Whilst there is merit in taking a realistic view of the models there has to be a place for ramping. For me age and life has dulled both the positives and negatives of the weather, but I see nothing wrong in being emotional about it. I can remember the bitter disappointment of waking up (it also seemed to be overnight) after a promising forecast to the noise of rain drops, and looking out on a dull grey miserable landscape. However, the one massive benefit of these let downs was that it made the wonder and joy all the more powerful when it did actually snow.  When I was younger (the pre internet days) I was obsessed with the weather and, of course, information was scarce. Therefore, you had to rely on such things as the twice daily ceefax weather updates, or staying awake until 12.30am to listen to the late night Radio 4 forecast.

I used to work in the centre of Birmingham and during the lunch break I would often go and hang around the audio visual section in Rackhams to catch the weather on the BBC1 at the end of the lunchtime news. The staff must have thought I was very interested in their TVs! This was often, but not exclusively, on Wednesdays when they did the outlook for the weekend. In hindsight this seems bizarre, but at the time I just had to get my fix! Therefore, I would say that there is absolutely no problem in people getting emotional and taking their feet of the ground so to speak, otherwise it just ends up as a dull academic exercise.

In the model output thread you do have people posting cherry picked charts of cold weather, but for some reason this does seem to upset some people. This is not meant as a personal attack on Brian as there are a number of other posters who do it, but he posted one chart today showing mild weather, admitting that the reason he posted it was because of the predominance of cold charts posted. If you actively crave mild weather in winter then fine post the mildest charts you can find. However, I don’t think you should post such a chart simply because other people take pleasure in posting the most extreme cold permutations. It’s what makes the weather so exciting.

In my opinion, emotion is what makes life exciting with its peaks and troughs (pun intended!). In some ways I personally would love to go back to the time when I was emotionally involved, so that I would once again, experience the crushing disappointment of a non event, as this would then make the rare snowy occasions all the more enjoyable. Therefore, my all means be realistic, but also please don’t be afraid of a good ramp!

An interesting insight into past eras there 

I feel the main problem with ramping is, the bigger the ramp, the bigger the slide if it all goes pear shaped.

It's good fun raising expectations higher and higher, but that can lead to some bad backlash if statements like "memorable cold spell" get thrown around only to not bear fruit in reality.

Still, it does make for a compelling read, as I can recall from the run-up to December 2010 for example.

I guess this is why some sites have a dedicated 'ramping thread', with the hope that readers will be able to (almost religiously) apply the usual caveats and not take the content too seriously.

James I think you should register that phrase...

"The bigger the ramp, the bigger the slide" 

Good post Overland.  It will strike a chord with many of us I think.

Standing outside Radio Rentals watching the lunch time forecast even though I couldn't hear the sound! Done that often but we forget how scarce was weather information pre internet.

I agree with need emotion otherwise it would be like doing a Open University course with dry analysis. I like the ramp and I am so used to the let downs I enjoy the Black Humour that comes with them as well.

My wife once asked me if she had ever met Uncle Barty and did we invite him to the wedding! With a smile on my face I said no but he always wants to come for Christmas to which she gave me that 'your going mad' look and walked off.

I read and post on hear as much for the shared experience as for the meteorological information and the humour and banter is just as important, over on Netweather it can sometimes be like a dictatorship devoid of emotion which I think is a bad thing. I have enough of serious, full of themselves but brainless people at work, on here I want some friendship.

Andy

PS What was the cede fax updates and how were they accessed?

This site has, over the years, become far more realistic & sensible. I remember the days when so many (me included) would whip themselves up into a frenzy of ramping at the first sight of -5c 850's or pressure building over Scandinavia appearing in the distant fringes of GFS runs. All this led by people like Tom Presutti, who came across as being a meteorological magi, but was, as we eventually realised, just an excitable ramper with a solid met knowledge.

When a cold/snowy period was in the offing in the early/mid-00's on here, there would literally be people posting their thoughts on every single 6/12-hourly increment as it rolled out, pointing out and explaining changes from the previous run.

There'll always be a place for ramping, and I think now the vast majority of people on here can discern when ramping is taking place.

Give over. 

Seriously, if this week's synoptics had been showing in, say, winter 2002 or 2003, TWO would have been in meltdown with an enormous amount of ramping obliterating any sensible discussion.

Hi Andy, It was the Teletext service on the BBC (Ceefax not cede!) with the weather updated each day, every morning and late afternoon. At the time it was the height of technology and it was reasonably accurate and informative. Other than the radio and TV it was the only other source of forecasts. They used to use coloured coded maps to illustrate the weather between areas and they used (I think) purples for particularly cold weather!

Ahhh... happy days...

Fond memories! Although I remember when they first introduced those five day forecasts they were often worse than useless, frequently showing higher night time temperatures than day!

I remember how dramatic it seemed when it showed 'hy rain' or 'sunny' for all of the five days listed. Somehow more effective than seeing five heavy rain or sunshine icons these days. Or maybe that's just me!