Moans, ramps and banter

[Azazel]

  @raz.org.rain Good.

 

Any SSW happening now will likely drag winter into March and beyond.

[In Absence of True Seasons]

Ahh, what a wonderful winters morning in London. Not mild, not cold, neither dry nor actually raining, and not a scrap of sun or blue sky to be seen. Of course, all accompanied by a lovely wind. 

Just beautiful 

[In Absence of True Seasons]

  @East Lancs Rain It's a real shame because some of the most stunning parts of the UK geographically, have the least useable climates for outdoors activities lol... Makes holidaying in such places very difficult. A week's summer break in the Lake District could very easily end up being 6 days out of 7 as drizzling from morning to night. Same for Snowdonia National Park, the Scottish Highlands, and so on. I've hiked and camped enough times in the Lakes to have experienced all weather by now to safely say the old saying of "There's no such thing as bad British weather, just bad clothing!" is complete BS. The sort of 24/7 heavy, relentless drizzle that you can get in the Lakes will render even the best waterproof hiking gear a sopping mess after a few hours. 

The funny things is, there are plenty of places with wetter climates than the UK, including areas like the Lake District specifically, if we are talking from a statistical total average rainfall. I mean, Rome has a higher average rainfall annual than London lol...but obviously, that stat in of itself means little in isolation because its about how the rainfall forms part of the overall climate. Many countries (Italy for instance, in this case) experience lots of rainfall in condensed parts of the year. Whereas the UK (especially in places like the Lake District, or Scottish Highlands) gets days on-end of drizzly and mizzle of varying degrees, which don't actually bump the rainfall figures up that much, but nevertheless make the climate very wet to actually live in. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_annual_precipitation

This list is interesting, because as we can see, many places in South America and the Caribbean have much higher annual average total rainfalls than the UK...including places like Brazil and Jamaica, despite such places also being renowned for their sun-drenched, beach-favouring, holiday-maker, mojito-consuming climates. Because...that's what their climates are, the majority of the time. High rainfall =/= an overall wet climate. The UK flipside experiences much less rain than such places, but spread out over far greater periods. Personally, I think the former is far more favourable - bursts of rain, oftentimes at specific parts of the year, and then back to clearer conditions. The sort of conditions we have in this country where whole periods of time (multiple days for instance) become a complete write-off due to drizzle, is quite unique, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. You'll see on that list that only Iceland and Norway top us from a European perspective (which surprises no one, I imagine...) Faroe Islands are not on the list, but I assume they'd also top the UK. The rest of Europe however, we have them beat, by quite a high margin in many cases too! Even green ol' Ireland, famous for its wet weather, has lower annual average rainfall than the UK. Indeed, much of central Europe, including the Northern countries like Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Lithuania etc, have drastically lower rainfall averages than the UK, generally around half of ours' (or lower!). Finland in particular is impressively dry. A paltry 536 vs our 1225. 

 

  @Azazel Indeed, we do not want another repeat of early Spring 2023!

Edited January 30 by In Absence of True Seasons

[MJB]

  @HurricaneSteve A snow-fest for Easter perhaps

As Easter is early that wouldn't be a surprise would it 

[cheese]

  @In Absence of True Seasons tbf the UK-wide stats are pretty much useless because most of the population lives in much drier areas. I imagine most people in the UK live in areas with under 800mm of rain, and a big percentage lives in areas with under 700mm. 
 

My closest station gets 603mm of rain with 114 days of rain on average. Compare that to somewhere like Cologne in western Germany which gets 802mm of rain with 187 days of rain - that would be a very wet year for us. 

Edited January 30 by cheese

[SunnyG]

Looking forward to the day when people will stop wishing for snow 4 weeks to go more or less, so not too far away, phew!

[Alderc 2.0]

  @Azazel yep SSW’s now will just wreck early to mid spring.

Indont care what happens as long as last spring is not repeated, it was dreadful apart from the last ten days of May. 

[Metwatch]

11 hours ago, East Lancs Rain said:

I once went on a day trip walking in the Lake District in early October a few years ago and when I arrived it was very cold and cloudy. Felt like winter rather than October.

I remember I went for 2 days in mid October back in 2022, got very lucky with largely clear skies in what was a wet month, that is normally already one of the wettest in the year! I think it was only 2 of the 3-4 dry days in that whole month.

 

Edited January 30 by Metwatch

[TheOgre]

  @In Absence of True Seasons  The UK’s rainfall is bumped up by very wet places like the Scottish Highlands and the Lake District. Most places are nowhere near as wet.

Ireland is the only country in Europe which is worse than the U.K. in both summer and winter. Norway and Iceland are worse in summer but much better in winter.

[Weatherman_93]

  @SunnyG Oh they will keep going well into March. Some saying it might snow at Easter because i'ts early this year. 

[raz.org.rain]

  @Weatherman_93 I sincerely hope not. Although, being honest, the evolution of cold weather has been a bust on multiple occasions so far. I'm sure I've seen mention of any potential SSW getting diverted into Eastern Europe... generally speaking we could expect an early spring if that happens.

  @Alderc 2.0 it was abysmal, it felt like winter all the way into May.

[cheese]

  @TheOgre Parts of Norway are much worse in the winter imo - I'm thinking the SW coast, around Bergen etc. They mostly just get lots and lots of cold rain. 

Bergen has an average high of 5.3C & an average low of 1.0C in December, with 290mm of rain, 19 days of rain, and 12 hours of sun. Can anywhere in the UK match that level of awfulness? 

