Summer of 95

Now I posted that and it has started snowing..... probably not for long but very unexpected.

Was drizzle here until 15 mins ago... Expect it'll all be gone in an hour but I have made a snowball this winter.. and been told to get it out the house by the Mrs... :lol:

It is snowing. I am not kidding! Very wet and almost sleety but it is not a snowless January! Edit OMG it is actually sticking to the grass and cars I have just scraped a small snowball off the wheelie bin...

There hasn't been a day fail to reach 4C yet this autumn/winter; that is unprecedented in the last 25 years this late in the season. Even the late 90s rotters and 2006-7 had managed it. The lowest minimum is similarly the highest in that period taking the whole winter half year; although the winter quarter of 97-8 saw nothing below -2 till February we had a -5 in late October 1997. The maxima are nothing special though; typically between 6 and 9C compared to long stretches of 10-13C in such winters as 06-7,97-8, 94-5, 89-90. It's the lack of anything low, both max and min, that stands out.

Just drizzling now though still only 3.5C- thought that might be cold enough for sleet at least. Got down to -3 in the end, was a little surprised to find the frost still there at dawn.

-0.2C. Yes that's a minus! A bit of a plunge in last 2 hours after it refused to drop after sunset.

+3.2C here.... already bits of cloud invading... there's another airfrost chance down the drain.

Strangely enough no- not at ground level at least. The really windy nights have been cloudy, the clear ones have had a light breeze at most. Last night though I noticed the few clouds that passed by were moving really quickly- could wind 2-3 miles or more up really be preventing the temp dropping at ground level?

Last night was another example of something that has plagued this winter time after time: the clear night that didn't freeze. Despite never having more than patchy cloud from dusk till dawn the minimum was a ridiculous 3C. That must be at least the 15th example since November. Why is the temp not dropping at night? This winter has actually been quite good for clear nights, yet it's been the least frosty for a long time. There seems to have been a total lack of inversion conditions this winter, as witnessed by the lack of cold nights at the frost-prone Shawbury (only one night below -3 there, same as here; often it's sub -5 there and only -2 or 3 a couple of miles away)- and there has only been one day, ONE, where the temp here at dawn has been below freezing, Boxing Day. The other 5 air frosts have all been recorded in the evening or around midnight before the temp inexplicably rose after 2am, usually with no cloud. November's lowest min, -1.5, was at 8pm on the 25th.

Heavy rain and thick mist, almost fog, here. Every time I go out the door it seems to be raining now....

Remember all those forecast cold snaps in Nov/early Dec that just ended up as Atlantic dross? No, not getting my hopes up yet, especially for easterlies as the continent is so mild right now. SST s in the North Sea must be above average too, which would scupper anything short of -15C uppers.

Cannot expect low mins till Feb? Christmas Day 2010 it was -12C, we had a -5 in October in 1997.

19 air frosts???? I've only had 6- 3 each in Nov and Dec- and I'm less than 30 miles from you. Only one below -2C which is shocking for this stage in winter. This winter hasn't seen the constant streams of double digit maxima that some of those rotten 90s/00s winter months saw, what has been noticeable is the lack of low minima- countless clear nights have refused to drop below +2 or 3C for no apparent reason- and also the lack of low maxima. We've had plenty of 5-7C maxima but not even a 1 or 2, let alone a zero or below.

Just had 1cm hail here

Absolutely belting down now with gusty winds too, had a glimmer of sunshine earlier but lights on again now.......

You can definitely add 2001/2 to that list round here, it wasn't at all unlike 1996/7. A cold, frosty December with some snow at the end (less than Dec 1996 but we had snow cover from Dec 30 to Jan 5, that was the longest such spell between 1996/7 and 2010!) but it went all wrong from about the 10th of January. Absolutely vile late Jan and Feb, although there was one attempt at a northerly about the 22nd Feb that only gave sleet and wet snow. 2010-11 we have to say winter was Nov-Dec-Jan that year. There's no other way to describe a season that produced ice days in November, an average temperature below freezing in December, and the last snowfall on January 7th. Much less pear-shaped when seen that way.

