Winter 2016 : Really serious frost

Came out to send the kids to school to these..

And frosted grasses too!

Useful article - Keep off lawn on frosty mornings

Winter 2016 : -10c? Nahhh….

When I saw this on the net, I just don’t think Manchester will get another round of snow.

Winter 2016 : Storm G H

It stands for Gertrude and Henry.

Gertrude was on January 29 and Henry was on February 1-2. 

Scotland and Northern England was the most impacted by Gertrude (school closure, travel disruptions) but we can still feel the strong wind in Manchester. 

Henry? Horrid Henry. Northeast of England was deeply impacted with flood, fallen trees and overturned vehicles. Here, our storm windows were rattling like crazy at night. The wind was so strong. I cant imagine how people at the impacted areas put up with stronger wind, more than 100 miles per hour!

Poor man! I am glad that he is okay.

I have seen a few people blown off their feet due to the gust (sudden rush of wind) around my campus. There were times that I have to hold onto the wall or a bollard or my friend during the gust. It was so sudden and you can easily lose control, most of the time I felt like falling to the ground. Well, maybe because my backpack was so heavy. 

I still remember the time when me and my friends were walking from one lecture venue to the other in a chill winter afternoon. As the wind picked up, we have to walk backward or sideways all the way to the building because walking towards the wind was hard.

I am going to miss Manchester for this. Never in my life, I walk backward to attend any lecture. 

This is a snippet from Euronews to show you how it was like when the wind picked up.

Great article on wind (here)

Winter 2016 : Post-snowman

This is how we dry the gloves.

Winter 2016 : No green

When your eyes are really tired from reading and staring at the computer screen, you look out of the window to see some greens to relax... and you only see these:

It does add a considerable amount of stress on top of your exam stress.

Winter 2016 : Snow in January

We are going to miss this view.

From my bedroom window.

Our neighbours asked us to join them to the Heaton Park (a large park with hills covered with snows and you can sledge there) at 7am but I need to study. I am one day away from my final exam. 

Kids are having fun around the house, playing with what's left from yesterday's evening. So it doesnt matter if we dont go to the Heaton Park. Nazran went inside after 10 minutes because he cant stand the cold.

It was really hard to roll the snow to make a huge ball. I gave up half way. It was painfully cold working with a wet snow. Someone wore my snow gloves and I ended up with thin wool gloves. It got wet pretty quick.

They made these. 
They rolled the snowball at other area with thick snow and put the parts together in front of our house. I have a bowl of warm water ready for them if their fingers started to feel painfully cold.

The snowmen were still standing later that day (and the next day). I keep checking every 10 minutes because I was studying by the window. I saw passers-by took photographs and selfies with these snowmen. lol.

Winter 2016 : What is that? asked Nazran. Hey, it is snowing outside!!!

....and everybody ran out the door. Extremely happy to see and touch snow for the first time.

We were on Skype, chatting with my parent when Nazran asked me what are those white thing falling down outside. It took me almost 20 seconds to digest. Leaves falling? Autumn is over. Bugs? No bugs flying in the winter. Kids throwing confetti outside? Maybe. Hmmm... or maybe it is a big raindrop? ice? SNOW??

It is snow, alright.

We just spent a few minutes outside. It was freezing cold. 

Alhamdulillah the snow is sticking. At 8pm, it is getting thicker. We gave a chance for the kids to go out and play with the snow. We spend less then 10 minutes outside. No one can stand the cold so I asked them to bring the snow inside. haha.

At 11pm, we went out again. It was a pure joy seeing them running around, having a snowball fight (well, it wasnt fun to be the target) and giggling. 

Designer cowl in action *ehem* :)

 

My snow kids

 

Winter 2016 : Really serious frost

We have experienced frost a few times before. It gave us false hope for snow. This is so far the most 'serious' frost. It was so hard to scrap it off the windshield when we want to send Nazran to his school that morning. 

At this point of time (January 2016) we have stop hoping for snow +_+ Some people said there will be no snow in Greater Manchester this year although some parts of the UK have snowstorm. Life goes on. 

 

Winter 2015 : Daffodils

I went to the campus to check the venue of my final exam. On the way back, I saw these beautiful things coming out of the ground!

Spring is in the air!

Winter 2015 : Winter Solstice 2015

22 December 2015.

Shortest day. Longest night. The sun is at its lowest point in the sky at this part of the world.

Sunrise: 8.04am

Sunset: 3.53pm

The problem in winter:

You cook for lunch on weekends (weekdays the kids are at school) and it already getting dark when you finished doing your dishes and clean the kitchen. Then, suddenly your kids come and ask when they are going to have dinner. It is only 4pm.

It is a new thing for us. 

It gets dark very early. We were confused. The night seems sooooooo long. When the kids arrived from school, it is already night. The next morning, when they left home for school, it still dark (and rainy!).

We went to sleep at 6pm because we didnt know what else to do. It was really cold, so no point of watching TV downstairs. Then we woke up at 11pm, feeling like we have been sleeping for ten hours and wondering how long we have to put up with this kind of weather. We just went downstairs to cook and eat, the rest of the day, we spent under the duvet.

By the end of winter, Nabil and Nazreen gained 10kg.

