Timmytour

All this talk of a winter on a par with 1978/9 is overcooking the optimism a little isn't it? I mean let's not forget that preceding that winter there was a cold and wet July and August.... and also a Hurricane named Flossie.... Come On the Snow!! :lol:

Mr Data's stuff is terrific... can I add my thanks to those previously submitted. One thing I've picked up on from the years listed as the Wettest summers on record (June-August) The period of 49 years between this year and the previous year on the list is by far and away the biggest gap between the "wet summers" listed. In fact taken from 1958, the last "wet summer" any previous period of 49 years included at least FOUR such summers and in the equivalent period up until the 1860 summer there were TEN such periods. All of which leads me to conclude that those associating this particular wet summer with Global Warming seem pretty far off the mark. On this basis it is surely making British summers drier and we have got the summer we are having DESPITE global warming, not because of it.

Very early on, page 1 in fact, I posted the following in response to the title of this thread.. Not, I will admit, the most stunning prediction ever made. Nonetheless I would say that, having arrived in Devon on the evening of 28th July in the pouring rain for the first part of a two week holiday in the South West, (one week Devon, one week Cornwall), we then had two weeks of pretty decent weather. There was only one day, towards the end of the first week, when one of our "rain contingent plans" was put into operation, and even then, as we came out of the cinema in the afternoon after watching Shrek 3, we were greeted with warm sunshine under blue skies. I have managed to return with a decent tan, which no doubt would have been better had I not roasted myself on the first day in the belief that I neded to soak up the sun while it was on offer! I've been to Cornwall with the family four times now, previously in 2002,2003 and 2004. And while what we've just experienced fell short of the previous heatwaves that accompanied, I feel sure that in the minds of my kids, looking back on the photos and videos of their holiday in the summer of 2007, they'll recall it as being a very pleasant summer!

judging by this year, neither are June and July

You were very harsh to quote him. Magpie is one of the few that I have seen suggest well in advance the summer could be what it has been... I give you.... Summer 2007 thoughts I'd ignore his feelings though and rely on his suppositions! Sorry Magpie...just bantering :o

What wouldn't other areas of the country give for that spirit right now <_< Bombs or floods...londoners just carry on going,,,unlike everybody else in the world who would totally freak out :o mmm..or am I taking this whole media approach just a tad too far :lol:

Next year..when the water companies reintroduce hosepipe bans, we'll be wondering what the hell they did with this once in a lifetime opportunity to stock up with surplus supplies

The big problem must be the upcoming winter period. How many times are concerns about potential water shortages expressed in terms of how low the water table is coming out of winter. That's how it was going into last summer. Well now it looks like within a year, the twinkling of an eye in terms of time in general, the concern might be how high the table is coming out of summer. Would this be a justified concern. In other words that it might not take much more than a slightly wetter than average winter to push us over the top?

28th July. Heatwave conditions start to spread from the south west to all areas of the country. Great news for anyone who's booked up a holiday in Cornwall at that time. Coincidentally...... <_<

With the models keeping the depression out in the Atlantic as intense as ever, does this increase the volatility of the path, north or south, it might take? I seem to recall in the in the dim and distant past watching many such depressions that promised temporary blizzards on the BBC weather (days of pressure charts and Fish), only to see them swing too far south at the last moment. At the moment I presume a sudden southerly shift in the track would suit southern parts for snow...or would it be rain anyway? I do remember, however, a glorious occasion in the 70s, on the last day of the Easter holidays when a forecast of heavy rain suddenly became 5 inches of snow with Herfordshire getting mentions on the news for how badly it was hit. Joy unbounded I think, but am far from certain, that the set up was not too dissimiliar to what it is now, though being later in the year the ensuing thaw was pretty rapid. Is there any hope at all in having something similar occur? Or do I sound like I am, fed up that I'm in Zurich in drizzly mild nothing while missing out on the biggest snow event in Broxbourne for absolutely donkey's years, and certainly since my kids were born

Here in mild drizzly Zurich I've had the call from back home that the snow is up around the cats belly and the kids school has been closed. Also got asked where the plastic sledge was was we bought a few years ago....a hard one to answer but I think I put it to some useful purpose buried deep within all the stuff in the garage It's great to finally have a decent snowfall and the first time my eight year old daughter has seen any of real significance. But I'm guuted not to be there and can't get over the fact that there's been more snow in Broxbourne this winter then there has in Zurich....just when I happen to be working in the latter So what I want to know is....will the snow still be there when I get back tomorrow afternoon. And will the weather pose any threat to the school's Valentine Disco tomorrow for which I am the DJ ?

Typical. I start working in Zurich, flying back at the weekends, thinking I'll see plenty of snow for a change this winter......... And with this latest forecast for the UK the score tomorrow of settling snowfalls will be Zurich 1 v 2 Broxbourne :lol: No doubt it will all be gone by the time I get back on friday evening and I will still won't have had the opportunity of buiding a decent size snowman with my kids The wife and kids are coming out here next week instead of me going back home. Now I'm worried that I'm taking them away from the snow when the idea was to come here to get some :lol:

Many thanks John...it's gone straight into my favourites

Isn't the 10th the day the forum's man in the spirit world forecast a major weather event? Quickly changing the subject, it's amazing to see that once again a forecast of snow is apparently going breasts up. Why does it so often happen and hardly ever happen the other way around? I didn't think I'd care so much this winter. I'm working in Zurich during the week but I've only see it snow on one day so far....same as it snowy Herts . It was a bit more and stuck around for a week mind, but now it's back to mild mush, albeit it was trying to snow this morning. I bought myself a nice new red ski jacket as well but have only had two days of feeling justified in wearing it. From what I can make of the models the outlook for me in Zurich looks bleakly mild, but if a more northerly track is now on the cards for the UK, would this ultimately make it better for Zurich?

