Snow Line.

We've been experiencing a bit of a heatwave in Cumbria the last few days, temperatures have been over 20C, it's nothing short of a miracle!

Last November many parts of Cumbria experienced the heaviest rainfalls on record for the area. Places such as Workington and Cockermouth suffered badly, 2 places where I used to live were flooded. Those areas are on the road to recovery but it will be a long, slow process.

That rain was the last significant rainfall we had!

In December we had snow, snow and more snow, it lasted for 4 weeks on the lane that goes past my house, there were several times when we were snowed in completely, unable to even leave the garden because the snow turned to sheet ice. I have never experienced such a long and drawn out winter such as that.

Since then we've hardly had any rain, a few showers but not enough to be called proper Cumbrian rain. A friend of mine who has her water supply from a spring rather than mains has told me her water tank was empty about 3 weeks ago. It's only the 3rd time in 25 years she's had this happen and the first time it's happened so early in the year. We're all doing rain dances for her, it's hard not to have water whenever you turn on the tap or want to do your laundry or even to fill the kettle for a nice cup of tea.

What amazes me though is that there is still snow on the Pennines after 6 months. If you look at the photo you can see a line of snow just above the tree, how cold must it be up the fellside for the snow not to have melted? The view is from my doorstep and looks out across the Eden Valley, I am looking forward to the day I look out and the snow is gone. It's a reminder of what was, for me, a horrible few weeks, I'm almost recovered now I don't need to see snow again until next winter thank you very much.