SqueakheartLW
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Posts posted by SqueakheartLW
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For actual official white Christmas' in my lifetime 2000 was the only one I remember snow falling on the day so that would go top in that category anyway.
However for snow on the ground 2009, 2010 and 1993 are the ones for me. 1995 and 1996 were just cold and frosty. Every other Christmas I remember has either been cloudy, dull and mild, Rainy and mild or sunny and mild.
There have been several frustrating near misses as well.
1 - 1995 saw the snow come after the day for me
2 - 1996 was like 1995 with the covering of snow greeting me on the morning of the 27th December
3 - 1997 was frustrating as that beast from the east came over a week too early. A nice frontal snow event that could have come for Christmas otherwise.
4 - 1998 and 1999 both had snow the week before Christmas then turned milder for the day itself.
5 - 2001 and 2004 were a white Christmas for some but not me
6 - 2005 was another of those frustrating ones where the snow arrived just after the big day AGAIN
7 - 2007 saw the snow arrive just into new year 2008, how annoying
8 - 2012. If only that winter had got going a month earlier.
9 - 2017 had a few snow events but rather frustrating that the mildest period of the winter happen to be around Christmas.
I wonder if 2019 will be equally frustrating with snow arriving within a week or so after the big day, we shall see ...
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My ratings of winters in my lifetime
1985 to 1987 - No direct memories of these winters due to my age but records suggest they may have been quite good for snow.
1988 to 1990 - Not very good winters based on the records.
1990/1991 - Only just remember February 1991 which made this half decent anyway.
1991/1992 and 1992/1993 - Not very memorable and probably not very good either.
1993/1994 - The first winter I can remember clearly. Was mixed with several cold and sometimes snowy spells with milder weather in between. The cold Christmas and Mid February 1994 stand out for me.
1994/1995 - Generally mild, wet and windy boring weather only saved by the snow event in late January 1995.
1995/1996 - My first overall decent winter but not my favourite one. Would have ranked even higher if it were not for those 3 weeks in January that were mild and dull. The easterlies in December and January gave some decent snow, especially the January one. February 19th was the best snow day for me in winter 1995/1996 with heavy snow showers giving whiteout conditions at times during the day.
1996/1997 - Mixed opinions on this winter. The first half was the best part with some snow events starting in November 1996 and getting progressively more extreme with each one with the best one around new year 1997. After this the winter just goes downhill.
1997/1998 - Started out fairly promising with that mid December beast from the east. Delivered very little snow shower activity but produced the best frontal snow of that winter when the mild air pushed northwards. After this apart from one very brief cold northerly in mid January the rest of the winter itself was mild and horrible. The other good snow event happened in the spring in fact in April 1998.
1998/1999 - I rate this one relatively highly for a 1990's winter. Not because of how mild it was overall but because when we did get cold snaps they almost all delivered some snow. The early December one gave a small dusting. The one just before Christmas managed the same but melted more quickly. Mid January frontal snow was the best event of that month. Early February 1999 produced the longest cold snap with some snow showers.
1999/2000 - Overall mild and zonal which made this one of my less favourite winters. Still managed to get some marginal snow showers in mid December and the one and only frontal snow event on the 21st December. After that the rest of the winter produced very little if any snow for me at all.
2000/2001 - One of my favourite winters of the 2000's. Started on Christmas Day with some snow showers and this was the start of a cold week with further snow. After that the cold was really on and off for the rest of the winter with further snow events, particularly late February and into March and again on March 18th and 21st.
2001/2002 - A winter which would have rated more highly with me if the weather of December 2001 had continued on for the rest of the winter. Looked promising to start but went to pieces in the new year. The start of March 2002 was the only other bit of snow I saw after December 2001 that winter.
2002/2003 - Had a few easterlies which delivered less snow than I expected so this winter doesn't rate very highly for me. Only one exceptional snow event for me on 30th January.
2003/2004 - Overall a mixed winter which I rate a little better than the one before it. On and off cold with several northerlies which delivered frontal snow or snow showers at times. Even got a cold easterly in the March but the snow event that month was a bit of a let down.
2004/2005 - Overall quite snow less for me. Missed out on the Christmas snow and when we finally did see our first proper snow in late February 2005 it was all wet and sleety and generally did little to improve my ratings of this winter.
