Another busted forecasts to go with the multitude of other busted forecasts this winter. Snow forecasted from the early hours until mid morning the reality, pissing down with rain and even at 350m it’s only sleet. The next busted forecast awaits us for Sunday’s No Show. 😂😂

As well as being rather rubbish this morning with overcast skies, wind and rain. I can see two southerly gale events being forecast for Kent in the medium range outputs, one over the weekend and a longer lasting one mid-week next week.

How underwhelming is that as strong wind and heavy rain does absolutely nothing for me, but still, at least this winter is not being as God-awful as 2014. That one properly set the bar in terms of utter bilge.

---

Another busted flush pathetic attempt at winter. Record snowfalls in America and Spain, snows hitting Europe now and even North Africa and the Sahara has had snowfall this winter. Russia and Moscow in particular has just recorded record snowfall. Parts of Asia in deep cold.
Here, it’s a depressingly familiar story of another winter where we are chasing FI carrots and measuring any snowfall in millimetres. Truly pathetic, roll on spring.

I have a feeling though that in some parts of the country though, our so-called "spring" might actually end up being when winter starts especially as the upcoming SSW event is now likely to have had at least, some effect by then.

In other parts of the country even in those areas which have done relatively OK so far in terms of snow and/or frost, that could also be when we end up getting our coldest weather of the entire winter.

The springtime is usually on average, is most easterly time of the year as the weakening polar vortex is then more likely to allow a blocking high to form to our north, and feed in those easterly winds. In most years, that tends not to happen until the continent has warmed up a bit (usually around April/May) when the resulting easterly winds coming from that warmer continent and then blowing over that still cold North Sea brings the characteristic east coast haar to those of us here in on the east coast of Scotland.

However, it wouldn't such a setup to occur much more quickly than that, for the continent to still be cold at that time as was the case in March 2013. If that happened, it would then still be not too late for those easterly winds to be cold winds coming all the way from Siberia, which would then bring snow. My feeling is that the upcoming SSW event probably increases the chances of that happening this year, even although this still doesn't guarantee anything.

 

 

---

Ah OK, fair enough.

But I imaging snow prospects right on the south coast were never that good. What's your best snow opportunity, an easterly associated with a channel runner?

I tend to restrict my moans with respect to not getting what was forecast or in comparison to the norms for this area. No point in me complaining that I always get far fewer hot days than the south east!

---

A bit of warmth would actually be rather nice. The problem with this winter (here) is that it has never been very cold but has also rarely been mild leaving us with a cool/slightly cooler than average winter but without the excitement and “events” that can often bring.

So far...

---

Oh don't you start or else it would get Richard to start ranting ha!

What really frustrates me is knowing the fact that Paris will have had 3x heavy falls of snow this week (Tuesday, Friday morning and now as I type) Each time the snow has settled and today their daytime max was rarely above freezing! Yet London as well as many areas to the south of M4 hasn't even seen a single flake of snow yet!? What is going on?!

---

Aye, I didn't realise that France was getting a lot of snow until a friend of mine posted a video of his girlfriend in Paris pulling on a branch of a tree and lots of snow falling on her, it looked quite deep in places, I did notice on the f/cast last week they were predicting up to 2ft of snow for parts of northern Spain too...seems to be the norm now, the UK gets stuck under a high and the cold goes SE through Europe and towards northern Africa, another friend of mine sent me a video tonight of where she lives in Kazan, Russia and they are struggling to cope with the heaviest snow in 140yrs, drifts to the top of doorways, they've had blizzards for days and temps of around -20deC she reported, Moscow had record snowfall earlier this week too...ah well, maybe the predicted SSW will bring some to us...probably in March when the flowers are out and birds are nesting...

Let’s face it, the British climate is now almost incapable of producing anything other than mild wet and windy records in winter. Cool zonality is as good as it gets, you want snow go and live on a Scottish mountain, otherwise more often than not your going to be disappointed.

It’s not overly surprising that continents have a continental climate and islands have a maritime one surely?

---

Even though Kent is the most nearest to the main Continent, you've seen how that small bit of sea is enough to maintain the maritime-type climate at this end.

---

As has always been the case in the UK, since our climate has always being oceanic and largely snowless.. 

 

---

Also snow in Madrid too! A friend of mine is skiing in Andorra this week - some ski lifts were closed due to the sheer amount of snow and avalanche risk! A report re the snow in Paris: - The fact they would have had 3 lot's of snow in the space of 5 days when London our capital along with many other parts of southern England hasn;t even seen a flake is quite frustrating! I saw some but I was looking out for it - blink and you would have missed it - here with the article below re snow in Paris, France:

6" of snow - and more today adding to it and more to come:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-43011862

 

When was the last time London saw 6" of snow?

