Summer of 95

But its stopped already! Welsh hills murdering this front, like they never do to weak pesky ones in summer.

Very interesting indeed at that elevation- just rubbish lower down. I forgot to mention too, it always seems to come with a bigger than normal lapse rate, hence the difference in weather between 100 and 300m. Not sure it really is the commonest- A30 ("TM") seems commoner to me except between Feb and May when any type can predominate.

PM air in winter is Tommy Tank everywhere except the northern half of Scotland and places further south above about 300m. Even if the showers survive the journey inland it's virtually never cold enough at ground level for more than sleet, even if uppers are sub -5C. And for some reason it's really hard to get air frosts under it even with crystal clear nights- even the sunnier Bartletts can manage that. Calling it "polar" is wildly inaccurate- it usually originates south of the Arctic Circle and does not cross any sea ice or sub-freezing landmass on its way to us. PM, rPM and the similarly misnamed TM should be called respectively A60, A45 and A30, for "Atlantic" and the approximate latitude they originate, with P (Polar) for "Arctic Maritime", and C (continental) again split into C60 ("Pc"), C45 (those airmasses originating in S Russia/Black Sea area that are usually hot in summer but cloudy and 5C in winter) and C30 ("Tc").

What storms?? Bright sunny day here- when we miss everything in summer we invariably get sheets of solid cloud.

One day of falling snow here- sleet really- but last day lying was 27 March. Certainly not the longest spell without lying snow even recently- we had a 13 and a half month gap from 7th Jan 2011 to 19 Feb 2012. The longest is an amazing 33 months between Feb 1991 and Nov 1993!

Which road- the one from Shrewsbury/Leighton/Buildwas or Jiggers bank? Yes the Severn is very high here and much more rain in Wales would probably see Abbey Foregate, Coton Hill and Smithfield under water. It hasn't been up on Smithfield road since about 2008, despite all the wet summers here- it's the rain in mid-Wales that's important.

Thunder? Hail? Been sunny nearly all day here, although still windy. What is it about Shrewsbury/Telford and thunderstorms? It's like we're immune to them, it's ridiculous- that's about 10 times this year Birmingham has been hit while we got zip.

The 5 years from late 1997 to late 2002 were pretty much one long westerly spell as I remember, save for July 1999 and spells in Feb, Mar 2001 and Dec/early Jan 2001/2. Flood after flood that period brought here...

Wind and rain seem to have abated somewhat, wheelie bin is horizontal but no trees down nearby that I can see. Just wondering if it'll start up again as the low moves east- NNW is a much more exposed direction than S, SE or SW for us.

Definitely windier than the other night here, whistling sounds galore and letterbox been flapping for hours now. And here comes the rain....

First proper frosty morning of the season here, grass white over and the even the very top of the soil frozen. A touch of mist first thing too but sunny now.

Merry Christmas everyone! Everything merry here except the weather- yet another clear night that refused to freeze and just been raining yet again when parts of Wales had wintry showers..

Thunder, snow hail everywhere but here- what's this next black cloud got in store? Update: More useless, pathetic, boring rain. Why is it turning to snow/hail/thunder everywhere but here

Heavy rain showers atm, yet hearing reports of snow in Oswestry and mid Wales- hope the Shrewsbury Snow Annihilator isn't striking again...

Strong winds for about half an hour 2230ish, and between 0900-1200, and raining pretty much all day- but I wouldn't say we had a day of gales by any means. No trees down or tiles blown off, at least round here. The flooding I think will be the main thing in Shrewsbury- the Severn has risen a lot since Sunday and the flood barriers are up in town. The last real gale I remember? Saturday 20th March 2004, that was probably the windiest day here in the past 15 years. It was F8 sustained gusting to F10 for several hours around midday and into the afternoon, and it caused quite a lot of disruption around the Midlands (I remember someone being killed by flying debris at a football match, think it might have been Leicester?) and brought lots of trees down round here. Late Jan 2002 was another.

I too expected Inverness to be sunnier, and I expected it to have a lower mean minimum. Based on those stats it would have to be Aberdeen: though like Aviemore I wonder about the effect of mountains on Inverness' Sun totals.

Even high elevation didn't help with that one if you were too far west. Sleet and freezing rain were being reported in Wales and west Shropshire at 350m while it was snowing hard at near sea level further east. That day was a joke even by Shrewsbury weather standards!

What do you mean by "plugging in cars"- Does the battery have to be charged every night or something? (Coldest I've ever started a car in is -12C in December 2010)

Go on then, -0.5C.

This month is proof that "polar maritime" air, despite its name is usually total pants for proper cold and lying snow, unless you live in north Scotland or above 1000-1500' elevation. What we want is Arctic Maritime. Preferably with a Greenland high keeping Atlantic dross at bay......

I can think of two recently- 3rd Jan 2011 which was lethal and completely forecast, and 4th Feb 2012 when everywhere else got the forecast snow.

One day with sleet and 2 air frosts here, but nothing below -1C and hasn't been below freezing for more than about 3 hours at any stage this autumn/winter. Snowless Decembers (none falling or lying) since 1990: 1991, 1992, 1998, 2006, 2007. Of those the first two had long frosty spells (ice days around Christmas 1992, and mid-Dec 1991) and even 2006 had a few days of frost and fog in the run-up to Christmas, as did 1994 (one day of snow on the 31st). December 2011 had virtually no air frost but did have a couple of days with sleet/wet snow showers. Decembers with snow lying: 1990 (3 days) 1995 (7) 1996 (2) 2000 (4) 2001 (2) 2004 (2) 2005 (1) 2009 (1), that's 22 days in 20 years: and then 21 days in December 2010 alone! That month doubled the 20-odd year average total by itself.

Temp dropped from 6.5 to 3.5 after the latest downpour came through about 3pm. Clear now, maybe a decent frost at last?

850 hpa temps are what "uppers" show; that height will be lower when pressure is. When it's 950hpa at sea level, 850 won't be very high up (about 800-900m?).

Nothing here on 20th Dec 1993, apart from a dusting in late Nov 1993 there wasn't lying snow here between Febs 1991 and 1994. I did get 1-2 cm on 5th Jan 1998, but it was very wet and lasted only 24 hours. Best unexpected snowfall of the 90s here has to be 18-19 Dec 1995, it had rained most of the day and suddenly turned to snow, we got 7cm from that and a further 7-8 on the 20/21st.