WINTER 2006-7- part 1: The raging Atlantic brings chaos...

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Flooding, landslides, severe gales and coastal damage have now been added to the list of things that happen when the Atlantic runs the weather-show, on top of the tornadoes and thunderstorms that have characterised the late Autumn-early Winter weather this year. It's all settled down now, at last (December 20th) and we have a great big anticyclone slap-bang over the UK. The air aloft in this high pressure is relatively warm, but at ground level we are losing heat due to to the process of radiative cooling, which allows heavy frost and freezing fog to form. Thus we approach the Winter Solstice with more seasonal weather than of late.....

This one carries on from where the last page left off! From then onwards, things started to go downhill! Overnight severe gales on the 2nd-3rd caused a certain amount of chaos, with gusts to 99mph recorded in SW Wales early on the 3rd. I've now remembered that both this image and the one on the page before date from December 5th. Multiple thunderstorms occurred on that day, on the 7th and to a lesser extent on the 12th - more thunderstorms in one short period than for any other given period this year. Just goes to show they are not an exclusively summertime phenomenon! Let's deal with the 7th first....
I was awoken by loud thunder around 0430 on the 7th and spent a while watching a good light-show through the window. Later, storm-force winds and an early morning high Spring tide prompted a careful drive down to the coast. Here, under leaden skies, a very high tide in the Estuary laps the Cambrian Coast railway at a boatyard near Aberdyfi. Things were going to get more "interesting" by the time I reached the open coast.....
Arrival at Tywyn coincided with a squally thunderstorm that had me quite worried - and I'm used to violent weather! The winds were gusting to 70-80mph and large trees were in serious danger of being uprooted as the sheets of mixed rain and hail roared through the town. So I found a place to park away from anything that might blow over and sat it out. As the storm cleared I moved off again, making my way to the prom, only to find most of it closed as waves crashed over the sea-wall and spray and foam, mixed with rain, sailed through the air. This made it pretty difficult to get a decent pic - combining a storm-force wind, salty spray and foam and low light levels are not a good mix! I got the above shot from inside the jeep which was rocking under each gust - it shows the foam all over the northern prom, as if someone has squirted shaving-foam everywhere! After that I headed around to the Sandylands part of the town - where the waves are breaking in the distance...
....but this was about as close as you could get! I know the Canon A1 is a tough workhorse of a camera, but getting it immersed in salt water was not anywhere in Plan A! Meanwhile, rising winds and darkening skies announced another incoming squall....
A quick biological break. These were everywhere on the Prom. I picked one up and scanned an image of it, enlarged about 5x. It's a jellyfish-type creature, related to the much larger Portugese Man O' War. It has an elongated disclike body with a clear "sail" - folded down in this image. The fringe of the disc is a distinctive vivid to deep blue colour. Meet Velella velella, or as it is known by its common name, the By The Wind Sailor. Its usual residence is around the Azores, but its sail makes it prone to travelling wherever the prevailing winds take it - hence the name. It has no choice in the matter. So, the long period of winds from the SW has brought it away from the warmth of home, into a raging Atlantic, and finally to be cast up in its millions on the shores of Cardigan Bay. Mass-strandings of these creatures occur most years but usually in the summer. This is by far the latest time of year that I've seen one...
Moving north again to let the squall pass. This is looking southwards towards Tonfanau...
...and looking south from Llanegryn. More flashes of lightning and booms of thunder accompanied the torrential rain and sheets of hail. The next really dramatic dose was served up on the 10th-11th. Awaking early on the 11th, I checked out the BBC News website to find: "The BBC Weather Centre has said an "extraordinary" amount of rain has fallen in north Wales overnight. Between 1200 GMT on Sunday and 0700 GMT on Monday, 11.4cm (4.4 in) had fallen at the weather station in Capel Curig, Snowdonia. A motorist had to be rescued after becoming trapped in floodwater on Monday morning. He was forced to abandon his car on the A487 Dyfi Bridge in Machynlleth, Powys after being reached by firefighters.... Heavy rain is thought to have caused a landslide which closed a stretch of the A470 in Gwynedd for a period during Sunday evening and Monday morning." Sounds like something to check out....
