Looks like this lame cold spell is going out with a whimper. Pathetically boring and useless with the temperature still above freezing almost three hours past sunset, despite a max of only 1.7C. Lowest temperature in the past three days has been -0.2C

It's not been a memorable cold spell in any way, providing about the same level of interest as a typical 2-3 day cold snap. Pavements have been treacherous ice rinks for days so I'll be glad to see the back of it. 

Sadly this is probably as good as it will get and we'll go weeks without seeing even a frost

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Not only that, but there is also the fact that the city which is your place of abode isn't exactly my favourite city in footballing terms just now as a result of what happened up there today (although I will imagine that AFC Snow will be in his element with that just now since he has his team's logo as his avatar). That is why I am having a few drinks just now to drown my sorrows not just for that, but also for what could end up being a case of winter over for yet another year. I will therefore apologise in advance if this has an adverse effect on the standard of my posts.

 

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Looking increasingly nailed-on that yet another Xmas won't be white.

We were spoilt in 2009 & 2010; want that every year! 

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Looking increasingly nailed on that year another whole winter won't be white. 

2010 here delivered about as much as last week did in London. Perhaps we could we have a separate thread for anyone who wants to brag about 2010? Then I could just avoid opening it up with beneficial effects on my blood pressure.

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Tragically six people died in a car crash yesterday and the Express feels its appropriate to ‘report’ the ‘fact’ that Christmas is going to be mild and stormy - just a few days after ‘reporting’ that there’ll be blizzards.
The putrid incompetance of this excuse for shite-roll pretending to be a newspaper is beyond comprehension.

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Another horrible icy mess this morning.

Thank God this bloody cold spell is nearly over. Absolutely sick to the back teeth of winter already and we're not even at the solstice yet! Roll on milder weather!

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When it's not snowing it's too foggy too bike and when it looks like fog will lift it looks like it will be too stormy!

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This so-called "winter" is now really going down the pan, and fast turning into yet another complete non-event once again.

We had a very mild first week, followed by our one and only really cold spell with a number of air frosts and even an ice day, but absolutely nothing in the way of snow in this part of the world once again as usual.

That cold spell was enough to overturn the milder than average temperature anomalies in this part of the world from the first week and send us into a colder than average temperature anomaly. However, this milder spell of weather which we now returned to has now already completely wiped out that colder than average temperature anomaly at one of my local stations and going by the latest forecasts, the other two local stations will no doubt follow suit within the next couple of days with all three of these stations very quickly becoming warmer than average once again.

If we go back to the first mild spell, it actually wasn't as mild then as I had expected until we get to the approach of Storm Caroline when it then, got all a bit ridiculous. This means that whilst we're not quite seeing the ridiculously high temperatures which we saw then, that event was at least just a brief one as opposed to this constant mildness which we now seem to have entered into in this part of the world.

Today has been the perfect evidence of my last point here because today had originally been forecast to be a slightly cooler day as a result of a very weak cold front having moved through. Yet, that slightly cooler air failed to arrive, leaving this morning even milder than yesterday at the same time, and now those really mild temperatures are being forecast to persist until the late afternoon at least.

The outlook in the run-up to Christmas then continues to look really mild at times and terms of any hope for seeing anything colder, I wouldn't exactly be betting my house on that since these is really nothing there other than the usual glimmer of hope within the extended unreliable timeframe of the models which usually comes to nothing in the end after being delayed and downgraded over time.

A few days ago, there was a lot of talk on this forum about how it would be very difficult for this month's CET to end up being warmer than average, given what has happened so far. Now though, at last one post has now appeared in other threads which show this to be a real possibility and that to me, shows how bad things have now become. Furthermore, the Met Office are going for both January and February to be milder than average as well and so, this all shows that this so-called "winter" just like other recent winters is just turning in the same old story yet again with that being the same old non-event in the end, and with the same old inability to buy even a single colder than average month.

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Just nipped down to Waitrose for a couple of pomegranates (as you do) and found this snow loitering in the car park. Shame cause otherwise it would have passed for a pleasant spring day here. 

 

Remnants of the snow that fell 10 days ago. Waitrose car park in #berkhamstead pic.twitter.com/q13sA0Gs0o

— TheWeatherOutlook (@TWOweather) December 20, 2017

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The ice has gone so the mild temperatures have served their one and only purpose. Unfortunately there seems no end in sight to this unwelcome rubbish. The only other time I remember pavements in such a bad state was at the start of January 2002 at the culmination of an excellent snowy and cold Festive period. The rest of the winter was a disaster and I foresee something similar happening this year only without the excellent cold spell preceding it.

 

Very mild doesn’t even begin to describe it. The first week of the month was the mildest in over 40 years, along with 2015, and this week looks like turning out even milder with daily means close to 10C the past two days. Just depressing beyond words with hardly even the prospect of another frost in the next week which is just horrific in the run up to Christmas. Temperatures barely got below average during the lame cold spell yet this mild crap has already seen up to 10C above average. Three Decembers in a row of this is every bit as noteworthy as if we had three consecutive Decembers like 2010 with a foot of snow

 

Worse still the mildest temperatures have been again occurring overnight.  Over the past two days the daytime period has averaged 8.2C while the overnight has averaged 9.3C.  Last night it maxed out at 11.9C at 1:55pm and fell throughout the day. This sort of thing might have occurred occasionally in the past but now it is standard and it’s noteworthy if the peak mildness occurs during daylight

 

I am sick of having my Christmas holidays ruined by this complete and utter crap every single year and if I have to suffer the rainfall levels seen in 2012, 2013 and 2015 as well I will be apoplectic with rage. Some of the output over the last few days has been showing precisely that

 

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I feel your pain Richard.  It is not right.

