PeteB

Yet another miserable day around here. Relentless rain, dark and gloomy, just awful. Browsed through the model discussion and even the eternal optimists don't see much of a change for at least a couple of weeks but on the bright side all the reservoirs are full to the brim . Pete

Wettest day of December here today strangely and now there's ice on my car. What a weird winter. Pete

Yeah, general lack of interest from the press too. Capel Curig the wettest place in The U.K, A55 flooded and some serious flooding around Bangor and in the Conwy Valley but it barely gets a mention on The BBC or SKY. Pete

The big difference was that December 1981 was nothing like December 2015. From memory I don't recall a single epic winter that didn't have at least one cold spell during December. Of course, I'm not discounting the possibility that we won't get an event like March 1969, February 2007 or March 2013 but the odds aren't exactly stacked in our favour at the moment. Pete

To answer the question, no, I don't think this'll be the norm, just in the same way I never believed that summers like 75 and 76 would be the norm. This is an exceptional period of unprecedented rainfall and I believe that just like the winter of 62/63 and the summers of 75/76, December 2015 will become a point of reference (and pass into folklore) Pete

1962/63 was epic for me as a 13 year old without a worry in the world. Not so much for my dad though who was constantly repairing bursts, shoveling mountains of snow, taking an hour to get to and from work and facing massive fuel bills so I for one would not like a repeat. However, I still love the snow so ideally, a 3 or 4 inch fall around Christmas then clear blue skies and temperatures hovering around zero for 10 days or so. Then in late January, early February a blizzard with 4 to 5 foot drifts then a gradual thaw. There hasn't been a blizzard here since the two we had in the winter of 81/82. Pete

Wow, some of those records have been broken by 7 or 8 degrees F, incredible. Pete

Raining hard here this morning, the lane I live in has a lot of standing water in it and my septic tank is almost full to the top. Pete

Seems like these hundred year storms are happening every five years or so now. Pete

My memories go back to the late 50's and I've yet to see any substantial snowfall on Christmas Day, say 1/4 inch or more. Boxing Day is a different matter though . There have been quite a few Christmas Days with snow lying, 1978 and 1981 are good examples. Generally speaking for some reason the action seems to happen just before, like 1997 or just after like 1962 or 1964. Pete

Still very windy here, various reports of trees down in Deeside. Hawarden weather station, 3 miles away, recorded a 58mph gust, probably in the mid 60's here as I'm 100m higher and pretty exposed. Pete

Wind is really picking up here. They must be expecting some severe winds tonight as the Flintshire bridge will be closed from 6 this evening. Think it's only ever been closed twice before. Pete

Despite being fairly close to the amber zone and well inside the yellow, hardly any rain fell yesterday but the wind is absolutely howling outside right now. Pete

Indeed they are. Looks like this brewed up so quickly that the major networks were caught out though. Pete

Yeah, I'm just south of Liverpool and large spots of rain have just started falling. Pete

Thunder on Cheshire/Wales border and torrential rain. Pete

Thunder and heavy rain here now! Pete

Yellow warning out for parts of North Wales. Pete

29 just down the road in Hawarden today. Pete

I like wearing a t-shirt and shorts so I'd say 24-30 with night time temperatures 18 or so. Pete

Hottest would be 46 in Las Vegas, July 4th 2007 Coldest, the weather station I had in my garden read -19.5 in December 1981, 3 nights on the run were -18 or colder, my heating oil waxed up. I lived through the 1962/3 winter and my dad's max/min thermometer went down to -16 several times. Pete

February 1991 was very cold. I worked on the Wirral back then and I remember going to Chester Zoo in the half term. Probably 4 or 5 inches of lying snow at the Zoo but only an inch in Bromborough. January 1987, not a lot of snow at sea level but we had 3 or 4 inches up here. Pete

Hammering down right now! Pete

Don't give up just yet! I've lived here since 1961 and the 3 heaviest single day snowfalls were in March 1979, April 1998 and March 2013 all exceeded 30 cm's and the 1998 and 2013 snowfalls came in fairly average winters. Also, we had a major blizzard here in March 1965 (one of only 5 since I've lived here) and a 25 cm's fall in March 1969. If you take away the exceptional winters of 1962/63 and 81/82 I'd say March was the best month for snow. Pete

Picked up quite sharply over the last 15 minutes, gusts around the 50-60 mark I'd estimate. Our local weather station, Hawarden has recorded a gust of 48 but we're much more exposed and 350 feet higher. Pete