I'm really looking forward to spring and summer now. We have 2 months of winter left but I'm already bored of it.

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But if anyone dares to point out this rule in the model thread by get accused of being a Negative Nelly. Fortunately I didn't allow myself to be sucked in by the ECM shenanigans this time (and that's not meant to be a gloat, just resigned to the rubbish weather!)

On the plus side, Storm Eleanor has blown down a tree that  I was thinking of having to either prune or get rid of as it was getting in the way of the driveway... 😀

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Same here then us Scottish dwellers can really get posting in the moaning thread 😂

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For the all the talk of sliders, marginal snow events and Scandi highs it’s still been a relatively crap winter thus far IMBY. I’ll give it a few more weeks but if we don’t see height rises over Greenland I’ll be writing the rest of winter off.

As for February cold spells don’t interest me during Feb, bar the odd exceptional one it’s a month that delivers next to nothing in terms of lying snow.The clock is ticking. 😁

Now that the complete horlicks of the ECM operational is out of the way, it looks as though we can look forward to a couple of months of the usual rubbish winter fare we experience 95% of the time. Roll on spring, I am sick of UK winters!

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Summers aren’t much better. 😂😂😂

Summers have been quite decent since 2013 imo. Last summer was warmer and sunnier than average IMBY. 2016, 2014 and 2013 were quite nice too. 2015 was the worst of them but even that was okay. Certainly no 2007-2012 horrors and hopefully none to come!

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I have been away for a week and missed the ECM charts but had I seen them, I would never have bought into them because in my experience, we need to see these charts within the T+96 range and across all models. If that isn't the case, then forget it (when it comes to an E'ly).

I am now noticing the lengthening days already and I can't wait for spring and summer. Cool, damp, breezy and depressing days are not for me!

Get these next 3 weeks or so out of the way and we are into February. The light at the end of the tunnel and something to look forward to.

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Yes and with so much easterly muck around even now (as confirmed by Doctormog) due to the actual centres of low pressure being just to the south of here, I'm surprised that we haven't heard anything from Richard from Aberdeen on this thread, regarding that very manner unless of course, he has jetted off to sunnier climes where he won't have to put up with this dross.

 

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He just pours cold [mild?] water on any cold spell showing in the charts several days away. Given that statistically the odds are against these coming to fruition, he's 'right' most of the time. When the cold spell does look favourite to come off as the models resolutely stick to their guns, he gradually changes his tune so, if we do get cold/snow, he claims to have backed this all along.

He's built his reputation on this basis, but is just a loud-mouthed charlatan who bets on the odds-on favourite every time.

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Agree. The Christmas and New Year season is the only thing I enjoy about winter. Now that's over it's just the long, boring and tedious month which is January to get through, before some improvement finally becomes noticeable by February. At least every day we're gradually clawing back a bit of daylight.

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I suppose he's no worse than the loud mouths who do the same with cold spells. They constantly put a cold twist onto models that are mild from start to finish and overly talk up any sign of cold just to satisfy their reputation and their ego.

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I don't know anyone like that on TWO (and don't bother with the car crash that is NW). What TWO does have is people who get excited about the prospect of cold weather and post charts showing this (but all with the humility to hold their hands up if/when the prospects for cold fade). I'm thinking of people like Doc, Joe B, Gooner, GtW and several others who have a really good meteorological knowledge and show enthusiasm for cold/snow. Also, nobody responds to any period of mild durge showing in the models with a blind "that's not going to come off, it's going to be cold instead... it's the way of the modern era ((c) me)"

 

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Now this is what I would like to see:

Parts of the Alps are being pasted and Cervinia in Italy (where the above picture was taken) has been cutoff by the 2 metres of fresh snow which has fallen there. Switzerland and Austria are also affected.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42577046

Heavy snowfall in China:

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-china-42575883/china-snow-heavy-falls-bring-chaos-and-beauty

And we have the good old USA:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42576978

That leaves the UK out in the cold (figuratively speaking) - but there is plenty of weather out there - just not here!

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Always the case really! - I wonder if this is a re-occurring pattern!? Last winter most of Europe took all our cold and snow esp the South and Eastern Europe and this time is the USA/Canada & China!? - Just what will it take for heavens sake to get a cold spell lasting for more than a few days!? It won't be long before we are in an El Nino and westerly QBO - so will no doubt denote mild, wet and windy weather. I am just myth that a La Nina winter can be so stormy wet mild and windy!

People I know in Denver have said it's been very mild for them - In fact many in Colorado are moaning about lack of snow and this look set to continue:

https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/denver-co/80203/weekend-weather/347810 

Interesting how La Nina can provide the opposite. - It's meant to be milder and drier in southern and eastern states and wetter and colder in the west but it's been the opposite has it not?

Many parts of southern states from Texas to Louisana, Georgia to Florida have seen it's coldest weather in decades!

