March Blizzard

Only sticking on cars here so far...

Same here.

I was with family in Childwall yesterday and there was a mighty hail shower at around 3pm. Looked to have been a lot more precipitation in Liverpool compared to back home.

Another day, more rain. I wonder how many that is on the bounce now?

As the days grow longer, the cold gets stronger. Well, hopefully!

No to all...

Roger's list is a reminder of how potentially cold January is - it's quite amazing that the coldest December wouldn't even crack the top dozen coldest Januaries. I'm going to hang on submitting my entry, but it's nice to think that the peak of winter is yet to come.

A completely dry day will do me, preferably a sub zero, wall-to-wall sunshine one. Starting to get naffed off with the rain now, especially working outdoors.

Yeah. It just dawned on me before - the persistence of the rain if not the quantity. Saying that, it's been pretty wet here the past week especially. Lots of flooded drains and standing water about. I reckon you'll have had more rain than round here due to your location, but I bet not many places (if any) in the NW have had a single dry day.

Anyone near to me (Stockport) confirm or deny my suspicions that it has rained at least at some point every day this month? This December seems to have been so changeable that even bright, frosty mornings have given way to showers/rain later in the day. Lost count on the amount of times I've got wet in work this month after hearing "It will be largely dry today" on the morning forecast. Has it been surprisingly wet in our neck of the woods? Or am I exaggerating?

That figure for the 18th is looking highly improbable. Although I'm at the extreme northern end of the CET zone the forecast high is 12C, so where a daily mean of 13C comes from I don't know. It surely can't be that much warmer further south, can it? A very mild day, no doubt, but I'll eat my hat if it's as warm as the 12z GFS parallel suggests.

Knocker is confused, he must think we are talking about our favourite temperatures...

Earlier on I saw a brief rain/snow mix, then a 5 minute period of light/moderate wet snow, back again to rain/snow mix for a while, and that was that.

I've just bought an LG tele, does that count? As someone who works outdoors lying snow can be and is a pain in the backside for me, although I do appreciate it's aesthetic value.

I'd say around a 4 or 5. Not really a snow man, more of a pipe-bursting, frost man. Love that deep cold feeling. I can live happily without snow and ice days so long as the evenings, nights and mornings are comfortably sub-zero, although I certainly wouldn't say no to a raging blizzard.

No worries. You are right, though. Western Ireland (in particular) is hideously mild for it's latitude (check out Valentia Island!), and on the whole is worse for wintry conditions than most of the UK. Apparently Rost in Norway (as pointed out by Cheese) is the mildest place on earth for it's latitude. I guess all our points are valid to a degree, it's just a case of arguing how "wintry" a place is based on different opinions and parameters. Anyway, joint latest sunset here (15:49) until the 17th, when we gain a minute in the evening. Latest sunrise not until Christmas day (08:25) and we stay on that until January 4th, when we slowly start to gain light in the morning again.

Actually, no, I didn't mean Ireland, that's why I didn't mention it. The UK extends much further north than Ireland and therefore is probably the most "snowless" location in the world for such a high latitude. Anyway, we're going off topic here. Thanks for your concern, though.

Not sure about that. It seems a struggle to get winter means above freezing above around 63N, even on the coast. Trondheim, at 63N, averages slightly under 0C Dec-Feb. Further up north Narvik averages a few degrees below freezing and further north still Tromso and Hammerfest average 4/5C below zero. Rainy Bergen, at 60N, is surprisingly cool (1/2C) considering it's coastal position and relatively low latitude.I'd say the UK is possibly the most northerly country in the world that can go an entire winter without much/any wintry precipitation/temperatures, at least at low altitudes. Other relatively mild locations further north I.e coastal Iceland and Norway, Faroe Islands etc routinely see sleet/snow in the winter months, even if many places there average above 0C in the winter. On the flip side trees don't grow above 53N in parts of Labrador, Canada. The same latitude as Manchester. Shows the influence of a cold current vs a warm one.

I must have missed that January event, which isn't surprising as it was a very odd month here. Everywhere else in the area, other than Stockport, seemed to get decent falls of snow. We managed about an inch at best for the whole month. I remember reading reports of snowfall North, South, East and West of here frequently without me seeing a flake.

Was that in February last year, Scott? I saw thundersnow for the first time (to the best of my knowledge) then, came down thick and very fast.

I went from winning the comp last year to finishing 49th this year. That's some drop... Last minute entries last year clearly was the way to go. The change in tactics to early entries clearly didn't pay off. Must do better.

I guess I'm strange in that I tend to get kind of attached to the amount of daylight in each season. I begin to love the short days in winter and long days in summer as they become established, and in a way I am sad to see them go. I maybe unique In that the realisation of a turning point on the solstices is accompanied by slight disappointment, regardless of whether it's December 21 or June 21.

Tell me about it! Saw the lightning and didn't think about the inevitable hailstorm and horrendous driving conditions on the way for my (thankfully) short journey home!

I'll go for 5.3C. The stubborn mildness of 2014 to see the year out.

Put me down for 5.9C, please.