Anyone care to remind me what daylight looks like? Haven't seen any for a while. Something resembling a frost last night but the murk had arrived by 8am to give us another dank, dark, depressing drizzlefest of a day.... Everywhere around here looks like a swamp. Large areas of standing water that have been there for 3 weeks, drains overflowing, soil you could sink in, leaves churned into a wet pulp. All it needs to turn it back into a landscape is at least 4 days of proper frosty (from dusk till dawn) nights, dry days with LOW HUMIDITY and NO MORE RAIN (snow would be OK) and SUNSHINE. In January surely a spell like this should be possible?

Last summer was average- 2 nice weeks in July, a couple of hot days at the start of August and nothing much else. It certainly wouldn't make up for a snowless disaster winter. Would need a 95/76/59 tor that. Horrid day today, has barely got light and drizzling on and off. Yet again didn't go below 4C even though it was clear last night.

Some pics from Barmouth today

5th Jan 1998 all over again? A bit of a slushfest that one but still the only lying snow before April that winter. And it came on the back of a spell just like this...

1989/90? Certainly I remember that being very wet and mild, although we did get some shortlived snow in mid Dec. Jan and Feb were one atlantic depression after the other.Check out 1862/3 though, thats 18 not 19! That winter seems to have been the all-time stinker, snowless in places as far apart as London and N Ireland and wet with it. Must have been absolute non-stop westerlies.

Snowless Jans here 1992, 1993, 1994 and 2000. 2002 had no snow falling but did have 5 days lying, left from the fall on 30th Dec 2001. Febs 1990, 1992, 1997, 2000 and 2011.

I feel for you- we just managed to set ours off before the heavy stuff arrived. If we'd waited another half hour it would have been another washout like Nov 5th (lucky we chose the dry evening of the 4th!) Absolutely rubbish October-December.

Better than the previous two years, but then that isn't difficult. Jan- 7/10 That snowy spell would have been talked about for years had it happened between 1991 and 2008. Amazingly the first time I've measured 10cm in Shrewsbury in January since moving here in the late 80s. Would have got 9 but for the lack of really low temperatures- which was a constant theme of 2013. Feb 5/10 Only 2 mornings with 1cm lying snow disappointing given how cold the month was, and again no really cold nights. But a nice lack of southwesterly dross. March 6.5/10- oh if only. If only it could have produced the minima you'd expect of the coldest in 50 years, if only that snowfall of the 23rd-25th had not produced ridiculous variation across small distances (Wrexham 30cm, Shrewsbury 10cm, Crewe nothing- 15cm in all 3 would have suited everybody!), if only there wasn't so much cold, cloudy, dry rubbish. Could have been a memorable month like Dec 2010, instead much of the country got a colder version of March 1996. April 4/10 Pretty rubbish month, cold but no snow (unlike April 2012) and nothing over 17C the whole month. May 5/10 Nothing much save a taste of warmth early on (23.5C on the 7th wasn't beaten till July). June 6/10 Another "if only" month- if only all the dry, anticyclonic weather we had could have produced some proper warmth. Even though it was OK for sunshine it didn't even beat June 2012's highest max despite far more favourable synoptics. July 7.5/10. Pretty good, spoilt only by that cloudy weekend 20-21st and the wet last week that made it wetter than average. A little disappointed not to hit 30C. August 5/10 Such a promising start- 29.5C on the 1st and the only overhead storm since 2011 on the 3rd. Thereafter it descended into the same cloudy, tedious crap that has plagued every August since 2007. September 5/10 Pretty unremarkable, though still managed to be sunnier than August which is becoming the norm here. Oct/Nov/Dec- 1.5/10 each. Challenging 2002 for the worst final quarter I can remember. 37 consecutive days with some rain in Oct/Nov but only one of them over 20mm- it was unending cloud, drizzle and mild dross. Then a horrid December with only 2 air frosts.

Surely we shouldn't need to rely on this stratospheric warming, I mean if it can snow in Egypt without it why not in Britain?