AderynCoch

Tell me it's heading east...

Had a spell of very heavy rain late this afternoon but I noticed no thunder or lightning despite other members not far away reporting it. Funny how I seem to get thunderstorms when I least expect them (like on Wednesday night) but not when I actually do. Is Round Two still on later tonight?

I completely agree with this. That was a truly exceptional spell of weather in an otherwise tedious year. The problem with 2011 was that warm synoptics dominated during the cooler months and cool synoptics dominated during the warmer months. I still can't believe we managed to achieve the second warmest annual CET since 1659 when all three summer months were below the long-term average. I would also nominate February as the most boring month of 2011 (with November not too far behind). Such a disappointment after what the first half of winter was like.

The briefest covering of snow I've ever seen happened on one night in November 2008 (the 22nd-23rd or thereabouts). The rain suddenly turned to snow and settled everywhere. Five minutes later the rain returned and it was gone. I got about 15cm when I was in Sheffield on 18th November 2004. That was a good event for higher parts of central and northern England.

Wow, big thunderstorm just appeared out of nowhere! Wasn't expecting this at all.

I haven't seen proper snowdrifts since February 1996. In fact my recollection of the level depths is probably distorted by the presence of drifts (though they were still significant).

There's certainly been no lack of W/SW winds down here, as I've been having an oppressively dull month too. There's been about two days I could properly call "sunny"; the rest have been dominated by overcast conditions. Even today has turned into a cloudfest despite the promising forecast, with the sun quickly disappearing about midday. I wouldn't bet against getting at least one of the dullest Octobers on record, as there's no sign of anything remotely sunny on the horizon. It's all courtesy of this very sluggish weather pattern we're stuck in. A proper zonal setup would deliver a fair bit of rain but we'd also get some sunshine in-between. By the way your posts make me laugh. Keep them coming.

I find that strange. 35 miles down the road and there are leaves all over the place.

I'm not far from St Helens and everyone I've ever spoken to who remembers 62/63 said it was very bad indeed, with snow on the ground from late December through to March and drifts still visible in April. It might be that other parts of the country had it even worse, but I'm sure it was still very snowy.

I don't know about the past, but today certain countries have low life expectancies mainly due to high infant mortality rates. Basically if you survive childhood you stand a good chance of living to an old age. If we have the coldest winter in history it will be awful - you'll never hear the last of James Madden.

A bit weird to say that following the coldest CET spring since 1891. Winter really dragged its heels this year.

The 3rd January 1987 one is very interesting. Frosts would have been like buses that month.

As far as I'm concerned October is a month to be endured rather than enjoyed, as both proper warmth and proper cold are rare at this time of year. I'll have to wait at least another month until I can start to get excited at wintry charts, and even then they'll still have to be very unusual. I do find the prospect of deep autumnal lows interesting, but they're as far away as they can be at the moment.

Usually November, but sometimes in October.

Looking at the figures, the UK actually does better with record highs than record lows. Nine other countries in Europe have a lower all-time maximum, whereas only three European countries have higher all-time minima (Malta, Portugal and Ireland).

You're right about the Polish figure - 40.2C recorded at Prószków in western Poland on 29th July 1921, which at the time was the town of Proskau in eastern Germany. In Germany itself however, 40.2C has been recorded no less than four times - once in July 1983, twice in August 2003 and again in July this year. It's just one of those statistical quirks, like the fact the UK's record minimum of -27.2C has been recorded on three separate occasions (and across three different months). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_weather_records#Highest_temperatures_ever_recorded

Personally I hope the Atlantic does a Sleeping Beauty and doesn't wake up for 100 years.

10.8

laserguy hates sunny weather yet found Wednesday's dullness to be grim, so I joked that it wasn't really him sitting behind the computer.

The joke clearly went over your head. Unless you're making a joke which has gone over my head.

You think it's pretty grim? Who are you and why have you hacked into laserguy's account?

Dullsville. The sun was out this morning but it promptly went in to be replaced by the worst kind of overcast gloom - dull but not quite murky enough to be atmospheric (like mist and fog). I'm surprised these clouds aren't producing rain to be honest. I'm missing Provence already.

But that's only true in otherwise identical weather conditions. What usually entails is that synoptics are more favourable for significant cold in the second half of winter due to the time lag effect I described a little earlier. February might have stronger sun than November but it's easily the snowier of the two months, and I'm sure mid-March is snowier than mid-November.

I spent last Christmas in tropical Cairns. It was surreal watching an outdoor concert of Christmas carols one night when it was still about 30C with the smell of barbecues in the air.

You'd have thought this sun-too-strong-in-February claptrap had finally been put to bed following what happened last winter, but old habits die hard I suppose. Look at how cold March was, and more especially the second half: the strength of sun at the time was pretty much the same as it is now. Yes the level of cold and snow was highly unusual for late March but it wouldn't have been too out of the ordinary in February. The sun may be at its weakest in December but the landmasses are still cooling because there's a lag time between when the sun's rays start to get stronger and when the atmosphere responds to this (similar to the lag between the summer solstice in June and the land heating up to make July and August warmer months on average). One thing in December's favour is that when cold and snow does take hold it is helped on by the shorter nights; the point is that cold and snow is more likely to take hold after Christmas than before it. Funnily enough December was the coldest winter month during that unusually warm period from about 1988 to about 2008, but that was due to January and February being particulary mild rather than December being particularly cold. The long-term averages show that December is normally the mildest of the three winter months. I do prefer the cold stuff in December though. It perfectly complements the long nights and festive atmosphere.