East Lancs Rain

Yet another mild and gloomy Xmas day. Currently dry, calm, overcast and 8.8°C. Boring is the word.

It’s yet another mild Christmas here… First pic, Xmas Day 2018, 2nd pic, Xmas Eve 2023.

Not been quite as wet here with 158 mm this month and 1282 mm so far this year according to a local weather station. Sunshine very poor at just 29 hrs so far this month and 1039 hrs for the year. It’s been a very wet year here so I can’t imagine what 1860 mm of rain in a year must be like.

I’m a bit late in posting this but… Another mild, cloudy and windy day here. Currently 9.7°C.

Typical Lake District weather - thick cloud, damp, fog over the fells. The last few days have been continuously dark, wet and windy here, with no sun whatsoever, which is unusual even for this time of year. Even a typical Atlantic onslaught pattern you would normally get a dryer and brighter day between weather systems.

Down South it may have been good but up here it’s been awful. Mild yes but constant wind and rain, no sun for days. Haven’t even been able to go out on a walk for the last week, hoping for a pattern change to high pressure soon. Would rather have the conditions we had in early December, it was very cold but at least it was much drier and sunnier.

Certainly feels like it at the moment. It’s just been continuously gloomy, wet and windy for days. Haven’t even seen the sun in ages! Never known it to be wet and windy for so many days in a row. Even in a typical Atlantic onslaught pattern, you normally get a drier brighter day in between weather fronts and areas of low pressure, but it’s just been relentless. Looks like SE England has been sunnier and drier. I’m guessing the jetstream must be right over northern England. Boxing Day is now forecast to be partly cloudy here so at least I’ll get to see the sun then. Nice pics? Where is that? 60 mm rainfall is the yearly average??

Rain forecast every day here for the next two weeks on the bbc weather app. Grim.

That’s for Heathrow though which is a heat island. If you were to look at climate data for the suburbs of London I imagine it would be a degree or two cooler. Here summer is a lot cooler than London, June is around 18C, July around 20C and August around 19C, with a lot more rain and less sunshine. I prefer the cooler temperatures here but wish the summers here weren’t so cloudy and wet. Yeah, eastern and south England isn’t too bad. Summer temperatures are decent and there isn’t too much rain. Sunshine isn’t too bad either. But western areas suffer with a lot of cloud, rain and wind from off the Atlantic. People living in Lancashire, Cumbria and Wales would be very happy with a bog standard south east England summer. Doesn’t stop people from the south east moaning about the summer weather though!

Last Spring wasn’t too bad here. March was cold with some snow but I remember a lot of mild/warm and sunny weather in April and May. Imagine the moaning on here if we had a year where we got a winter like 2019/20, a spring like 2013, a summer like 2007/2012 and an autumn like 2000!

Exactly right. The default in winter is mild, cloudy, wet and windy, with the occasional cold snap and the occasional colder winter like 2012/13 or 2017/18. Just like the default in summer is cool, wet and cloudy, with the occasional hot spell and the occasional warm/hot summer like 2018 or 2013. So if we get a mild and wet winter and a cool and wet summer then that is normal! That is what we should be getting. A few weeks of warm/hot and sunny weather a year and a few days, maybe a week of cold/snow in winter. Anything more is a bonus. A cold and snowy winter and a hot and dry summer is the exception, not the rule. Too many people on here expect winters like in Norway or Iceland and summers like Spain or Portugal every year, and get angry when it doesn’t happen. At least inland and eastern Britain can get some extremes of heat and cold. Imagine if these people lived in Lerwick or Stornaway where there’s no real cold, very little sun, loads of rain and no heat whatsoever, just 6-15C, cloudy, wet and windy all year round. Looking at the climate page for Lerwick on Wikipedia really shows just how extremely moderated the climate is there. “Only when temperatures in continental areas are record cold does Lerwick experience some cold as was the case in December 2010 during the severe cold wave affecting the British Isles and Europe that covered much of mainland UK in snow. Even so, average highs remained above 3 °C (37 °F) and frosts were light. Mild summers are also rare with the warmest recorded month being July 2006 at an average high of 16 °C (61 °F).” Lerwick - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG So in December 2010, in one of our coldest months on record, when most of the country was under deep snow and had temps below freezing by day and in minus double digits by night, it was still above freezing in Lerwick with a few light frosts. And in July 2006, the hottest summer month ever recorded in the UK, when most of the country was sweltering in relentless heat, Lerwick was experiencing nothing better than a bog standard October (or maybe a warm and sunny April) in the south. So imagine how depressing it would be living in Lerwick! No warmth let alone heat, barely any snow or real cold and just gloomy, wet and windy all year round. A 17C calm and sunny day would be about as good as it would ever get. Must be one of the most maritime climates in the world. We should at least be grateful we do occasionally get some proper winter and summer winter. While I know many on here would love a continental climate with cold snowy winters and hot sunny summers, I do actually quite like our Atlantic climate. I like the cool summers and the mild winters. I like a benign British summers day of 17-21°C and partly cloudy or mostly cloudy skies. And I like the windstorms in winter. Other countries have to endure either 30+C heat and sun or extreme cold for weeks in winter/summer. Or experience natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanos, something we don’t get (well not to the extent that we do). So I appreciate the more comfortable temperatures in this country. Do I wish it was sunnier and drier? Absolutely. But you can’t have everything. There’s very few places in the world that have a dry, sunny and a temperate climate. The western coast of California (San Francisco, San Diego) and I imagine the west coast of Portugal is one of them however. It wasn’t quite cold enough here to get ice days in early December here, it still reached 1 or 2C during the day. Had a bit of snow but probably not 3 inches, and it might have got to around -6 or 7C here one night. Dry?? It’s been a wet and windy day here. Surprised it’s been dry in Leeds. But you are to the east of the Pennines so you are less exposed to the Atlantic than I am. Currently 9.7°C, with gusty winds from the west. The next few days are forecast to be very wet, very windy, very mild and no sun whatsoever here. The Atlantic is in full swing with no signs of slowing down. ️ Xmas Day 2018 was dry, sunny and frosty here. I remember that.

