Mild winter months that didn’t feel mild to you.

[Summerlover2006]

Sadly in the UK there are many examples of mild winter months especially recently but not all of them can feel mild.

I have only been into weather since summer 2023 so don’t have many examples cos I didn’t really think about weather that much before I got into it but one example is the winter months of 2023 (January and February) this period apart from the second half of January was supposedly mild but it didn’t feel it I remember many miserable cold mornings and never feeling notably warm for the time of year 

what are yours?

[LetItSnow]

I only seem to remember to colder parts of December 2014. Similarly February 2016 didn’t seem all that mild, but compared to the December previous it was bone chilling! December 2021 didn’t feel overly mild a lot of the time until the exceptional end. I remember cold zonality early on then a very cloudy high which must have resulted in mild nights but not very mild days. 

[cheeky_monkey]

Dec 1993..techincally just above average at 5.4c i remember it being cold and quite snowy..seems i was wrong 

[Weather-history]

 cheeky_monkey

This thread is just a variation on this one. December 1993 felt colder to me than it turned out.

 

[Thundery wintry showers]

January 2023 was certainly a month that seemed colder to me than it really was, but I remember thinking that February 2023 felt mild where I was (in Lincoln). 

It often happens to me with westerly-dominated months with a lot of polar maritime air masses and/or short lived northerlies and a high frequency of sleet/snow falling. December 1993, January 1994, January 1995, January 1999, December 1999, December 2011, December 2014, January 2015 and January 2019 all seemed colder/less mild to me than they really were. I tend to selectively recall the wintry spells and to largely forget the mild spells in between.

Also my general perception of changeable westerly months that were very mild but produced notable snow events in some areas of the UK, such as January 1993 and February 2022, tends to be biased towards "alternating mild and cold spells and overall not far from normal", when in reality the mild spells heavily outweighed the cold ones. I remember that in my youth my perceptions of the winter of 1998/99 as a whole were biased that way, probably partly because in Tyneside (where I was) each of the three winter months had two or three days with lying snow due to east coast snow showers from short lived northerlies. I remember being staggered by how mild it was statistically, I had expected it to be slightly above average but not ~1.5C above.

Edited November 18, 2024 by Thundery wintry showers

[Harry233]

December 2021 often felt a cold month until the final days which were stupidly mild. It did end up milder than average overall though but I can’t remember any mild spells aside from the final days, we had quite a bit of snow at the start though it didn’t last. 

December 2015 despite it being very mild overall the only really mild spell I can recall was the week before Christmas and even then I don’t remember it feeling especially mild.

January/February 2014 never felt mild either.

I think part and parcel of the milder winter months are they are generally very wet and often windy so it never feels mild even though the temperatures say different.

[Summer8906]

For me it would be anticyclonic months which had a lot o frosty days with max temps close to average but also featured short spells of very mild or extremely mild weather and these were enough to push the mean slightly above normal.

Examples would include Dec 2005, Dec 2014, Jan 2017 and Jan 2019. All felt cold, and I think Jan 2017 was marginally colder than average here, but the rest were I think slightly milder than average.

 Thundery wintry showers Wasn't Feb 2022 extremely mild? I remember it being entirely devoid of cold spells in this area at least, we've now had three very mild to extremely mild Februaries on the trot.

Edited November 19, 2024 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

21 hours ago, LetItSnow said:

December 2021 didn’t feel overly mild a lot of the time until the exceptional end. I remember cold zonality early on then a very cloudy high which must have resulted in mild nights but not very mild days. 

Interesting because I remember Dec 2021 as more or less non-stop mild: the cloudy high mid-month did seem to be distinctly mild here. The month seemed to get milder and milder as time went on, the unsettled phase in the first 10 days being maybe a degree above average, the cloudy high maybe 2C above. I then missed the very wet and dull spell in the last 8 days or so (being abroad) but by all accounts it was extremely mild.

I think there were maybe just one or two days which felt genuinely cold, just before the cloudy high was replaced by the very wet spell at the end the wind veered more SE-ly and pulled colder air in.

Dec 2021 along with Dec 2023 were probably also the dullest months I've ever experienced, though it would be interesting to see if stats bear this out.

Edited November 19, 2024 by Summer8906

[Thundery wintry showers]

 Summer8906 Yes, February 2022 was an extremely mild month overall.

I think my tendency for my perception of westerly-dominated winter months sometimes seeming less mild than they really are is influenced by the fact that I've never lived in the Home Counties, because that area of south-east England especially tends to miss out on any snowfall associated with polar maritime north-westerly types. An extreme illustrative example was January 1984 which had 20 days of lying snow at Edinburgh and Glasgow, but only one in London.

In your area February 2022 would have seemed relentlessly mild and snow free, whereas here in Lincoln I had wintry showers on several days. But while my perception was one of alternating mild and cold spells, the statistics show that in my area the "cold" spells merely saw temperatures fall to about average (there were a few instances where wintry showers fell in westerly and north-westerly airstreams with maximum temperatures around 8C, due to low dew points), while the mild spells were very mild.

