Agreed and I noticed that so no point to invest weather station here when we don't have any proper interesting temps to read.   Before at -8C to -11C we easily get subzero maxes around -1 to -2C.  Now it floating at 3-5C and the same from 2008 to 2013 cold spells that saw temps floating at 2-4C days and nights all the time.  I had to put down estimated max temps on my data quite often to reflect correctly from the uppers so like once time was -12C uppers I got around 3C max so I put down -3C instead.  Same to summer too when once we had 19C uppers here but 23C with rain all day while Benelux and France was hot and sunny at 35-39C so I put down here 34C as a max.  It made the data more accurate and a bit interesting and rightly so.  I only put down on estimate based on the N France, Benelux temps by 2-3C difference.  I was taught in school that UK is only 2-3C difference from the Continent at any time but not acceptable on today 10-15C ranges.  July 2015 was a very nasty month when we watch the Continent baking at 35-40C while here got off a false start at 37C slowly drop back to cool 18-22C from 2nd week of July to the end.  I wasn't' recording that year but if so I would been putting down on estimated temps every day to reflect what the Continent are doing because I know the past UK always get the Continent heat and storms very easily.  I know many who like thunder storms don't see that anymore here now and becoming vey rare.

 

Similar story here. At least the car's been frost free the last couple of 'cold' days.

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"Alternative facts", Jiries, I love it 

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Alternative weather.   

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Never dipped below +2c here last night ....terrible for a cold spell.

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Particularly as there were some hard frosts around - even in Dartmouth -  during January.

Looking good for at least some slight snow further north though.

 

I must admit this Cold Easterly has left me underwhelmed it did not even get to freezing here last night yet in Easterlies past it was always sub Zero day and night so all in all very disappointing...Roll on Spring now.

All easterlies are equal, but some easterlies are more equal than others.

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I still think this would have been a classic winter if it wasn't for the wQBO. Blocking aplenty, but just a little to much westward shove in the system.
Interesting summer coming up, with record low sea ice in the polar regions.
Could this be the start of the runaway AGW they have been predicting.

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Anyone else tired of the Beeb calling 3C 'very cold' and 5C 'cold'? Very cold to me 0C Maxes by night and several below by night

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Here I am in Bathurst NSW Australia and sweating my proverbial off. Far too hot and stifling and after a 26 hour flight I just wanted to sleep. Fat chance of that with temperatures still above 34°c at 23.30hrs. Going to be over 40°c tomorrow followed by a southerly change with a 40% of severe hailstorms. Well wouldn't it be ironic if the most white I see on the ground this year is in the midst of the hottest Australian heatwave in years.
I hope you are all getting buried in snow but somehow I think that's not happening.

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It must be cold - just seen two people walking down the street eating ice creams 


(seriously!)

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-9/-10C 850s and pretty much thick overcast skies with very few breaks these last two days. Once again it shows that cold air masses aren't the sun-fests that everyone seems to think they are.

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If there is one thing that easterlies are not in my opinion it is "sun-fests". Grey muck would be par for the course, or certainly for here.

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I'm in Manchester on the other side of the Pennines and this one has seemed cloudier than a normal easterly. Even I've only seen about 10 minutes of sunshine today.

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March 2013 was pretty dull here. And that was an easterly month. More western parts of NW England benefit more from an easterly in terms of sun. East Manchester tends to be just far enough east to have that dull North Sea effect.

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I actually saw the sun today,,,, for all of 20 seconds.
Another dire grey misty crapfest with cold dank drizzle turning to snizzle at times. The odd lump of graupel,,,, thoroughly disgusting.
Roll on spring

Not true. Easterlies are a rubbish wind direction and always have been. It’s the likes of 1987 and 1991 which are atypical of what this direction usually produces.

Here’s an easterly set-up, very similar to this week’s, from February 1972:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1972/Rrea00119720219.gif 

It gave maxes of 5C in both London and Manchester with minima of 3C:

https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/file/sdb%3AdigitalFile%7C8ab31ee4-8fa7-4e44-9ce9-aaea77300757/ 

Here it was also 5C with some drizzle and no snow. Worse than the current easterly which has given a low of -1.5C, a max of 2.7C and 1cm of snow that melted by lunchtime. Lame and pathetic but typical of an easterly which is why I detest them. Really wish it was true that there had been none since 1997

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Easterlies are the best chance I have for seeing some proper deep blue sky sunny weather. Today was cloudy though but in a nice, mellow, defused sort of way like you would see in a summer plume. Very dry too with the relatively low humidity zapping up any remaining moisture on the ground.    

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Although if you look at Nov/Desc 2010 which was East /  North East, the whole country was in the freezer and there was a good lump of snow about.

All our classic cold spells like 2010 have one important element, and that's strong blocking in Greenland.   I can't get excited about Scandi highs if there's not GH to support it to allow deep cold to filter down.  This spell is case in point and it reminds me a lot of Feb/March 05 too.

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Cloud broke here for a time this afternoon towards sunset, which makes it the sunniest easterly on record     We dont usually get any glimpse of a blue sky at all.    So this isnt by any means the worst easterly in recent times.  

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Disagree. Perhaps you're being specific to your area, but for the many of the classic severe cold spells there wasn't a GH in sight - Jan 87 and Feb 91 to name but two.

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The third revolting wet Saturday in a row 

Look's like the front-loaded winter forecast was correct. The first half may have had pathetically little frost and snow but the second half has been even worse. Not only less frost and snow but there's been a ridiculous amount of rain over the last two weeks and dismal amounts of sunshine. Just 14.6 hours sun all month so far and almost 90mm since the 28th Jan 

Truly dire outlook that will ensure this winter ends up with way less frost than even 2013/14. A sick joke. Only just made it to double digit count of frosts whereas even that horror show of relentless low pressure chalked up 17 air frosts. Also looks like every single week will return above average temperatures whereas in 2013/14 there were two colder than average weeks.

Worst winter I can remember just about sums it up. December was mind-numbingly boring, January was unbelievably frustrating with so many 0-1C minimum temperatures yet so little frost and February is the worst of the lot: an extremely unpleasant, vile and depressing month. 

Almost certain now to beat the record of 4 years 1 month without a decent snowfall of 10cm+ (Jan 87 to Feb 91).

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 I agree with Tom that a Greenland High is generally required to get a decent cold spell. Those were very much the exceptions though I would only class Jan 1987 as severe.

The majority of easterlies produce rubbish like this. Most of the best snowy spells involve wind from the N or NE.

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What a pathetic winter - no sign of snow here, edge of North Pennines at 400feet - light rain and 2.7c

Will we ever see any lying snow this winter, looks very very unlikely now

Grim

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