April Showers Blizzards (6^th April 2008)

At 7:20am I noticed there was a bizzard outside my window. That’s very rare for this part of the UK, even in the middle of Spring. I’m only 30 miles West of London, so it’s hardly the Scottish highlands. And this is April!

By 7:30am, with camera in hand, I ventured outside. Wearing pyjamas, slippers and a dressing gown. That’s all they wear in The Snowman so that’s all you need, right? Wrong!

Taking photos whilst shivering and shooting through buffeting winds with heavy snow are not “ideal conditions”. But every few seconds the shivering would stop for a bit and that’s when I took the photo. When you stop shivering is usually a sign of hypothermia, so I only shot for about 10 minutes.

By 8am the plants by our patio were just a snow bank. It’s settling and building; again very unusual. Normally we just get slush but it’s crazy cold out there this morning.

The first 5 of these photos broadly match the ones taken at 7am. But there’s much less snow in the air and much more on the ground.