Danielvn

Were you out of the UK from December 2013-Feb 2014? We had shedloads of wind (I live on the North Wales coast) and people living on the coast were constantly subject to flood warnings. At the end of 2012 we had severe flooding in St Asaph. So from my point of view the weather has been quite violent over the last couple of years. A simple explanation for the telephone wires not screaming anymore is that you might have moved somewhere where the telephone wires are more sheltered by trees, buildings or terrain. It could be that trees have grown and sheltered the wires if you live in the same place. It could be that a small change in direction means that the wires are in the shadow of a building. Either way the sound that telephone wires make in one street is not really the most reliable of observations. People's hearing also deteriorates as they get older. All the evidence would appear to point towards weather actually getting more violent in the UK. That railway line at Dawlish has stood there for rather a long time and it got smashed to bits last year. The flooding on the Somerset levels was hardly gentle weather either. Everyone has their favourite sort of weather, I like snow in the winter, crisp dry spings, cool summers with rain and the odd clear day with temps in the low 20's and Autumn's that are cool with a bit of wind. Sadly it's very seldom that I get my sort of weather all year round. If you find the weather here boring then you should move to where I grew up which is Perth in Western Australia. In the summer it's just varying degrees of the same thing and how baked you get depends on whether the trough is off the coast or inland and because it's such a big landmass with no real mountain ranges, the weather is boringly consistent. IMHO we're blood lucky in the UK to have such changeable and interesting weather with the potential for a bit of everything.

It would be nice if you'd try and respect others than make out that their opinions are a joke. Thanks

The phrase "hardly asking for much really" almost sounds like you think we deserve cold snowy weather or something. The thing we should all realise is that the weather will do whatever it does and that's that. As for "we might as well be in the tropics otherwise"..... have you ever been to the tropics? For a good chunk of the year you'll have boring rain EVERY afternoon.

Exactly. People are confusing the "average" with what is likely to happen most years. Statistically speaking a snowless winter is probably more likely for a lot of people than a winter with 5 days of lying snow.

Carl, we had lying snow in Prestatyn and there was a fair bit on the Denbigh moors on Boxing day and I think it probably lasted a while. Jump in your car and you'll easily find some snow.

Not really. I've only lived in the UK for 8.5 years and in that time I would say I've only had 3 snowy winters where I've lived (Prestatyn, North Wales) and only 1 of those was 2012/2013 where we were lucky and it was severe but only stuck around for a little while the couple of times it snowed. I think people need to align their expectations with what is normal in the UK and winters like 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 are very much NOT the norm. I looooove the snow and watch the charts as much as the next person, but if you go into every winter hoping for a severe winter and half expecting it then you're going to be disappointed 9/10 times.

The problem also seems that people cherry pock the models that give them what they want to.

Because it's a big continental mass and the fact that you've not got 5 different air masses trying to fight for supremacy. Polar, Polar Maritime, Tropical Maritime, Polar Continental and Tropical Continental. So many different forces at work make for variable and unpredictable weather. I'm originally from Perth in Western Australia and the weather forecasting there is far easier and very seldom wrong.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this not a snow RISK map rather than how much snow? Obviously common sense dictates that you're probably more likely to get more snow where there's higher risk, but it could also mean just a flake or two.

It's a brave person that takes charts as fact 10 days out

Meh! I'm going to buy two subscriptions while they're still cheap!

I work in Deeside and we've had loads of ice pellets and a fair bit of sleet. We're only 12 days into December, still got January and February to go yet!!!!!!

I think you've got the end of January wrong but otherwise I think you're spot on!