12z today - a ridge is toppling over the UK, with mild air for tomorrow to the west. Light NW'lies cover Beenham, with mostly clear skies. Conditions at 12PM on Sunday: Thickness, 520dam, temperature 2C(dewpoint -2C). Wind from the northwest, 10 MPH. Today's high, 3C, last night's low -3C. (source: MetO, the 12z GFS and NOAA).

I awoke this morning with thoughts of last night's BBC forecast chart which showed a trough and snow across SE England for the early hours of Sunday morning. With bated breath I pulled the curtains back to reveal a winter wonderland, albeit due to a heavy frost rather than snow. Nonetheless the sight of white everywhere, glistening under an almost full moon made up for the lack of snow yesterday.

The temperature fell slowly as I was writing today's model analysis and by the time I ventured outside it was -3.4C, with a grass temperature of -5C - and that meant a lot of scraping was necessary.

For some reason my car thermometer thought it was just below freezing, at "only" -0.5C. Nonetheless it's the first time I've seen it display a negative temperature and the temperature remained below freezing as I drove through the freezing air to Beenham. The coldest spot I found was near Redhill, where the temperature briefly fell to -3.5C according to the car; that would give a figure of -6 or -7C assuming the thermometer was as inaccurate as earlier. It was around -2C by the time I pulled up at the Trust, to be greeted with a locked gate.

I headed off across a stile and along a footpath which borders the Trust - only this time there were no howls to accompany me.

View to the SSE, 0900z at Beenham

The other volunteers arrived and just as a couple of us set off to find John Denness (the nearest person with keys to the Trust) he came along the drive - it turns out the person who was meant to let the wolves out had slept in, meaning John had to do it instead.

Needless to say the wolves were all keen to come out of their kennels, although Kenai was hesitant at first. We all saw why a few seconds later as she darted through the gate into the enclosure with a whole paunch in her jaws. So, for those who wonder what the foul-smelling wolf food looks like, here's a picture:

Kenai's holding one end of the paunch down with a paw, while trying to tear a chunk off with her jaws.
Just be thankful I can't transmit smells via the Internet as it smells worse than it looks!

As we headed back to the Obs Room for a welcome cup of coffee the Euros followed us. The frost was so thick in their enclosure that it almost looked like snow....

A heavy frost - the wolf with his tail raised is Alba, the alpha male.

As it turns out, the wolves enjoy snow and ice. Their thick coats protect them from the cold and the coarse guard hairs are excellent ice repellants. To my amusement the Euros each decided to roll in a patch of frost, melting it in the process and leaving a green, wolf-sized patch.

Lunca rolling in the ice.

After they'd played around in the ice they had a group howl, which quickly lead to a rally (complete with some of those loud semi-barking sounds).

Latea on the left is "sucking up" to Lunca, with Alba on the right

The sun shone brightly as we all went out to do the cleaning - and for once the European wolves hadn't soiled their bedding nor had they left any food behind, which made cleaning a doddle. Interestingly the hosepipes were all unusable today as the water in them had frozen solid! I was especially pleased at cleaning the Euro's quarters as I'll be visiting their parents tomorrow - I wonder if they'll recognise the scent on my boots and coat?

Talking of which, I nearly had a very strong scent on my boots - I was watching Alba through the mesh and noticed him sniffing around. Just in time I twigged what was going on and dodged sideways, narrowly missing a powerful jet aimed in my direction! Not to be deterred, Alba tried again but I decided that being scent-marked by a wolf probably wasn't a good idea and dodged again. After that Alba ambled off, having marked the bit of concrete I'd been on as his own.

With the cleaning out of the way it was an ideal oppertunity to make a fuss of the wolves. Kodiak was his usual growly self, although he's quite happy to let his friends give him a good scratch, including inside his ears! Kenai's become a different wolf of late, instead of lingering in the background she was rubbing up against the mesh, seemingly asking to be stroked. She got her wish, anyway!

I headed off to try and get some photos of Duma and Dakota, who were eager to come over to investigate the camera. On second thoughts, perhaps it was the European wolves they were watching instead - they seem to enjoy having staring matches!

Duma (on the left) and Dakota.

For some reason the wolves' noses seemed shinier than normal, either due to the low-angle sun or perhaps just because it was cold!

Duma.

The two sisters then put on a superb dominance/submission display, with a few growls and some muzzle grabs. It's almost certainly due to rising hormone levels in advance of the breeding season, and it gave me chance to grab this shot:

Dakota, grabbing Duma's muzzle in an act of submission.

I then walked along the space between the Euros and the two North American sisters, with the latter following me along. The Europeans then came over and another staring match ensued:

Dakota, staring at the Euros.

The European wolves soon got bored though and wandered off - as I headed back a little later I found them curled up on the concrete at the front of their enclosure. The wooden building in the background is the Obs Room, which is the hub of operations at the Trust.

By this stage the frost had long gone in any sunny areas, but there was still a lot left in shady spots. After a chat with the other volunteers it was time to head back to Kent - and the M25 was horrendous in places as you'd expect.

To my delight the "frost in the shade" phenomena occured throughout my journey home and indeed as I pulled up at home I noticed our back lawn had ample frost on it still - the first all-day frost I've recorded in ages!

Frosty grass at home, with a raingauge at the bottom left.

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