No ice day here in Edinburgh though as the temperature at 2pm this afternoon was now up to 2.6°C at Edinburgh Gogarbank, 2°C at Edinburgh Airport and 0.8°C at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.

We haven't had an official ice day during this winter so far and in fact, our last official ice day in Edinburgh was recorded at Edinburgh Gogarbank on 1 March 2018 which is technically part of the meteorological spring and therefore, not even part of the actual winter.

Now, that first official ice day of this winter has eluded us yet again and since we are now almost halfway through this winter, I am beginning to think now that we're just not going to get any official ice days during this winter. Added to that is the fact that we have had barely any snow during this winter so far, which just goes to show exactly how poor this winter has been in this part of the world up until now.

 

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I feel your frustrations ! We had clear skies last night but a min of 5c. Crazy to think that the coldest night time min was all the way back on 27th October -3.5c in EXETER. We have not reached 0c yet this winter in Exeter let alone a frost. Maybe tonight could be the chance to see our first widespread frost?

I was just watching the BBC weather @ 14:25 by Chris Fawkes - it was hilarious! But funny "Cold Turkey" and showing how much snow there was falling in Ankara and many parts of Greece and even on the coastal area's will get a covering and some parts could get 50cms of snow falling! Crazy!

Weather for next 5 days here FROM TODAY:

Partly Cloudy 6c

Cloudy 7c

Cloudy 7c

Overcast 8c

Cloudy and Misty 9c

Cloudy 8c

YUCK!

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I know our winter climate is pretty poor, but is it so difficult to get some sunshine with high pressure?

Anticyclonic nothingness.

 

 

We had some decent sunshine here on Wednesday but apart from that, it's been the same here as well which is all part in parcel of what has to be the most boring and uninteresting so-called "winter" which I have experienced for a very long time at least, if not ever..

 

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We may be moaning here but parts of Italy have seen some amazing snowfalls, -10c 850 temps and convective snow off the Adriatic sea.
Capricotta in the central Italian hills has seen 1 metre of snow.

Here is snow on the beach in the far SE on the heel of Italy typical of the coastline with amounts increasing dramatically as you head modestly inland.

https://m.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/puglia/lecce/otranto 

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I know it's the moaning thread, but I actually like cold anti-cyclonic gloom. After snow and day-long fog, it's my third fave kind of winter weather.

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Should be a good scene (based on past evidence) when the snow clears from the lens http://www.capracotta.com/it/falconi 

 

In the meantime there are a few videos like these to make us jealous https://www.3bmeteo.com/giornale-meteo/neve-molise--bufera-a-capracotta--diretta-video-221066 

 

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Can't argue with that since everyone's taste is different.

However, that's just not my cup of tea and since the temperature was around 7°C here today (which isn't even cold for this time of year), we can't even refer to that as "cold" anti-cyclonic gloom and so, this is part and parcel of what makes this type of weather so boring in my view.

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We are used to seeing snow in Athens during recent winters but today FB is full of photos of a very snowy Corfu Town.

I visit Corfu regularly and know that snow hasn't lay in the town since 1992 so today's fall is highly unusual.

Conditions on the mainland must be really severe.

High Pennine villages above 1500 feet are still waiting for there first snow cover this winter, pathetic doesn't even come close.

Andy

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I was in Puglia last summer and it’s a sick joke that somewhere that far south can have more of a winter than this awful country.

I didn't go as far south as Otranto but it looks like the area I was staying in(Martina Franca) had an ice day today whereas here at nearly 20 degrees further north it has barely managed below freezing at night during this entire non-winter. It was supposed to be cold this week but there has been one frost so far - the same as during the exceptionally mild Christmas week. Today was meant to have a max of 4C but reached a slightly above average 6.4C. 

Would be wonderful to see the trulli of Alberobello under snowfall. I did see some postcards of it in the gift shops and it wasn't black and white. Seems they get decent snowfall almost every winter now when it used to be rare. At the same time we get virtually nothing

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Some coastal areas in central and northern Greece have currently about a foot of snow.

Even big cities like Thessaloniki have close to 10cm next to the sea, one webcam here https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/ellada/makedonia/thessaloniki/plateia-aristotelous.html

Heavy snowfalls in Greece are quite common due to the combination of warm seas and polar continental air masses, in fact their frequency has decreased significantly over the last 20 years.

