A white Christmas......not quite

Living in New Zealand, you're bound to see snow somewhere; and even though I grew up here, I never actually saw a snowfall. Now while I have been skiing at the ski fields, I've never actually physically seen the white stuff fall from the sky like rain.

Today we were expecting rain in the afternoon, but we were all pleasantly suprized when it started snowing. It was light at first, but gradually got heavier and covered both cars & turned our green lawn whiter than white.

According to the Metservice weather forecast, the entire country copped something out of the wintry blast. The temperature here in Christchurch dropped from 7 deg C at 2pm to 2 deg C by 3pm.

Now the snowflakes have turned into rain, & the white blanket of crisp snow is turning into a slippery, sludgy mess.

The photo in this post is one of a few that I took during the snowstorm; to view more photo's, CLICK HERE to go to my Facebook page.

So why did I title this post "White Christmas....not quite? Well I've always wanted a white Christmas, it's just the wrong time of year for those of us in the southern hemisphere.

Yip, the heater still works!

I haven't had to use a real heater in about 6 years and so it has always been in the back of the shed ready to emerge should we need it. Of course here in Christchurch, the climate is much cooler than it is in Perth, so the heater has been a little closer to hand than it has been previously.

To date we have not needed the heater because it hasn't been all that cold, until today. The top temperature was 10deg C; I'm not sure what time it was recorded, but it was just cold all day & wet too. Now that is cold for an Autumn day, but the weather man says there is a cold snap making it's way up NZ's south island.

I like it; it's easier to rug up than strip off, if you get my drift. Anyway, with Winter on the way soon, you're sure to hear more about the lovely weather here in NZ.

For those who are interested, you can view the current conditions on the weather widget on my right hand sidebar.

Fahrenheit or Celsius

Which one do you use?? Depending on where in the world you live you'll use either Fahrenheit or Celsius to measure temperature.

It's interesting because at 32 deg C it can be considered a hot day, yet 32 deg F & you'll need your winter woollies; 37.5 deg C is the same as 100 deg F. I don't know about you, but I find it rather confusing.

Here's a question for you; how do you convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit & vice versa? Apparently there are many different formulas you can use, but how do you do it without looking it up on Google or on a chart converter; how do you work it out in your head??

If you have a formula for the conversion, please share your knowledge. I'd be interested to see how many different formula's there are. Why not leave yours in the comment section below.





Technorati Tags: Temperature - Fahrenheit - Celsius

Bring Out the Winter Wollies

Yesterday was officially the first day of winter 2007. We've already had some cool days during May, with some cold mornings that I think we're trying to prepare us for the Winter season.

For the next 3 months we can look forward to cold mornings followed by cool sunshine. Also during this time lots of rain hopefully.

I often think back to the winters in New Zealand. Frosts of -2 or 3 in the mornings. I recall often having to scrape ice off the windscreen of the car with a credit card or something similar, then hovering in front of the fireplace during the cold evenings. Ah those were the days!

Here in Perth, Western Australia though, it's not quite that extreme. Cool mornings but not cold. With 4 degrees, the dew on the car windscreen simply washes off with one sweep of the windscreen wiper & I don't think I've seen any fire places in homes here, just heaters.

I like winter much better than summer though. I find it's much easier to wrap up warm, then to try & keep cool. There's only so much clothing you can remove from your body.

How about you. How do you cope in the winter months? Do you prefer the hot or cold weather more? Please leave your comments in the comment section below.