2005/2006 - After hearing reports of the tripole in the North Atlantic and how that meant this winter was going to be a cold one I was somewhat disappointed with how it turned out. Got off to a very good start with that cold easterly just after Christmas but that was about as good as it got until the end of February and into March when the other main periods of cold came. By that time the increasing strength of the sun put paid to any settled snow sticking around.
2006/2007 - One of my worst rated winters. All mild and dominated by long fetch SW winds for most of it. Got a couple of brief cold snaps in January and February but that was as good as it got for snow chances. Missed out on the frontal snow in the February too and in fact the best snow I got in my area came in late March.
2007/2008 - I had hopes for this winter as no way could we have repeated the mild boring winter of the year before surely. Got about as little snow this winter as the one before but at least it was overall less mild and drier than 2006/2007 was. The Easter snow event was the best I'd ever seen but a shame the snow all melted on the day.
2008/2009 - At last a colder winter that actually delivered some snow events. Missed out on the October snow but made up for it in Late November and early December. After that it was often cold and dry but the main snow for me came in the first half of February as we were often placed on the northern side of the fronts in those two weeks so got the snow that camw with them as a result.
2009/2010 - What a shock to the system. After a cold winter in 2008/2009 I never expected an even better one to follow on from it. Took until 17th December to get our first snow but when we did it was cold and the snow was on and off for the next month. 5th January produced some decent frontal snow for me and the cold weather for the next few days after that produced some heavy snow showers too. Once the deep cold of early January went it was just a bit on and off after that. This is a very highly rated winter for me.
2010/2011 - After what happened in 2009/2010 the December to remember was my most favourite weather month in my entire life. Started in late November when I got over a foot of snow in just one night and then this stuck around for really the whole of December. Got two Christmas' in a row where snow was on the ground. Such a shame the December weather couldn't last through the winter and despite the good start the bad end meant this winter gets rated lower for me than the one before it.
2011/2012 - This winter was really a watered down reversed version of 2010/2011 with all the mild weather early on and the cold near the end. Hated the December as I had memories of what it was like the December before 2011. January was a little less bad but not all that good either. February was my favourite month of this winter with the snow events early in the month. If the high pressure later in the month had lined up better it could have stayed cold but it wasn't to be.
2012/2013 - This winter like the previous one was a back loaded winter too but a better version of it so is rated more highly for me. Took until mid January to get going but once it did it was often cold but not especially snowy. Never got more than a couple of cm from any of the snow events but the March was my favourite month with that extreme cold for the time of the year. This winter was like a watered down version of 1947.
2013/2014 - Probably my worst rated winter of all with 2015/2016 more or less tying with this one for bottom spot. Nothing I hate more in winter than mild and zonal with storm force winds on a frequent basis and loads of rain to boot too. Not a lot more can be said about this one.
2014/2015 - After the mild horror show of 2013/2014 at least this one was cooler overall but for snow it was also a disappointing one. Boxing Day snow event left no trace it had ever happened and the only other snow event was the late January one for me. Not an especially highly rated winter for me.
2015/2016 - Another horror show winter but especially focused on the December. Nothing worse than a December which was warmer than many Autumn and Spring months on average and at times with summer like warm nights too. That Super Nino ruined this winter completely. The only thing that dragged this winter back up to tie with 2013/2014 for me was that we managed to get some colder weather in January and February even if it was very brief.
2016/2017 - Overall a boring winter for me. Don't remember getting any snow at all during this winter. All I remember is that it was dry for weeks on end and boring.
2017/2018 - Overall a fairly highly rated winter for me. Gets off to an early start with the snow in November and early December but the let down was that it turned milder for the Christmas period. January and February saw further snow events from showers and frontal snow but the best part was left till the end of the winter with that Beast from the East and the mini Beast from the East too in the March.
2018/2019 - Rated probably equal with 2016/2017 in my eyes. Another of those dull, dry winters where not a lot happened. The marginal snow events in January pulled this one above 2016/2017 but the big model flop for February when promised cold failed to show and instead we get exceptional warmth pulled this winter back down to 2016/2017 levels for me.
December 2019 - So far this winter is rated poorly for me as it has just been a continuation of the autumn washout. Hope January to March can produce the goods or this one will be another winter down in the dumps.
