Zero Celsius

Yesterday and today at night it was freezing here in Leeds: temperatures reached 0 C. For "the continent" it is quite usual to have the first frost at the end of October, but here in the UK the last time it has been so cold so early has been in 1937.

Weather

The weather is a favorite topic here in the UK. It changes often very quickly, and the western location of the British Isles means that they get all the rainy stuff from the Atlantic first, before it hits the rest of Europe.

When I arrived here 3 years ago in September, it had been quite warm and sunny, very little rain indeed. Also the following summer was quite pleasant. But the following two summers did not really deserve that name: in 2007 the summer was the wettest in history (based on weather records dating back more than 300 years). Widespread flooding has caused a lot of damage to many houses. And this year, there had not been a single really hot day (at least I cannot remember any). Frequent rain, sometimes for several days. Also quite cold, at least relative cold compared to the usual moderate temperatures. In the past few weeks there had been night temperatures down to 3C, which is very unusual. This had also the effect that this year the autumn leaves of the trees are more colorful, as the cold temperature caused the production of more sugar in the leaves, and that creates more colorful foliage (at least that is how I think it works). The effects can already be seen, as some trees show nice yellow and red leaves, instead of the usual simple browning-and-fading-away coloring.

There have been periods of nice weather too, bright sky, with its northerly light-blue shine. Not too bad afterall.

... and it is raining again!

Headingley Campus


Near the City Campus


Along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal

Torrential Rain

The weather forecast looked bleak - more rain coming. And it came today. Lots of flooding in East Yorkshire. 900 people trapped at their work places in Sheffield.
A man dies due to the flood.

Here in Leeds, some parts of the areas near the docks in the vicinity of the city centre (south of the train station) are flooded. Fortunately, our cottage is at the side of a hill, where the water can flow down... but there is some water seeping through the old walls.

This June had the most rainfall since they kept metreorological records.

Lots of rain lately...

View from my office on Caedmon Hall.

The month of April has been extrodinarily warm and sunny. But May and now June have been much wetter, with many days of rainfall and generally cool temperatures. Last week was basically constant rain, and on the night from Thursday to Friday there was such a downpour that the whole Yorkshire region suffered a lot of flooding. Many houses had their cellars under water, and people said that they had not seen such rain in the last 30 years, or even since the 1950s. This means there was some rain like this already at that time in the past...

Only on Sunday there was some sun which we used for a short hike in Ilkley Moor. Yesterday night was some thunder and flashes of lightning, something that is relatively rare here up north - at least during the last year I had not seen many thunderstorms here in Leeds.