The low for Yesterday 29th came in  at  -2.3c.   Today the low  was -1.5c. Now rising under a cloudy sky.

-2.9 C reached ay 0735 making it the coldest temperature recorded at this site since -3.2 in early April 2013.

That statistic itself is very indicative of the lack of cold air (other than the current anti cyclonic spell) since April 2013.

Virtually 0.0C bang on the nose here, but we finally have a vintage, retro, trip down memory lane, good old fashioned, 70s/80s, style frost!  The roads are white  

Yes, the  world is stunningly crystalline white this morning

Sat at 0.5c

Frost still all in favoured spots, looks lovely

Being honest I would be happy for this to last another 8 weeks

With lows of -6.3*C and -7.1*C for Sunday night and last night respectively, I have been suitably impressed by the effects of very strong high pressure (1044mb peak here, highest I've ever recorded) and dead calm air even in the absence of snow cover.

Yesterday I walked 7.3 miles through a frozen landscape, the only green coming from patches of sunlit grass and evergreen tree branches. The frost had built up to levels not seen since 2010.

As for those temperatures, the last time colder conditions occurred was in the first week of February 2012, which was mightily cold by night, hitting -10*C on one occasion and -8*C on two others, but very dry with only slight deposits of frost.

If only we had that easterly coming along during the next few days to keep the cold locked in... sometimes the models beyond 5 days range are truly hopeless when it comes down to it.

-5.1c was the low last night here.

Quite a bit cloudier today which seems to have relieved the ground of frost a bit, but the air temperature is holding at just 3c.

Indeed altitude is a key factor for example I have lived at similar height since my records began in 1995 and I have never recorded a temperature less than -9c.   I do think that in this spell the difference between low ground minimum and modest height minimum has been unusually big.  May have something to do with persistent breeze combined with warmer uppers moving in.  Have recorded three nights this winter with lower minimums than this spell.    This morning at 6am it was 3c here and -3.5 in the vale of York.  Snow cover is melting quickly now. 

Gilbert White, the naturalist of Selborne, was surprised by this effect in Dec 1784, to the extent that he swapped his thermometer from Selborne (at the bottom of the hill) with a friend's thermometer from Newton Valence (at the top of the hill) to see if it was their instruments giving a false reading.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.1477-8696.1980.tb04727.x/pdf

Yes it's a subject that confuses, considering high ground gets more snow so this makes people think it's colder, it generally is during the daytime and cloudy nights/mornings. But during the coldest & clear spells the lower ground takes over as that cold air falls. So it's quite odd to a lot people when this happens.

As you probably know the main reasons why high ground gets more snow is because of Orographic lifting, much lower dew points/wet bulb than lower ground. And some other factors I think like wind direction & topographic terrain.

As of 12am both Hurn & Farnborough are down to -6C 

-2.2c here

Last frosty night for a while maybe IMBY anyway

No real low of anything minus today.   1.7c being on the plus side.

-3.5C, the coldest for over 2 years here. A light westerly breeze has sprung up now and the temperature is rocketing towards zero. It won't be long before the frost lifts and then that's it for at least a couple of weeks.

It was good while it lasted!

Managed a respectable -1.8, the cloud earlier in the night and the just perceptible  S edge to the westerly slight breeze inhibiting the frost hollow capacity of the Dour Valley that canyons its way from the north Downs plateau.  My back yard is again coated in white ice, hoar frost.

And -5.8C was this morning's low. Nice to see three days of hoar frost and sub -5C temps. Visually, yesterday's was the most spectacular, perhaps due to more moisture/mist in the air. 

-4.2C last night. Not as low as the previous night because of a southerly breeze that picked up.

Now back to zonal dross for a fortnight.