Is there a hurricane heading our way for the weekend That's look a pretty nasty depression in the Atlantic...

There has to be a reason why the most recent "successful prediction" listed on the weatheraction website is... I wonder why that might be

Piers Corbyn strikes me as being the natural successor of Bil "the crabbs are walking sideways on the beach" Foggit. Foggit was completely hopeless and wrong every year except for the one year in 20 when his regular forecast of extreme weather could not fail to be matched. Ignoring his constant failures the press duly christened him with the title "renowned amateur forecaster", and would duly report on his every word at the merest hint of extreme weather, but never conduct a post season analysis of it.

It's been dry this winter. And, as has been pointed out, pretty cool and windless. Had it been mild and windy, the effect of such a dry winter would have been a lot more dramatic I suspect. A rare combination 'tis true, but not impossible. So I guess we should be grateful for small mercies. As for me, this winter has bought one depressing re-occuring theme. Snow "alerts" which turn out either to miss us completely, disappear before they reach us, fall as rain rather than snow, or, if we are lucky, give us a dusting where we hoped for a pasting. I have a daughter of seven who has never seen a snowfall where talk of inches becomes appropriate. Where snow has been piled up by the wind and takes a day longer to thaw then the rest. Where you can build a snowman without exposing the grass around it! And yet in all that time the risks, the chances, the promises and indeed the warnings of moderate snowfalls have been there. They've just never materialised. It's an uncanny run. I believe the chances of calling heads or tails directly 20 times in a row are getting on for a million to one. Well, I'm thinking of all the times over the last ten years there's been a forecast giving us a reasonable chance of a snowfall producing a covering of two inches or more. And I'm thinking that we've been at the wrong end of a one in a million occurrence Is it global warming, or forecasting made worse by technology? I don't know. But it's depressing. And debilitating. And I wish to God I could stop raising my hopes every time because in spite of myself I get excited and I get the kids excited.....and then I'm a bad father and am made to feel even worse than I would by myself! Please...let next winter be one that makes up for the last umpteen years. But for now.....roll on spring roll on summer and roll on thunderstorms. Winter 2005/6..I've finally given up on you!

I'm pleased to see a good few frosts this year, especially as they improve the quality of the brussel sprouts, my favourite vegetable There's been a lot of unfulfilled optimism about this winter to date, but to be hoest I'd take that any day over those winters where its wet and 10C and you know it's not worth looking at the weather forecast for the next week. The promise of a good cold snowy spell has never been too far away, even if the promises have never delivered. And he optimism remains. However For all the hopes that I have for February, I've seen on a couple of runs certain scenarios which suggest that there could be a couple of extremely mild days, even warm, with the threat of getting a cover of sand rather than snow.

I started working in the city of London as a messenger in 1981 (that's all poor A level results would get you then!) and was told that snow "never settles in the city". Well it did that year! I remember it snowing on the 8th December and melting on Boxing Day, only to come again on the 2nd January and hang about for a few weeks. The initial snowfalls were good decent ones, but I can't recollect any further substantial ones on either occasion before the thaws came.

Tropical Storm Zeta formed at the end of December to complete a very busy Atlantic hurricane season. Not since December 1954 has a tropical storm developed so late. Which got me thinking. If there was some similarity between the hurricane seasons for 1954 and 2005, could that also extend to a comparison betweeen the winters of 1954/5 and 2005/6? Well, to be honest November and December 1954 were notable for wind and rain events and not, as far as I can tell, similar. But January 1955 caught my eye... January. There was prolonged snow on the 4th; 15 cm in London was the heaviest fall there since 1947. There was more snow on the 13th, after an intervening mild spell. The 16th was a very interesting day: there was a blizzard over Lancs. and Yorks., with many snow showers over Scotland. "Operation Snowdrop" was instigated to provide air relief to cut off villages in the far north. Eskdalemuir had continuous frost from the 10th to the 15th. Snow also fell in London on the 16th, accompanied by "daytime darkness" which happened suddenly at 1.15 pm. It was perhaps precipitated by pollution interacting with the approaching cold front, as a SE wind carried polluted air to the Chilterns, where it became trapped beneath the warm air; when the wind changed to the NW, the polluted air was carried back again. A layer of polluted air 4000' thick quickly cut out virtually all daylight. From the 22nd the weather turned milder, for a while, until early February. Now that would do me! And from what I've read on the forum, it seems to correspond with what some think might transpire. As the winter went on to be the coldest and snowiest between the very severe winters of 1947 and 1963, and also included London snowfall in May, it would indeed be a lovely dream to think that a late forming hurricane had something to do with all this? Any other theories on the possibilities of this winter resembling others?