Well here we are in the final weeks before Christmas and apart from last weeks storm surge and a few dustings of snow (at low level) in the north of the UK, so far it has been an uneventful winter.
When I got up this morning and looked out the bedroom window I was surprised to see heavy hoar frost on the grass and a crisp winter's morning with frozen car windscreens all around.
That says it all really!! The fact I was "surprised". Winter here in North Kent, has been incredibly bland so far, with no sign of a decent easterly event!
Cold frosty starts have been limited and wintry precipitation totally absent IMBY!
Other parts of the world haven't been missing out on wintry precipitation however, and the Eastern USA has been particularly hammered! Even Turkey got in on the act last night, with the Champions League Game between Galatasaray and Juventrus being abandoned due to a blizzard!!
Deep down I have a horrible feeling that for cold lovers (myself included) winter 2013/14 is going to be a real dissapointment.
Cold air just doesn't seem to want to linger around these islands? I feel we have been spoiled through the last few winters and especially the cold spell of December 2010, which despite the rest of that winter being pretty poor (in North Wales at least), was in fact a nailed on 'classic' spell of UK winter weather for almost everybody.
If you look at this excellent history of British winters in the attached link, it is obvious that Britain has always had fluctuating cold and mild periods for our winters. The early to mid seventies were particularly poor for snow as was the late nineties and early noughties!!
http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=winter-history;sess=
However, despite the fluctuations, is climate change having a further impact? Or is is just the fact that our winters fluctuate from cold to mild as our weather in general is so changeable?
It just feels to me that every year the forecast snow events (if we get them) seem to become more and more marginal? Yes snow in Scotland is still fairly reliable (due mainly to elevation), but down here in the south east the famed "beast from the east" appears close to extinction?
Model output for the lead up to Christmas is showing mild and unsettled and last Christmas was also mild!
So is it time to start the moaning thread or too early?
Any thoughts?
Snowjoke
Edited by user
11 December 2013 13:17:10
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