Snow in Madrid and rest of Spain:

https://www.thelocal.es/20180205/in-pics-snow-brings-gridlock-and-chaos-across-spain

 

---

Yes true even with cold zonality in Scotland or N. Ireland - whilst there is snow it's transient in nature and very wet as always - it never lasts for longer than a day! PARIS has had lying snow for almost 5 days now and more is falling as I type!

---

What never lasts more than a day? I guess you were not in west Scotland last month.

And again you (deliberately?) are ignoring the continental v maritime climate issue.

---

The reasons for what I am about to say are probably better being debated over in the climate change forum, but there seems to been an increasing number of occasions during recent summers when the continental climate has probably been a bit too hot (without any actual evidence for that, I'm not going to say that this is actually the case but it certainly seems like it from what I have been hearing) and in those conditions, the maritime climate can at least provide some relief from that.

It therefore, seems as though you just can't really win when it comes to the weather as there will usually always be something to moan about (but then, that is what this thread is for after all).

 

---

I think we all realise that the UK has a maritime climate but 30yrs ago we used to get snow that stayed on the ground for days and was topped up with more while rivers and lakes froze regularly...and back then they were saying climate change would make W.Europe even colder in winter as the Gulf Stream would get cut off by the Arctic ice melting...what happened to that...!

I remember winters of 30 years ago very well. Many winters were very wet where no rivers froze (although many flooded) and snow was a novelty. Plus ça change...

The reason why so many crave snow and cold is because it is NOT the norm for the vast majority of us.

---

Yet France, Spain and Portugal is considered western Europe but still get's snow Ireland for instance has seen a substantial amount of snow this winter compared to recent years England (southern) has been unlucky! 

Re the gulf stream being cut off I am never sure if this is true. I have always wanted to know if this is a possibility - fresh water caused by melting sea ice will no doubt reduce the salinity in Atlantic thus reduce the strength of the flow of the Gulf stream but this could take years...maybe in a decades before it will give us colder winters!? Without the Gulf stream we would have winters like Eastern Canada does i/e Quebec or Montreal etc - Or say eastern Europe Warsaw Poland for instance, which shares the same latitude as London. 

I found this interesting to read.

https://phys.org/news/2017-06-climate-gulf-stream.html

 

---

 

I actually meant for lowland England really, these days snow is transient if it does fall and usually only over hills in the south where it settles but doesn't last long!

Yes it was a wintry month in December  into Jan and spent 2 weeks travelling around W Scotland - My friend went to Fort William, Skye and Inverness etc - She actually saw more snow there than in Poland! Actually This was when many parts of Europe were mild and Western Scotland & N. Ireland were much colder and snowier than many other parts of Europe (ASIDE Norway or Sweden).

---

Really - where and when was this? 

If you actually lived in a climate where snow as the norm rather than the exception then you'd soon get sick of it.

---

I'm not so sure that I fully agree with that because proper heat and sunshine isn't the norm for us either even in the middle of summer (and especially if you live here in Scotland) and yet, we don't seem to crave that so much (if we did, the MOD threads would probably be every bit as busy during the summer as they are in the winter, yet that is clearly not the case).

To me, it is the nice scenery which cold and snow can provides, which often makes it look really seasonable at around Christmas in particular, which probably causes us to crave that more. However, the actual reality is that whilst craving cold and snow is one thing, actually experiencing it is a different matter altogether because whilst all of that might be nice to look at from an indoor perspective, that cold and snow is often not so good for travelling out and about in as I discovered when a friend of mine almost got stuck in the snow when travelling home from here in Edinburgh during that bit transitional snow to rain event which we had here in Edinburgh during one weekend in January.

Also, there has been the odd occasion as well during this winter, where I just haven't really been able to get out for a proper walk because the footpaths have just been too icy underfoot, especially on the side roads and pavements.

 

---

It's not the case because some people on here only care about snow but absolutely nothing else - however, those of us who stick around all year look for Spanish plumes and high pressure in summer.

 

---

If you balance it all out though, this shows that there are more people on here who look for snow in winter than who look for high pressure and Spanish Plumes in summer. In my books, that in turn is enough to disprove the original point which I was replying to, about the reason why people look for snow in winter being mainly due to that not being the actual norm as there are clearly other reasons which are more significant than that (there is after all, a reason why someone should only ever care about snow).

 

---

Perhaps “a reason” rather than the reason people crave snow, as there are other reasons of course. Even some of the problems, which I am well aware of, that you highlight re. travel “chaos”and disruption are probably even exciting for some people.

As for warmth, you can speak for yourself, I would love heat and sunshine all summer but it is not a valid comparison as many myself included will take advantage of even mediocre summer weather and longer daylight hours with outdoor activities. That is less appealing when it is cool, damp, breezy and dark outside - when it’s more tempting to be online.

I suspect I may not be the only one who would love a cold snowy winter followed by a hot sunny summer (which is not the same as expecting one!)

---