January should be about the thrill and anticipation of at least one 3 day freeze-up. I know I have warped perceptions, riding on the back of great Januaries in the past, but it seems to have been ages since a proper Easterly freeze here. Mildish, slack pressure, front stalls, high builds to NE and front retreats back west with sharp drop in temps from east. First snow flurries arrive next day, increase overnight. Trough develops and moves SW, heavy fine blowing snow that clears and a deeply cold night follows.

Not much to ask for, is it?

 

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I am sick of rubbish Januaries in the UK. Sick! Sick! Sick! So there!

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Do you live in Aberdeen and is your name Richard?

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No and yes.

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No it is not.  January is a constant underachiever.  January has become the most lamentably pathetic excuse for a winter month.  I despise its mild nothingness, its difficulty in delivering anything other than a wind with  a westerly component.  I abhor its vacuous unfulfilled potential.

WI (Chanelling Richard of Aberdeen)

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I think this is about the most boring winter i can think of for some time at least last year we had some excitement . Average sums it up nothing extreme at all average to mild temps average sunshine average rainfall , a few frosts thrown in . But this is lowland Southern England and we can go sometimes years without a decent snowfall. I do agree though very much with the theory that deep cold spells come in clusters and we are at the end now of the late 2008 to march 2013 cluster of cold spells. Here Feb 09 was good Dec 09, Jan and Feb 10 Dec 10 and Marc 13 > there was also lying snow in Feb 12. We could now go several more years without a decent spell as indeed we did in the early mid seventies late eighties after jan 87 and much of the 90s. i just suspect that with the warming trend in our climate that such cold spells will be fewer than further between but the cold and snow will come again just not this winter

This winter is yet another disaster. Mind-numbingly boring relentless zonal dross. Nothing but a write-off - a continuation of 13 months of abject hell unparalleled in modern times. Given up even bothering to check the models or look out for a change

It's just getting worse and worse and more like last winter as the wind takes on more of a southerly component. Couldn't have asked for more horrifically unpleasant and depressing weather this week to go back to work to. A revoltingly gloomy, dark start to every day especially yesterday. Min of 7.2C yesterday and, while it reached 1.3C last night, by morning it was 7C dark and gloomy again. Temp remained stuck on that most of the day with some vile drizzle thrown in then after dark the temperature has soared to reach 10.7C now. Tedious beyond words just like last winter and everything in between

The 90s winters were nowhere near as bad as the garbage we've experienced since 2006. The winters of 2006/07, 2007/08, 2011/12 and 2013/14 were absolutely pitiful. Less snowy than anything in the 90s except 1991/92 which was still frostier than any of them. So far 2014/15 on course to join them as only the third winter since 1988 to have no lying snow by the second week of January

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Yep! January is a sorry excuse for a winter month - it should hang its head in shame, it should be cast into outer darkness, it should be stamped upon and abused until it sees the error of its ways!

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Do you know something Richard...!?? - I had a headache and felt fed up and depressed and I read your post and I feel so much better so much better now, because I don't need to take a paracetamol. Thanks so much for curing my headache! High 5*. Keep this up...(NO irony intended).

PS - This winter (well January) so far is turning out to be like last winter. Fingers crossed for a change within a week otherwise Gavin- you must be feeling anxious? Even the Met Office forecasted for colder start to the month when this never occurred and most recently there would be a colder spell towards the end of the month and now this has been withdrawn from their Monthly Outlook. This is really bad indeed, spits of drizzle and light rain with more drizzle and wind - temperatures rising by night and stabilising during the day under this gloom and we have another few weeks of doom n gloom. How depressing - not good for health and in this mild weather lergy germs spread and algae occurs and slugs come out, earthworms come to the surface! Pests creep in your house! YUCK!!

 

I craved for one day with sleet or even wet snow but even this looks unlikely now!! - I thought there was a glimmer of hope with a NE'ly from mid month last night 18z but now the runs have flipped back to zonal.

Oh and the jet stream travelling at speeds of 250mph?? What!?  What's the hurry!?? Calm down please Jet Stream....just relax.

 

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Even more depressing to find that across the pond they are experiencing such extremely cold weather!

-25c in Ottawa tonight and -13c in NYC.

I feel this thread could become popular soon with rants coming in.

I look forward to your rants Neil, Richard, Festivalking, Ghawes, Weather Idle and Gooner etc. Also Doctor! Keep your rants coming in.

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It has been disappointing for sure I aint' lying, seeing places in the Middle East getting decent snow - in fact buried in snow! enough to satisfy most on here. And as Tally says North America getting a deep freeze again.

I am fed up with going out getting soaking wet and its' not even been all that mild. It has been miserable. My least favourite weather cold & wet. It should snow with cold.

You can bet we'll have a cool washout Summer, it would top off a crap 9 months if that happened. Surely we cannot have 3 good Summers in a row especially in NW England. 

Suppose we've been spoilt with good snowy Winters since 2009. The tide might have turned in the opposite direction. 

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But at least you had snow Boxing day right!?

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I doff my cap to you sir.

You ARE The Master.

When it comes to telling it (rantingly) like it is, you are the Demi- god.

 

WI

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One word.........pants!

 

Unusually alot of Manchester missed the snow.  Where as on the Wirral - where usually we miss the snow and Manc gets it, we had about 2-3 inches...

 

work that one out.

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Yet Costal low lying Liverpool got snow covering when there wasn't even snow in the forecast. I heard airport closed!?

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Two weeks ago and Geldof may of had to change the lyrics to the Christmas song.

I've seen snow in Tenerife before but that was up Mount Teide

 

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We did but it only lay on the cars like a sugar dusting.

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It's overcast and windy here but so unseasonably mild here at 14.5c and it's 11pm. Truly remarkable. - We reached 16.8c today. Must be a record breaker. So unseasonal for the month of January.

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Only 13 months?   You lucky, lucky sod! 




You normally have lying snow by the second week of January?   You lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky sod!

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Do not like all this mildness late in the day.   Roll on the end of the month and the change,,,, ....

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While the wind is in the west we don't even get frost here in North Northumberland during the cold spells because it funnels straight down from the Cheviots. I have been here for 1 1/2 winters and there has been barely a winters day without a stiff westerly breeze. 1/3 of days this month have reached 14C after dark yet the relentless wind makes it feel so darned cold the whole time.

Problem is I'm not much of a moaner, Tally. I leave that to the Pros like Richard ;-)

Today may be the day I see my first snowflake of the winter, but  the chances of me seeing my first measurable snowfall since Dec 2010 are very slim. Maybe it's age but I'm embarrassed to admit I'm not that bothered about seeing snow these days. I would never have thought that possible 10 years ago! If it happens then I'll enjoy it but otherwise I'll take pride in being located in one of the least snowy (but sunniest and driest) parts of Scotland.

Apologies, my post isn't really in the spirit of this thread!

Edit: Just saw a few flakes blowing in the wind. Right, I'm gone from this thread!

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Might be happier at the end of the  coming week.  If all goes well with a fall.

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Closed briefly to clear the runway - the intensity of the snowfall was as high here (about 12 miles east of Liverpool) as I've seen, with massive flakes. This allowed the snow to start sticking a lot quicker than one would expect after a period of rainfall and on ground that wasn't particularly cold. The peak depth here reached about 5cm on cars & grass, about 3cm on roads & pavements, before the PPN turned back to light rain and halved the depth before stopping.

 

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