New York City expects a daytime high of -10c today: :o

https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/new-york-ny/10007/weather-forecast/349727 

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Temps still well above average for Helsinki, Moscow as well as Saint Petersburg etc:

https://www.accuweather.com/en/fi/helsinki/133328/weather-forecast/133328 

Trending cooler but still above average

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What a wonderful start to 2018 it’s been. Three completely sunless days and only one dry day. More icy pavements too. Couldn’t get out for a lunchtime walk the past two days as the weather was beyond dreadful: wet, dark and horrible

This winter has turned into a full-blown horror show over the past few weeks and dull, grey easterlies are the last thing that are needed. We’ve had more than enough cold rain over the past couple of weeks.

Southerlies are just as bad as easterlies at this time of year though with next week looking vile. There really is nothing to like at all in the outlook. Cold, wet dull rubbish by day with no frost after the weekend. The way this rotten January is going it will end up colder than average, unlike December, but with no snow. Just day after day of 3-6C maxes with cold rain and grey skies. An absolutely repulsive winter month

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Well, at least you've had one dry day so far this year which is more than what we have had down in here in Edinburgh where it has been raining heavily yet again over the last couple of hours.

Here, every single day of this month and year until now has been an official rain day and this is now our 8th day in a row which has failed to stay completely dry.

This has now (as at 7pm tonight) resulted in us having a total for today so far, of 5.4 mm at Edinburgh Gogarbank and 6.0 mm at the botanic gardens which now makes today, the joint wettest day of the month and year so far at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.

This in turn has now brought us into a situation where we have now already had well over a third of our average January rainfall, despite the fact that we are only five days into this month.

Even on our driest day of the month so far at each of those stations, we still had 5.0 mm of rain at Edinburgh Gogarbank during yesterday, and 4.2 mm of rain at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

On top of that, there has been nothing in the way of sunshine recorded at Edinburgh during the last two days, and we still haven't even had a single official air frost so far.

When you consider that we are in what is supposed to be the coldest month of the year on average, that lack of frost (we haven't even had as much as a ground frost here) in particular is absolutely abysmal.

 

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So much for it getting colder at the weekend. It dropped no lower than +1.6C overnight making it the mildest night of the month so far and was as high as 3.1C during the night 

Today is just another awful sunless day with more rain overnight. Pavements look lethal again. Absolutely sick to death of all this ice. It will probably mean that even the good day we are supposed to be getting tomorrow will be rendered a write-off

All the cold rain and ice truly is making this one of the worst winters I can remember. Absolutely loathing it and yet again can't wait for spring. January is just awful year in year out. Can't even remember the last decent one. Even 2010 had a truly dreadful spell of grey, frost-free easterly gloom from the 11th to 27th

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Hardly a cold start to the alleged cold snap and with projected temps for next week ranging from -1c > 7c we won’t be that far from the average for the month IMBY.

Forecast has been poor - We were forecast to have a cloudy day with outbreaks of heavy and showery rain but there isn't a cloud in the sky - not that I am complaining). But a very poor forecast! Woke up to the coldest night of the year so far -1c here in Exeter when we were forecast a low of +4c last night with the odd spot of drizzle. Poor forecast indeed.

Lovely bring clear, cold and crisp day though.

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A Kent Clipper/Channel streamer is now setting up here.

Just a shame that it's all of p***ing rain and is at 6 C. What a waste of a perfect north east wind alignment at this time of the year, even though I knew the uppers weren't going to be favourable for snow production.

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A very cold couple of days ahead.

Portsmouth:-

Highs around 6c.

Mins of 3c.

Not even falling to freezing point and not even a frost.

What a joke 

Warnings of NHS strain, staying healthy in the 'freezing' conditions and yet highs and lows of 6c/3c is pretty much around the norm of yester-year.

I remember scraping frost off my car along the south coast numerous times each winter in the 80s. Nowadays, it might be 2 or 3 times per season, lol.

Social media, new gadgets, apps and glossy graphics/charts for forecasting has made for overhyped forecasts in an effort to make the weather 'more interesting' than what it is.

The reality is that the weather is far, far more boring and benign than it ever was in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

The irony?

They said GW will result in more extremes. Maybe in parts of the world where they already had interesting weather but along our shores, it is as boring as ever...

 

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People were bitching in the barber's this morning, saying how cold it was.... yes, it was 2C, but that's around average for 8 AM in January anyway. God only knows what they'd have said if it was actually snowing at -2C with a genuinely bitter east wind, but of course that hasn't happened for 21 years so they've probably forgotten what it's like.

Meanwhile the wet and windy winter goes on, tick-tocking away through what used to be the time of year you would, a few times a decade at least, expect a few inches of snow. No more though...

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Easterly airflow today and showers but just not cold enough to bring
anything other than a bit of sleet.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/maps/archive/2009/cfsr/CFSR_1_2009020118_2.png

This chart from Feb 2009. A reminder that to get an easterly we need everything to come together. The synoptics to place us in an Easterly flow in the first place plus an actually cold pool in the right place at the right time . 2009 was such a brief easterly but brought some classic heavy snow showers with temp as low as -4c on the Sunday evening . Run the sequence 48 hours and the cold pool gone and positive 850hpa temps reurned from the SE. At least it gave us 36 hours of wintry weather!

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