-6.6 C when I got up at 6.45 am this morning and a hard scrape of the car. We've also had snow falling on 3 days and some accumulation on one day that lasted around 4 hours. Daily maxes not high, but not 'bitterly cold'

All in all for me not a great spell of cold weather, but I do live in the South. As ever in the UK it is very difficult to make National comments about the upcoming weather as it will always result in regional differences. This spell has been good for parts of the UK (Scotland, some of the North). If I was living at height in Sheffield this winter would already have delivered two lots of 6 plus inches and in the last spell lasting snow cover.

Was there a  lot of hype? I think the BBC did perhaps overstate things, but it is probably fair to have said that it would be the coldest spell since Jan 2013, if only for the southern folk. I don't recall anyone in the BBC or Met saying that vast quantities of snow were on the way - almost always the emphasis was on the trickiness of forecasting marginal situations, which was exactly what transpired.

We are unfortunately in a mollycoddled age, where a temp of +1c in central London can be described as 'bitterly cold' - yes I genuinely saw this. Central heating seems to have converted us into a nation that can't cope, or at least that's the impression that is given.

1/10 the score from me.

- Lowest temperature just -3.9C
- No more than 2cm of snow with grass visible all the time
- Lowest max of 2.1C
- No day the temperature remained below freezing for as much as 14 hours
- Rain on Wednesday which turned the snow to slush which then froze making pavements treacherous

All adds up to a pathetic, sorry excuse for a cold spell. Late March 2008 delivered more snow and lower temperatures and April 2012 and October 2012 had much more snow.

For January this was awful and not worth having. The brief cold snap after Christmas may not have delivered snow but it did at least give an ice day and lower minima than this woeful attempt.

With the wind vane having swung back towards the west its time for me to comment, for me it didn't qualify as a cold spell. In the fullness of time it will look like a brief cooler blip in an otherwise averagely mild month.

Maxes since last Friday 6, 4, 3, 4, 4, 5, today is now up to 5c

Mins since last Friday -2, 1, -1, -1, 2, 2, 2

A cooler blip that gave a hint of sleet on the 17th and a brief grauple shower on Wednesday morning.

1/10 if I'm being generous due to the fact that I did see a couple of cm's of snow at 180 metres above sea level on a SW'ly. 

2/10. If I hadn't been to the higher parts of Exmoor and seen a dusting of snow it would be a 1/10 only because we have managed to see some frosts this winter which is more than last. A day time max of 6C is hardly bitter IMO whatever the local radio says. However snow in a westerly is unusual in this part of the UK.

Nick

3 days of falling snow and some decent frosts. But no settling really to speak of.

So a poor cold spell really. 3 out off 10

So in summary then, and just generally speaking:

Bollox. 

Cant see see this one going in the Classics Forum.