There are always consequences though. It is healthy to get a good few frosts during the winter months - for one thing, it kills lots of pests.

We had a wasp in the kitchen yesterday - never seen that in December before.

Agree, I wouldn't rule out an awful summer. But there again I wouldn't rule out a great summer (or an average summer).

14.2c midday today and with drizzle and now 13.9c this evening with rain - so eventful here! :-)
This should go in the CC thread but it's a moan!

I am having this recurring nightmare that we are living through the mildest, worst Winter ever, like FOREVER!!!!

Please wake me up someone, before it makes me ill.

And that will be around spring time and continue throughout the summer. I've lost count of the number of perfect winter charts we see in summer and vice versa. This country's climate is cursed.

It just keeps getting worse and worse. Even the abomination of 2002 relented just after mid-month to give us three days of brilliant blue skies and frost. This repulsive month gives us a frosty morning then back to the horrific gloom and drizzle. Was practically dark by 2pm today and it's the now customary nonsense of the temperature rising through the evening instead of falling 

Just complete garbage in the outlook. Temperatures of 12-13C possible which is exactly the same as we were getting six months ago in the horror show that was June. Of zero interest and far from exceptional when the record is 16C.

Not even the Highlands look likely to see a frost over the next week. It's beyond dire and yet another foul write-off Saturday coming up which will make three out of three grey miseries this month. Now a full two years that has seen significantly worse weather on a Saturday compared to the weekdays and I am sick to death of constantly having one of my two days off ruined. Certainly not looking forward to being off for almost a fortnight over Christmas if this is the sort of filth that's going to be dished up on a daily basis

This is an absolutely disgusting unhealthy climate that just keeps getting more and more detestable with each year that passes. Just a seasonless hell that sees less variation than anywhere outside the tropics

Exactly like Spring /April1998 after the last El Nino winter of 97/98 - Beginning of April around 5th or 6th - up to 2-3" of snow fell widely across the SW - only lasted a day. BUT in Spring we want to see warmer and drier weather NOT bloody cold snowy weather with frosts etc. Even be more frustrating is when we see a Northern blocking in MAY OR June.

Are these the same as Codge or was that some other troll?

London is expected to reach a high of 17c tomorrow!?

Damp but still a balmy 11.5°c ....Winter? 

If it stays this mild I might get away without needing to use the central heating Christmas Day when the family are here 

That's not going to help the heating fuel companies!!    The heating oil price is already at a 7 year low (maybe more).

It seems that the Eastern seaboard of the US and the rest of Europe are in the same boat as us here at the UK when it comes to this current mildness . I guess the cold lovers amongst us can derive a little bit of comfort from knowing that.

It's funny because over the last couple of years I've actually grown to like the Mildness during Autumn & Winter, seems to make the shorter days not seem as bad, just a shame the Rain and Rubbish often comes with it. After 2010 I use to get frustrated at no snow before Christmas but then the last two years have made me mature about that somewhat 

5 days till the shortest day then onwards and upwards from there, just hope "IF" we do get a cold blast with significant snow it does it by Feb, not a fan of having snow after that to be honest, once Spring is here I want the sun and warmth.

That is unusual - more often than not, we get the opposite weather to the eastern seaboard - they get cold much more frequently than we do of course, but when we get cold, they usually get mild.

I have a feeling we would be enjoying an unusual period of decent cold, if it were not for the Euroslug. The Jet is fairly meridional and troughs are dropping into the mid-Atlantic, but the slug scuppers any chance of blocking to our north or north east. Without the slug, troughs would probably be extending into central Europe allowing heights to rise to our NE.

I'm not so hot on teleconnections etc, but I'd be surprised if the Euro high were an 'independent variable' as it were. 

Agreed. However, it is the local manifestation of something which is bringing all this mild gunk to our shores, so getting it to clear off would no doubt be beneficial for coldies.

Why it is there and why it is so persistent, is another matter of course.

Alas, people jump on you if you post "Winter is over", but clearly these mild/gunk/slug patterns hang around indefinitely, so I think it is a safe call to write off January as well as December. Fingers crossed that something changes in February to give us a belated taste of winter.

I'm going through an irrational but prolonged MLC and having palpitations about how quickly the years are flying, as I zoom toward old age & death (I'm 43, FFS!!)

From that perspective, I'm very aware that I desperately want to experience what I really desire in life - like cold, snowy festive periods; every year that passes with mild sh*te is another year wasted.

The twin 'white Xmases' of 2009 & 2010 just made me realise that the ideal is more than possible (and it's a superb experience, leaving fantastic memories), which just makes this rubbish weather more frustrating, even though, logically, I understand that cold & snowy is the exception to the 'forever autumn' climate this country is plagued with.

We are living in the wrong century Saint. The 17th Century was ace for the UK and the 19th Century had frequent decent winter. The 1990s and 2000s and 2010s are complete rubbish, with the honourable exception of 2010 itself.

But this has to be one of the worst and most depressing - definitely up there with 2013-14. The continual greyness simply saps the soul.

We live out in the sticks and I usually go for a walk down the lane in the evening  - last night I could not see a damn thing - usually there is enough ambient light to see the trees and hedgerows.

It is all too awful for words!

Can we keep moaning and groaning weather-wise until the middle of January.......