Froze were the Days

Absolutely hammering down here with some hail, and the rainfall total keeps going up!

I know this is tongue in cheek I wonder how many days we will see in the entire upcoming winter with Precipitation coming from that direction? my bet is now many.

True!...I was thinking the same thing when I watched the 1.30pm lunchtime weather today. Rule of thumb never put too much trust in positioning of rainfall graphics particularly when it's not Atlantic oriented. Fairly abhorrent out there today and cold, not at all surprised how it's gone from dry to wet in a week or so. Approximately 75mm of rain here so far this month.

October by U2 (1981) beat that!

Exactly...the winter of 2018/19 was generally a case in point, though some parts of southern England got some snow at the end of January it was generally disappointing considering the seasonal models/ECM and MetO updates.

Sorry mate maybe it's the way I've typed it...I'm talking about an anomaly of 1.0c below the CET series that the MetO uses (for a winter month) not a sub -1.0c month - yes agree for that not to happen over a decade is not abnormal at all.

No evidence whatsoever that grand solar minimum period will override GW and have any impacts...only time will tell.

Exactly!...we've seen 'potential' a couple of times over the last few Autumns leading into Winter for it all to go AWOL, going by the CET series that the MetO uses (1961-90) for anomalies I always think now days in these times of Global Warming (the last 6/7 years) if we have 1 or 2 (consecutively) monthly CET's anywhere below normal then you can almost right off the next couple or so months if you're looking for cold. Let's not forget this...nearly a decade since we had a sub -1c CET Winter month (1961-90 series)...and that was Dec 2010, since then nada! this fact gets lost by some on this website.

Could have been referring to the mid-January 1985 blizzard that was to come which was all over the news and John Cravern's Newsround (even in those days)...snow had already fallen earlier in the month and the weather was still fairly cold. The low pressure that was to deliver to most central and southern parts of England (up to 10 inches was expected) dived further south and went into northern France and not a flake fell - big bust by the MetO.

About as poor a 72 hour window of weather as I can remember...haven't measured the rainfall here but must be exceeding 50mm.

Just looking at the radar and I don't think I've ever seen the UK bathed in rainfall from top to bottom as at the moment, currently (today) the south east has been relatively dry. Sign of the times...glum season in full swing!

Started intermittently raining at 10pm here last night and hasn't stopped since 7am...truly dire.

I don't think so (biggest risk in these set ups in winter with LP just to the south rather than heading north east to our east on the continent) would have been towards Wales and the South West for wintryness, here in the south east probably too much mixing of milder air coming up from the continent as cyclonic in nature but would probably still be pretty cold...guess work though. Ideally you need cold continental anticyclonic air in place with low pressure pushing into it for a snow making machine.

Dreadful weather, moderate to heavy rain here for some considerable time, not much wind though and 13.3c.

Well yes I was talking about my location on the Essex Coast and occasionally in that month we did have the less cold day country wide where as February 86 it never got above 4 c where I lived...CET wise Feb 86 was colder but less snowier.

Not in terms of cold though...February 1986 was colder, I only recorded a max temperature of near 4c that entire month whilst Dec 2010's warmest day was 8c on the 11th.

But wishing 'a dream come true 20c in January' !?! certainly would be a beacon to the looming catastrophe just around the corner...yes we've had heady maximums (and minimums) before which have occasionally sprung up in our winters but on top of what we've experienced over the last 6 or 7 winters is the last thing I'll be wishing for.

Looking at the latest ECM...shows nothing other than low pressure over or near the country. So that spells rain, rain, rain and some windy spells - welcome to the glum season!

I don't think 2018/19 was forecast to be (certainly by the MetO and other seasonal models)...but we know that was generally disappointing.

Yeah sorry...agree, pretty woeful. Infact the last couple of days have been more akin to late November. Only a week or so ago 25c quite widely in the south east!

Certainly gone from Summer to late Autumn quickly in the region, we'll probably find that this period feels colder than at Xmas.

Well that's written that period off for any cold stuff...

Terrible September?...well Cambridge isn't too far from the south east corner of the country (if not in it) and until the last few days September has been good, dry and certainly warm, so terrible?

Some great analysis from SqueakheartLW...would some of these figures particularly the La Nina's be skewed by winters i.e pre mid-1990's as a number are based 40/50 years ago and are the CET's based on what series? Global Warming has changed many facets / teleconnections that we used to rely on.

It dissipates often here on the Essex coast particularly in summer and when the wind is in the west (which it largely has been this summer)...I would say not once this summer have I experienced heavy rain (moderate rain in a thunder storm/shower and quite often just light rain even in more unsettled spells). I am in one of the driest areas in the entire UK though, as for folks in Sussex I think there are micro-climates all along the coastline due to the topography (I remember a poster from Dorset who posts regularly saying the same thing). Another day here breaching 20c - warm, sunny and not surprisingly still dry.