First real snowfall of the year, a bit late actually considering it's almost December and it usually snows at least once by mid November.

It’s very rare for it to snow in Cheshire in November, we usually get all the snow in January here!

You guys have a late start to winter. .LOL.

and that snow is now freezing hard! 

Oh yep! That happens here too (more likely in the fall or spring than mid-winter). That hard-frozen snow ain't fun stuff...

Well work started well!, got here at 7:30 to find big queues down the road, BOTH main gate’s frozen solid!, yard like a skating rink!, jet washes both frozen and all 4 heaters in workshop 2 have gone into burner lock out!, very busy morning for maintenance!, and there’s only 3 of us! 

Here in Israel is much hotter than the average temperatures of the month. Only at Tuesday or Wednesday the temperatures will go down. Now it is 28*C at Kiryat Ata.

When I was up in Old Town Maine we got about 4-6 inches! Lots of it froze to the side of trees and telephone poles! Back in Belmont we probably got somewhere around 3 or so inches. The tough part was that it was all slush underneath so it all froze the next night.

Friday here in Durham where I live was just insane. We had been warmed of Storm Arwen, and put on a red warning for wind. Most of Friday was alright although the wind did ever so slowly start to pick up during the day. But once night fell at 4PM it really started to pick up. Still at that point i thought nothing of it until it came to around Midnight Friday Night when it really really did pick up. Now extreme weather like this usually does not phase me and i enjoy it, but this storm i was worried. The wind was the worst i have ever seen / Heard / Witnessed. I have a fir tree in my garden that is probably around 40ft tall, and that was at a 45 degree angle for around 2 and a half hours, bits of tree was flying off and littering the roads, roof tiles were lost, my fence was destroyed. My brick house walls  were actually moving slightly when it really gusted. My windows were rattling, all my fluorescent ceiling lights were rattling on the ceilings! My garden fence was destroyed. It was flapping like a sheet of paper! The 3x3 fence  posts just snapped! I thought the fence was going to smash through the kitchen window at one point! All the windows were howling, the glass was shaking the PVC frames rattling, i thought it was going to blow my windows out! LUCKILY my aluminium greenhouse totally survived!... i have never in all my 32 years experienced wind like it, i reckon it was not far off of being Hurricane Force! Easily 90-100MPH winds. Many people in the street lost roof tiles, ridge tiles etc, 1000s of wooden power poles down, lanterns down, trees down, brick buildings blown down, roofs blown off, sea surges  Fences ripped down, trampolines flying about, the lot, amazing but a very scary night. I did not get to sleep until gone 3am. I know this is nothing compared to hurricanes parts of the USA can get but this was something i was not used to

Yeah, you would have had the brunt of it where you are Dan!, plus you have that massive open space across the road from you and probably got the full force of the wind coming across it! 

Unusually it was actually coming from the opposite direction (North) from the back of my house. 

Geez Danny! Glad to hear you and your house are fine!

@AngryHorse:
Whoa.. Must have gotten pretty dang cold there!

@dor123:
Its been warmer than average here for the past month as well. (not hot by any means, but certainly warmer & dryer than normal (even had a few red-flag warning days for wildfire risk which is really unusual for this time of year(luckily no large fires))

@Danny:
Parts of that description bring back exact memories/thoughts from one night here. So I know what you were feeling..
Around 20 years ago we had a nighttime (really got going middle of the night) windstorm come through here with gusts in that range
Fluorescent lights on the ceiling did rattle when a strong gust would blast through! The house made some creaking sounds I've never heard before & would rather not hear again. I also felt a bit of movement.
It was honestly kinda un-nerving thinking could this thing actually damage the house
Being winter there was no leaves on the trees, but they were still whipping around pretty good.

I'd say this was the strongest wind I've ever heard/felt in all the years of living here. (getting strong wind here is pretty normal, but not to that level!).
I actually went out in it .lol. and up on the roof too! Had some Christmas decorations up there & I heard that stuff start moving so had to go up & take care of it...
Oh and don't try to stand in wind like that! You've got 2 choices to avoid being blown over: find something to grab ahold of, or sit down! (I did both) then simply a matter of waiting a minute or 2 for the gust to pass through, then walk while its slowed between gusts.

Lost part of a fence & some branches, might have lost a couple shingles too, but overall minimal damage
There were ofcourse other trees/fences/etc around with damage.

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And spring of 2020, I had a 50-foot elmtree taken out by 80+ mph wind in whats called a 'Derecho' storm. (that one set a new record & first time I've ever seen one..Derechos don't normally happen here).
Lots of trees around the area were taken down by that storm.

That sounds terrifying!, I’ve watched countless YouTube videos of US storms, some are pretty scary, especially how the wind just goes to nothing to about 100 MPH within minutes! 
I doubt British houses would stand up to an American storm!, about the worst storm winds we have here in Cheshire are only 50 to 60 MPH and they rattle the windows, god help us if we ever get a US type Supercell storm! 

We were in the "red zone" for the 90mph winds, we certainly heard it outside, but we didn't suffer any damage and there was nothing more visible in the morning than a few bits of twig detached from trees, so we escaped lightly.

Looks like things are not improving at all in BC, with even more rain being forecast, as if they needed it. Abbotsford in particular is having a very hard time. I hope the people living there are doing OK!

@AngryHorse:
I watch storm vid's on YouTube as well (tornadoes in particular).
Yep that's how the wind is here, nothing to a sudden blast!

With that Derecho last year: before it arrived, I went up on the roof (yes I might be crazy!) specifically to watch it come in + get some pictures/video of the clouds I watched to the point where it was just beginning to spit an occasional raindrop (which in reality was right before arrival) then put away the camcorder & headed down...probably waited a bit too long .lol. because it hit as I was headed towards the window to go back in. Wind was so strong it made it hard to walk along the roof (luckily I was on the lower roof & could grab ahold of the wall)
When I was inside, that thing really got going, with the way the rain was coming down & the wind blasting, it looked kinda like something seen on a hurricane video! The type of storm you back away from the window, even though you really want to be right there watching.
Crazy thing is that storm blasted through so fast, that within a hour things were drying out, you'd hardly even know there was a storm (unless you saw something damaged).
Like a tree or this streetlight

I've experienced a couple supercells in my time (in their earlier stages). The hail is probably the most scary part!
I'm luckily too close to the mountains for tornadoes to be an issue. (one of these days if the time/place is right, I plan to go storm chasing & try to see one out on the eastern planes (really a matter of knowing what you're doing/being careful/and not getting too close which some of the YouTube guys do get far too close))


I don't know what British houses are built with, but they look pretty solid to me! (I believe construction is different there than here??)
In my area it looks like what you'd see in other parts of the US (wood 2x4 framing) but I once read something that said this area has 'special wind restrictions' where extra strengthening is required in the codes. I can deff understand why!

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@Foxtronix:
Feel free to send some of that rain this way! .lol.

Our house is double cavity brick walls, which would withstand high winds, but it’s British roof’s that would take a beating!
In UK house’s, it’s basically just the weight of the roof tiles over lapping each other that keeps them in place!, are US roof’s similar?