12z today - a ridge over Scotland is bringing very cold air SW'wards from Scandinavia, with gusty NE'lies over much of southern England. Conditions at 12PM on Sunday: Thickness, 517dam, temperature 1C(dewpoint -6C) with snow. Wind from the NNE, 20 MPH. Today's high, 2C, last night's low -2C. (source: MetO, the 12z GFS and NOAA).

Phew, what a day! I peeked out of my window at around 3 AM this morning to see a typical wintry scene, that of wet roads and cloudy skies. I dozed fitfully (excited about the prospect of seeing the wolves and of snow) and by 5:15 I'd had enough and decided to get up. By then it was snowing lightly and with temperatures of 0.3C (air), -1.4C (grass) it readily settled everywhere.

By the time the grey light of dawn came along, I was greeted with this scene:

I should mention at this point I've never actually driven in lying snow before, having managed to avoid it until now. Needless to say I was apprehensive but I had a promise to keep, that of helping at the Trust.

I set off gingerly, fully expecting to see the main road slushy but passable. To my dismay it was as bad as the side roads, so I trundled along at 20 mph or so. I'd also misjudged the weather, expecting the snow to be a shortlives shower - it wasn't. It snowed as I went up Jenkins Hill (notorious place that), it snowed as I drove along the B2231 along the Island and it snowed on the A249 off the Island and through to Maidstone. None of the roads seemed to have been gritted and it was a slow moving convoy that headed southbound along the dual carriageway. I passed a jackknifed Marks and Spencer lorry and just by the Kent County Showground I came to a halt.

The temperature plummeted in the heavy snow, reaching -1.4C at home and -3C or so at the top of Detling Hill. I tuned in a local radio station to find the news headline was "snow causes chaos in Kent, again" and the A249 was closed in both directions. It's amazing how quickly a car cools down with the heaters off, so I ended up with the engine idling for over an hour. The snow eventually stopped, but that wasn't the end of it - the wind whipped up clouds of snow from the fields of the showground and deposited them on the other carriageway.

The Kent County Showground looking white - the northbound carriageway of the A249 is in the foreground. Level snowdepth was around 2 inches on the verges, an inch or so on the roads.

You can tell these cars aren't going anywhere fast - the view northwards along the southbound carriageway.

There wasn't an accident keeping us held there, rather the police decided the road was too dangerous to travel along. Eventually a gritting lorry was brought in and just after nine AM we edged forwards to be greeted with torrents of water as the snow and slush was melted by the salt.

The M20 was down to two lanes, but after heading into Surrey via the M25 the snow vanished to be replaced with sunshine and the odd cumulus cloud - a different world to the Arctic wastelands of Kent!

It was just above freezing when I eventually pulled up at the UKWCT at 10:40, having missed the cleaning for the first time ever.

There'd been a recent snow shower there, with a dusting in places:

However, as this is wolves and weather, I ought to write about the former! It seems all is calm with the Euros for the time being, with Latea firmly in Alpha position. Indeed, Lunca was seen grooming Latea earlier, so it looks like the wolves are happy with the new arrangements.

Latea.

Having missed the cleaning, it wasn't long before the wolf walk was due to start. Today's walk was with Duma and Dakota, with the guests today being from a Labrador rescue group.

Dakota.

The lake was once again half frozen, although this time with the winds from the northeast the ice was in a different position. That didn't stop the wolves from going in though!

Dakota in the lake.

After their dip the wolves heard yapping from some dogs the other side of the lake - it gave an ideal oppertunity to grab a picture of Duma staring intently across the lake:

She's in typical "stalking" pose there, head slightly down and focused on something.

There were a few light flurries during the walk but needless to say nothing settled. I phoned home to check the situation and thankfully the snow had thawed from the roads and pavements - if it hadn't I'd have ended up in the Comfort Inn tonight!

This wind flow chart from the BBC shows just how cold it felt for most today, although thanks to my wearing both a T-Shirt and a sweatshirt it didn't feel bad at all.

Back at the Trust Kenai was brought out to do a "meet and greet" with the public - the old wolf really seems to enjoy these, especially judging by her wagging tail. After that us trainees were taken around the fields. Kenai was an absolute pleasure to walk, as ever:

Not long after the walk finished I said my goodbyes and headed back towards the snowfields of Kent. The fields were green and the skies were clear, at least until I crossed back into my home county. Then there was an abrupt change, with increasing clouds and snow at the side of the road. To my amazement there was still snow blowing from the fields across the northbound carriageway of the A249, and that was despite gritting! Just goes to show how useful snowfences were and hopefully they'll reappear next year. There were drifts in many of the fields, although the fact it was getting dark made it hard to estimate depths.

Jenkins Hill had been heavily gritted thankfully, as that's the place that's cut Leysdown off from the rest of the world in previous years - indeed, if I'd turned back earlier today it's doubtful I'd have been able to get down the hill.

So despite a normal (and fun) day at the Trust the travel to and from was anything but normal - hopefully it won't take four hours to get there next week!

Back to the index