We are enduring a miserable winter here in the Millevaches Parc Naturel Regional, which is located in Limousin on the western edge of the Massif Central. We live at 525 metres above sea level (yes 525 meters..not feet) and yet we have only had one cold snap this winter which was back at the beginning of December when we had about six inches of snow which hung around for about ten days.

This is a part of France famed for its cold, biting winters. Snow can lie from November till April. Parts of the Millevaches Plateau reach up to 979 metres asl at Mont Bessou, yet snow cover has been minimal even at that altitude. The only snow to be seen in central France is on the mountains of Auvergne which reach to an altitude of nearly 1900 metres at Puy de Sancy.

We have barely had a frost since early December and probably 5 hours of sunshine in total since about December 10th. I kid you not! It has rained for fun and the temperature has hovered around 4-5 degrees most days. Cold rain; saturated ground; the landscape looks as though it needs to be wrung out!! Day after day of unremitting gloom; grey skies; dark and dingy.

Fed up to the back teeth with it to be honest. Roll on spring I say and at least we get decent sunny and warm summers here....thank god...make's winter at least bearable!!!

Richardabdn, meet Snowjoke...

I clicked on to the MetOffice forecast for Leeds when I got into work and was surprised to see heavy snow symbols from late morning onwards.

I've just refreshed the screen and guess what. 90% probability has, yet again, turned into sleet and rain. The third time this winter so far.

I do realise how awkward it is to forecast, but what's the point of 90% (has anyone ever seen 100%?) if it holds as much authority as 20%?

As I've said before, it's 90% chance of precipitation, not 90% chance of snow.

They do >95% but no more

I can see your point. Yesterday for MBY it had 2-6am today as 90% chance of snow/rain/whatever, then it changed to 20%, then back to 90%

I'd also like to know what their cut off between"heavy" and "light" rain/snow is. Heavy seems to cover everything from "worse than drizzle" to Storm Desmond. Other sites chance their arm at some numbers - inaccurate it may end up being, but it gives more of an idea of what they're predicting

Anyways, I'm in Edinburgh AND WE'RE GETTING LOADS OF SNOW RIGHT NOW

Ahh, that's news to me as a rare visitor to these parts. Thanks.

I think that most people would think like me. A snow icon and 90% below it without any obvious explanation would mean 90% chance of snow. If you hover over it it does say chance of precipitation but if that precipitation is forecast to be snow then it's a perfectly reasonable inference that it's a 90% chance of snow.

Having now refreshed my forecast again it's showing heavy rain and or rain showers until 3pm and then the 90% heavy snow (or precipitation!) is back from 4pm to 9pm with snow on and off, light and heavy, until dawn tomorrow.

Yeah right...

This is what the British winter climate has become. Forum members desperately hoping for decent snowfall that never materialises. Other countries just get snow in winter, you know coz it normal to have snow in winter! 

Well, as of the 3pm update on the Met O site we have between 80 & 90% chance of 'precipitation' for the full period of 7pm to 3am. The symbol for each period says 'heavy snow' (see how careful I'm being after my lesson above?). A normal MetO user would read that as basically an 80% chance of heavy snow for the best part of eight hours.

I wonder....

Funnily enough it is easily cold enough here for a frost but everything is so dry there is none. There are a few random puddles around here and they are all frozen solid...the excitement is killing me. 

This spell is turning out every bit as dire as predicted. A totally useless cold, windy and unpleasant day with the temperature failing to drop below freezing last night despite the models and BBC forecasts showing a frost. Of course I predicted last week it would generally be too windy for frost. I also stated that if it did drop below freezing there would be no visible frost due to the dry air.

Looks like the winds are not even going to switch to NW now so this will be a truly awful zero-rated write-off pointless cold spell wasting a week of yet another crap winter. Looks increasingly likely that this will be the first snowless January since 2014 and possibly the least frosty January since then as well. Simply dreadful given the trio of dross January's we've had since then.

There's only been two January's since 2005 that have managed more than 5cm snow. It's just unreal. I thought January was a joke between 1988 and 2004 but this takes it to a whole new level. Can't be called a winter month any more in the same way that June is no longer a summer month. Both months are a pile of disgusting garbage year in year out 

If it's snow that you're after, you are always welcome to come down to the Central Belt where there is plenty of it around just now.

7pm, clear as a bell.

Oh, and the 'forecast' has changed.

No wonder people have a dim view of forecasts and forecasters on occasions. 

Don't worry. I can't even work out when the 16 / 30 day text forecasts on their web site have been updated.