Overall rating with best at the top and worst at the bottom. 1985/1986 to 1992/1993 are not included on my list as I have little or no memories of my own about them.
1 - 2009/2010
2 - 2010/2011
3 - 1995/1996
4 - 1996/1997 tied with 2017/2018
5 - 1993/1994 tied with 2008/2009 and 2012/2013
6 - 2000/2001 tied with 2005/2006 and 1998/1999
7 - 2003/2004 tied with 2011/2012
8 - 2001/2002 tied with 2002/2003 and 2014/2015
9 - 1994/1995 tied with 2007/2008
10 - 1997/1998 tied with 1999/2000
11 - 2004/2005
12 - 2016/2017 tied with 2018/2019
13 - 2006/2007
14 - 2013/2014 tied with 2015/20162019/2020 so far for me is on a par with 2004/2005 but there is still time for this winter 2019/2020 to move up the list.
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Best months/years for me
January 2010 - Cold with some snow. Best period of snow in my area for a long time.
November 2010 - The late part of the month, November 30th was my favourite day of that month when I got over a foot of snow that night.
December 2010 - Came as a big shock to me since I'd given up on ever expecting a severe cold month. This was my favourite weather chart of the entire decade for a cold lover like me
March and April 2012 - Although I'm not a particular fan of very warm weather in March or cold wet weather in April these two months rank amongst my favourites simply due to how we switched from one extreme to the other.
January to March 2013 - Cold and wintry period which satisfied my love of cold and snowy weather.
July 2013 - It made a change to get a decent month of summer like weather for a change after the washouts/boring summers from 2007 to 2012.
July 2014 - Decent thunderstorms at times during this month in particular
Late January 2015 - The only real decent snow event in Scunthorpe that entire winter. The Boxing Day 2014 event came and went without a trace and no covering on the ground at all the next day.
October 2017 - Not a favourite for the weather itself or the temperatures but for that red sun on the 16th that will stick long in my memory.
November 2017 to March 2018 - A decent winter in my books due to how early we got snow with this one and at times during December 2017 to February 2018 before we end the winter period in style with the Beast from the East at the end of February before Beast from the East part 2 came in March.
May 2018 to July 2018 - A decent summer spell with many very warm or hot day. This was my favourite summer of the 2010's. Lacked thunderstorms throughout this period until the 26th and 27th July 2018 which delivered many lightning strikes and a big cloudburst on the 27th, perfect.
July 2019 - Only a favourite due to the very hot Thursday 25th watching the temperature maximums on Netweather to see if the record was going to fall and I was happy when we managed to beat the all time temperature record. If it's going to get that hot we may as well threaten or beat the record in doing so.
August 2019 - The best thunderstorms of the year came on the 28th of this month. A fantastic lightning show for over an hour after 8:30pm until near 10pm made the day for me.
Worst months/years for me
Summer 2010 and 2011 - Pretty boring and uneventful bland summers as far as I was concerned. Maybe remember them due to just how boring they were weather and temperature wise.
January 2011 - A bad month for me as it was when the cold of December 2010 was undone and all that snow that had built up in December disappeared and it was back to the normal green muddy winter mess.
December 2011 - Maybe only a bad month for me as I had memories of what happened the year before and how I had wished it could have happened again and was so disappointed with the Atlantic zonal month of December 2011.
Summer 2012 - Nothing worse than a total washout of a summer. May as well skipped straight to Autumn after what happened in 2012.
Winter 2013/2014 - I hated this winter which had no snow what so ever. Nothing but wind and rain and a lot of it. I lost count of how many deep areas of low pressure passed us and if they had named storms during this winter they may well have run out of names.
Summer 2015 - A bad summer overall and the only thing that made this one less bad than 2012 for me was the very hot day on July 1st 2015 and the decent overnight thunderstorms on the 3rd July 2015.
December 2015 - A horror show for cold lovers like me. Nothing was worse than the almost continuous sub tropical air mass onslaught during December 2015. It was so warm that many nights saw summer like minimum temperatures and this tropical air even reached the North Pole when Storm Frank got in on the act. Above freezing in the Arctic was one of the shock horror news items of that month. The below chart is the worst winter chart I had ever seen for cold lovers.