 

It is beyond surreal how awful this totally repulsive and worthless winter is. Yet again I have woken up to dismal gloomy frost free gunk. Not even remotely cold at 4C first thing. Pretty much every Saturday since mid-November has been like this. It's just unreal.

What a totally rubbish high pressure this has been. Many snowless winters prior to this decade at least had decent frosty highs to relieve some of the monotony. In particular I'm thinking of 2006/07 but also 2007/08 and even December 2002 had a decent three day frosty high that beats anything this lame winter as produced.

As far as I'm concerned this winter has reached the point of no return. It's just looking like an even worse version of the coma inducing hell that was 2016/17. We're now approaching the second week of January with about a third of the normal number of frosts and not even a flake of snow falling. The week ahead looks like yet another ordeal to be endured. Just an endless cycle of complete and utter garbage 

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I am with you Richard!

What about the -6C you had on Thursday morning?

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Over here, Cork Airport up to yesterday has recorded 13 consecutive days with zero sunshine. 

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Only moan is the high cloud amounts this week otherwise a great winter so far with no snow and nothing overly cold

Same here Gavin, though to be fair the cloud hasn't even annoyed me too much either. I hate sun at this time of year - just blinds you flat and guarantees miserably cold nights. That can come February onwards.

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Had our resident high contained less cloud i think we would have seen a considerable cold spell under inversion...but alas it seems hard to find that type of weather in recent years..In the meantime any progged polar express seems to have been replaced by a replacement bus service....Well at least until Feb (hopefully 🙏)

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This may not be the the mildest, coldest, wettest, driest, sunniest or dullest winter on record but it has a good chance of being the boringest if this anticyclonic rubbish sticks around much longer

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Indeed we had 6c by night last night and 7c by day so far today and with this boring, overcast anticyclonic gloom it really cant get any worse!

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tally it can get much worse brother- think back at the zonal dross we have endured over the years. At least I have recorded 4 frosts so far this winter. 

That's x2 more than I have recorded! ha

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I’m posting on here rather than on any of the other threads because basically it is a moan.
First point is we can’t do much about the weather. For at least 10 days we haven’t seen the sun but it has stayed dry and with light winds it’s been a pleasure to do my winter cycle training outdoors.

Second point, personally I’m a cold weather fan and understand that if I’m going to live over 50 degrees north the UK is possibly the worst place at this latitude to be for cold. That said I do keep an open mind each year and follow the patterns and models to see how events might turn out.
This winter I broke my own rule about following any hype from others or media outlets as regards to the weather we might get. It might be the 6th January but looking out of the window it could quite easily pass for mid/late March.

Third point, as has been said on the model output it’s not uncommon for Athens to get snow because any winds from a northerly direction blow over a solid and cold land mass. However it’s annoyingly frustrating when Crete an island over 400 miles south of Athens gets heavy snow at sea level for the 4th time in 10 years! Made worse by my parents who live pt time out there sending you photos of it...
It seems to be a weather pattern that’s been very common over the last 20yrs.

Fourth point, the events of late Feb early March last year really wet my appetite for powder snow and drifts. It’s usually rare down here but gave me hope it could happen again this year. It still could but reality tells you you might have to wait another 30 years.

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Only SE'lies are worse than this and we already endured a month of those up to mid-December 

Really don't think it can get any worse than this non-winter. It's been a total write-off. Even in 2013/14 we had seen lying snow in November, and falling snow in December. More frost as well with the upcoming week five years ago seeing three consecutive frosts between the 10th and 12th. Only instance of even two in a row this year was way back on 4th/5th December and the upcoming week looks like another horror show following on from this vile grey weekend. 

My worst winter frost totals were 12 in 2016/17 and 17 in 2013/14 with the extended seasons seeing 25 and 28, respectively due to cold and frosty Novembers. We didn't even get that this year so well on course to be even worse this year. At the current rate - a pitiful eight so far -we won't even manage 20 

What is laughable is that people actually seem to believe there is going to be a turnaround and that the second half of winter will be cold and snowy 

When does that ever happen after this type of garbage start to winter? In my opinion it will turn out on a par with 1933/34. That really was dire and akin to this winter with endless boring high pressure and nothing wintry at all by this stage. Rather than turn colder it ended up turning even milder with an exceptionally mild February. There was no snow at all until the final days of February.

Of course back then the previous winter had delivered heavy snow, even though it fell in a poor era for winters, whereas after this disgusting pile of horse manure we will be closing in on seven years without a 10cm depth 

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What about the -6C you had on Thursday morning?

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