Well, after 3 near perfect meteorological set-ups, end of Nov, Dec and early Jan it has all come to naught...and although it is only mid Jan by the way the charts are looking and model outputs I feel that this winter is slowly slipping away from us, and to rub salt into the wound we see news reports of countries bordering the Med that are experiencing sub zero temps and heavy snowfalls...how depressing the past 3 winters have been in the UK...

All to do with Brexit for sure!! Our punishment! - The UK goes it alone.

 

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My only complaint about the weather recently is that it's been pretty boring. Wouldn't mind the odd Atlantic storm roaring through actually just to spice things up a bit. Still, I'm thankful I'm not getting those severe frosts that those in the south are getting though.

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Another day of 'Blade Runner' weather, thick cloud, drizzle and semi darkness, if you weren't depressed before this current spell of weather you will be now!

This is fast becoming the most tedious miserable winter for Decades, reminds me very much of 1991/92 although at least that winter had a few colder spells and wasn't quite as gloomy as January is turning out.

When forecasts of a cold winter first came out in November I was afraid that despite good background signals the winter would downgrade into the anticyclonic gloom type with a persistent UK High and so it has proved.

Scenes of snowy beaches from Crete to the Costa Del Sol have only heightened the feeling of betrayal, loss and disappointment. On purely practical terms this winter is still better than last year because I hate wind and rain but it will still go down as one of the worst and most depressing winters of my 55 years on planet Earth.

And please spare me the 'there is still time it's only late January' replies, any pattern change will only bring the Atlantic back so a cold spell is a million miles away. Check the CET record and you will see a mild December and January is NEVER followed by a cold February. The cast is set and the only relief from this miserable excuse for a winter will be the arrival of spring in 6 weeks time.

I often thought about moving to Lanzarote for my retirement but now that escape has gone due to bloody Brexit, the U.K. feels on its own these days in more ways than one.

Andy

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I was just coming to this thread to moan about the drizzle. Still some in the air this morning. This is now day 4! 0.0 hours of sun so far since Monday. 

 

We also had a few days a drizzle before Christmas if I remember. Least it was sunny over Christmas: 

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Depends how cold?

Winter 1993-94?

Winter 1980-81?

Winter 1872-73?

Winter 1852-53?

 

 

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FOUR days of dire coma inducing maggot infested crap, another day of overcast drizzle with temperatures stuck at 4C. No sun, just grey vomit inducing misty dampness, the smell of rot and mildew in the garden briefly waking me from this continuing winters nightmare.
Roll on Spring......

Winter 2011-12 was  a mild winter overall with a cold spell in the CET area during first half of February. A bit like was happened exactly  100 years previous to this. The very mild second half of that February stopped it being a cold February overall.

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I'm usually fine with quiet weather as it is usually sunny, but this is so depressing. Since Sunday we've not had an ounce of sunshine and it has been semi-dark since. The heavy rain of Sunday is still lingering in the air as the air is so moist and the ground has gone from dry to sodden in the space of a few days (considering how dry it was before this hasn't taken much doing!).

I feel sorry for those with SAD on days like this. I'd actually take some wind over this dank, dark, thick moist air.

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Glorious weather here for the last few days. Frosty mornings and chilly (but not cold) afternoons. 

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Am I allowed to remove an email by the site owner for trolling the moaning thread? 

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Lol, 300 years of records and that's the best examples Kev?

The cold Februaries of 1981 and 1994 weren't really that cold and the easterlies that did occur were weak with only transient snowfalls, also the pattern in the preceding December and January was better than this year with several cold spells in each month.

Anyway thanks for looking!

cheers,

Andy

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I don't recall much of the 2005/6 winter (so it can't have been particularly remarkable!) but there was a cold spell in late Feb/March. It was initially created from blocking to our north, bringing a NE'ly, flow, which gave heavy snow showers to favoured areas, before the high retrogressed into more of a Greenland High to allow low pressure to move in from the NE shifting the flow more to a N'ly and more north-facing areas got snow (North Wales was a winter wonderland), before the flow moved briefly NNW'ly (I got snow!!). The high then looked to topple, but made a last stand as a smallish Scandinavian High that allowed trough disruption as the Atlantic moved in. Western Scotland, Cumbria, North Wales all got plastered (12-18" of snow widely) but we were just too far east to get anything other than light snow for around 4 hours that gave about 2" level depth.

 

Quick change, too. Went from this 'no hope' set-up on the 15th Feb:

http://old.wetterzentrale.de/topkarten/fsreaeur.html

To this just 10 days later

http://old.wetterzentrale.de/topkarten/fsreaeur.html

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Woke up to blue skies this morning. Quite a shock to the system and still taking me a while to adjust.

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Perhaps instead of thinking of a 'Scandi High' or a 'Greeny High' or 'Uncle Barty' as features of British winters, we should be thinking of a 'UK high' which could be christened 'Uncle Brexit' as it sounds like the state of mind of current politicians.

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Havn`t seen any sunshine here since last Friday, just grey,dark skies with occasional drizzle. Very depressing, I think even our cat is depressed as she usually enjoys sunbathing in the back garden.

 

 

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I've almost forgot what blue looks like........ The colour blue that is. 😂

 

Just look at that rosette you wear come election time

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1872-73, I wrote an article on that a couple of years ago about the long wait

December 1872 CET: 5.3C
January 1873 CET: 5.2C
February 1873 CET: 1.8C

21st December 1872-18th January 1873 had a CET of 7.8C

 

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Oh well Kev after 130 years we must be due a rerun of 1872/73!

Actually all it would take is for the next European block to locate 1000 miles further north and the U.K. Would be very cold, not impossible and the MetO rank the chances as low but hey you never know.

It's not enough however to stop my countdown to spring.

Andy

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A poor Winter once again with only a couple of inches of snow at most. February will have to deliver big time to save this Winter. And this never ending anticyclonic gloom can do one! such a snooze fest.

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So far this has been about the most uninteresting winter I can recall, or at least since 1988/89. On a positive note for you southerners, the normally clement Home Counties are at least catching some of that freezing continental air now, after the disappointment of last week's alleged arctic blast.

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First sun today since last Saturday, that's five full days of grim bog trotting anticyclonic vomit inducing garbage masquerading as winter. Roll on spring when I can sit in my greenhouse and enjoy the ever increasing power of the sun

This putrid run of winters has given us one of the wettest December’s on record (2012), one of the wettest January’s on record (2014) and the wettest January on record (2016).

No close to record breaking wet February so I’ve been thinking that perhaps we’ll get one of those, since getting anything remotely decent now appears impossible, and low and behold absolutely horrific charts like these start to appear

http://old.wetterzentrale.de/pics/Rtavn3361.gif 

Who knows whether that will transpire but what is clear is that this dire month joins December and a shedload of recent January’s as a total write-off month. It was unreal just how bad January was between 1988 and 2004 with few heavy snowfalls but since 2005 it has sunk to a whole new level of awfulness. Just three of the past 13 January’s have produced more than 2cm of snow. There are no words to describe how ridiculous this is. At least before 2011 December and February often delivered but since then they’re all in the same sinking boat of despair

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