I wonder when they'll open their first ski resort (outdoor)?

Back to the usual awfulness of gloom today..... 

And so the total and utter crapfest rolls on and on. While I love the temperate climate of the UK summer (being a hater of heat and humidity), I detest the filth, mud and day after day of grey drizzle and rain that most of our recent winters have brought me.

Sadly, there isn't a climate anywhere in the world where I can pick and mix continental and maritime according to the season!

I love heat!.. I'm increasingly thinking the best solution is to live in a warm (for me, hot) country where living is cheap, and use the spare cash to go for trips to snow-bound locations in the winter for my cold and snow fix.

I can think of many areas that suit your desire for warm, as opposed to hot summers and cold, snowy winters. Southern Finland and Sweden, most of Eastern Europe, the Maritime provinces in Canada. Cities like Helsinki and Moscow have similar summer averages to London but are obviously much colder in winter. You can move to places like Finland fairly easily too since they're in the EU - learn some of the lingo, find a job and off you go!

I too like summers in the UK - as long as they're average or warmer. A typical summer day here would have a high of 21C with sunny spells - I certainly don't want it much warmer than that. Only problem is, there's not much room for error - even a bit below average feels very disappointing, whereas a below average summer in somewhere like Barcelona would still be on the very warm side.

But, when the weather goes as it's supposed to, summer in the UK is a wonderful thing, IMO.

It's why, despite so many complaints, I was happy about last summer - June was warmer than average during the day with plentiful sunshine and low rainfall, while august was bang on average in terms of temps and sunshine - with most of the rainfall via thunderstorms. July was the only stinker really, but it's not common to get all three months above average.

'Northern half' is stretching it a bit. Maybe if you include the Orkneys & Shetland 

MetO have the warning for Jockland & the very far north of England.

This winter has been abysmal in this part of the world. TBH I'm not as bothered about snow as I used to be and these days find it is readily trumped by hot weather. I'd like to move to a warm Mediterranean climate with the Alps a few hours drive away. California would tick the right boxes too. 

Abysmal is the right word.  The decent bright crisp days can be counted on one hand, the rest has been cloudy,  mild crap   - I also hate  gales - destructive and annoying when you are trying to work outside,  not that the incessant  rain makes that possible !!

Christmas will be over in 11 months....  Hope it is not the same weather.  

I too am less bothered about snow than I once was - I think the 2009/10 and 2010/12 winters scratched an itch, then Jan & Mar 13 seemed to deliver a healthy covering of snow every other weekend. Still love & covet it, but I'm more sanguine if we don't get snow. Don't want the kids to miss out on it, though!

Anyway, I think New England has the best climate on the planet.

Horribly cold, windy and unpleasant under the totally useless hell that is "cold zonality" Sunny but can't possibly enjoy it due to the wind and needless to say the snow is not making it past the mountains yet strangely the rain did yesterday. Not so much a rain shadow now as a snow shadow 

Really starting to hate this garbage as much as easterlies. Practically unheard of before 2011 but since then has pretty much replaced northerlies as the main source of winter cold meaning we never get snow any more.

Would much prefer mild westerlies or south westerlies. At least the wind wouldn't feel so nasty and nagging.

I'm the same. I still desire snow in winter, but I'm not as bothered if we don't get much, and the more-or-less snowless winter of 2013/2014 didn't actually bother me as much as I thought it would. I think I'm more concerned about summer than winter these days - probably because recent winters haven't delivered much so I've lost interest, whereas 2009-2013 was quite a snowy period. I think thunderstorms might be my new favourite weather phenomenon now too.. they are even more frustrating though given the hit-and-miss nature of them.

Still, I want 3 feet of snow and I want it now.

Graupel just fell. Only 1 small cloud..     Need the proper white stuff........

Amazing.Here's a quote from your post Essan- not that others couldn't see it from the link but just to emphasise. I don't know how long met records have been kept there but the simple observation of snow could have been recorded in writing long, long ago.

There is no record of snow having fallen in Kuwait before -

Had some Graupel falling ..Just wish it was the proper stuff.....

Snowing like crazy and has been for 1-2 hrs now - settled above 200m

Also had a cracking good thunder and lightening snow storm about an hour ago

Nice to have a dull damp wet gloomy day for the end of the month.. ....Only what I expected....

Wind has finally died down and what a surprise the grey skies have returned. What an absolute joke. This winter is just putrid beyond belief. Like I said before the only time there's any sunshine is when there's a 50mph wind blowing to completely ruin it