A Question for the Met' Men
 

A friend is about to launch his boat this weekend and I've been watching the weather.

A day or so ago, I saw a depression developing in "German Bight" - just west of Jutland. This quite vigorous depression is now travelling up the North Sea, will come abeam the Moray Firth, before turning south, and then turning east and vanishing into the same area from whence it came. I cannot recall ever seeing a depression forming in this area before and behaving quite like this one.

For the Met men, or weather watchers, on here (Mr LB perhaps), how unusual is it for a depression to develop in the way this one has done?

Looking a bit damp on the Moray Coast https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/...ime=1591317000
and the Lossie TAF is too -

A proper legitimate opportunity for a met man to bore the effing tits off us all and no one turns up.

Who would have thought it?

Hope all our brave met folk are okay.

Quite - and you could paraphrase Billy Connolly who once said "Don't vote for Politicians - it only Efiing encourages them!"

Where's LB?

Missed the boat with the situation described.
My seaweed is long shrivelled, my crystal balls have dropped off, and the fir cones have fircked off.

I do, however, have a question for the erstwhile clients. Several books read recently on Gulf War One, including one by the SAS RSM, stress the bitter night cold and generally nasty weather, and further stress total unpreparedness in that regard. Clothing totally inadequate. The cold was unbriefed, seemingly.

At the time I was CMetO BFG, with massive Tornado deployment to the Gulf under consideration. Similarly, 1 BR Corps was organising for war. S Met O 1 BR Corps briefed G OC and his staff on the climatology and warned the region was not all bondhu boots and brown knees. He sent his material to me in time for the Heads of Branch RAFG brief, and I warned and briefed the Air Staff similarly. This was part of what the US call Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield. There was some surprise and scepticism when I sat down. The brief was then sent to S Met Os Laarbruch, Bruggen, Wildenrath and Gutersloh.

My question is: did the RAF in theatre feel unprepared for the climate, and, if so, whose fault was it?

Boring enough?

The depression in question is now depressing the good folks of East Anglia and will soon vanish near its point of origin in sea area German Bight. The sun is shining now in Aberdeenshire, and it will soon be time to wheel out the "Black Orb" referred to occasionally in another thread!

I cannot exactly answer langleybaston's question about how prepared were the RAF for the climate in theatre in GW1; but, having spent 22 years in that neck of the woods, albeit further south, I can confirm that it is certainly not always warm and dry in the desert, particularly at night and in winter. However, in summer, I would say the climate is just right for bondhu boots and tee shirts.

Dan, you'd better get the afterburner running on the bbq, the beast has returned over the North coast and is on its way back!

Wx radar

A weather pattern in the North Sea like that one has occurred three memorable times during the time I lived in the north East Midlands. The difference was that it was winter or early spring. We were deluged in heavy snow on each of these occasions, twice being cut off for days and on one occasion approximately two hundred occupants of vehicles trapped in the snow had to be accommodated for some nights in local village halls and elsewhere. However, because it didn’t occur near a “media important” area, none of it appeared on the news. The snow falls reported in the media were far less than we saw.

Shy, methinks you refer to the classic Polar lows that come belting down the North Sea in a howling winter northerly, giving rise to the famous Binbrook colour state trend of BLU TEMPO RED. This particular low seems to have woken up in Helgoland, ran around clobbering various coasts and is on its way back to bed.

Possibly but the low pressure areas in each case I’m referring to didn’t move far; they stayed in place and occluded fronts rotated around them. There was very little wind. On one occasion we saw nearly two feet of non drifting snow and most of that fell overnight in about seven hours.

Green Flash, you were right: rain started about 20 minutes after I had lit the "afterburner": aka the chimney starter. Cooked a couple of ribeyes just fine with the Weber's lid on.

Still raining/showering in Aberdeenshire this morning, maybe from fronts around the same low.

Oh it was - bucketing down all day and much of the night! Parched fields appreciated it.

Good pint, Lingo Dan - unusual to see a depression start there and turn like that.