I’m going for mild and wet, 5.6C with 120 mm please.

I agree about the very mild bit but the wet bit? Not so much… February 2020 comes to mind where it was raining almost every day.. If it’s just going to be 10C, gloomy and damp then I don’t really see the point. But if it’s 8-12°C and sunny on many days then that would be a very pleasant month however.

Well the stats don’t agree, it’s been quite a sunny year for England and Wales, except for the Spring which was quite cloudy in the south and east.

There’s been a lot of failed cold spells in recent years. I remember this one from a few years ago. For me the most seasonal would be dry, sunny and frosty. Christmas Day 2018 was like that here. Although in a way, mild, gloomy and drizzly feels more seasonal as it’s what Christmas Day is usually like.

Well, it’s mild at least, 11.4°C, but it’s wet and breezy and it’s 3:35 pm and it’s really dark already.. Saturdays mild weather was nice but this kind of mild weather just feels pointless if it’s dark and damp with it.

Wow that’s a lot of rainfall! Makes Lancashire look dry! The summers aren’t too wet though, and the sunshine and winter/summer temperatures are similar to what you would expect on the west coast of England.

After a fairly sunny day yesterday it is back to being dull and grey. Mild at 10.7°C, but not really feeling it in the breeze.

Been pretty good here today as well. Temp reached 11°C and it was dry and with plenty of sunshine despite the bbc weather app forecasting heavy cloud. Unusual for it to be this mild whilst also being dry and fairly sunny and light winds. Can’t really ask for better at this time of year. I would be quite happy if it was like this all winter. Stonyhurst (Lancashire) last 24 hours weather WWW.METOFFICE.GOV.UK Stonyhurst last 24 hours weather including temperature, wind, visibility, humidity and atmospheric pressure

It’s gonna be mild this weekend, it will be very dull though unfortunately.

18.4°C in bedroom

Yes, I think if we got a synoptic setup like April 2021 in summer it would still produce cool, dry and sunny conditions. Day temps might still be average because of the strength of the sun, but nights would be colder than average, so it would still be below average overall.

I have worn shorts and a t-shirt at that temp in the spring when it’s been sunny and calm and it felt very pleasant. Of course, the sun is much stronger in spring and 14°C feels warm after experiencing 5-6 months of single digit temperatures. At this time of year though, if it’s that mild outside, it will almost certainly be cloudy/wet/windy with it, and it definitely won’t feel warm enough for shorts and t-shirts then. Looks quite pleasant for southern areas closer to the high pressure, potentially very mild and quite dry. Northern areas look more unsettled though. Same here. Horrible wet and windy day. Last weekend, although it was much colder, at least it was dry. Next weekend not looking great here, highs of 8°C and light rain/drizzle, at least it’s not cold though (for December).

Wow that amount of snow is mad! Imagine if the UK had that level of snow today, would be absolute chaos. Standard December weather here, wet and windy, and not particularly mild at 7.6°C. Had a bad night, didn’t manage to get to sleep until it was starting to get light and didn’t wake up until 3:30 pm! It was already quite dark by then so I didn’t see any daylight today, I didn’t miss out of much though.

Thanks for creating this thread. While it is quite rare to get a mild, dry and sunny winter month, what I’ve noticed is it’s becoming more common, probably due to the warming climate. Whereas the traditional cold and snowy or cold and dry winters are becoming less common. If you take the winters overall, Winters 2011/12, 2016/17, 2018/19 and 2021/22 were all mild or very mild and fairly dry, and all occurred fairly recently. Of course, if you were to use the older 1961-1990 average, you probably could have included quite a few more winters. Interesting that February 2019 actually had above average rainfall. I don’t remember much rain at all during that month, and the met office anomaly maps show it as being a dry month in most places, with nowhere having above average rainfall. In recent years of course, cold winters have been quite lacking, but winters 2027/18 and 2020/21 were quite cold, at least compared to the more modern averages. But for the last really cold winter in the UK, you have to go back to Winter 2012/13. Tbh, I wouldn’t mind a winter that had average or slightly below average temps but was dry and sunny. A winter where most days were dry, calm and sunny with temps rising to 6 or 7C during the day and dropping to around freezing at night would suit me fine, with some milder 8-13C and sunny days thrown in in February. Such a winter would probably actually feel milder than the typical mild, wet and windy winters we normally get, at least during the day anyway, because even with mild temps, the wind and rain makes it feel a lot colder. For example, it is currently 8°C, wet and windy outside, but feels like 4°C according to the BBC Weather App. What would be interesting next would be to see the winters/winter months that were cold and cloudy but had above average rainfall, I’m guessing that’s also quite a rare occurrence, although probably not quite as rare as mild, dry and sunny. It would be also interesting to see how many summers/summer months that have been cool but also dry and sunny, a very rare combination, maybe even rarer than a mild, dry and sunny winter. People who don’t like the heat but still like it dry and sunny would enjoy these summers. So far I’ve found June 2015 which was cooler than the 1961-1990 average, but was dry and sunny in most places.