Winter 2015 : Storm D E F

In December, we welcomed Storm Desmond (5-6 Dec), Storm Eva (24 Dec) and Storm Frank (29-30 Dec). These are some of the headlines from the Manchester Evening News:

Although we missed the worst of Desmond (Cumbria was the worst hit), we still get strong wind (strong as in you feel the wind could possibly blew off your roof anytime) and torrential rain. Maybe we got stronger wind because we are on the hill.

Eva gave us Boxing Day flood in the Greater Manchester. We didnt aware about that. We initially planned to go out but then we decided to stay at home. Little that we know that areas around us were submerged and there is no way out from here. River Irwell bursts its banks, Salford and city centre were flooding, Rochdale was submerged. Luckily we live on a hill. Alhamdulillah. Me and the kids were on break so I didnt have to endure the flood in the city to go to the class. I just follow the update on the net while doing my essays. 

Frank, we missed him. But we still got the strong wind and rain. How people in the UK put up with these all this while...+_+ Storm after storm after storm banging our windows while I was doing my essays at night. The feeling is really unsettled.

Winter 2015 : WINTER and winter solstice

First entry on our experiences during winter in the Manchester.
Let's learn about winter!

From the Met Office:

When does winter start?

The day in our calendar that marks the first day of winter usually refers to the astronomical seasons which are a result of the Earth's axis and orbit around the sun. However, at the Met Office we often use a meteorological definition of the seasons. Let's take a brief overview of the difference.How you define the first day of winter depends on whether you are referring to the astronomical or meteorological winter.

Meteorological and astronomical seasons

Astronomical seasons are relative to the position of the Earth's orbit around the sun taking into account equinoxes and solstices. Meteorological seasons are instead based on annual temperature cycles measuring the meteorological state and coinciding with the Gregorian calendar to determine a clear transition and equal length of season.

Meteorological winter season

This year the meteorological winter began on 1 December 2015 and will end on 29 February 2016.

The meteorological seasons consists of splitting the seasons into four periods made up of three months each. These seasons are split to coincide with our Gregorian calendar making it easier for meteorological observing and forecasting to compare seasonal and monthly statistics. By the meteorological calendar, winter always starts on 1 December.

The seasons are defined as Spring (March, April, May), Summer (June, July, August), Autumn(September, October, November) and Winter (December, January, February).

Astronomical winter season

This year the astronomical winter begins on 22 December 2015 and ends on 20 March 2016.

The astronomical calendar determines the seasons due to the 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth's rotational axis in relation to its orbit around the sun (winter solstice). Both equinoxes and solstices are related to the Earth's orbit around the sun (more here).

Fall 2015 : AUTUMN & what is autumn equinox

So, I am going to start blog entries on winter. Before that, let's learn about autumn (or I use 'fall' throughout this blog title).

From the Met Office:

When is Autumn?

Autumn is the transition season between summer and winter, best noticed by the colour change in leaves and the harvest.

Perhaps the most noticeable sign of autumn in the UK is the changing colours of the leaves. As a result of the falling temperatures in autumn, the chemical in the leaves that makes them green (chlorophyll) begins to break down while other chemicals (including Carotene) remain to give the leaves their yellow, red and brown colours.

The most vibrant displays of autumn leaves are evident when a dry summer is followed by an autumn with dry, sunny days and cold, but not freezing, nights.

Autumn according to the meteorological calendar begins in September and ends in November. In the astronomical calendar, the beginning of autumn is marked by the autumn equinox which occurs around the 22 September.

During the autumn equinox the sun shines directly on the equator and day and night around the globe are of almost equal length - a day and night of roughly 12 hours each.

Autumn has been significant in many cultures throughout history and even today many festivals and events around the globe occur around the autumn equinox, for example the Moon Festival in China or Michaelmas in the UK (more here).

Fall 2015 : Astronomical seasons

Living in four seasons country is new to us. We didnt know what to expect because the temperature is constantly changing, our surrounding is changing and I need to check the weather forecast frequently before I could decide what to wear to my class everyday. No two days are the same here. Especially if you are living in Manchester.

Met Office is my favourite website here. I learn something new everyday from them.

Now, let's learn about the four astronomical seasons and when each season starts.

(Source: Met Office)

From the Met Office:

Solstices and equinoxes are considered to be the astronomical transition points between the seasons and mark key stages in the astronomical cycle of the earth. In a year there are two equinoxes (spring and autumn) and two solstices (summer and winter). The dates of the equinoxes and solstices aren't fixed due to the Earth's elliptical orbit of the sun. The Earth's orbit around the sun means that in early January, the sun is closest (known as perihelion) and in early July it is most distant (aphelion).

Interesting, isn't it?

Fall 2015 : The fog

This is the beginning of our experience on the weather roller coaster in Manchester.

One morning, we woke up and found our house covered in thick fog. It was Nazran's first day at school.

The whole journey to the school was like a setup in a horror movie with silent roads and heavy banks of fog. Well, maybe there were people walking nearby but we cant see them. The visibility was less than 40 metres.

I went to the campus after meeting Nazran's teacher and came back at 8pm. I have a class which ended at 7pm and it took me one hour to reach home. The fog was thick, still. It was so scary walking alone in the fog, at night. You cant really see if there is bad people until they come too close. Walking for 15 minutes seems like an hour.

This is one of the news headlines on the fog:

Flight disruption at Manchester Airport as fog causes traffic and travel problems across region

Let's learn about fog from the MET office: