Sun Chaser

Winter is almost always uninspiring no matter what. Might as well get some snow or sunshine out of it! Looks like we're on for a cold January, I could see this being the coldest in a while

Snow alert!!! Just a few flakes in central London but that means we've already got many winters beat for snow at least

!!! Can't argue with that. I'd say July 2022 could be considered a heatwave from around the 7th onwards as it stayed hot all the way through to the 20th, the run up is underrated I find. Loved 2022 almost as much as 2018 anyway!

985mm here, making it the second wettest year of the century behind 2012 which recorded a truly exceptional 1212mm. Beaten some very wet years 2014, 2019 and 2020 by a very comfortable margin all of which were below 950mm. Also the dullest year since 2017 coming in below average despite an exceptionally sunny 5 week period starting in mid May. And i really mean exceptionally sunny, as that spell beat any period of the same length from the famously sunny lockdown spell. Shows how bad the rest of the year was. In particular the second half of the year was the dullest in a long long time here!!

By some miracle: a strange new icon has appeared for this weekend's forecast in the weather app!

Most places seeing less than 40 hours all month, some as low as 10. Dec 2023 has to be a new low even for our climate!! On the other hand, prospects for January are looking a lot better. Potential for an actual worthwhile HP which could give us yet another sunny January spell which has been quite common recently, considering how bad January is traditionally! Winter 23/24 has time yet to save itself

Definitely!! Was only in the country August 12th-27th but the majority of that period was warm and dry, a little dull but pretty decent. So my memories of August are quite good. April's a weird one. At the time I remember thinking it wasn't as bad as everyone was making it out to be, but reflecting now it did seem to rain a lot!! The warmth that month took too long to come. But it wasn't horrible like some people say it was, wayyy better than March. (though I did have the worst birthday weather wise I can remember) Perspective on May depends where you live. At the time I was in Plymouth and loved the whole month, you could put it in a conversation with 2018 and 2020 with how that second half was warm and sunny all day every day. Further east I get the impression it was just okay. If any month was overrated it was September which was relentlessly poor after the first 12 days!! The rain and cloud just never seemed to stop after that. September version of August 2020. Also appreciate 2023 for giving the best second half of winter I can ever remember. Jan 16th to Feb 28th was a great spell of weather and some of the skies I caught in that period were incredible

New Year's Day 2022 and 2021 were both good for opposing reasons. Where I was 2022 was 15c, dry and with sunny spells(!!) - very springlike but I think we got quite lucky. While 2021 began with snow on the ground and ushered in a 10 day cold spell which I think is quite overlooked now!

Getting by now knowing that generally the worst two months of the year weather-wise are over!! The days are now getting longer, plus this is the time of year that the Atlantic will start to slow as it cools and with new year, the long road to spring and summer begins. Soon the sun will be upon us once more and then warmer weather and longer evenings. SAD sufferers, summer lovers, rain haters, our time is coming soon

Insane to think about how wet this year has been considering it's had two 6 week spells of bone dry weather. The other 40 weeks were just so poor they alone dragged it to become one of the very wettest of years!

It really boggled me on April 18th 2018 how hot it was exactly a month after lying snow which I hadn't seen since 2010 anyway!! Basically no spring that year

2010 style spring would go down great with me especially with that beautiful late May spell! Would prefer a 2020 obviously but that was exceptional and will be hard to repeat for a long long time. As long as the sun makes an appearance I'll be happy after how dire this winter has been!! A March like 2022 or 2012 would do me great

Yeah I'm not expecting 2024 to be anywhere near as wet. After a 6 month wet period usually comes a bit of an extended rest - think spring 2020, March/April 2021, late 2021 to mid 2022. And the second half of winter 2023. I'm sure 2024 will have something good in store!

Even worse down south. Somehow it's been EVEN DULLER than December 2021 which I thought was an impossible benchmark??? but here we are. No snow either compared to 2022 which did, though I wasn't in London at the time so didnt get any. So wet as well!! It's genuinely been as freakishly mild as 2015 since around Dec 7th. 2023 now the second wettest year of the century behind only 2012 I think

This is the worst month for sunshine I can remember in my ENTIRE life. On a positive note: caught my first clear skies since December 6th today! Not in the UK of course

Quietly confident as May 1944 had a proper struggle against a heatwave that peaked in October! Also interesting that two heatwaves exactly 10 years apart are matched up - with the hot weather peaking on both July 19th 2006 and July 19th 2016, a stat I've always found fun.

As much as I'd like to agree Christmas is a bit of a non-event for me. Both sides of my extended family don't celebrate it in the traditional way for very different reasons so the whole thing is a bit of a drawn out process for me. I do enjoy the run up though! I'm too young to remember Christmas celebrations continuing into January but to be honest New Years is often much more exciting for me at least. I definitely agree January can be a slog most years, but the last truly bad one was 2020.

Christmas is over which means it's time to slowly start turning my attention to spring!! Hopefully January will give us a nice early springlike spell, 2023 and 2022 both delivered on that front on certain days with mid January 2022 being especially nice. Nothing is better for the mind and boosts optimism more than a sunny warm spell in the first three months of the year!

Merry Christmas everyone! I was greeted yesterday with some snow on arrival here in Poland that settled quickly (about 5cm) but it's all melted now. Hopefully that's not all for this winter

Increasing possibility of a Sudden Stratospheric Warming in the New Year which may bring colder weather WWW.NETWEATHER.TV Blog looking at the increasing probability from weather models for a Sudden Stratospheric Warming in early January, which could bring colder and wintry weather... I can't take yet another bad spring.....

The sun has appeared!!! For about 5 minutes. According to my weather app the next time we'll be so lucky to get a visit will be New Year's Eve

What does the sun look like again?? I think the last time I saw it was 15 days ago, no exaggeration.

The best second half to winter I've ever seen - cold and sunny in mid-late Jan with some of the best skies I've ever seen. Slight dusting of snow on Jan 17th. Followed up by a lovely mild dry and sunny February. Mid May to late June was an extended period of warm (hot for a couple of weeks) and exceptionally sunny weather which has to go up as some of the greatest of all time where I was (even if the timing was personally inconvenient). The intense September heat was interesting (even if I missed most of it ) and was shortly followed by of the best thunderstorms of recent years on September 17th. 26c in early October! Always nice to have a late burst of warmth Everything else was pretty abysmal tbh. Not much in the way of so-so weather, only flipped from great to terrible and back

That's what I liked so much about it! The heat was widespread and long-lasting even in the SW as opposed to the much more SE-focused and muggier 2019/2020 heatwaves

Apologies if you've already posted it recently but what are the stats looking like for Dec 2023 potentially becoming the dullest ever? It's been grim, probably worse than 2021.