extreme changes of weather - your stories?
 

2 from me, to get the ball rolling if it's going to roll..

1982. First 6 months from Yorkshire UK onto oil platforms off Abu Dhabi. Burned my hand on the sun-heated ladder handrail as I was leaving off the heli deck. 10 hours later, into my little cottage on the edge of Ilkley Moor, under 3 feet of snow. Turned on all the cooker burners and my gas fire to try to combat 6 months of chilly damp. Knock on the door - 'hello Richard, you're not busy, eh, but I saw the light on. Here's your shovel, Landrover's outside, need a hand to dig out the lambs'. 'Er, no, hello you too, glad to help'. Whiskey around the pub fire 4 hours later was great!

Just now, away from Bahrain to avoid all the car racing nonsense. Went to pick up the car I leave in UK - no sign of life. An hour and a half to get a new battery fitted, waiting in the sleet, -2C having left 28 C. Up to Northern UK, lovely misty cool with snow on the top of Great Whernside. Back to Bahrain for a 28 C Tandem ride yesterday, spouse heroine doing well but a bit warm, so out solo this morning for 100 kms in the first really warm day, 40 C.

Typing this with a frosty maltaide at my side and a mild sunburn sting, looking forward to your stories!

As far as cycling is concerned, I headed out east on Aiken Road one fine day, only to have a cold front move in on the return leg. Thw winds gusted up tp 45 MPH and I was almost bowled over by the wind several times. Aiken Road is an old country ridge road so the wind effect was hellacious. I was never so glad to get back to my car. It was awful. It didn't rain until I reached the car.

30-degree drop in temps when a front went thru in about 15 minutes. From ~90F to 60F.

Biking, smiking. I was out in the Potomac River just below National Airport on a windsurfer about 20 years ago cruising to Maryland and back in a nice 15mph southerly wind. As I turned back toward the VA side I saw a rapidly approaching, very dark storm front. Halfway back across the wind shifted to head-on from the west. Several of us started tacking back and forth like the blazes trying to get back to shore but the wind picked up to 30 with much higher gusts and the temps dropped 30 degrees from about 80 to 50. We were slammed in the water, would try to water start and get slammed again and again. A fire boat came by and insisted on rescuing three of us (at least they agreed to retrieve our boards and rigs along with us). We were hauled back to the launch area in ignominy just as the front blew through and the weather settled down into a nice (if colder) day.

Early seventies, living in Northen BC, caught the plane to go to Vancouver Island for Xmas temp -40F get to Victoria 3 hours later +50F. People sure looked at me strange walking around just wearing a tee-shirt.

I always keep an eye on the weather forecast and locally the BBC is very good for rain and temp. Wind strength can be another matter but the direction is normally about right. But New Years Day about 15 years ago and it was going to be cold. Offroad ride so the mud would be frozen so no need for the "MUD" Tyres but they were fitted so they stayed on. A Few road miles before the offroad and I think we all fell on the ICE that was on the asphalt.

Started the long climb to the top of the hills on the chalk path and I could not help noticing the dampness as the tyres sqeezed it out of the chalk. Unusual because the ice at the side of the path was 2" thick at the bottom of the hill. Got to the top and I thought the others were covered in Frost. After all- it was -5C when we started and up on the hills it is always colder. Not today as between leaving home and getting to the top of the hill- a Warm front had come in from the South and the grey covering we all had was Chalk. The temp went up well above freezing on top of the hills and the Southern slopes of it and all the Ice melted and turned to mud. Not just Mud-The kind that sticks to the frame- the stays and the wheels and locks the bike up so the wheels don't turn. Not my bike though as The mud tyres are narrower- clear the mud quicker and other than choosing the route where I could still get grip- I had no problems. The others were stopping every 50 yards or so to de-gunge the bikes and eventually finished up carrying them.

I was very smug about it but the others got their own back. As my bike was the only one in a ridable condition- one of the others gave nme the keys to his van and got me to ride home- collect his van and come back to collect the others. Made sense but it was not a comfortable ride.

