This. I remember those very cold midwinters past, when a winter actually lived up to its name. I remember truly cold biting winds, icicles (that lasted for many days and grew to impressive sizes), and excitedly waiting for those famed snow events to arrive! And all of this in the south of England! I'm sure we'll experience these again, but it sure is frustrating today (for me at least) when a cold spell is almost described on TV in the same way those winters past were. There is no comparison. So for me it's back to model watching hoping for something similar to what I experienced back then.

Originally Posted by: Wobbly_Monk 

It was those truly cold winter spells (and the summer of '76) of the late 70s and early to mid 80s that got me so interested in Meteorology.  I lived across the road from the sea (on Shoreham Beach, Sussex) yet we would have weeks of hard frosts, ice days weren't uncommon and snow / deep snow was something that happened.   I know memory tends to edit / condense the past into the highlights, but I remember recording days where the temp stayed below -2C and it snowed for day after day.

My kids would love a proper mid-winter Easterly.

Originally Posted by: kmoorman 

I'm not moaning about the cold spell as such, although it's not gone below freezing since it started.

No, I'm moaning about the way that the midwinter easterly seems to have gone extinct. This is now the 19th year since the last one (which was in January 1997) - just what is it that's changed to make them impossible? In the 19 years prior to 1997 we had loads of them* and a winter containing some ice days (-1C or below) wasn't considered that unusual.

The last winter easterly was in 2005, but it was so late in the season it was just a slushy mess rather than deep cold: we had 14 days in a row with snow falling and snow on the ground, but it was melting all the while. No icicles, no ice days - just slushy snow. Yet before 1997 we didn't have all this "will it, won't it" with easterlies - you would read in the papers or see on TV that cold was coming and it did - the only question was whether you'd get 3 inches of snow or a foot. Remember, I'm on an island jutting out into the North Sea, so in an easterly we get absolutely plastered.

It's depressing that the youngsters around here haven't seen proper cold... something that was once taken for granted is now something only found in the history books!

I daresay we will get another easterly one of these days, maybe even in February, but I'll not be holding my breath. The only fun thing will be seeing how the forecasters on TV describe it - if they use "bitterly cold" to describe temperatures above freezing, I'd love to know how they'd describe a high of -2C with persistent light snow and a stiff easterly breeze!

* I know I've had arguments with people about this before, but the 80s were littered with easterlies and even the 90s had a few: 90/1, 93/4, 95/6 and of course 96/7.

Originally Posted by: Retron 

I think we have seen a clear change in our winter patterns since the late eighties, achieving stable High latitude blocking in the winter months has been near impossible. Certainly prior to that easterly in Feb 2005, it was being widely discussed on weather forums if blocking of that magnitude would ever be seen again in the British winter; so scarce have easterly synoptics been 

Originally Posted by: Shropshire 

I think we have seen a clear change in our winter patterns since the late eighties, achieving stable High latitude blocking in the winter months has been near impossible. Certainly prior to that easterly in Feb 2005, it was being widely discussed on weather forums if blocking of that magnitude would ever be seen again in the British winter; so scarce have easterly synoptics been 

Originally Posted by: Shropshire 

January 12, 1987

The coldest day I have ever experienced in southern England. The daytime maxima in Smarden, Kent, was -8.5C following heavy snowfall overnight.

Nothing since has come close.

Originally Posted by: Justin W 

I don't disagree with that. We've had blocking of that magnitude in years since but it has been to the north and west of the UK rather than to the north and east - notably during December 2010. GHs are pretty pants down here so that's why the southerners on TWO (me included) tend to whinge and whine about them.

The question is whether the the lack of HLB to the north and east of the UK during the last 20 years is permanent. I suspect that the answer is not given that there were similar Scandinavian high droughts during the 1920s/30s and 1960s/70s.

Originally Posted by: Justin W 

Originally Posted by: Solar Cycles 

I don't disagree with that. We've had blocking of that magnitude in years since but it has been to the north and west of the UK rather than to the north and east - notably during December 2010. GHs are pretty pants down here so that's why the southerners on TWO (me included) tend to whinge and whine about them.

The question is whether the the lack of HLB to the north and east of the UK during the last 20 years is permanent. I suspect that the answer is not given that there were similar Scandinavian high droughts during the 1920s/30s and 1960s/70s.

Originally Posted by: Justin W 

I don't disagree with that. We've had blocking of that magnitude in years since but it has been to the north and west of the UK rather than to the north and east - notably during December 2010. GHs are pretty pants down here so that's why the southerners on TWO (me included) tend to whinge and whine about them.

The question is whether the the lack of HLB to the north and east of the UK during the last 20 years is permanent. I suspect that the answer is not given that there were similar Scandinavian high droughts during the 1920s/30s and 1960s/70s.

Originally Posted by: Justin W 

Barely made it below freezing last night followed by another disgusting grey start for the 16th day out of 18. Then this evening it rained and it's still 1.4C despite a maximum of only 2.4C

Absolutely disgusting. This cold spell isn't even good enough to register alongside the very worst. A score of 0/10 would be far too generous. It's not fit for purpose and would be an embarrassment in November never mind January

Originally Posted by: richardabdn 

Anyone else getting that 'WIO' feeling?

It's certainly been a pile of poo so far.

Originally Posted by: Saint Snow 

So it looks like it's all gone tits up cold weather wise for the foreseeable future ...can't believe how poor the last 3 winters, I wasn't in UK for Mar'13, have been, how I long for those sullen grey days of the 70s which remained below freezing, with snow falling heavily and regularly out of the sky, and the land would remain white for a week or two, when the milk on your doorstep would freeze, or the Blue Tits would get to it first. Makes me laugh when you see a headline on BBC news...'Why is it so cold...?'...just because the south has had temps of -8degC overnight, i'll tell you the reason why...it's bloody winter and that's how it's meant to be...a lot of this modern population would die if they'd lived through the winters of the the 60s/70s...

Originally Posted by: phlippy67