http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/who/how/case-studies/big-freeze

Above remember here the most exciting winter in years in this meto study.

🌨🌨🌨🌨🌨☃☃☃⛄️

I clearly remember December 2010 and the day after day of freezing weather that made it the coldest December for over 100 years and 1 of only 8 months to have a sub zero CET in the last 115 years

I suppose my clearest recollection though is the snow event of 18th Decmber that year. Snow round here is rare as hens' teeth but on that day it started snowing hard around that Saturday lunchtime and within an hour or two was about 10cm deep. It was the only time if my memory is correct that London has been covered by a red weather warning

In fact the snow event here of Feb 2009 was a lot better (around 20cm) but overnight and other than that you have yp go back to the 1990's to beat it

I was straight out with my camera for souvenir pictures whilct the snow was still fresh but this is what it looked like from my window that day

A place of sanctuary for the coming winter months ahead. 

Here in CS England a nagging NE ly set in on 21st Nov that more or less stayed until the end of the month. I recorded very low maxima from 24th through to 8th December inclusive. Snow started falling on the eve of 29th Nov and from 30th 14cm lay without drifting on 1st December; I remember going for a night walk and the traffic was all bottled up towards the motorway, horns blasting and visibility dreadful in the snow.

We had freezing days on 1st, 2nd, 6th, 19th and 25th.

On Christmas Day no snow fell, but the most perfect memory of a Christmas scene with 10cm across lawns in Chilbolton, with my two young daughters in winter dresses, venturing out in the late afternoon,  casting long shadows across the snow from the low light in the house, will stay with me forever.

December 2010 .....   -19.9c !!

The weather station - December 2010


Keeping the village roads clear December 2010

I think you are in for a Belter of a winter.  Strong westerlies, cold NW Canada, cold Atlantic = lots of snow in northern Scotland with decent altitude

A magnificent fall of snow in December, with a day of brilliant blue skies to enjoy it, but in the end a great disappointment as on the coast it thawed after 3-4 days 

Photos of West Dean Arboretum (and another disappointment, the statue has been removed owing to risk of theft)

I remember going to school on the 16th and it was so cold there was ice on the inside of the bus. Ice on the inside as a general rule only happens when the temperatures is below -10C, well that morning it was -19C and the max was something like -11C. Never known anything like it, and never have seen anything like those temperatures since. 

Yes the southernmost part of the country didn't get the really deep cold. I don't recall what the max snow depth was here but it wasn't a patch on January 2010 when we had 25cm (measured on the tarmac) - the most since at least the early 1980s. 

I think we're about 40 miles south west-ish of you Rob. We had 14cm level from the 1st December fall; that was 1cm less than Jan 2010 and 2cm less than Feb 2009, so here at least, the three were comparable.

Going back to your engaging thread: I remember how at 16 I was a part of the 1981 December; I didn't appreciate it then- too many teenage distractions. Then I spent all of my twenties and thirties reminiscing and believing, here in the south, that that'd been it & I should have appreciated it when it was here; a fatalistic depression that also became an obsession, especially when I discovered, trawling through the microfiche at the local library, that 1890 was the latest better one.

Then 2010 happened and all the days before Christmas, even when it was a mild interlude here & I saw the news for the rest of the country, were filled with the same sort of replenishment you get after a perfect Christmas dinner. It was a perfectly timed Advent Winter- a new phrase, perhaps. Those of us with a childish love of the Dickensian ideal had a week of November and then right through until Boxing Day to live the dream.

I reckon there'll be a second coming sooner than we think (not this year)

Sitting here in Kent it was like picking up scraps from everyone else! We had a couple of falls of snow in December which at any other time would have been respectable enough. However, they paled into insignificance compared with the rest of the UK. For the coldest December in over 100 years I really would have expected more! It certainly paled compared with the 80s winters (and 91 etc) in terms of snow depth.

I'm still waiting for a proper easterly (Feb/Mar 2005 was close, but too late to bring ice days - 1997 was the last easterly spell).

Here's the stats from my station:

December 2010 was very disappointing here in comparison to most other parts of the country as my records tell.

Quite right - Reading was in the bullseye for that one (Jan7 I think). I had close to 40cm in my back yard.

Far more impressive than what transpired later in the year.

Brilliant to see those contemporary datasets- it's like reading Gilbert White or something.

There are times when Kent gets great stuff off the continent and we sit here in mank.

Yes the North did better- but if you'd had those stats in Dec 2012 you'd have been happy.  A bit like the happy chappy who found a fiver and celebrated all day, until it transpired that his neighbour had found a tenner!

It still rates as one of the best, & reminds us the gate can be opened on this side of the North Sea.

Cheers

Though strictly the winter of 2009, our maximum snow depth occurred on 7th.January 2010, with a level 65cm (...and made a snow-maze in the garden for the little grandson!)

Impressive driving for someone who was 107 at the time (or so it says in your stats!)

-7.6c remains the lowest temperature I have ever recorded as an adult since keeping daily records in 1998. The dramatic 7.1c rise of temperature in just 20 minutes during that evening of the 3rd December was the start of a devastating thaw that cleared 20cm of snow in 12 hours from 11pm. I distinctly remember facebook comments on that Saturday morning saying things like..'what happened there then ?'

A 4.1C rise in 10 minutes that evening at 11pm: amazing. Did you notice it (if not asleep, of course)? Sounds stupid, but what caused that? I notice the wind shifted at about that point in your records.

It was definitely noticed,..I was hoping for a period of snow but could not believe what I was witnessing on the weather station. . A simple shift in wind direction off the English Channel ahead of an advancing warm front was the cause Bertwhistle. The rise in temperature was even more impressive because 1. The starting temperature was exceptionally low and 2. The SW wind that stirred was strong as soon as it arrived. The English Channel at the time was probably 10c..snow on the ground stood no chance, especially when the rain arrived at 1am.

Very similar here Gusty. Midday temp on the Friday was bitter, circa -5c over the North Downs. I went for a walk over the downs with a mate and the crisp deep snow, clear skies and low winter sun made for a stunning scene! We even saw diamond dust!!!! 😮 Alas, a few hours later a rapid thaw set in. I remember looking on the met office website at the hourly obs for Kenly, not far from me and being shocked and disappointed at what they showed. A rise from bitterly cold to positive territory in only a few hours......