First snows

The temperature has dropped over the past day or so and the North wind has blown the first snows over our hills.

We share our 59° latitude with Stockholm and Oslo, are four degrees closer to the north pole than Moscow and, in terms of latitude are closer to Helsinki, Rekjavik and Anchorage than we are to London. But we rarely share the amount of snow or the below zero temperatures with our northern neighbours.

I guess this is due to our island archipelago being a few lumps of low lying rocks surrounded by sea and just catching the tail end of the gulf stream. Probably lots of other reasons that weather experts can fill me in on but I reckon there must be a wind factor involved, basically there's not much weather that isn't blown onwards within a couple of days.

One things for sure, on days like this the wind drives the cold into your bones and it's a good idea to wear a simmet.