Ok, I've had enough. It’s almost the beginning of April but to look outside you would think it is December. It’s not just that it’s cold, yes really cold, the sky is a dull, deathly grey and even the extra hour and a half daylight does little to temper the winter misery which refuses to loosen its grip. This is the coldest and most foul run up to Easter I think I can remember. And just to add insult to injury, this time last year it was 20C - almost 70F. That’s right, hotter than Ibiza. Is there any point in asking Admiral Fitzroy what the next week has in store? I think we all know. Go on, let’s have a look at the storm glass and see if it holds any glimmer of hope. The crystals are sitting on the bottom of the tube, and have taken the formation of small ‘stars’. If the liquid contains small stars on sunny winter days, then snow is coming.  If there are crystals at the bottom, this indicates fro...

Unless you woke up this morning in the Med or the Bahamas you'll have noticed it's cold again. It's actually strangely cold for the middle of March, and the bad news - it's going to turn wintry again . But that's just what the experts say, for the real story we need look no further than the reliable Admiral Fitzroy. The weather glass has undergone a dramatic change over the past 24 hours with the crystals swelling to almost triple the size they were this time last week. The solution is virtually packed with huge fluffy flakes, compared to seven days ago when the clear liquid had a layer of crystals at the bottom. There are some floating on top as well. So - leaving aside the dire forecasts for more snow and ice this week, what can we tell from the storm glass. "Should large flakes show themselves in the solution, the forecast will be thick air, overcast sky and snow in the winter months. "If crystal...

There are days when my activities at work venture into the surreal. Sometimes I am tied up with food prices and fears over soaring energy bills, and sometimes I am escorting a 3ft garden gnome around the streets of London. Today, it was the latter which kept me - and Gnorman - out of trouble for a couple of hours. Gnorman, I should say was sent to me by Asda, he is the latest in garden must-haves and is flying off the shelves at a rate of G-nots (see what I did there?!). There was a bit of an incident though, at the end of last week, which saw his travelling ambitions almost scuppered. A previous Gnorman was sent to me and arrived at my desk red-hatted and smiley-faced ready for a life in the limelight. But in a flurry of excitement on the floor of the Daily Express newsroom, he ended up in two pieces. An over-amorous colleague managed to snap him in two, and a replacement was quickly ordered. Gnorman the First has been lai...

After another exceptionally chilly week it's time to see what Admiral Fitzroy has in store for the next seven days. If nothing else, the first hint of spring has come with the slightly longer evenings (noticed?) and there has been a noticeable flurry of activity in the garden as nature begins to wake up. The Admiral Fitzroy weather glass has also undergone a bit of a change this week, after weeks of foretelling snow, ice, doom and gloom, could it be it has something a little more cheery in store? Rather than the crystals being big and flaky, they have shrunk dramatically and are more "star-like". None at the top, and there is still a clear solution. So what is the prognosis? There are no "strands" at the top of the glass, so apparently that rules out windy weather. A clear liquid means fair weather. So... Small stars often predict thunderstorms, expect good bright weather when the solution appears as a clear liquid. ...