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I agree with that. When I went out for my Christmas meal this afternoon, it felt more like the end of March than the run-up to Christmas and I could easily have got away with wearing a thinner summer jacket when I was out and whilst I would I still have needed to wear a jumper, I would probably have got away without wearing a particularly warm one.

This as well, is on the day before the winter solstice which of course, is in what is supposed to be "winter". In fact, when I went into the office before that meal, a colleague of mines even had to use a desk fan to cool things down because it had been so warm, and that is something which I haven't even being getting much use of during the middle of summer these days.

This is the period of the year when the Sun is barely above the horizon even at midday, and only really pops up above the horizon for a few hours in the middle of each day with it being dark for the rest of the time. Yet in spite of that, we still get that ridiculously unseasonable warmth which at times makes it even warmer than certain other days during the middle of summer when there is a lot more daylight around with the Sun being much higher in the sky.

If this happened just as a very rare and one-off occasion, that wouldn't sound so ridiculous. Yet, this has been something which has been happening on a very regular basis during every single winter from 2013/14 onwards and I'm just sick and tired of every single run-up to Christmas being like that. What makes this year even worse as well is the fact that this is still happening in spite of this year's active Atlantic Hurricane season, an easterly QBO, La Nina and very low solar activity, and despite the fact that there has actually been quite a lot of northern blocking around the North Pole during this winter so far, possibly because of those factors which I have just mentioned.

When you take all of that in consideration, you have to ask yourself what on Earth it is going to take to get a proper cold winter with a proper easterly which delivers a lot of snow, even to the lowest and coastal parts within the north of Edinburgh.

 

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Indeed John. Given all these factors you mention, things still do not seem to be going our way. As others have said, something isn't right. 

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I know. 

This really is a cruel, terrible business. Life can be really, really tough at times.

Merry Christmas. 

😄

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We all know life can be cruel and tough, but can't see what relation this 'quip' has to people talking about and discussing the weather on a weather forum? 

 

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🙄😀

I was just lightheartedly taking the mickey.

Some of the above ranting is ridiculous, but I enjoy the read as it makes me laugh. 

Richard talks about the mild weather ruining his entire Christmas! It’s bonkers. 

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Rant away as it is what the thread is for, it’s just the whole perspective thing that baffles and amuses me in equal measures. 

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ah fair enough. I guess Richard, like most of us on here, just likes the idea of having a white Christmas, Dicken's stylee. 

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I’d love that too. :)

2004 was brilliant here. Started snowing just after 6pm and we got a good covering. 

 

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Ditto here and I remember it well as I was working that day  but there was something special about walking to work in the cold, purple light of a Christmas dawn and the place covered in snow. Had snow showers for much of the day that day.

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well imagine you're homeless or cant afford your heating bills, the warm up is great for them.  Funny how we don't see the homeless on here moaning about ice days and 'proper' Christmas weather.    I hope you put a 'grip' on your Christmas list Richard because with respect i think you might be missing some perspective.

Well, if we're not going to get some decent cold weather with possibly some snow, a nice named storm wouldn't be all that bad (as long as I didn't have to be out and about in it of course) because that would least mean that something interesting was actually happening for once instead of this boring, drier than average and high pressure dominated mildness which we saw throughout last winter, and which we are seeing just now.

During the last two winters, there has always been at least one named storm (those were Storm Eva in the winter of 2015/16 and Storm Barbara along with Storm Conor in the winter of 2016/17) at some time around Christmas and so, it would be a fallacy if we didn't get one this year as well. Since it was only in the autumn of 2015 that this naming system first started, this will only be the first ever year in which there hasn't been a named storm at Christmas if we don't get one this time.

Just a few days ago as well, the models were hinting that we might see Storm Dylan (since that is the next named storm in this year's list) on around Boxing Day but now, the models have dropped that idea and all that is left of that is a sliding low which is unlikely to even affect this part of the world since it is continuing to be shunted further south by the models. That in turn means that there is now likely to be no named storm this Christmas which means that the wait for Storm Dylan goes on.

Another question here as well is the one of where on Earth is this high pressure which we are seeing just now is during the summer when we are looking for that to be around, only for then to be posted missing. Two years ago, our wet weather was mostly happening during the winter and whilst that was very bad news for those who were flooded out, it at least allowed us to enjoy some relatively decent summers with 2013 being the best year for that.

Now, it has all switched around completely here in this part of the world as the winters now appeared to have dried up with our biggest rainfall totals now being concentrated within the summer months. As well as hoping for a cold winter with some snow, I would also like to see a decent summer and this means that if we are going to be getting a lot of rain at any point in time, I would rather be getting that right now, rather than in the middle of summer. The fact that things now appear to have switched around in that matter, therefore means that our overall weather has actually gone from bad to worse in terms of how I would like it to be.

 

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Just to make all you guys and gals feel better, we are having awful mild weather here in the Massif Central in Central France. Had a fantastic start to the month with a good 6" dumping of snow which lay for around ten days and we had some decent overnight lows of -8. Since mid month the weather has taken a turn for the worse, with frequent rain, fog and mild temperatures pushing 10 degrees. No wind, just damp, grey gloom. Considering we are at 525 metres above sea level and close to the centre of a huge landmass such as France, it's kinda depressing how mild it is. I thought it was winter, but seems not!

Oh well onwards and upwards!

 

So unseasonal - mild at 13c and under cloud and light wins! Felt like early April then the shortest day! What a dire boring spell we are having!

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