MARCH 2004 PART 1:
Winter's last gasp??

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For me, as a weather photographer, March 2004 started off quietly but got gradually more interesting until an excellent few days of convective activity over the Spring Equinox weekend (part 2). But before then there was a late hill-snow event plus a few other odds & ends illustrated here....

.....saw this rainbow during the first week: the way the colours separated out so well appealed to me. Looking up the Dyfi valley towards Machynlleth.
The weather started to get a bit more interesting on the night of March 11. Snow fell heavily, not settling in town but on the hills it was a different story, with the strong winds causing drifting. This was taken (along with the next four) on March 12 along the Machynlleth-Llanidloes mountain road, showing drift after drift where the snow has blown off exposed fields...
...to adorn the roadside in beautiful natural sculptures...
...sticking to gorse-bushes in globs 30-50cm thick...
...and not sparing the sheep. They don't seem capable of looking fed up - maybe they like it??
Looking further up into the clag - snow was still falling to the east. A raw wind was blowing and lifted snow-grains stung the face. Further snow then came up from the SW, killing off the visibility, so I turned tail and left the hills to their own devices.
Within a couple of days the snow had gone and a mild southerly blew up, creating waves of orographic clouds to the north of the Plynlimon range, viewed sadly in fading light and haze but the lenticular structure is still visible....
..this and the previous shot being from near Trefeglwys, en route to Newtown for an evening meeting...
...as is this one taken through a watery sunset. Note the sharp horizontal striations to the cloud-bank R...
As the Spring Equinox approached, a severe gale was forecast and duly arrived on the 20th. It was not as strong as the Nov 14 2003 "Atlantic Bomb" we had filmed for TV, but still had enough power to down a number of trees and branches. Here at Aberdyfi, sand from the beach is blowing off into town...
...and in this composite the state of the sea may be compared on March 20 (above) and in last November's storm (below) when the winds peaked at Violent Storm 11 on the Beaufort Scale. March 20 was more like Severe Gale 9, occasionally Storm 10 - shows the difference between a couple of points on the scale! Anyway, the system brought in some welcome convective weather in its aftermath which Part 2 indulges itself in!
MARCH 2004 PART 2 BACK TO WEATHER-BLOG MENU New! Fine Art Prints & digital images for sale- Welsh Weather & Dyfi Valley landscapes Slide-Library - Click HERE