In true TWO style it's time to appraise another season just passed.

In my opinion this one will be memorable for all the wrong reasons (if you like cold weather). 

As a cold weather fan this winter was one disappointment after the other. Even as we move move into Spring snow potential and warnings get downgraded to marginal nothingness as we approach T+0.

0/10 for me. There were just three air frosts but two of them were cold enough to kill of a couple of prized perennials...season low -3.1c.

The two things I remember about this winter was the plumey sky at sunset on the shortest day and my 14c Christmas Day Evening walk whereby I actually sweated and walked home in a t-shirt. 

3/10

At least we had a snowfall, frustrating though it was, and woke to a covering on the Sunday morning - enough to build a modest snowman in the front garden with my youngest, and have a brief time pulling her around our estate on one of the sledges.

For cold -10/10 utter crap

For dryness 5/10 wasn't a washout overall for us down here.

For mild 9/10 was very mild to start.

Wind 5/10 fairly average winter for wind storms.

I would give it 5 because we had some weather. It got talked about........

Crap! - A total utter 'nightmare scenario...a complete horror show' as Gavin rightly predicted in his forecast back in September.

All the colder spell's turned out to become cooler spells. We never had more than 2 days of dry cold frosty weather even if we couldn't get sleet or snow.

The only positive side is that the SW didn't get much flooding as up north - but still it was overcast and even during the cooler spells temperatures rose throughout the night-time, only for a more prolonged spell of wind and rain. The few cold spells we did have were downgraded each time and turned out to cooler spells, which only resulted in average temperatures for the south and south west. Even when there were cooler spells - there were only a few occasions when the car/grass surfaces were frosty/frozen at night, only to be woken up with heavy lashing rain and strong to gale force winds with double figure temperatures by the end of the following day.

In terms of cold and snow - it has been utterly rubbish! Winter 2015/16 was more of a continuous Autumn for the south! I think it's probably the first winter where London and many home countries have not recorded any snowfall or accumulation? - Mind you it was the warmest winter ever recorded was it not?

Even winter 2013/14 I could give it a bit more because at least lower levels saw a period of sleet and/or there was at least a good 5-7 days of cold frosty and dry weather.

Anyway, back to the stats:

Coldest temperature recorded in Exeter: -3.7c on 16th February (Early hours)
Mildest Daytime max recorded in Exeter: +16.8c on 21st February (between 1-2pm when it brightened up)

Coldest Daytime max +6.3c on 16th & 17th January, +5.4c on 13th February.

Number of morning frosts @ 9am: 6 - All of which melted by 10 or 11am ahead of the next band of wind and rain!

No of ice days: 0

No days with sleet: 0

No days with snow: 0

If you're a milder weather enthusiast you would rate this high but as I am a cold and snowy weather enthusiast here is my score overall:

0/10!! Totally rubbish.

- Worst winter I have ever had the misfortune to experience in my life and hopefully the last. - I thought nothing could ever get as bad as the winter 2013/14 but it did. At least in the winter of 97/1998 there was snow and some severe frosts in southern lowland England.

- If it get's as bad as this I may head to sub-tropical Taiwan or Vietnam - At least they get snow there. I also heard there was snow in the Grand Canaria and Tenerife!

Look forward to seeing Marcus & Richard's score!

Just like to add that here in south west France the winter has been utter crap. This is only our second winter here in the Charente and our first winter was amazing by comparison.

Winter 2014/2015 was very sunny, with many frosts, no wind and limited rainfall. We even had a dusting of snow in February 2015.

Winter 2015/2016 has been absolutely disgusting. Frequent rain, ridiculously mild, very strong winds and gales. Also the sunshine hours have been massively reduced from last winter. Today it is 10 degrees outside, with wind and driving rain...again. Now it is March and we should be getting warm sunshine and temperatures in the mid to high teens.

So overall I would give this winter 1/10 

We are desperate for spring and to warmth to arrive and I expect many in the UK are too!

EDIT:

Changed my mind after looking outside..BIG FAT ZERO OUT OF TEN! 

0/10

Horrific 0.3/10. Three coverings of snow with the 'deepest' being 1cm. Lots of hype and model promise but in reality one of the mildest winters on record.

The only good thing about this winter was that it wasn't as bad as 2013/14 - actually, let's face it, it would take a seriously properly rotten winter to beat that anyway. Yes, I still kept getting that strong southerly gale every other day (even had that last night!) in which the flimsy panel fencing in the back yard finally succumbed to and indeed Isobel did cause some coastal damage in early February, but we have had some frost along with a good run of useable dry bright weather. 

This winter has been very poor in terms of snow potential, but since I have completed the third snow-free winter in a row, I've gotten used to it now and it has been ideal for most purposes and intents more often than not. Perhaps the one thing this winter may be remembered for was that exceptionally mild start to it.

The most p*ss poor winter in my living memory I think. -1/10 

This winter gets a...

3/10

In terms of weather interest, I'll give it a generous 3 out of 10, mostly due to some intense rainy spells at times, especially during December. Despite being a very zonal winter which brought the occasional wild spell, there was no actual real storminess. Very little snow and very poor for thunderstorm activity which is usually part and parcel under such set ups, but not this time.

Going to base my ranking on a ranking of the last 10 years with 10 being the best winter and 1 being the worst.

IMBY there have been worse winters especially 2007,2011,2013*,2014

So for me its a 5/10

*March notwithstanding, if we consider winter to include March then this winter is relegated to 4/10

1/10 because it turned out not as bad as 2013/14 due to more frost  and drier sunnier weather from mid-January. December and early January only worthy of a minus figure rating.

Despite the pathetic lack of hard frost and any lasting snowfall the air frost duration was higher than the previous two winters and already 2016 has produced more frost hours than both 2014 and 2015. Shows how desperate things have come. This winter's low of -4.2C was the coldest temperature for almost 3 years - truly horrendous stuff

9/10 Because December was exceptional for how mild it was and will most likely never see that again in my lifetime.

From my perspective, it has been bad as a true winter, but it beats certain other recent winters because:

• it was almost a record season


• there was a record month


• there were more 14C + days (my spring temp threshold) in one month than any other entire winter in my record


• the effects of the weather were noteworthy in the garden and in nature


• there were a good fistful of frosts later on, with the coldest only 2C higher than my own local 20 year record


• there was less rain on my poor roof than at least one other winter


• more windy days here meant we dried the washing outside even on cold days

It was however snow-free, dreadfully grey and windy and the ground moisture remains horribly high.

So I give it 4/10: 7 minus 3 

I guess if you are a coldie then this winter has been poor but im much prefer mild.

A winter of two halfs here and the incredible December was one of the most extreme months on record.I loved it!

The first half of winter Dec to mid January gets a 10/10 for me,not in the slightest bit cold and not a single frost in this period.

Mid January finally saw winter arrive down here and its got progressively colder ever since and we are currently experiencing the coldest spell of the winter at the moment.Second half of the winter gets 4/10,far too cold for my liking and its not over yet.

However id give the December to February period 8/10

Shame February let us down and we missed out on the record for warmest winter in the cet record.