Peter H

Exactly Carl. Accu extended weather forecasts go right up until the end January now and there's nothing remotely cold on the horizon. Once you get past about mid February you can basically forget about it as the sun's far too strong at that stage. February really is an early spring month now, in my opinion.

As usual, what looked interesting last night has disappeared this morning. I think we're going to have to face up to the fact that all the "winter" forecasts are pretty much badly wrong this year. Certainly, December has not turned out anything like what was predicted.

Yes, people keep talking about summer 1976, but for Northern Ireland summer 1975 was much better. Also, summer 1995 was quite exceptional and we had quite a good wither that year (1995/96), even a white Christmas (snow fell on Christmas day here. 1978/79 was great, and a mere four years after the exceptionally mild 1974/75. Another cold winter was 1968/69. There was a snow event just before Christmas that year, but January was exceptionally cold and snowy. They reckon the cold winters in the early 80's were all due to the Mt St. Helen's eruption, or so they say. Interestingly December 2010 followed the Icelandic volcano affair so that could make sense. The winter of 1981/82 stands out as the best one of the 1980's. Some interesting charts at the end of the model runs with really cold air digging in over Scandinavia. Simon Keeling did hint at "something afoot" in the new year, so you never know, and the winter of 1947 didn't start until the last week in January (my dad tells me about that one). Still, I'm not really optimistic that anything will change from what we have now.

My fantasy winter would be a repeat of the following: 1962/63 1978/79 1981/82 Mike Tullet's summary of the 1962/63 winter makes for some interesting reading. The synoptic charts are good too. Oh for a winter like that one again: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/mtullett/1962-63/

M y grass needs cut it's that mild.

Who's up for a colder Atlantic returning in June ?

White Christmas 2015 ? Absolutely no chance. I'd put money on it

14C today and grass actually needs cut again. Dreadful weather. Much of this December has been warmer than a majority of last June. What the hell happened to the "colder Atalntic" ????? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

If this keeps up until the end of the month and there's no reason why it shouldn't according to the models, then something above 9.0 is surely a possibility. What's the record high CET for December ?

I wish I could go and live somewhere in northern Canada, Warm dry summers, and long bitterly cold snowy winters. every year. Winnipeg, Calgary, or Edmonton would be nice. None of this endless mild, cloud and drizzle and well away from this b***$£ jet stream.

I was born in the 50's and remember the winters of the 1960's. It was unheard of to have a winter without at least one or more significant snow events, and that was outside of 1962/63. Snowless winters were unheard of. I doubt January and February will be any different to December. Wishful thinking I'm afraid.

Even Simon Keeling has given up on any cold weather before the end of December, so things must be bad. http://www.weatherweb.net/wxwebtv2.php One of the mildest Decembers on record ? I saw something on the news yesterday about daffodils in bloom in the south of England.

Last June was absolutely freezing before we went on holiday, due to the "colder Atlantic". August was pretty cool too for the same reason Funny how the "colder Atlantic" influence has completely dissipated now we're into December, which is pretty typical.

Well, we had a wee skiff of snow here on Thursday evening and Friday and yesterday were cool with some snow up over the hills, but nothing really to write home about. Today has turned wet and drizzley and the rest of the week is forecast to be exceptionally mild. In fact, the run up to Christmas and beyond looks pretty much awful. With December being a right off now, this winter is shaping up to be yet another mild snowless stinker. I would speculate this December's CET will end up pretty high.

I think we can pretty much right December off as a disaster. Yet another mild and wet one. I'm really getting bad vibes about this winter before it's even started. Accu weather's extended forecast goes right up to the middle of January now and nothing remotely cold on the horizon up until then.

As suspected, the Scandinavian high at the end of the runs last night has flip flopped back to a Bartlett high this morning with the dreaded south Westerly again. Looks like December is picking up where November left off. Very mild, wet, and windy with little or no frost or snow. I'm getting bad vibes about this coming winter

Notice the latest models have the Scandinavian high back again at the end of the period, with very cold air to the east, but it'll probably flip flop back again in the morning.

I hate to put a dampener on things, but I just hope it's a bit more accurate than the 2014/15 forecast which predicted a "cold hearted" winter. Nothing could be further from the truth as it was mostly mild and snowless. A couple of weeks of severe cold in January would be OK despite a milder than normal February, and stormy, mild, and wet December.

Noticed the models were flip flopping about last night/today. Hints last night of a Scandinavian high trying to build at the end of the run but all back to the usual today. Most of Europe appears to be firmly stuck in this mild weather as well.

There's far more chance of getting snow in March/April in these parts than the so called winter months, but at that stage the sun;s far too strong for anything to settle to any great extent. What I'd give for a 1978/79 or 1981/82 scenario. The only one that's come anyway close was 2009/10. December 2010 was exceptional, but the winter of 2010/11 ended abruptly on Boxing day and there was no snow and little frost after that. . In this locality, we really haven't had any appreciable lying snow since December 2010.

The accu extended weather forecast now takes us up to the 8th January, almost the halfway stage of the winter and they've nothing remotely cold between now and then for this part of the UK (Co. Antrim.). OK, so that's a long way off, but the Met Office extended forecast is pretty much the same up until the 23rd December. The month as a whole is beginning to look like the usual wet. windy, and mild "winter" weather that we've become used to in recent years. Weather online is a bit more optimistic for the end of December: http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-app/reports?MENU=Month-ahead and December and January as a whole: http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-app/reports?MENU=Seasonal-outlook but neither the BBC nor the UK Met Office are picking up on this. I'm getting that dreaded feeling this one is going to be another snow/frostless stinker.

He's been doing that for how long now ? If we wait long enough he's bound to get it right at some stage.

Yep, same at this end. Back to the same old and absolutely nothing remotely cold for the next two weeks according to the models. Looks pretty much like a Bartlett set up to me. Frustrating when we had so many set ups in late spring/early summer that would have resulted in seriously cold weather at this time of year. I know it's not officially winter yet, but December is only a few weeks away now. Once the patterns get into a rut like this it's going to be very, very, hard to shift, if past experiences are anything to go by. I think it starting to look like yet another very mild, wet, windy and snowless winter with little or no frost. Incredibly mild here today. Don't think I ever remember temperatures of 17C at this time of year, ever.

Same here in Co. Antrim Temperature was 17C earlier. never known it to be so mild in the middle of November.

Oh for a winter like 78/79, or 81/82, please. I hate this weather.