Got back to the Forest to collect them to find the bikes outside the cafe- that was closed- but no sign of them. We were regulars at the cafe and the owner saw them out of the window and after 30 minutes invited them in to warm up round the fire and enjoy some of the cooking she was preparing for a party to be held later in the day.

just rains a lot.. marine Gales out of the SW,
ocean Squalls dump alot of water at once
some Icing up in winter, east of the Cascades,
cold air mass pushed west thru the gorge
by atmospheric low pressure CW circulation.

1972 left the Republic of Vietnam where it was around 100f. 60 hours later got off the plane in Green Bay where with the wind chill it was -70f. Brrrrrrr...:eek:

In Feb of 2011, we took a family vacation from New Jersey to Vermont. Ok, you would expect it to be just a bit different, and it was and more.
I packed up the Jeep GC, ski's, snow boards, boot, coats, food, etc, etc. It was the middle of the 'winter thaw' when we left. The temp on the built in thermometer was 45F. As we drove north, the temp slowly dropped, some where in NY we passed freezing. A few minutes after we passed into Vermont, it started to snow. COOL, we are going on our first ski vacation in Vermont and it's snowing! Well 1/2 hour later, the temp was in the mid 20's, and all I could see out of the windshield was WHITE! The fresh, blowing snow covered the road and every thing else. I could barley tell where the edge of the road was. It kept snowing, and getting colder as we went north. It became a full blown blizzard by rush hour. (as a cycling side note, I saw a guy riding a bike, up hill, during this blizzard. A better man than I.) It was in the teens, and dropping fast when we got to Burlington. Every few minutes, the snow got deeper, and the tempature reading would drop a degree. By the time we got to Smugglers Notch, it was +4F, with 12 inches of fresh powder. The good news was that all of the locals where saying that they haven't had a season as good in years. At the end of the week, they where saying that it was one of the best weeks EVER.

Yep. I was commuting home during one of those. Big thunderhead behind me and I was trying to beat it home. It did its best to slow me up, though, sucking all the surrounding air into its low pressure core, producing a stiff headwind. As I started climbing the steepest hill of the trip, the lightning started. It was still behind me, and I didn't want that to change, so I sprinted up a hill that I usually took pretty slowly due to the incline. I hit something in the road, looked down and saw nothing. I hit something else and looked down again... again, nothing. Puzzled, I pushed over the crest of the hill and on home. My brakes were rubbing my rim but I didn't want to stop and check it out.

When I got home, moments before the downpour, I examined the bike. Those "things I hit" coming up the hill turned out to spokes that were breaking under my adrenaline-stoked hill climb. It was the first time I ever popped spokes, so I didn't know what was happening.

Well, the largest single-day temperature drop I've had while on a bike had to be one of the many times my wife and I rode from the Central Valley in CA to the Sonoma coast. In the summer the temperature would often reach over 110F at our home and be a little cooler in the Sonoma Valley when we rode through, maybe 105F. At some point along the twenty or so miles between Santa Rosa and Bodega Bay, the temperature would invariably drop to the mid-50sF.

On a single bike trip, I remember arriving in Banff, having ridden up from Davis, CA. The day before we left it was 115F. When we arrived, it was 40F and raining. Just to rub it in, several riders from Alberta were wearing shorts and T-shirts while I had emptied my panniers of clothes and was wearing all of them.

If I get to count using a plane, with a stupid-supplement, then the temperature range is a bit larger. I flew from Sacramento to Denver and then hopped on a bus to Keystone for a conference. It was around 85F when I left, in shorts, sandals and a short-sleeve shirt. When I got off the bus at the resort, I was told to wait for the next bus which had my bag on it. It was 5F outside where I waited half and hour for my bag to arrive. Next time I'll bring a pair of socks with me.

I once came in after checking a small trapline for rabbits when it was -40F. I got up in the AM and put on my warm clothing and walked outside to a dripping roof. It was +40F. I took a group of kids riding and after a beautiful warm day of riding we were tired and went into our tents to rest a few minutes. I woke up an hour later to 6 inches of snow. That ended that bike trip.