95 Days

The number of shopping days till Christmas? Actually, believe it or not (and you know you can believe it), there’s been snow hanging on the Clwydians above Rhuthun/Ruthin from 19 December 2009 till Tuesday 23 March 2010. That’s 95 days consecutively, unbroken.

We’ve had some hard winters but none (recently) like in 2010. 2010 was comparable to some of the winters in the 1980s but nothing during that decade lasted so long. There’s been nothing like it in the 1990s. You’d have to travel back to the 1960s to see anything quite like 2010, or perhaps during the 1976.

Why snow for so long on the very tops? Spring’s at last three weeks late. Since the last major February snowfall, we’ve had no rain till 18th March. And temperatures have been low, even in Rhuthun.

The two blobs of snow under Moel Fammau vanished on 19th March. That left a ridge of snow and two further blobs clearly visible from Rhuthun, near Rhesgoed farm shop. The ridge disappeared by Monday following weekend rain and the two remaining areas of snow within gorse-covered hollows diminished dramatically on Tuesday and were gone yesterday.

The picture was taken on Sunday.