12z today - a ridge covers the UK, bringing northerlies and NNE'lies to England. Conditions at 12PM on Sunday: Thickness, 522dam, temperature 3C(dewpoint -7C). Wind from the NNE, 16 MPH. There were showers nearby, but it stayed dry in the woods. Today's high, 3C, last night's low -2C. (source: MetO, the 12z GFS and NOAA).

What a week it's been weather wise! 14 of the last 15 days have seen snow falling and all of March so far has seen the fields of Sheppey blanketed in white. It's the snowiest March spell for 19 years and in terms of snow it's on a par with the mid 90s.

Daft though it sounds, it's why I've never wanted to leave Sheppey. We don't often get northeasterlies, but when we do it brings snow on a par with anywhere in the country...

This was the scene on Friday lunchtime, looking SE'wards over the B2231:

Later on Friday it rained and it rained some more yesterday. However, once you've got a decent covering it takes a heck of a lot to shift it - salt is the only thing that'll melt it in a hurry. Today dawned with a decent covering of snow on the back lawn, although it had thawed from hard surfaces. It started snowing a few minutes before I left for Beenham, as this picture shows:

A view of the back garden at 6:50 AM today.

As I was carting some bits over to the car I noticed it was settling readily on the ground and I had a sense of déjà vu as I remembered the "fun" of last week. However, it wasn't as bad as the roads didn't have a cover already, although the snow gradually built up. It continued snowing (heavily at times) as I left the Island and by the time I got to Detling Hill there was about a centimetre on the A249. This time the Police hadn't closed the road and I slid down the Hill at around 20 mph. Everyone was being sensible by going in single file and when (not if) they skidded it gave time to recover. A couple of times I turned the wheel gently only to find nothing happen for half a second or so - scary stuff!

I trundled through the snow to the M20 junction, then thankfully the M20 itself had been gritted so it was business as usual. The snow fizzled out by the Clackett Lane services and from there on the skies cleared.

At the Trust the gate was locked, but Tsa (one of the directors) happened to be passing by and let us in. The first thing to see was poor old Lunca, hiding in the entrance to the den. Lunca's taken up residence there as she can defend herself from the front; if wolves are going to attack they'll generally do it from behind. Latea and Alba seem almost inseperable, although as it's bang in the middle of breeding season that's probably no surprise!

The cleaning didn't take long today, as none of the beds of straw looked like they'd been used - certainly the Euros have free access to the kennels at night and tend to just pop in for food before heading out again.

As usual, today's walk was with Duma and Dakota.

Dakota

The two female wolves are also in the midst of the breeding season, meaning particular attention has to be paid to them - they'll sometimes growl at each other, for example, to reaffirm Duma's dominance over Dakota.

Duma
Once again I was on car watch duty, but this time I took a different route back to the wolves. Rather than heading along the paths I forced my way through the undergrowth and bracken. Needless to say D&D had picked up on my presence long before I saw them - and when they did come into view I had two wolves watching me! They came over to me to say "hi", then after a few quick sniffs the walk carried on as usual.

Back at the Trust Kenai decided she didn't want to come out for a walk, so Duma and Dakota had an encore instead. I took some pictures instead of handling today:

Kodiak, focused on Duma.

Kenai, running full pelt and growling at Dakota.

A close up of Dakota.

Once the training walk was finished it was back to the Obs Room to say my goodbyes, then I headed home. It was noticable the way cars slowed once we crossed into Kent as people gawked at the white fields - one would think they'd never seen snow before!

There was slush in the fast lane of the A249 in places and slush covered both carriageways on Detling Hill as snow blew in from the fields and thawed.

The fields around Detling were as white as ever, but there's an ever increasing amount of greens on the Isle of Sheppey as the snow slowly eases its grip.

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