Frost HoIIow

And this too Crewe. Got to 14C on Xmas day here. Certainly didn't feel "seasonal" Whilst the previous year couldn't have been any different with snow on the ground.

Even with solar minimum it could mean jack if everything else doesn't become favourable for cold. Solar minimum is just one piece of the puzzle. There's still a lot we don't know in terms of the more complex dynamics to getting cold to this country in the first place. Even a SSW doesn't guarantee cold to our shores. I think it's just a case of if it will it will & if it won't it won't. Given the climate of this country it's more likely to be mild than cold. If you put a bet on a mild Winter you'd win more often than not. That's what happens when we live on an island at the western fringe of a major continent where the prevailing wind is from the west rather than the east. If like me you like cold and snow rather than mild damp rubbish then it's probably best to keep our hopes low. It does save a frustrating 5 months running for the dangling carrot.

Looks like your making up for the prolonged dry spell you had!

About 3 inches on 30th October 2000. I believe the Pennines got more than 6 inches.

Indeed. We had snow cover at the end of Oct 2000 as well. So give or take it's roughly a once in ten years event to get snow cover in October around here.

Another air frost this morning with a low of -0.7C so ever so slightly milder than last night. Sometimes I've had to wait until November for the first air frost if we've had persistent mild weather but already now had two on the bounce.

Already down to 1.6C here. If the sky remains sufficiently clear all night then it should beat this morning's low of -0.8C.

First air frost of the Autumn here. -0.8C was the low. Rostherne the nearest official station (but still a long way from here) got down to 2C.

Not surprised at all. Early this morning the river Medlock around here burst it's bank next to Daisy Nook Garden Centre. Oldham council were there pumping the water away so had to turn back around. Road over it is open now though. Won't be tomorrow after tonight's deluge.

Yes I'm still wearing shorts. Too mild & muggy at the moment for jeans or trousers - I just end up sweating a bit. Yet I start to get funny looks wearing shorts at this time of year. Seen someone today wearing a wooly hat! And quite a few with warm Winter coats on. Not sure why it's hardly single figure temps all day.

I'd like to experience the polar night with it's 24/7 darkness even if it's for just one Winter Places like Tromsø in Norway & Murmansk have it. Obviously the further north the longer the polar night lasts like in Svalbard.

It was mild in the December (apart from one brief snow cover) & January but the first half of Feb was anything but away from the far west, I think what skewed your opinion at that time was how cold the previous 2 Winters were (it was always going to be difficult to compete with Winter 2009-2010 & Dec 2010 though) If you look back at the airport's history in that February cold spell (especially the max temps) it beat pretty much everything in the poor 1997-2008 era (apart from late Dec 2000) so if Feb 2012 occured in that era it would have been classed as a decent cold spell. In the daytime I'm often about 2C colder than the airport & under clear skies at night I've known it be 4C colder. So during February 2012 we had quite a number of ice days around here. At the same time the airport was around 1 or 2C. Manchester airport is colder than more urban areas of Manchester but it's certainly not what I'd call a potent frost hollow. Certainly not compared with here. Where I am cold drains down the very steep slope to my N/NE from Oldham town centre to where I am. There's roughly a 350 feet difference between here & there in a relatively short distance. The same happens with places like Benson as well. I also live on a farm in a semi rural part of Failsworth surrounded by fields. This would knock a few degrees off compared to urban areas of Gtr Manc/Oldham as well so there's a couple of factors that adds weight to the meteorological conditions around this area. Here's what a frost hollow is https://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/wxfacts/Frost-hollow.htm

I think this country could learn off how Russia deals with snow. The "golden hands" machine makes me chuckle every time.

From my perspective it wasn't too bad. Had a few pretty uncomfortable hot humid days but I could count them on one hand. So it didn't last long. Unlike last year which was hot for most of the Summer. Very boring. I'm glad this Summer had no repeat of the moorland fires. The land needed a break from prolonged dry weather.

No one's writing anything off. To be honest I'd rather it show mild then our expectations are a lot lower. Less of a disappointment if they come true.

We've been invited to a wedding in Estonia in December so more of a likelihood of seeing the white stuff over there during our weekend stop over....I hope.

Not here unless you like to get soaked. Looking like heavy (possibly thundery) showers. Yellow warning from Met Office.

Yes certainly looking different tomorrow going off the Met Office automated forecast. But we can't realistically expect today's conditions to be repeated now as we are drastically losing day length & sun strength. Could be looking at April now before we get temps again into the 20s.

I think also in places like the US it's a legal obligation to shovel snow from the "sidewalks" in front of your home. In the UK it isn't, people just leave it to go hard & icy. If people got off their backsides & did the same we wouldn't have as many problems but most people these days have a "not my problem" attitude. Places like New York can have something like 24 inches in as many hours - I was over there in Feb 2003 when that happened but apart from the airport shutting down for a while not much else did, it was still as bustly as ever. I can understand in more rural communities it would be difficult if we got another 62/63 but I think in the end in more built up areas people would cope but then again we just don't know, we can only speculate. We had snow on the ground at the end of November 2010 & most of December 2010 with very little thawing apart from the milder blip around mid December but I don't recall major supermarkets shutting for any length of time or difficulties getting essentials like bread & milk etc. Again in more rural spots with nothing around for miles it would be difficult. I live in a semi rural part of a town where I live but at the same time I'm only a 10 mins drive from a large Tesco & Morissons. I had a hard time getting deliveries from Amazon etc but other than that outside in shops it was just quieter than normal. It was great getting served quick. Also I don't think you had falling snow every single day for six weeks because there was a mild blip nationwide in the December which would have broken the cycle before the cold surged back.

Late February? Can't remember it feeling as warm as it did this afternoon in late February. March it has like in 2012.

3 times this month we've got down to 1C including this morning. So no air frost yet.

Hi Ollie. There's a lot of talk on here about Siberian high pressure & whilst it is important as it builds up intense cold over that area, but the most important thing is a Scandinavian high pressure to funnel that Russian cold west to the UK. In the Northern hemisphere winds move around a high pressure system in a clockwise direction. So this means when a high pressure system is parked over Scandinavia we in the UK get easterly winds & that very cold air from Eastern Europe & Russia gets shunted to our shores. January 1987 is probably the most infamous example. More recent examples include late February 2018 And mid March 2018

2013/2014 was probably the least snowiest Winter ever here, never known one as rubbish. We only managed a cm covering one evening in the February...basically a dusting. It was all but gone by 11am the next day.

Always find most of September a bit "boring" weatherwise. Whilst it's meteorological Autumn it still feels a bit like Summer. But most years after the Equinox it does start to feel more like Autumn. Especially given we lose roughly an hour's daylight from now until then. A few days after the nights become longer than the day's. That's when I notice the sun getting noticeably weaker too. I don't tan from the end of September until about early April. For me a UV of 4 upwards causes me sunburn.

I see your point. I've noticed the Azores seems to ridge into Europe more often & scuppering our Winters. Certainly a change in weather patterns. It's even there right now.