Edited January 30 by cheese

[raz.org.rain]

Another sunny day with clear blue skies here. Very fair weather too, no nasty breezes, somewhat cooler but still mild. Really feeling like early spring. Hoping this continues until spring proper arrives and then we can get some proper warmth in preparation for a nice long and hot summer.

[SunnyG]

  @cheese How do those poor people bear it? Heroes that's what they are.

[MP-R]

  @Alderc 2.0 Quite similar to last Feb in that respect (minus the frosts), although I doubt it'll be anywhere near as sunny. That's what I'm really missing at the moment!

[East Lancs Rain]

8 hours ago, HurricaneSteve said:

But yeah, watch the "winter" synoptics arrive sometime in March or April now

A snow-fest for Easter perhaps

Easter is in Late March this year so it’s more likely to happen. I remember getting snow in Easter 2008 here, which was also at the end of March. 
 

It’s been a nice day here for a change, dry and mostly sunny, light winds and a high of 6°C. Sadly though it’s back to the gloom and rain tommorow though.

 

Just hope it’s a nice spring after being gloomy and wet for so long now. A repeat of March 2017 or March 2012 would be wonderful (just wouldn’t want a repeat of April 2012 after it!)

[raz.org.rain]

"Evidence that El Niño has already peaked", great... 

[In Absence of True Seasons]

 cheese Bergen and that region of Norway is particularly grim. It's basically just the dullest and wettest areas of the UK on steroids. Same goes for the Faroe Islands.

The Shetland Islands I imagine comes the closest to it from a UK perspective. Kirkwall is a very similar on latitude to Bergen, for example, but even still, not quite as dire overall. Kirkwall December averages...

• Average max: 6.56
• Average low: 2.48
• Average sunshine hours: 20.58
• Average rainfall mm 149.70
• Average rainfall days: 22

[In Absence of True Seasons]

 raz.org.rain Locality locality locality!

Interesting to note though. Because it's been dark as sin and blowing a hoolie in London all day today. Pretty cold actually. High of 8/9c (plus add the wind chill!) and low of 3c tonight, so more-or-less bang on average temps for Jan (for everyone harping on about mildness - have an 'average' winter's day! )

[East Lancs Rain]

3 hours ago, cheese said:

Parts of Norway are much worse in the winter imo - I'm thinking the SW coast, around Bergen etc. They mostly just get lots and lots of cold rain. 

Bergen has an average high of 5.3C & an average low of 1.0C in December, with 290mm of rain, 19 days of rain, and 12 hours of sun. Can anywhere in the UK match that level of awfulness? 

 

Not quite, but Lerwick isn’t  much better with average high of 6.5°C, average low of 2.4°C, 150 mm of rain, 22 rainy days and 20 hours of sun in December. 
 

Ambleside is almost as wet though, with 247 mm of rain in December, although it has an average high of 7.4°C and average low of 1.8°C and is much sunnier at 48 hours.

 

Malham Tarn in Yorkshire is also very poor with an average high of 5.3°C, average low of 0.4°C, 181 mm of rain, 18 rainy days and 34 hours of sun.

 

Kinlochewe in North West Scotland is absolutely shocking though. Temperatures not bad with average high of 7.5°C and average low of 1.2°C, but it has 276 mm of rain, 22 rainy days and just 14 hours of sun! Average annual sunshine is just 926 hrs and annual rainfall is a whopping 2278 mm!

 

And Loss Glascarnoch, also in the North West of Scotland is also shocking with an average high of 5.4°C, average low of -1.0°C, 200 mm of rain, 19 rainy days and just 14 hours of sun!  

 

These are the worst I could find. Not quite as bad as Bergen in Norway but not far off! It sure is grim up in North West Scotland. Generally the further north and west you are in the UK, the grimmer it gets and further south and east you are, the better it gets. Anyone reading this be grateful you don’t live in these climates! I wonder if there’s anyone who lives in Lerwick or Stornaway on the forums, imagine what it must be like.

 

[In Absence of True Seasons]

 SunnyG S.A.D lamps, great quality of living standards in pretty much every single regard outside of climate, and lots of fresh fish 

I've been to Bergen twice, lovely place, and great hiking nearby. But I went specifically when I saw the forecast was not rain 24/7 for the foreseeable future lol. Pre-Covid when you could get flights from London to Norway for less than a train ticket from London Brighton. Good old days of...3/4 years ago, lol.

[In Absence of True Seasons]

 East Lancs Rain  I doubt people from such places in NW Scotland are on these forums - they're too busy either A) at the pub drowning their depression from vitamin D deficiency, or B) trying to sort out their water-logged internet connection. Lol. 

Jokes aside, they're harsh places to live. Which is precisely why historically-speaking they bred resourceful, hardy people (such as the Norse Vikings or the Scottish Picts).

Edited January 30 by In Absence of True Seasons

[Metwatch]

Looking at the latest GEFS ensembles and we're trending back to average maybe even on the cold side of it from next weekend, while precipitation signal increases, so a southerly tracking jetstream.

If many of us in central / southern areas don't get any snow next month, it's going to be very miserable, but we'll have to push through it regardless. The last thing anyone living near rivers / floodplains needs is another washout at the moment. Lucky for things to have been drier this month.

Edited January 30 by Metwatch

[markyo]

19 hours ago, East Lancs Rain said:

Nope, we’ve had plenty of wintery months since then, February and March 2013, February and March 2018, January 2021 and December 2022…

Sorry but your just quoting months with a negative cet figure, as far as i can see none are more negative than 2.5 if that, December 2010 was far more, a proper winters month, the last one. look at the summer cet figures for the last decade and a half, totally different. 

Hope you can get my point now

[Freeze]

 markyo I'm pretty sure March 2013 was more than 2.5 below average.