Solstice been and passed! Roll on spring! I've been working nights over the last few weeks and I've barely seen any daylight in weeks. To go to sleep right as it's getting light and then to wake up as it's going dark again is thoroughly depressing. I actually feel like a vampire at the moment.

At least now we're starting the road back to better times.

Why have we still got a winter moaning thread when winter ended nearly 3 weeks ago?   

No-one surely expects any more decent frosts now, do they? 

Fixed that for you 

PS - Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition either? 

A short, sharp thunderstorm rolled through last night so at least something to be had this December.

After looking at the Christmas Day forecast I need good recipes for BBQ Turkey 

We might have to rethink how we design Christmas Cards in this country if this theme continues 

When SSTs and Sea Ice are at record highs and lows respectively, to expect anything else would be wishful thinking.  The facts on how warm it is in the Arctic (our usual source of cold) this year are plain and accessible.  We will be relying on a looping jet stream to fall favourably for us.  Thus far we are in the wrong part of any loops that have occurred (the southern warmer bit).  The unanswered question, is that when eventually (in my book, mid -late Feb) we are sat on the northern side of a loop for a significant run of time, will there be sufficient cold to deliver the craved snow except on hills?

For more detail on my thinking see my LRF in the predictions thread, issued 21/12

A good read WI but I hope it's way off the mark as it sounds crap  Once Spring starts I want Mild Sunny Days 

On the wireless they keep playing "In the Bleak Midwinter". How inappropriate! The temperature right now is pushing +10C and the sun is blazing down. That's before the blowtorch set-up we're expecting at Xmas. What a laugh. 

Jonsey, you are a card! That forecast would be the snowiest for four years locally! Clearly even that is not good enough

It may just turn out to be nearer the mark than a typical forecast  of bitter cold, which ends up being a real pile of faeces, that has been front-loaded.

WI

Actually I should have added a zero to the scale, which is probably better called the 'M' scale, for moaning.

M 0 would be a harsh frost- maybe -7C in the south and as low as -15 over Scotland, just before a 50cm snow dump over most of England due to an intense low sucking in moisture from the med, positioned over France beneath a huge high pressure belt stretching from Central Norway to Southern Greenland, central pressure 1065mb, with a brisk easterly over the UK, fetch from the Volga,  and a multiple warm and occluded front set-up at around 50N running zonally, projected to be near-stationary for at east 3 days. The reason this beats M1 is that the expectation is - well, stimulating shall we say, as is fitting for Advent: the 'Coming' or 'Expected'.

The coming week looks so dire and unfestive that last December’s mean looks odds on to be beaten. Oodles of cloudy, mild, frost-free dross to look forward too while I’m off next week. Just wonderful on top of the last 5 years. Proper zonality would be preferrable as there would be more sun than with the anticyclonic muck we've already suffered in abundance this month.

It seems that since 2011 Ebenezeer Scrooge has taken control of the Christmas weather with no snow and practically no frost either other than in 2014. The next week looks close to record mild with maxes averaging 9-10C and minima 4-5C. It’s just diabolical with nothing below 2C, extending the frost-free muck into a fourth week.

Previous year's averages for week of 24-30 Dec:

2015: 5.9
2014: 1.4
2013: 4.6
2012: 3.5
2011: 6.1
2010: 1.7
2009: -1.0
2008: 3.9
2007: 4.5
2006: 2.5
2005: 2.3

Current output suggests 2016 will beat 6.1C in 2011 to be the mildest Christmas week I have recorded and probably mildest since 1988

Just bringing this thread back onto page 1 so that people fan post all the off topic b*all*x here rather than in the MO thread that just clogs up and gives the Mods a tough time.

Merry Christmas Moaners 

Morning all and Merry Christmas.

It's so mild I might pop on a pair of shorts to chase the turkey round the garden 

Spring moaning thread pre start today......!!!!!!!

If it wasn't for the wind it would probably be a pleasant day - a fair amount of sunshine with top temps of 14C. More like April than December.

I'd prefer snow, but hey ho - this isn't too bad. No rain is the most important thing! 

Currently recording 1044mb under fine clear skies here at Kent. I could live with that and hope this high pressure set up eats into the rest of this winter as much as it can. Far more preferable than the ghastly horror show that was the winter of 2014.

Can't say the last six days were particularly great but fantastic compared to the first 20 days of winter. Now it's back to another tedious high bringing more mild dross.

Wind died down too late to get anywhere near a frost last night and unbelievably its increasing in strength since sunset. What a complete joke. Was down to 1.2C at 5pm but now up at 2.8C. Frost looking unlikely now yet again.

Over three weeks since the last frost and now the third longest frost-free winter period in my records. New record likely to be set if the wind can't drop out completely tonight:

26 days – 14/12/15 to 8/1/16
25 days – 20/12/11 to 13/1/12
22 days – 6/12/16 to present

Not even March has managed a frost-free period as long as any of those in my 11-year records which shows how desperate winter is becoming. Where else at such a northerly latitude would struggle to get a frost for weeks on end at the coldest time of year?

There was also no frost between 8th and 28th December 2013 so that is four out of six winters that have managed three weeks frost free when I can’t think of any before that in my lifetime apart from 1988/89. Just shows the depths being plumbed – a truly unprecedented run of dire, dispiriting tripe.

The only difference between this crap winter and 2013/14 and 2015/16 is that the post-solstice washouts in those horror shows have yet to appear this winter though plenty of time yet I suppose.

You think that's bad?