AderynCoch

Looks like much of the snow/hail is going to last the day in Wallasey. Wasn't expecting that! Shame about the coastal factor being a pain in the backside yet again. It's starting to feel frosty again now. I just need temperatures to drop below zero again and the showers to continue - then we could be talking business.

No, but nevertheless these are only provisional values and could end up lower when made official in January.

Some rain falling from the sky now. We still have a white covering of snow/graupel everywhere though. It's really doing its best to hang on today, which is good.

HUGE bang of thunder here just now. Snow is coming down again, but I can't see it sticking this time: the previous layer has already turned to slush.

Say it isn't so! Bah, it's going to stick everywhere but here. Again.

It's brightened up now in Wallasey. A nice white covering on all surfaces, but I fear it will soon melt. I hope to God it doesn't rain.

Thundersnow in Wallasey! And not just that, but big flashes of lightning too. Unreal. Coming down quite heavy at the moment. Got a nice covering of snow this morning in South Liverpool when I left for work - not the deepest I've ever seen but nice and Christmassy all the same. Ah!

As I thought: December average CET 1980-9 = 5.16C December average CET 1990-9 = 4.6C Take 1981 out of the equation and you get 5.7C for the eighties. December average CET 2000-8 = 4.96C December 2009 would have to finish below 1.4C for Decembers in the noughties to be colder than in the nineties (very unlikely), and above 7C to be warmer than in the eighties (not going to happen).

Yep, the 1870s had four Decembers below 1C - this only happened once throughout the entire 20th century. This time round of course, it's more to do with December being not as above average as January and February. Very mild Decembers have been rare in comparison to other months in the past 20 years - in fact I think Decembers in the 90s were on average colder than in the 80s (1981 being a true anomaly). As an aside, does anyone reckon we'll manage five sub-zero CET days in a row (provisionally we're on three at the moment)? This hasn't happened since January 2001 - surely the longest such drought in the daily CET series?

Timing is everything. If they don't come during the night or the early hours then I don't want them to come at all, as they'll likely fall as rain. Nothing worse than getting rain when it's snowing nearby.

Sadly that streamer from Cardigan Bay looks like it's ground to a halt. Cader Idris must be getting a pasting right now. I'm badly in need of a northwesterly.

Same here mate, same here. 5pm with darkness fallen and it's coming down as RAIN. Even around midday we were getting snow showers despite the fact that the morning's cover was thawing. It's like some sort of inexplicable Sod's Law which exists solely to starve us of snow. Christmas Eve could give us a battleground event yet I don't even feel optimistic, because I've become so disillusioned. I guess the fact that it's the Christmas run-in makes it particularly hard to take.

Had a fair covering in South Liverpool this morning but most of it has melted away. There's still some left on the grass and on rooftops sheltered from the sun. Drop temperature, drop!

Snow flurries in Liverpool leading up to midnight! They've stopped now though. Quite bizarre given how crystal clear the skies were - I did the lamp post thing and couldn't believe my eyes.

Liverpool Airport was shut down in December 2000. I don't know how much fell exactly but we got a real dumping that day. Only the battleground event of February 1996 strikes me as being heavier in the past twenty years.

7C at Liverpool Airport today after a low of 4C. It's not even cold, never mind wintry! The models had better deliver this weekend or else. Mildness has become an endemic infection round these parts - it just won't go away, even when there's signifcantly cold air not too far away.

6C again today, and it doesn't look like it'll go below freezing tonight. Lame.

I do it all the time. I try to watch the headlights on cars too as they zoom past. At least the rain sometimes looks like snow in these instances - a good way for me to deny the fact that it's raining yet again rather than snowing (as was forecast).

The maxima need to drop considerably in the coming days - it was 6C today for crying out loud! The only thing I see working in our favour at the moment is that the dreaded mild incursion towards the end of the forecast period looks to be coming from the south rather than the west - so we may escape until Christmas yet.

Yep, a real pasting round these parts on the evening of the 2nd. We missed out from then onwards though, the only subsequent fresh lying snowfall being on the morning of the 5th (when there was barely half an inch).

2C and foggy. It's really starting to feel wintry now...

I'm fairly new to this model-watching lark. Is it me or has the GFS completely collapsed past the 300 mark? All I see is westerlies. At least it being a while off makes it less reliable.

Snow-wise, East Lancashire is like upstate New York compared to Liverpool! Nevertheless, even here we've had easterlies deliver the goods. Jan/Feb 96 springs to mind - cold and very snowy, with icicles hanging off the gutter. Then again of course, we've had easterlies give us sod all. Every cold spell is different, and this one will be no exception. Fingers crossed...