Fog all day in darkest, gloomy Dorset

[Martin Rowley [West Moors/East Dorset]]

... can't remember the last time I experienced fog that lasted all day - probably up in Finningley in the 80s when we still had lots of mining families burning concessionary coal! Been a grim, cold, dismal day here .... obs for Hurn (visibility, in metres, is the fourth column from the left).

[Jack Harrison]

My weather was better than yours.  Ya bo.......
5.1 hours sun today.  Goodness, the Sparrows are getting very noisy - must be spring.  It's always like this here...........(well, nearly always)  !!!
Jack

[Martin Rowley [West Moors/East Dorset]]

... I envy you Jack! A fine part of the world - worked up there on detachment (to Lossiemouth / EGQS**) winter/spring/early-summer 1980/81. Almost decided to try and move to Scotland permanently, but the closure of RAF bases would have meant I would have probably ended back 'down south'.

Still in fog this morning - so well over 24hours of visibility <1 km, much of it < 200 m. Temperature bouncing a few tenths either side of zero - paving fairly treacherous in places as rime is deposited. I'm expecting a slow (probably irregular) increase in gradient today so that muck is mixed more vertically and we stand a chance of seeing the sun!

[** In my time at EGQS, one of the forecasters was Norman Elkins: he wrote the book "Weather and Bird Behaviour" which was regarded at the time as a decent introduction to the subject; it's been overtaken since of course, as we've become aware of the way that the changing climate (for whatever reason) moderates wildlife behaviours and Norman couldn't have built that in to his book.]

Martin.

[Jack Harrison]

About to go out to the Lossie area birdwatching.  Didn't know Mr.Elkins.
Not such a brilliant day today with  EGQS 240850Z 24010KT 9999 SCT035 BKN240 08/04 Q1015
Jack

[George in Edinburgh]

Turning windy here with gusts to 45 mph this morning. Temperature now +9.1C. It has been getting progressively milder  since Sunday morning when there was a flurry of snow early on.

George in Swanston, Edinburgh
www.swanstonweather.co.uk

[Martin Rowley [West Moors/East Dorset]]

... still, despite my anticipation, in fog! Not above 500M at any time, and most of the time 300M and below - and it's beginning to close in again. The flow is picking up (albeit very slowly) but the movement of air is gliding along above the fog methinks!

Now makes (for us) some 43 hours of continuous fog.

Martin.

[John Hall]

Here in Cranleigh. after yesterday when the fog didn't finally clear till 13:00-14:00 and even after that it was still very misty, the fog cleared unexpectedly quickly today and was gone by at latest 10:00. Since then it's been almost unbroken sunshine, something I've grown accustomed to over the last week or so. The anomaly charts for sunshine and temperature over the UK for the month of January should be interesting when they come out. I suspect that the SE will come out as exceptionally sunny and on the cold side, whereas further north it will have been milder and much duller.

[Alastair B. McDonald]

Mist still here in Wimborne, East Dorset at 1:30 pm as I walked back from the shops. Melting frost and ice dropping from the trees on to the pavement.

[Jack Harrison]

whereas further north it will have been milder and much duller.

Don't forget that Scotland is still part of the UK (don't know for how much longer) and 'further north' (eg near the Moray Firth) it certainly hasn't been a dull month by any means.  Driving into a low sun is one of the downsides though. 
We have had a lot of this type of weather. (picture today 24th)

Bright often rather than sunny.  That's Loch Spynie near Elgin.

Jack

[Martin Rowley [West Moors/East Dorset]]

... not a lot of change: our (West Moors) VIS has crept up to around 400/500M, but down on the airfield it's gone the other way temporarily (according to the AWS SYNOP, below 100M for a couple of hours), though the METARs below show a 'steady-state' of around 100M. Everything eerily quiet outside!

[Martin Rowley [West Moors/East Dorset]]

... and I should have mentioned of course that this makes 49 hours (and counting) of <1000M visibility - much of it below 300M here, and below 200M at Hurn.

Martin.

[Martin Rowley [West Moors/East Dorset]]

... as of 25/0900Z, 60 hours of continuous 'meteorological' fog (<1000M) and in past 24hr, sufficiently 'wet' to produce 0.2mm of PPN. I did think that, at last, the VIS was picking up, but as I write this (1000Z) the visibility has come down from 700M at 09Z to ~300M.

Red dot in image below is position of West Moors ....

Martin.

[Martin Rowley [West Moors/East Dorset]]

.... finally (!!) came out of fog limits between 1200Z and 1230Z (today/25th), so that makes around 63 hours of continuous fog; the advection of a ragged layer of low-base Sc seems to have done the trick: spots of rain reported from Portland etc.

Martin.

[Dave C]

Our turn today Martin! Back to dank foggy conditions, max 3.2 C. Tomorrow could feel chilly.

Dave, S.Essex

[Martin Rowley [West Moors/East Dorset]]

... went out for a brisk walk to the village centre this afternoon: bright sunshine, marvellous visibility - SCT CU/SC - felt like I'd been released from prison!

Martin.