Edited November 19, 2024 by Thundery wintry showers

[Summerlover2006]

 Thundery wintry showers side note that means we have had 3 extremely mild Februarys in a row god we need a February to the main month of the winter soon or I’ll lose all hope in February.

Edited November 19, 2024 by Summerlover2006

[Scorcher]

 Harry233 December 2015 felt extremely mild throughout- not sure how anyone can claim otherwise?

The majority of the mornings started in the 8-12C range for most of the country. Quite a few days started in double figures. The 13th was the only below average day here in the whole month and the only day frost was recorded.

10 days at my local weather station (which is rural) recorded minima above 10C. It's barely even possible for a December to feel milder.

[cheeky_monkey]

 Scorcher Dec 2015 is by far the mildest winter month feel wise i have ever experienced ..was often damp and muggy walking round in a t-shirt and still feeling warm 

Edited November 19, 2024 by cheeky_monkey

[Harry233]

 Scorcher I experienced a couple of colder spells during December 2015. Especially in the second week and around Christmas time. I still recorded 7 air frosts which is low but generally Scotland was a lot less mild than England where it was uniquely mild. Also the vast majority of the month was very wet and often windy here whereas England generally had near or even slightly below average rainfall away from the north and west so while temperatures were rather high it didn’t feel as mild as it could’ve been. December 2016 was actually milder here than 2015 and was much drier and less windy hence felt a lot milder.

December 2016 had maxima 0.5.C higher here and I think 1988 was even milder in Scotland than 2016.

[Harry233]

 Summer8906 February 2022 was generally very mild, I remember though it did have a brief but significant wintry spell here on the 18th and it lasted until about the 21st. Brought some very snowy weather here, not quite as bad as we had in 2018 and 2021 but still quite significant nonetheless. 

January 2017 the cold weather was generally concentrated to the south east if memory serves me right. I had very little wintry that month bar a brief spell midmonth. The south east had some notably cold weather I’m sure though. January 2019 I don’t think was that mild anywhere, I think it was quite a fluctuating month though with some notably cold weather especially in the middle and end of the month but quite a bit of mild weather either side of it? 

[Harry233]

 Summer8906 I think because here December 2021 started quite cold and snowy after a chilly end to November and that was the only cold spell for the whole of autumn 2021. Autumn 2021 was extremely mild, we still had full green trees until the middle of October which is unheard of here. Like you say however December 2021 did seem to get milder as the month progressed, it was notably windy and dull here but not overly wet but most the rain was in drizzle or light rain so I think that was what made it feel colder than it actually was. I do remember after Christmas and especially NYE here feeling extremely mild though. 

[raz.org.rain]

Wrong thread*

Edited November 19, 2024 by raz.org.rain

[Altocumulus Castellanus]

January and February 2014 didn't feel mild at all to me, getting soaked to the bone on a regular basis. Add on the effect of the wind and occasional hail in the squally showers it felt genuinely bone chilling. Despite this the winter was very mild bordering on exceptionally mild.

[LetItSnow]

On 19/11/2024 at 11:11, Summer8906 said:

Dec 2021 along with Dec 2023 were probably also the dullest months I've ever experienced, though it would be interesting to see if stats bear this out.

Edited

December 2021 the fourth dullest on record for the UK as a whole so absolutely.

[Summer8906]

 LetItSnow Was Dec 2023 comparably dull also? I'm actually struggling to think of a single even slightly sunny day last December, though there was a dry (plus mild and cloudy) spell around mid month.

Edited November 21, 2024 by Summer8906

[Harry's House]

I remember last December as being very dull. There were places in southern England with under 20 hours - very poor indeed.

[Summer8906]

 Harry's House Interesting, that is seriously dull but I can believe it.

I'd have said last Dec was even duller than 2021, I think there were a few bright interludes in the first 10 days of the latter.

[Summer8906]

On 19/11/2024 at 13:44, Summerlover2006 said:

 Thundery wintry showers side note that means we have had 3 extremely mild Februarys in a row god we need a February to the main month of the winter soon or I’ll lose all hope in February.

The old adage "as the days grow longer, the cold grows stronger" rarely holds nowadays. Most serious cold seems to be pre-solstice, at least recently. Last Feb with any significant cold was 2018. The norm for Feb seems to be zonal mildfest, though you might get lucky with a northerly jet and lots of dry weather (e.g. 2019, 2023).

Edited November 21, 2024 by Summer8906

[Don]

1 hour ago, Summer8906 said:

I'm actually struggling to think of a single even slightly sunny day last December

The 1st and 2nd were very sunny and cold, at least in the midlands.

[Summer of 95]

The thing about 2013-14 is there weren't a lot of really mild days (double figure maxima) and no long stretches of them. It was just 5-10C day and night for weeks on end, with very little variation. 

December 1994 was 2015-level mild apart from that foggy, frosty spell for a few days ending on Christmas Eve which is my standout memory of the month. We even had a couple of ice days round here.

[Harry233]

 Summer8906 It was quite dull for me especially in the first half, even the second half was until the final closing days which were very cold and sunny.