Christmas lights switch-on is cancelled - Plymouth scraps show as weather batters city

“And come on council don't miss your chance to get a small crib of the holy family with wax figures set up in the Plaza, I was in Coventry a few years ago looking at their crib and one of the 3 wise men statues was a black woman..”

“Ha ha. Cheered me up no end about part of the christmas light switchon being cancelled. If i remember rightly christmas day is December 25th not November 23rd! And if people want to get soaking wet to see a z-listing celebrity like Christopher Biggins they must need their heads examined. Hope the weather is the same every thursday up to Christmas.”

“I'm top 3 on the worst rated list :-) These days I always go there first. That's where the best information hides.

@Hstmtu - Have you by any chance visited any or all of the sites in my climate blogroll?

@nothalf - Where does the "vested interest" lie? This site seems to be plastered with advertisements for example.”

“just come back from shopping in the centre tonight. Shame the switch-on was cancelled as the lights looked good although those wooden huts look as grubby as some of the overpriced tack they sell from them. Some of the shops were suprisingly busy although everything (except KFC) west of Armada Way was shut down!!”

“I bet the labour council comrades are having a good chuckle at how they cancelled christmas! Ni mind, I'm sure the voters will cancel the labour council at the next local elections..;)”

“Hi Hstmtu,

It's a pleasure to meet you, and that's a nice train you've got there! I look forward to an intelligent conversation in due course. However, stung by recent criticism I thought I'd take another tack just for the moment.

Since Xmas is coming, the lights are out, and music is the food of love not to mention a universal language of communication, I figured a brief musical interlude would brighten the mood in here. I am proud to present to the assembled throng the "alternative" version of the Fabulous Thorvertone's rousing rendition of "Oh Christ, It's Christmas!":

http://tinyurl.com/ohxmas”

“Jim_Hunt I have had a life long interest in meteorology and therefore understand where your coming from and use the Internet to follow the weather,but you have to remember the average punter doesnt.As you say this summers arctic sea ice minimum in September 2012 was the lowest since satellite data on arctic sea ice cover began in 1979.Interestingly the arctic has refrozen this Autumn as quick as it melted during the summer.Here is today's update on arctic sea ice cover.
http://tinyurl.com/ayum83j

Just for the wider interest most of the current weather models are now showing a major Northern Hemisphere weather pattern change from next week which will see a change from our current mild unsettled southwesterly weather in Britain to increasingly cold and possibly wintry conditions from the North/North East/East by the end of November/early December with even potential to get as bad as happened in November/December 2010. For those that understand meteorology and at the risk of boring others this change is being driven by a forecast split/displacement of the Northern Hemisphere stratospheric Vortex which forms over the arctic higher up in the atmosphere above the troposphere where all our weather occurs.Usually the Vortex forms over the Northern Greenland area in Autumn as the Northern hemisphere stratosphere cools.It is the behavior/position of this Polar Vortex that determines whether we get a mild or cold winter ie the very cold winters like 1946/47 and 1962/63.
In short we are about to go into a period of much colder more wintry condition at least into early December.Beyond that who knows.”

“I don't blame Clint at the City Centre Company for cancelling the Entertainments tonight. Mobile stages like the one they would have been using have a wind rating that if exceeded greatly means they either start moving or bit start flying off them which are both fairly risky situations. Our mobile stage is rated at 50MPH windspeeds but I would not like to have ours out in this wind in Plymouth as the layout of the streets tends to channel the wind and can create some interesting gusts. The Piazza today will be really quite interesting and I bet the wooden sheds that they have for the market will be feeling a little unstable. As has been shown with the damaged roof that has restricted access to the station not all buildings are safe in high weather and mixing large crowds with old and poorly maintained building in strong winds could be dangerous. The layout of Plymouth's City centre would be great for roofing over large sections to give much better weather cover as we probably have to expect wetter summers in the future.”

“Bet the two twigs is counting he loss of buisness with all those military wives not the pull down the strip.”

“Hi Nev,

What do you recommend? Show them YouTube videos instead?”