Winter 2016/2017 - A rather boring winter compared to the two previous ones. Not a lot happened which made this one of my worst winters of the 2010's
August 2017 and 2018 - Both these Augusts were big let downs after the June and July periods before them, especially 2018. Summer 2017 was decent in June and this continued on into the July to an extent before August was cool and unsettled. 2018 was an even worse let down as both June and July 2018 were very summer like before the big switch in the August to wet and average temperatures.
Winter 2018/2019 - Mild and Dry is the worst kind of winter weather for me. If it is dry it may as well be cold and frosty with it, not cloudy, dull and mild for weeks on end and if we have cloud it may as well be of use and at least rain but better still snow from it. February 2019 was a big let down after all the model hype about the cold weather that was predicted then we went the other way with that unusual warmth.
Autumn 2019 - Nothing worse for me than lots of rain to make everything a wet, muddy mess ready for the winter and reduce the chances of any snow settling when we do finally get any.
Overall plenty of variety during this decade but very often the wrong sort of weather for the season. The only times that I feel I got prolonged spells of the right weather for the season was December 2010, Winter 2012/2013, July 2013, July 2014 and Summer 2018. Most of the rest of the decade saw messed up weather patterns with December 2015 probably the most messed up of all.
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6 hours ago, Weather-history said:
One thing that stood out for me this year and it has been the lack of gales. I am struggling to remember a forecast that said "gale to severe gales" for the NW of England this year. To me, it doesn't feel like it has been a windy year.
I'm surprised how long it took into the storm season before we got our first named storm system, Storm Atiyah on 9th December and that was named by the Irish met office, not the UK met office. If we didn't take them naming the storms then we'd still be on 0 named storms for this season.
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1 hour ago, cheese said:
To be honest, I accepted ages ago that snow is becoming increasingly rare, and now I just embrace what we get - if it’s going to be mild then we might as well break a few records. 20C on Christmas anyone? Would we even be surprised at this point?
Records are there to be broken. If we did get 20C on Christmas Day then we'd be many degrees above the Christmas Day record. Our best chance to get 20C in December was in 2015 when we managed 19C at some point during the month. December during the 2010's has seen the biggest differences in CET extremes from 2010 with -0.7C to 2015 with 9.7C.
Goes with the general theme of the 2010's which has seen some notable extremes throughout. This winter seems to be the wet weather that is the most notable feature so far.
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The 12z GFS today is really going for the SSW this time.
Highest 10hpa temperatures on this run at +384 hours at -4C
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On 23/10/2017 at 20:58, Summer of 95 said:
It was an odd one, it was often cold (and was notably free of mild, wet mucky stuff) but it had very little snow until right at the end (late Feb and March).
The first half of winter was very poor for snow; we got virtually nothing in the November (despite some really cold nights) and December's easterly was a let down too: no snow when it was cold, then the huge disappointment of 29/30th when it started snowing about 8pm, had a couple of cm by midnight, woke up to rain and no trace of snow at all (we were forecast 5-10cm or something).
There was a snow cover on 7-8 Jan (only a cm or so, but it wasn't really forecast) but that was it till the end of Feb. In the March snowfalls, the early ones were from a N/NW ly airflow down the Cheshire Gap, Birmingham may have missed them. The 12th was brilliant here, but driving east the next day (when we still had full cover) there was nothing east of Wellington. And I remember on the Sunday the sports news had someone in Manchester where it was snowing hard but nothing was sticking- while on the coast at Liverpool and Blackpool it was like we had. Really odd- and looking at it now, it's weird how everywhere that missed out on Feb 4th 2012 (when we were promised blizzards and got rain at -1C), got the lying snow on March 12th 06- and vice versa.
Another thing I remember from this winter and it was the weirdest of the lot:
Around the beginning of Feb (or maybe very end of Jan) there was a run of ice days where the temp remained below zero for about 3-4 days straight. However, the ground never froze. My thermometer read -2 at noon, it felt it, water left in bird baths and other things off the ground formed ice. But anything in contact with the soil remained liquid. Mud, puddles, grass- no ice at all. And It wasn't a "black frost"- the ground was actually damp and squelchy. This really did happen not only here but in other parts of the Midlands (I went over Birmingham way one day during it, same conditions). Anyone else remember it, and what on earth caused it that the ground surface was so much warmer than the air? Normally it's colder- frost on the ground at +3 air temps happens regularly.
