cheese

April 2013 was sunnier and drier than average at least, even though it was chilly (the entire first week of the month had lows below freezing here). May 2013 sucked however - wet, cool and not particularly sunny. A repeat of 2003 would be very good. Pretty much the entire April-October period that year was good or even great (October was cooler than average but very sunny and dry).

Snowing lightly here too

Might also be because these low temps are usually very isolated to the usual frost hollows, the rest of us will have comparatively unremarkable temperatures.

I don't think winters are any snowier either. Even during mild winters we get a covering of snow at some point, there's nothing odd about that. Bearing in mind that a normal winter here used to have 10-15 days of lying snow, and very few winters in the past 25 years have managed that - 2009/10, 2010/11, 2012/13 and 2017/18 are probably the only ones. 2013/14 had no lying snow at all.

True enough regarding June 2023, that obviously sets last summer apart from 2007 and 2012. July 2023's exceptional rainfall is kind of hard to ignore though. It was the wettest summer month on record for NW England with widespread areas of 200mm+, and quite a few stations reporting 300mm+. As wet as 2007 and 2012 were, they weren't quite that wet! July 2012 was worse than July 2023 in terms of temperature, but July 2012 wasn't as wet.

A low of -6.0C this morning, which doesn't beat our low of -6.3C back in December.

It's not impossible in the same way a repeat of 1962/63 isn't impossible - but the chances are extremely low. The baseline is higher these days so getting an entire summer that's wet and cold is increasingly unlikely. Even the summers of 2007 and 2012 were only average compared to the 1961-1990 averages.

2023 was kind of our 2007/2012 repeat imo, at least in terms of exceptional rainfall. At least up north July 2023 was right up there with June 2007 and June 2012 (I know July 2007 was the wetter month down south). And it's interesting that 2007, 2012 and 2023 all saw the weather improve significantly in August after very poor Julys.

More fool anyone wasting their time chasing cold/snowy weather in this country tbh. Getting a plane to Sweden is probably a better idea! Agreed, hate the wind. A huge tree on my road came down last time, almost destroying a house, blocking off the road and destroying an old stone wall. The wind can bugger off.

Temperature has stabilised at -1C here. Maybe an ice day? Would be impressive under full sun.

Only at 85m asl so would probably be rain/sleet anyway

Bone dry here

Very cold conditions have swept over Scandinavia and the Baltic states again today with maximum temperatures of -11C in Tallinn, -12C in Stockholm and -15C in Helsinki. Expect further ice increases in the Baltic.

Aye, I don’t think a 1963 is possible anymore.

I'd be fine with a cold, snowy February - but that's unlikely, and I'd rather have a very warm and sunny February than a boring average February.

I'll take a repeat of Feb 2019 please and thank you

Looking forward to spring tbh

The 60s to 80s period was indeed quite cold and snowy compared to the periods before and after - not just in the UK but Europe in general. I suspect many people alive today grew up during that period and consequently have the expectation that our winters should be colder and snowier than they actually are. Even the summers during that period were cool. I was born in 1987 so also grew up in the 90s and I don’t remember much snow then either (1991 and 1995 stand out but I was a bit too young to remember 1991) , and the 2000s were poor too. It wasn’t until 2009 that we finally got a taste of proper winter.

Jan 1987 was cold and very dry for much of the country away from the SE too.

And in the southern part of northern England (Yorkshire/Cheshire etc) and probably much of the Midlands, we still get both. Leeds usually joins in with summer heatwaves (we reached 35C in 2019, 34C in 2020, 31C in 2021, 40C in 2022, 30C in 2023 etc), but we are also one of the snowiest cities in the UK (which isn’t saying much).

Yeah. I’ve been pretty satisfied with our summers since 2013. Only 2023 stands out as being particularly rubbish.

It can produce some very good sea effect snow occasionally though, just needs a cold enough air mass. Feb/March 2018 had brilliant sea effect snow. This radar image was from February 28th 2018. Heavy snow showers all day. Low visibility and drifting.

No, they’re not.

I agree with this. I really dislike front-loaded summers and would have preferred June’s weather in July. That September heatwave would have been much hotter if it occurred in August instead.

I’d probably agree if our winters weren’t so depressing and useless. Since proper winter conditions are increasingly rare, I’d rather have spring-like weather instead.