So I just want to run through some of the archive charts for 1890, any statistics about Dec 1890 would be very interesting.

The thing that is quite startling is that December was preceded by so much blocking. Indeed we can go back to October and find charts like this:

Early November sees something marginally more zonal but even still this is not exactly a flat jet, and temperatures are still below average.

By Late November we bizarrely see among the most Atlantic driven weather we have seen since October (if not before), but this is the deadly 'calm' before the storm and must be the ultimate in false security. Watch what happens next.

Almost out of nowhere an Atlantic-Greenland high suddenly develops and plunges the UK in a cold northerly wind with frequent snow showers beginning to affect scotland. Meanwhile a section of polar vortex has broken away out of the arctic and now lies in western Russia just west of Finland. An almost unimaginably cold pool with temperatures lower than -40C at the 850 level sits here. The synoptics are, in many ways, rather similar to 2010.

And at this point we all know what is about to happen:

The northerlies are replaced by frigid North easterlies dragging this bitterly cold air off the continent. I can't imagine anywhere will be getting above freezing point now. As for that cold pool in Russia, well I think wetterzentrale only goes down to -40C, so I have no idea how truly cold that is. Even in SE england the 850hpa temperature is -18C rivaling January 1987. 

Like 2010 though we arn't looking at wall to wall cold. And we actually start December with South westerlies affecting most of the country. I suspect this will be bringing a fast thaw especially in more north western parts. Like 2010, this is not going to last though! 

The scandi high quickly reasserts control while ridging in the midatlantic to greenland. NE winds start to filter cold air down into the northern isles. 

The Greenland high moves south, and we are then back to importing freezing air off the continent, uppers arn't that cold, but I suspect given the cold spell never left Europe that surface temperatures will be subzero all day in this.

This situation continues for days. A week later hardly anything has changed. Uppers are actually warmer (positive in a few places), but I doubt that is doing anything for the temperatures; there is likely widespread snow cover and there has been nothing to warm Europe. The stark contrast between warm uppers and bitterly cold 'lowers' probably places most of the UK in impenetrable freezing fog that perpetually keeps temperatures well below freezing. 

By the 18th there is a gradual change away from fog towards snow, uppers are back down and the snow showers are back. 

Any fog left in western parts is broken up by Atlantic fronts which cover the UK in widespread snow on the 19th and 20th

But the fog and relatively mild uppers return on the 22nd

This lasts another couple of days before once again we get colder uppers and snow returning from the east. This will last the remainder of the month.

So to summarize 1890. 

Very similar to 2010, both began in November, both had a period of brief moderation (the 1st for 1890, the 10th for 2010). Both began in almost identical ways. 

The thing that really gets me is that the reason this month was so cold is not due to cold uppers, in fact uppers were a little under -10C at the lowest and regularly above 0C! The cold was due to imported surface cold. The insanely cold uppers of -40C that penetrated into Europe during November and covered most of Europe sub -20C uppers (and even we went well below -15C). This initially froze Europe so despite unremarkable uppers insanely cold surface temps were imported during December; indeed the high uppers actually probably ironically helped keep things cold in the UK by providing blankets of unrelenting fog which would have prevented any chance of temps getting above 0C. When the fog did clear it was only replaced by snow. I suspect nightime temps were unremarkable due to lack of clear skies (though I'm sure we did get occasions where the fog and snow cleared to give ridiculously cold <-20C nights in scotland) but daytime temps never really got above 0C. 

It was an amazing December, and similar to 2010, the 1890 spell started with a very cold end to November- but here in the South, 1890's end to November was more extreme, with a low minimum of -8 at the old Hudson Verity weather station in Southampton, only yards from Southampton Water. There was also a -2C max on one day. Days before, the same station was recording 14C.

An excellent write up, made for a nice bit of tea time reading. But I think December 1981 is up there in terms of early prolonged cold and snow. If anything, I think that was more harsh than December 2010 but both are uncannily similar in terms of how it lead to an "average" winter for the rest of the season (although the first week of January 1982 was perishing cold whereas it wasn't in the first week of Jan '11).

Other than 2010, isn't Dec 1890 the only sub-zero CET December on record?

The Manley series shows 6 subzeros; amazingly, two were close together in the 1870s; but the two focused on here are the coldest. 1981 wasn't far off at 0.3C; we should feel privileged that we've experienced 2010 and 1981 in or lifetimes.

The 1981-82 cold held on in the New Year over the far north (eg Shetland) but for most of us there was a reprieve until about Jan 6th.

I do agree with you though, that had 2010 not happened, for those of us alive today the 1981 experience would have been the stuff of legends; as a 16 year old just immersing in weather for the first time, I was amazed seeing the temperatures forecast for 11th and 12th December: even quite locally in the New Forest, one unofficial reading was -17C (sandy soil).

The difference is that 1981 didn't get going until the 8th Dec when the effects of that cold front really took forecasters by surprise.

  Hang on a moment ill get it in n/h view

There you go just fab  was great just run it for that dec

http://www.meteociel.com/modeles/archives/archives.php?day=6&month=12&hour=0&year=1981&map=4&mode=2

Need to view those others in n/h view Q

it started like this

http://www.meteociel.com/modeles/archives/archives.php?mode=2&month=12&day=2&year=1981&map=4

Read that met monthly report in those days it was truly great

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/pdf/j/k/Dec1981.pdf

Yes that's great;  I remember by 6th shown, 'something colder' was being forecast and the NW lies at the time were quite unusual looking, with even a warm sector (might've been the 5th Dec) containing NW winds as the high retreated.

Very nostalgic now.

Read the above I had to get off a bus and walk many miles home the cold and the snow just fab

Kev

I came across those met monthly reports the other day was you aware of them?

Snow fell on quite a few days here but only lay briefly. However, I stayed with my girlfriend in Kent for a week and everything was snow covered. I remember slipping and sliding on the way back from the pub and laughing ourselves stupid. I guess Chelmsford, being where it is, was similar.

But even here there was a thin, grey nip in the air even at midday, like opening a freezer and breathing in.

Chelmsford was Exceptionally cold with very severe frost and heavy snowfall as met report above

quote=Bertwhistle;744482]

Snow fell on quite a few days here but only lay briefly. However, I stayed with my girlfriend in Kent for a week and everything was snow covered. I remember slipping and sliding on the way back from the pub and laughing ourselves stupid. I guess Chelmsford, being where it is, was similar.

But even here there was a thin, grey nip in the air even at midday, like opening a freezer and breathing in.