The footbridge at Machynlleth station is as good a vantage point as any. From here it was obvious that a major valley-flood was ongoing. You could hear the waters roaring from here!
Down by the Dyfi Ecopark. In the distance are several abandoned vehicles. Every time there is a flood like this, some people attempt to drive through. Unless you have a Unimog or a County Tractor, it really isn't a good idea and it can be very dangerous in deteriorating conditions. Diesel car owners should be particularly careful especially as so many have low-down air intakes. Tremendous numbers of diesel engines have been wrecked along this stretch after sucking in water. Beware! Time to check out that landslide. I headed out of town to Cemmaes Road and then up the A470 to Dinas...
Evidence of a massive rainfall was everywhere. This was a common sight - taken between Cwm Llinau and Mallwyd. Water, water everywhere....
The landslide debris had been cleared off the road now. It seems what happened was that a small stream had been temporarily dammed, perhaps by a small initial landslip or by a falling tree. The dam would have ponded water until it gave under the pressure, at which point a wall of watery debris would have roared down the hillside. Luckily, nobody was passing at the time...
Photography conditions were difficult with a strong winter sun shining at lowish angles through a clear but slightly hazy sky. Here the trees that the surge brought with it are visible. Apart from taking out a couple of fences it did little serious damage...
By now Midday was approaching and I made my way to Dyfi Bridge. Here, the A487 crosses the river. It is the first road bridge upstream from the estuary; the original bridge was built in 1533 and replaced by this one in 1805. Here, the main river-channel is at the northern edge of the flood-plain: the floods pictured in the earlier images are from the flood-plain's southern edge, 600m away. The solidly-constructed bridge has survived this, and other, heavier floods.....
Any book on landscape photography will tell you that Midday sunshine makes for tricky conditions. However, with a swirling flood raging in the foreground and the sun shining directly at you, it is possible, by exposing the film for the sunlight on the water, thereby underexposing everything else, to create some interesting shots. This is on the downstream side of the bridge....
...while this is on the upstream side.
Zoom-in away from the direct sun - this was raging!
A final shot taken half a mile or so westwards on the Aberdyfi road, again metered for the sunlit floodwater. Classic valley-width flood of the type seen most years, but some of the most interesting light-conditions I've seen (it's usually just dull and grey when floods are on the go!)....
On Sunday 17th December I found these along the roadside near Aberdyfi - many of them. On Monday 18th December I had a meeting at a colleague's house in Talybont and daffodils were flowering in his garden. Perhaps this more seasonal crisp frosty weather has arrived just in time! There is definately something afoot with the climate of the UK. 2006 is again likely to have broken the "warmest year since records began" record. That's just one of many records that have fallen this year. It is easy to speculate how this might affect us in future years, whatever the cause - and there are people who do not go with the CO2 forcing as the major cause, although I am not one of them. My view is that, although we cannot be sure as to specifics, there are two key possibilities. Either we experience a gradual change in the synoptic patterns, or we keep those of today but we will experience changes in their intensity. Either way, the main issues in the long term are likely to be geopolitical in their nature, the risk being that people living in areas prone to hazards arising from the changes will be displaced. In such a situation, there may be many people on the move - refugees in other words. All of that may lie some way off, but whatever the cause of climate change, it needs to be prepared for. One enormous problem I see, just here in the UK, is that the public are not given sufficient detailed information to be able to make reasoned choices, with almost any aspect of the natural world. The inevitable outcome has been that we have gradually severed ourselves from the natural world about us - a world that we depend upon for our very survival, but a world that we instead view as something to recklessly plunder and pollute. If we all understood the world better perhaps we might change our ways - or have we got too used to "convenience"? Will our epitaph finally be "They could have stopped it, but it was regarded as very inconvenient to do so, so they didn't"? I only understand a few aspects of what makes this small corner of Planet Earth tick - its geology and its meteorology to be precise, and only because I have dedicated so many years into doing so. As we go into 2007 and through the years beyond, and the as yet unknown weather events they will bring, I'll continue to try and impart as much as possible of what I have grown to understand - and love - about this fascinating corner of our dynamic and constantly changing planet. Happy New Year! John
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