[Model Output Discussion]

Seasons are fluid, some years winter will be short-lived, other it will drag forever. The current synoptics are winter ones and the 1st of March is just an arbitrary date set by people rather than some natural trigger, spring is nowhere near at the moment. When it arrives, it will probably be quite spectacular rather than the dull trickle that is usually is when the seasons follow the pattern of years gone by.

It's not as we have had a surfeit of long, cold winters in recent years...

[Model Chat And Moods]

Contact them, it might be something that could of interest to them. Met forums are quite popular so there is a market for it.

[Model Chat And Moods]

For those of us who enjoy their fell-walking, cold and/or snow is not an issue. Cold=frozen mud=clean hike and snow turns the most mundane of hikes into an adventure. Not every hiker enjoys it, of course, but once you're hooked on winter conditions hiking, you are hooked for life. In my opinion, a frozen, clear day, up hills loaded with snow is unbeatable.

[North West Cold Spell Discussion]

The snowline seems to be just about right for the upper parts of the Peak District and even if it rains a bit, it will help consolidate snow up there when it gets cold again from friday. Excellent.

[North West Cold Spell Discussion]

Western slopes in Langdale were pretty bare of snow yesterday at lower levels but eastern slopes remained white throughout.

[North West Cold Spell Discussion]

That's a nice way to wake up! After yesterday's frolicking in the snow of the Lake District fells, I've got my own little winter wonderland outside the window...joy!

[Model Chat And Moods]

Well, I had my fix of snow on the Lakeland fells today...like being in the Alps up there!

[Cold Spell Discussion]

I can't help thinking that with the setup we have synoptics wise(and possibly also the low solar output), we ought to get colder conditions but the warming trend is suppressing this up to a point. Having seen many times chart-diggers post older charts that looke almost carbon copies of some of the stuff we have seen and resulted in more severe events lead me to that conclusion

[Cold Spell Discussion]

I thought it was precisely the opposite that would end up being the case, which has been our lot for the last decade up until this winter and up to a point last winter. Anyhow, dangerous territory...

[Model Chat And Moods]

LOL..... it's a good job we don't get proper continental winters then isnt it, always amuses me north americans and europeans cope with snow much better than us but here all we have is a bunch of softies who can't cope with a bit of sleet or snow

Yep, my idea of the British as a bunch of hardy and stoical types has been truly put to rest this winter...Glad to see there are some left Eugene

[Model Chat And Moods]

I enjoy it on the hills and mountains of England, best place to be in winter if you like snow...Excellent news about the deer starving in Scotland, there are waaaay too many of them, with no natural predator and they are causing lots of damage to the eco-system. The arctic hares in the Peak District on the other hand are happy, ahem, bunnies, for once the white coat will hide them from flying predators rather than highlight them in hills devoid of snow...

[North West Cold Spell Discussion:]

Feels cold out there, that haze/fog is keeping temps low but let enough sun to filter through to make it a clear day.

[Model Chat And Moods]

Sunny and frozen here, a lovely winter morning. But it's clouding over and the snowy Peak District is out of sight.

[Cold Spell Discussion]

Flips-flops and bermuda this morning mate, winter is over don't you know!

[Model Chat And Moods]

Well, things have changed, if it's snow, Yorkshire Dales are a pretty good proposition. PFC will be bust soon so you'll need another team, I hear Leeds got a few decent firms, if your alias is a football reference

[Model Output Discussion]

That temperature evolution has been a regular feature this winter, as Mr Data pointed out, not a day yet here in the Manchester area when temps have reached double figures and yet they had been progged a few times.

[Model Chat And Moods]

If it was dragging a sack of coal for the nest, then you're in for a cold blast...

[Model Chat And Moods]

There are probably 10,000 examples of when nature reacted long before 'we' saw it on model charts.

Ah...care to mention a few? Should be quite easy out of 10000 I guess...

Tagging a reply to Kent as well, the squirrels are digging nuts because daylight is now longuer, their instincts tell them a change of season is approaching based on that. Nothing to do with knowing weeks in advance what the weather is going to be like. The poor buggers will starve by the thousands if some freak spell of bad weather happens in april/may and spring growth is feeble.

Just look at the problems with trees flowering too early or edgehogs mating in december during one of our recent very mild winters. Nature did not have a clue, it just followed some very broad primers, in this case far above average temperatures. Only a few examples of actual thousands of observations by biologists, ornithologists, etc of the adverse effect that climate perturbations can have on the life cycle of flora and fauna. Best leave the "nature knows" to the Almanach and assorted folk tales of yore, after all they were probably elaborated at the same time as folks thought dragons lied in wait beyond the horizon...

[Model Chat And Moods]

Nature is reactive though, there is very little forecast you can do with what plants and animals do or don't do.

[Model Chat And Moods]

Wrong smiley, just a bit of heavy irony in reguards to those posts about spring...cold, rainy, snowy this morning...

[Cold Spell Discussion]

Dusting of snow and a snow shower on my way to Salford Quays this morning...Can't see the Peak District this morning but I suspect it should be a good sight.

[Model Chat And Moods]

It did indeed feel outright balmy when I was waiting my tram home at 4ish, I'm going to work in a t-shirt tomorrow....

[Cold Spell Discussion]

The problem is more with the constant stream of pointless one-liners about "downgrade this, upgrade that", resounding pontifications about winter ending or there being absolutely no chance of anything in the next two weeks because a modelisation has shown that that any particular bias towards a region. Too many people taking the runs as gospel, that's why, however wrong they can be at times, I like TEITS, JH and the likes, they try to forecast something using their knowledge rather than just "read" a chart litterally.

[Model Output Discussion]

One thing seem quite sure though, higher grounds in the north (around the 3/400m mark) are set for another dump of the white stuff and judging by the amount of drifted snow still available to play on Kinder Scout (where I was yesterday), it will carry on the exceptionnal winter for England's high places in term of snow (a continuous if at times slight cover since december on the Peak District is not something that happens very often).

[Model Output Discussion]

On the chart Polar posted, you can see so well that grim conveyor belt of LP that use to spend winter above our heads and is now holidaying in Southern Spain/Northern Africa. I don't miss them one bit...