Winter 2024/25 - General Discussion

Wind and sleet last night. Dreadful. 2C this morning in a relentless dark sky.

On a happier note my first daffodils are in bloom. Tete a tete variety. A small glimpse of spring.

If we can't have proper cold be it snow or frosty bright weather then roll on spring. Sick of this dull damp ****. Once we get to mid Feb with no cold spell in sight that's me done regarding winter.

Still feeling very damp after a night of persistent rain but still and sunny now in Cork harbour.

'In the City of Chicago, as the evening shadows fall, there are people dreaming of the Hills of Donegal' 😊

And you don't have to go to Chicago!

Read this yesterday and it was just an interesting stat.

Looked it my Hive Thermostat graphs for the last week last night and the Heating was on for 7 or 8 hours most days when it is usually only on for 3 or 4 hours to maintain 20 degrees downstairs within the 7am to 10pm schedule. I went to sleep confused as to why this was.

My subconscious was obviously connecting the dots while I was asleep because I woke up this morning and my very first thoughts were the answer.

On any Heating or insulation related threads that I post on I'll usually mention how our Victorian end of terrace was renovated with Double glazing, insulated floors and attic but the walls are uninsulated but 2ft thick with all bar one of the many windows on the Southern and to a lesser extent western facing side and that even in the middle of Winter the Temperature of the house only drops 1degC in the 9 hours the heating schedule is off overnight. I always mention that part of that is the massive Solar gain we get from all the windows during the day and the massive Thermal Mass of the thick southern facing walls absorbing the suns radiant heat during the day and slowly releasing it into the house overnight.

Overnight during sleep my brain connected the dots between that and your Sunlight stats and my Hive graphs. ie. No Solar gain through the windows, Thermal mass heat in the walls has run out after not being topped up for a week. The Central Heating is having to pick up the slack without the Solar gain and thermal mass contributions this week doubling how long its needed to run. This is why the CH is having to work harder in this 5-6degC weather this week whereas it didn't earlier in the Winter when it was also around those temperatures. The difference back then was it was BRIGHT and cold unlike this week which has been DULL and cold.

Probably suffering some extreme IMBY'ism of which I too am guilty. ie. Ya ya, Meath got some snow in March 2023 but not in my area. Ba Humbug!! I want it in my front garden God dammit!! 😁

I even get frustrated when we get a fraction of the snow on Bray Seafront as the other side of Bray. If I wanted to see snow nearly every year I've got the Wicklow Mountains right on my doorstep but instead I'd moan that we didn't get any down on Bray Seafront. LOL

For myself and Gonzo, it might as well be snow in another country if we have to drive somehwere to find it! LOL

So this Winter I finally resolved to remove my excuse to moan. Bought myself some great albeit expensive All Weather Snow Rated tyres. I'm not stupid enough to try and drive over Sally Gap in the Snow even with those tyres but theres definitely parts of the foothills closer to busier roads and villages that regularily get snow most Winters but that wouldn't require Mountain rescue if I got stuck.

It was a wet cold over the last 2 days in Galway with rain showers. That's the worst type of cold. But the week was nice overall. I go for a run most evenings at 5:30pm and I haven't had to use my head torch for the first time this week. Nice stretch especially when no clouds. As winters go, I really enjoyed this one - last winter was much too wet particularly around Xmas.

Lots of 2000+ representing there, just as I expected. Funny that a nearly a full week of sun only just makes the list!

Out of interest how do you determine these? Is it from Met E data, or a light level less than a certain amount?

Is that from 'use your illusion 111'.

God, I hope you don't have to commute from Meath to Galway everyday. Sorry for being nosey, but I'm thinking of you traveling in the weather this time of year .

Awful day in Dublin again, the "stretch" in the evenings has been almost completely unnoticeable this past while, feels like there's barely any difference with two weeks ago with the endless dark gloom

Blessed with a beautiful sunny and surprisingly warm day in my part of Kerry. Perfect for a walk along some of the Dingle way (Kerry Camino) and a swim on Inch Beach afterwards. I hope it lasts.