Monday 13 February 2012

And Now the Weather...

Or not, because yesterday afternoon when I went to check the Météo de France web site it wasn't working. It continued not to work all evening and into the night.

I suspect that it's a case of too much traffic, because it was sunny and almost warm yesterday afternoon (-4°C) but rain is forecast. This means that by midday today we should finally have made it above freezing point for the first time this month, but a weather warning for icy roads will have been issued.

You can tell just how cold the last 10 days have been by the fact that our cast iron dauphin (first seen here) has split. It has obviously filled up with melted snow which froze again the instant it hit the cold metal, expanding and splitting the notoriously inflexible cast iron. I have been keeping a wary eye on the pipe for the past couple of days for just this reason, and am fairly sure that the pipe split at about 4.00pm yesterday afternoon.

Not just a split - look at how thick the ice is.
The other downpipe has survived, mainly because the roof it services has seen very little sun and consequently the snow hasn't yet melted. What little melt that has happened has grown a solid icicle.

Inside the house we are more or less warm, and considerably warmer than some unfortunate people whose heat pumps have given up the ghost. Low tech has its advantages sometimes.

Simon

Meteo de France is back this morning with really
cheering news - it will be warmer, but wetter. And yukky.

2 comments:

Tim said...

WV has come up "mistro"... how can it be so accurate? We've got fog here... can make out the millstream but not the river... temperature has dropped since I commented an hour ago on the cars... now -2.2C... freezing fog! I'm pouring out the teas, picking up my book and retreating upstairs to bed for another hour or two or....!!

Keep safe... and you should be able to strap that split, fortunately.

Jean said...

I hope Tim's right and all it needs is a sticking plaster !!
The snow is melting here but it's still pretty miserable.

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