Saturday 3 March 2018

Snow day three - the melt begins

By the time we got up this morning, the outdoor temperature had risen to minus one, and during the day rose to three degrees. It remained overcast with little wind, and there was light rain. As snow on the street started to melt, it became a bit more slippery than yesterday. It's not forecasted to freeze fortunately. By Monday normality should return and the days of quietness resembling Christmas be replaced by the usual relentless drudgery of winter in the city.

Cardiff Airport website displays a departure board for the coming days, with some cancellations but the Vueling flights are all happening, albeit with some delay. There are fewer flights to Spain at this time of year, thus any backlog from the past couple of days of airport closure won't be quite so long. The airport is sometimes vulnerable to high winds, fog or extreme rain, exposed as it is to the Bristol Channel. It's rarer for it to be cut off by snow. Hopefully, things will be back to normal by Tuesday when I leave, unlike northern and eastern Britain, still crippled by snow.

We walked before lunch out to Llandaff Fields, then down to the shops in Pontcanna. The Co-op has re-opened, though it's not yet been restocked, and some of the shelves are unusually empty. The supply chain still isn't working as it usually does with so many roads still out of operation. I expect it's the same all over the country.

We had a delicious cup of Peruvian coffee in Kemi's at Pontcanna nearby before returning for lunch. It was busy with people returning from walks in the snow slightly damp from the drizzle. Yesterday's powdery snow is fast packing down and melting, as much from beneath as above since the ground doesn't have a chance to chill deeply enough to preserve snow after only a week of zero degree weather, as it would with a long spell at minus ten. Thank goodness air temperatures are set to stay above freezing, so we'll have to put up with slush in the streets for the time being.

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