Yes sure because there has been so much cold zonality /north westerlies which are rubbish for Southern England. Whilst you may get more potent showers of the Irish sea in the strong NW winds - they all seem to fragment and diminish as they move south. We on the other hand get a west - north westerly then then backs westerly with transient ridges! .So cold air never really reaches us.! Our best chance (SW England). Devon * & Cornwall was that slider low on 10th December 17 but the weather was just too mild here and the cold northerly reached all parts of the Northern England . N. Ireland, Wales too except south of the M4 or north of A303 and the west country (Devon) experienced cold zonality westerly winds instead. 

That being said you have hand many snow showers there being very exposed to the north westerly wind/northerly!? But surely in Manchester the snow didn't exactly last long there did it!? and there hasn't been any sustained cold? or Ice days? Whats the max depth there? Hopefully next weekend into the following week it would be our turn! (For once!)

For here in Edinburgh, it is really the lack of official air frosts during this winter which I have my biggest complaints about.

As for snowfall, we can't really complain too much here. It took a while for us to get any snow here as the winds during the early part of December in particular were coming from the north or north-west a lot of the time, leaving us completely dry here whilst other parts of the country including the likes of Manchester and even Aberdeen (which even led Richard from that part of the world to send a few photos of that onto another thread, and it takes an awful lot for him to be happy about the weather in his area) got some snow showers.

Then, that slider low on around 10 December 2017 went too far south to affect us in any way while quite a few places down south got quite a bit of snow from that. It was only really from around Christmas onwards (the actual turning point came on Christmas Day itself as we had been getting a lot of rain during that day leading us into what to date,is still our wettest day of the entire winter before that turned to snow just in time on Christmas night, to give Edinburgh its first official white Christmas since 2010 whilst I was stuck down in Hawick where the transition from rain to snow happened just too late for that) that things then improved from that perspective.

Since then, we have had a couple of other snow events which has resulted from Atlantic weather systems moving in against cold air over the UK, including one where the snow later turned to rain as a result of milder air moving in. In addition to that, the wind in those showery air streams behind those weather systems became more of a straight westerly which resulted in the likes of Aberdeen becoming much drier whilst we got more showers here in Edinburgh as a result of those showers being fed all the through the Forth-Clyde valley with it being cold enough on a few occasions for those showers to be falling as snow even here in the north of Edinburgh.

So, this hasn't been a classic snowy winter and there has only really been the one occasion where any lying snow here has been around for any length of time. However, I would probably say that we have had more snow here during this winter than what we have had during any other winter since since December 2010. The north of Edinburgh has never exactly been renowned for getting a lot of snow anyway so on that basis, we have actually done quite well for snow during this winter.

As far as the temperature goes, both December and January brought average temperatures overall. December in particular, swing from being cold at certain times and being really mild at other times, whilst January was a lot more mundane although temperatures only really managed to come out around average during January due to a really mild end to that month after it had looked as though that was going to be colder than average overall. This month on the other hand, has been colder than average without any double figure temperatures being recorded here during this month so far and thanks to this latest SSW event, there is the potential for this month to finish on a very cold note although it is forecast to be a bit milder before then. When you had all of that together, this hasn't been a severe winter here, but it has technically, been a cold winter here thanks to this month being colder than average. In the end, this will go down as our coldest winter since the winter of 2012/13 as a result, although this is really mainly down to how mild the rest of the winters since then have been, rather than being down to this winter being especially cold.

Whilst it has been a colder than average winter overall though, this has actually been very much a front-loaded winter when you look at it in terms of the number of official air frosts. That is because December was actually the only month during this winter where we have had a decent number of official air frosts, as well as being when we had what to date, has been our only official ice day of the entire winter so far. Since then, there has been a general deterioration in the number of official air frosts. January was very poor in that respect, but this month has been even worse. Here in Edinburgh, the worst of my three local stations for that was Edinburgh Gogarbank where there has just been two days so far this month where an official air frost has been recorded, and even that was just one night with an official air frost which had technically, been spread across two different calendar days. The other two locations had the odd other occasion where there was an official air frost (especially Edinburgh Airport), but those were only brief occasions which lasted for only an hour or so before the temperature then jumped back up again. That is very poor fare indeed for what is supposed to be the coldest time of the year overall, and I have every right to complain about that as a result.

Quite a few days with snow falling yes, but no significant falls. Max depth for the entire winter has only been 3/4cms. So really a rather disappointing winter so far.

SC, you are grouping together two areas of the country whose snowfall amounts have been polar opposites this winter.

IMBY, there has only been about 3 hours of wet snow this winter, which clearly didn't stick. Go 30/40 miles north of the M4, and it's a vastly different story. as many members have already mentioned.

