Technology0 min ago
Is Snow On The Way?
Out of curiousity, I've heard it said many a time that the weather on the east coast of the United States tends to come over here although not quite as bad.
Given there are snowstorms said to be heading to the east coast, is it, therefore, likely, that we will get some - more generally, is there some merit in the saying?
Given there are snowstorms said to be heading to the east coast, is it, therefore, likely, that we will get some - more generally, is there some merit in the saying?
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Depressions certainly track across the North Atlantic from W to E. All those hurricanes eventually finish up over here as deep depressions (Lows).
To get heavy snowfalls though, the warm moist air (in depressions) has to run into cold dense polar air. That is happening in the east of the US where the cold polar air is coming down from Arctic Canada.
When the depressions (with the moist air) reach the UK they will only form heavy snowfalls if they encounter cold polar air here too. Our cold air masses come from Arctic Scandinavia and Russia and they are not directly tied in to the Canadian airflows.
To get heavy snowfalls though, the warm moist air (in depressions) has to run into cold dense polar air. That is happening in the east of the US where the cold polar air is coming down from Arctic Canada.
When the depressions (with the moist air) reach the UK they will only form heavy snowfalls if they encounter cold polar air here too. Our cold air masses come from Arctic Scandinavia and Russia and they are not directly tied in to the Canadian airflows.
Ah, ha! A returning rose among the thorns... a diamond in the rough... Mr. Peter Pedant! Noted from here in the US, Mr. P was always refreshingly candid and thoroughly knowledgeble about a wide variety of subjects. Gone for years now to reappear... Mr. Pedant's moniker is one of my favorite (if overused) words thought to be thoroughly English in origin... however, on further reflection we find... “The word "pedant" comes from the French pédant (used in 1566 in Darme & Hatzfeldster's Dictionnaire général de la langue française) or its older mid-15th Century Italian source pedante, "teacher, schoolmaster". (Compare the Spanish pedante.) The origin of the Italian pedante is uncertain, but multiple dictionaries suggest that it was contracted from the mediaeval Latin pædagogans, present participle of pædagogare, "to act as pedagogue, to teach" (Du Cange).[1] The Latin word is derived from Greek παιδαγωγός, paidagōgós, παιδ- "child" + ἀγειν "to lead", which originally referred to a slave who escorted children to and from school but later meant "a source of instruction or guidance".
It is with some misfortune that the term in English is typically used with a negative connotation, indicating someone overly concerned with minutiae and whose tone is perceived as condescending. When it was first used by Shakespeare in Love's Labour's Lost (1598), it simply meant "teacher". Shortly afterwards it began to be used negatively. Thomas Nashe wrote in Have with you to Saffron-walden (1596), page 43: "O, tis a precious apothegmaticall [terse] Pedant, who will finde matter inough to dilate a whole daye of the first inuention [invention] of Fy, fa, fum".
None of which is applicable to our respected Peter (in my opinion)… welcome back!
(Apologies for the mini-hijack Jenna).
It is with some misfortune that the term in English is typically used with a negative connotation, indicating someone overly concerned with minutiae and whose tone is perceived as condescending. When it was first used by Shakespeare in Love's Labour's Lost (1598), it simply meant "teacher". Shortly afterwards it began to be used negatively. Thomas Nashe wrote in Have with you to Saffron-walden (1596), page 43: "O, tis a precious apothegmaticall [terse] Pedant, who will finde matter inough to dilate a whole daye of the first inuention [invention] of Fy, fa, fum".
None of which is applicable to our respected Peter (in my opinion)… welcome back!
(Apologies for the mini-hijack Jenna).