11221 Christmas weather to new year

Marche, no rain...phew! well southern Marche has had lots John. But as you say looking at the weather for now until Christmas looks like lots of sun. After Christmas snow?, well we have a high hill to climb NYE so lets hope we make it.
A

Just had a look at the forecast for Barga until 4th Jan and it appears to stay sunny right through. Very cold but at least dry and bright.
The thing is does one approach these reports like a British weather forecast and read pretty much the opposite as guaranteed? :bigergrin:

I was going to say the same about weather reports, which one do most people rely on as being the most accurate? I've traditionally read the meteo on corriere.it each morning but then someone recommended always read the Italian Air Force forecast so I began reading those but they were similar yet still not 100%.

II use [url=http://www.ilmeteo.it]METEO | Tempo stabile fino al 24, poi neve e più freddo da Natale e Santo Stefano! | IL METEO.IT[/url] and they are pretty accurate. Last year the snow was forecast to start on 15th December at 12 noon but in fact it started at quarter to!

The forecast for my area of Abruzzo keeps changing but at the moment they are forecasting snow/rain on 26th with the real stuff starting on 27th and continuing through past New Years day.

Ilmeteo.it gives you the ability to select a commune, which is quite useful in mountainous areas where altitude can make such a difference.

[url=http://www.meteoam.it]MeteoAM.it! Il portale Italiano della Meteorologia[/url] also issues weather warnings and is the official site of the Aeronautica Militare who provide the weather forecasts for Italy.

Much the same up here too.
[URL="http://www.ilmeteo.it/meteo/Morbegno"][B]>"Meteo - Morbegno, Valtellina"<[/B][/URL]
The forecast suddenly got worse yesterday morning. We're now not looking at just 'a bit of snow' on the tops, but fairly continuous falls as low as the valley floor from the 26th through to the 28th!

That's one I use as well and the forecast has changed since my post yesterday. :veryconfused::frown::bigergrin:

[url=http://www.ilmeteo.it/meteo/Barga]Previsioni Meteo Barga - Weather Barga | IL METEO.IT[/url]

Amandola is due to get snow starting Christmas Day and continuing until the end of Saturday (thankfully we finally got round to putting the snow tyres on Friday!) according to [url=http://www.ilmeteo.it]METEO | Previsioni del Tempo Italia ed Europa | IL METEO.IT[/url] and no snow until Monday 29th when we get it for 2 days according to [url=http://www.tempoitalia.it]METEO | Previsioni Tempo Italia e Mondo | VIDEO METEO[/url] so who knows??!!

We're going for lunch in Isola San Biagio on Boxing Day and it will [B]definitely[/B] be snowing there!

There was plenty of snow at the ski resort of Frontignano on Saturday:

Weather so beautiful and hot today, ate lunch outside, in shirt sleeves and under a brolly to keep the sun off.
'Make hay while the sun shines'
Later in the week may be a different story, or Christmas lunch sat on the patio under a brolly? or should I say parasol.

Stribs

Hi can any one help ? we have had a bereavement in the U.K and have to return on the 31st.We have checked out all adverts for kennels etc however non of them cater for cats,we have 3 the younger one being a stray kitten whom we have only just managed to (tame).! has anyone got information on catteries in this area ,have been advised that there may be one in Force.

Forgot to mention that in normal circumstanced we have a friend do the feeding ,however we have a good layer of snow and live down a track which can be quite difficult in these conditions:

Thick, thick snow here in southern Tuscany this morning and it continues to fall. We must have about 4/5 inches now. Went out for a long walk this morning in suitable footwear and were shocked to see the only non-4 wheel drive vehicle out go straight off the road and overturn in to a deep ditch. Driver just crawled out exclaiming "what the heck happened?". He's still waiting for a tow truck to come and recover his car (Renault Megane), though it looked a write off to us.

I;m sorry to hear of your loss. I have a friend in Santa Vittoria who might be willing to come to your house to feed the animals. If you are interested, please send send me an e-mail and I will give you her name and phone number.

I just saw your most recent post about the track to your house, so don't know if this would be of help to you.

Lisa

Hi thank you for your reply,The problem is not around actually getting to our house as it is not too far off the white road but it is the bit which runs off which is the tricky bit.

Our friend is willing to help as we do the same for others with pets, its just that you need the appropriate vehicle,If your friend has this then that would be great.our E Mail is [email]philemaggie@casadinoce.com[/email] Grazie

I will send my friend an e-mail and ask her to contact you if she can help. She does have 4 wheel drive.

(Not a good idea to post e-mail addresses as it encourages spam. Far better to pm details.)

Sorry should be 20c and sunny so it looks like the beach for New years day!!!

i think the weather predictions were pretty accurate from the meteo people.... like stribs we had lunch outside the house ... not wearing arctic suits either on the 24th.... the 25 th night it started snowing at around midnight and by the 26th we had about 20 cm lying on the ground and it made the whole xmas thing seem somehow more real... as neighbours got out their snow shovels and cleared front entrances and toboggans were fetched and the nearest slopes became snow slides for the children...

electricity failed at around 11.00 am and finally came back at around 17.00... we have a generator that plugs into the side of the house and takes over when this happens... in fact mots of our neighbours do too... barn elms was not the only person looking after animals our neighbours sow had a litter of pigs and they need constant heat f4rom an infrared light to survive... unlike the puppies ... so its an important consideration when living here...

to give a few facts... generator can be bought for around the euro 200 mark...and on up... we have one that gives 2.5 kw... petrol ...manual start..
importantly when we updated the electric system on the house we had an outside socket with a special switch that when in generator mode blocks mains and when mains is back you throw switch which cuts back in the mains without interruption... nb... very important .. never have a system that allows the mains and generator to feed the house at the same time... you will blow up the generator and maybe yourself too if you forget to swich the mains off...

on 2.5 kw we run two fridge freezers, the boiler for central heating and hot water ... TV.. well 2 in fact as one play-station running ... and a few lights... most probably have to juggle things say for laundry... in fact a power cut... really makes little difference to normal life...our old house we huddled around a wood burner with candles for light... i prefer choosing when we want candles and log fires...

we also restored the old work kitchen... so as regards cooking we have a wood burning cooker, a bread oven and a separate indoor wood grill... much as any self respecting Italian family so as we tend to use this kitchen a lot in any case electrics do not matter much... .. as regards food

so to my mind anyway its good to plan ahead with these things...and forget old fashioned log fires ... they are for beauty ... sort out real alternatives ...

the other point that you need to watch out for when you get this sort of snow is roof slides... we got a lot of snow in two days... it started thawing almost as soon as it fell and is now slipping off roofs in huge chunks... there are spikes to stop this happening which you can place along the roof ends... but they are rarely used here... so just be careful what you park under ...and when you walk out the front door...

in fact today... geraniums just poked their flower heads through the snow ...so now have bright red flowers with a white back ground... alas tomorrow i reckon most of the white will be gone... however am looking forward to the sun again ... enjoyed the snow... but i prefer it on the mountain tops...as a distant view...

anyway hope you all had as excellent an xmas as us... and our dogs ... they love the snow...

We had a power cut and really enjoyed the whole romance of it, candles, candles and more candles. We didn't touch our freezer or fridge and so had no problems with any defrosting of stuff. Alas, the snow now melts and we also look forward to some cold, blue skied & sunny days.