It's actually been just over 5 years since any snowfall of substance (i.e didn't melt within 2-3 hours of it stopping snowing). Even March 2013, when most of the country got absolutely plastered, and had lying snow for weeks, didn't produce any more than the odd flurry which didn't stick around.

So I am hoping that us dwellers south of the magical line of the M4 do actually  see some winter weather worthy of the name...

I don’t begrudge other places their snow but when it hits the South, it’s big news!  And, some Southern posters on the MO thread forget to mention their posts are IMBY and I get all needlessly excited at their mention of snow forecasts.

Now, Sod’s law is bound to apply and we’ll get snow just when I’m jetting off to hot sunny lands on 1st March!  Worse still, would be if our flight’s delayed and I’m stuck in an airport lounge looking out at deep white stuff! 

Who knows, maybe this time will be different?

You never know your luck!  We were bang on target for the November/December 2010 snow but it was less exciting because not many others got as much.  Apart from that, after a few days of not being able to get on as normal, I resolved to be careful what I wish for!  

It could be a tough one, this. we've missed out on the snow enjoyed by Jockland* and Norn Irn, even missed the December snow that the Midlands got. Now the SE/E/S look set for a high likelihood of snow.

The set-up looks too southerly-centered for anything to fall here, but I cling to the forlorn hope that 2013 gave. We've had at least half a dozen separate snow falls this winter, but none giving more than a temporary dusting. And I want more.

* Aberdeen excepted 

Manchester Winter Indices

2013-14: 7

1988-89: 20

2006-07: 21

1997-98: 25

1974-75: 26 

1989-90: 26

2015-16: 28

1973-74: 30 

1987-88: 37

2007-08: 37

1991-92: 40

1975-76: 41 

2016-17: 41

1999-00: 42

1992-93: 43

2002-03: 44

1994-95: 45

1998-99: 47

2004-05: 47

2011-12: 47

2001-02: 50

2003-04: 50

2005-06: 59

1979-80: 66 

2017-18: 70 (up to 18th Feb)

1996-97: 72

2000-01: 77

1993-94: 78

2014-15: 82

1983-84: 82 

1982-83: 85

1977-78: 90 

1980-81: 90 

1986-87: 100

2012-13: 102

2008-09: 105

2010-11: 119

1990-91: 126

1995-96: 135

1984-85: 140

1976-77: 141 

1981-82: 149 

1985-86: 159

2009-10: 197

1978-79: 262 

I'm still astonished it's so high. That it's just a few point behind 2000/01 is ridiculous. That winter we had a great spell from Xmas to New Year, with deep snow (15cm+)falling on the 28th/29th. We then had a further decent fall later in the winter/early March.

...and what about the rest of that winter,  Saint?

First half of December 2000 was exceptionally mild, winter didn't get going until Christmas, yes it was a great snowfall but it was just between Christmas and New Year. Not a lot happened during January 2001, there was a frontal snowfall breakdown. Wintry weather came at the end of February but I don't recall a lot of snow. What happened in March is irrelevant as the index is based on just the meteorological winter.

That's why I use an index, Saint. That post Christmas 2000 event has magnified your perception of that winter but it was less than a week. 

Yes, I know why you have an index, and it usually works well. But this winter has been absolute dross. No settling snow for either of our back yards, beyond a couple of hours' dusting on a handful of occasions, and the frosts that have happened haven't been more than a smidgeon below 0c.

I hadn't considered that your index would only look at meteorological winter. Seems a bit of an arbitrary cut-off point (but appreciate you need to have fixed dates)

Not long until Spanish plumes arrive.  

You, me, Russ, Joe B, and the rest of the North West posse.

What bugs me is that when snow moves in from the west, the Pennines don't prevent the snow reaching the likes of Leeds, Sheffield, Wakefield, Huddersfield, etc. Yet when the snow is from the east the Pennines suddenly become this great impenetrable wall that stops the snow reaching Manchester, Blackburn, Preston, St Helens, etc

Just need a decent Easterly that's all, like 96 and 91! Most easterlies fail here because winds are too slack or pressure too high.  It's also a long way to the east coast, even I live marginally nearer the west coast.

Coast to coast showers is possible given some of the output...But it's right to be cautious outside the SE for the time being...

Right, I'm bagsying this comfy chair here, the one by the fire, as I think this thread will be my home for the foreseeable future.

And besides, the MO has been thoroughly taken over by the SE-dwellers and their IMBY posts.

I'm sure Richard from Aberdeen will be found in here too, once the 6' drifts fall short of expectations.

Or when it all drifts south leaving cool anticyclonic gloom or light SWlies here 

Now you know how we southerners feel when you post one of your Dec-2010-was-great efforts.

But cheer up, it may never happen