I think we had it better in 2005/06 than you did. Not so much for the November 05 event but was in the firing line with the December 05 easterly. Heavy snow showers started on 27th December and went through to the 28th as well. Stuck all day and in fact stuck even during the let down transition event at the end of the year. Other than that the only other main snow event was 2nd March with a band of heavy snow moving down from the north giving 2 - 3 inches in just 30 minutes. All of it melted the next day unfortunately in the stronger March sunshine.
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19 hours ago, Allseasons-si said:
The gfs is quiet bullish this afternoon
this is the most significant of late.
Hope this isn't the first signs of a downgrade already
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Probably the most disappointing prolonged easterlies I can remember. Looked perfect for very cold weather and snow but most of it was wet and didn't stick for very long. The initial northerlies around 20th and 21st produced more snow than the easterlies which followed. The forecast for 24th look very good for snow and the bbc weather forecast had us in the very high risk category but we just got rain and sleet from the frontal system.
This 850 hpa chart looks like it would have produced a decent snow event but it failed to materialise.
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I remember this period well but where I live the week before gave us the most snow being in the east. Got some very heavy snow showers on 30th January 2003 but this early February cold spell did very little in my area thanks to the Pennines blocking out the showers from getting over from the west.
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Very memorable cold snap. I remember this so well especially due to the temperature switch as well as the week before we had temperatures over 20C then got this the following week.
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Very memorable for me too. I was in my final year of secondary school and the Christmas holiday was almost cut into two halves in terms of the weather. A cold and sometimes snowy first half then the milder second half of the holiday.
The weekend before Christmas was rather dull and fairly mild in comparison to what was on the way.
Christmas Eve for me was cold and wet with icy rain and sleet and I remember they'd said snow showers for the big day itself but I didn't believe the forecast at the time
Christmas Day. The big day itself did see some snow showers but none of it settled at all which was the disappointing part about the day.
Boxing Day was really like Christmas day with further wintry showers that didn't settle again
27th and 28th December. This was the best part of the cold spell when the band of heavy snow moved through. This covering was to last until the new year thaw came.
29th and 30th December. Two ice days on the 29th and 30th with some sharp overnight frosts over the snow fields.
31st December. Was anticipating the blizzards and whiteout conditions that had been forecast but this snow event was a big let down for me in North Lincolnshire. Started off with a bit of wet snow and soon turned back to rain.
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2019 overall mixed and average but with some notable extremes at times even if they were short lived in most cases
January 2019 mixed with mild and dry the main theme but some marginal snow events in the second half of the month
February 2019 made the headlines for that very warm period where we broke the all time daytime maximum record for the month
March and April 2019 were a bit more average and unsettled at times but also some warm settled periods in April. These were probably the least memorable months of the year
May 2019 was when the main pattern change came and this is what started off the more unsettled weather we have had really since then. May was cool and wet at times with a lot of northern blocking. If only that had happened in the winter.
June 2019 was cool and wet as well and some exceptional rainfall was recorded in Lincolnshire especially not far from where I live in fact and the start of the flooding too. We did get one quite hot day near the end of the month that could have broken records if we had the right wind direction on the day.
July 2019 was generally average and mixed but contained the other very memorable heat day of the year after February when late in the month we broke the all time daytime maximum record in the UK. I also experienced some thunderstorms in the same week that temperature record fell.
August 2019 was like July and also ended the month with another short lived hot spell which produced the best thunderstorms of the year for me.
September 2019 started out dry and right up to around the equinox barely a drop of rain had fallen in North Lincolnshire and it was a relief after the wet weather of the summer but the last 10 days of September the deluge was unleashed and despite the 2/3 dry part of the month September somehow finished up wetter than average for me.
October and November 2019 dominated by the deluges which have turned everywhere into flooded and boggy almost marsh like conditions. I don't think I've seen so much rain in such a short time period as these two months.
December 2019. Although not quite as wet so far as October and November the damage is already done and any rain event now is just swelling up the large puddles near where I live but thankfully I'm not in a flood prone area at least.
Hope January to March 2020 can be memorable for another reason, cold and snow. We shall see ...
Winter 2019/20 | Moans, Ramps & Chat
in Spring Weather Discussion
Posted
Maybe similar in respect of the low pressure piling in off the Atlantic but no way as extreme. No big storms this time around, more standard Atlantic onslaught.