Says enough, I guess. Happy Christmas!

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Also, on the first day of astronomical winter, the sun is at its lowest point in our sky at 12:00 noon and, of course, it is the shortest day of the year.

Which is neither the day with the darkest morning (latest sunrise), nor the day with the darkest evening (earliest sunset).

The U S Naval Observatory has a handy little gadget which produces a table of sunrise and sunset times for anywhere you like. The darkest morning here is either 29 or 30 December, when sunrise is at 08:26 (it was 08:22 today) - they don't print the seconds, so you can't be exact. Similarly, the evenings are already getting lighter, with sunset at 15:47 today - it's been listed as 15:46 for the last 10 days.

The only problem is that I live between two hills, so the times are completely wrong for actual observations.....