Unusual Winter?

[Verglas]

Has the winter so far really been colder than normal ?, looking at this gas demend graph comparing with 'cold' and 'normal' traces, either it hasn't been as cold as normal or everyone has cut down on gas and electricity use.

[summer blizzard]

Verglas, i think that the energy demand can be explained by people not actually needing to use so much energy, when somebody looks out of a window and sees frost, they assume it will warm up during the day and do not use as much energy however when people see snow they assume the big freeze has arrived regardless of whether warm air is following behind it.

[The PIT]

Verglas, i think that the energy demand can be explained by people not actually needing to use so much energy, when somebody looks out of a window and sees frost, they assume it will warm up during the day and do not use as much energy however when people see snow they assume the big freeze has arrived regardless of whether warm air is following behind it.

Most people if they see Frost Snow or Rain will turn the heating on regardless as they associatte it with cold.

Good example last year I had the office doors open to sub zero temps. The temp was in the office had dropped to 74F from 80F when two moaners came complaining about it being cold. Yet the same moaners didn't complain last week when it was 64F doors closed and Windows closed. The only differance being there wasn't a frost outside. In fact I've noticed a lot people associate inside temps with the outside conditions.

[Verglas]

so why are all the doom and gloom mongers worrying about a fuel crisis ?

just paint frost on the windows so people can't see the snow outside !

[Thundery wintry showers]

Its funny how everyone seems to be mentioning November, which is a testament to how poor this winter has been so far. Remember, regardless of how cold and snowy November was at the end for some, it is not a winter month. Similar to saying that a summer has been a fantastic one after a hot May and average June/July/August.

Quite right IMO. I remember the summers of 2001 and 2004 being pretty dull and damp in the Tyne & Wear region, but both were preceded by notably warm sunny Mays- I don't remember those as being particularly high quality summers as a result of the May!

I've noticed that this winter, we no longer complain about transitionary 36 hour northerlies, we're looking at transitionary 36 hour easterlies instead.

Any snowy weather seems to be transitionary these days!

[The Enforcer]

Any snowy weather seems to be transitionary these days!

'transitional, marginal, light, patchy, limited, temporary'

...or it would seem the environs of Leeds. One of our number therefrom includes a footer stating 9cm as the heaviest fall of the year to date. Impressive stuff, and highly localised I think.

Perhaps a 9cm high snowman?

awell hopefully february or next winter will bring more cold and snow

It's the ultimate in shuffling: the big freeze is next year.

For much of Europe its been a fairly cold and snowy winter.

There's a cold pool of air which looks likely to end up over Portugal of all places. The UK is becoming the worst European country for snow.

Edited January 26, 2006 by The Enforcer

[SP1986]

'transitional, marginal, light, patchy, limited, temporary'

Perhaps a 9cm high snowman?

It's the ultimate in shuffling: the big freeze is next year.

There's a cold pool of air which looks likely to end up over Portugal of all places. The UK is becoming the worst European country for snow.

but what about Malta, Tenerife and the ret of the Canary Islands?

[SteveB]

The UK's weather is average at best, not hot not cold just plain old average.

[Weather Therapist]

Let's just hope the cool pool stays over them during summer and we get loads of high pressure over us. Of course we must also hope for plenty of convective showers as well

[SP1986]

mild?

Anyway the gulf stream ensures are country is mild, and not extreme. However at the moment we are in an extreme phase of weather, relative to the UK. If you don't agree I would argue you havent lived through the last decade.

[The Enforcer]

but what about Malta, Tenerife and the ret of the Canary Islands?

Actually Tenerife has the highest peak of Spanish territory, I'm sure it gets snow in winter? That aside, they're about the only locations that are worse for snow. The trade-off is that you get a winter season that is predominantly fine and sunny, perhaps a little chilly at night. With a climate like that I could cope without snowfall.

[SP1986]

Actually Tenerife has the highest peak of Spanish territory, I'm sure it gets snow in winter? That aside, they're about the only locations that are worse for snow. The trade-off is that you get a winter season that is predominantly fine and sunny, perhaps a little chilly at night. With a climate like that I could cope without snowfall.

Agreed, indeed I forgot about Mount Teide. However I agree if our climate was warm and humid all year around and created that certain atmosphere you get created by the climate (if you get what I mean), that I could also live without snow.

But climates progged at the same forexample, desert climates, tropical climates, would bore people as much as our climate. I think our climate is realistically one of the more interesting climates in the world.

Problem is HP is over UK in the winter and UK is a very boring place to live, yet on Friday the 27th when snow is falling, it's suddenly the best place in world to live...

[Nick F]

Although I was lucky enough get around 13cms of snow down in Kent just after Xmas '05, that particular short cold spell again failed to deliver cold enough air in the sunshine between the snow showers to stop snow melt - it was another classic syptomn of cold spells in recent winters, even in the depths of late December with a low sun of air temps being 3-4C during an Easterly or Northerly for that matter - with snow showers at low levels. Though the rate of snow melt wasn't quite as rapid as late Feb '05 due to the sun being less strong.

Late December with a cold continental feed you'd be gauranteed pre 1988 of an ice day with snow showers and sunshine in most low lying areas of the SE. For the SE, we have to go back to the cold spell of New Year 1997 which managed at least a few days where the temps stayed around freezing all day with snow showers and sunny intervals. Ironically at the tail end of last December's cold spell ice days were widely achieved, but there was no snow falling anywhere that particular day.

[Essan]

This winter has been unusual. Unusually dry.

But temperaturewise it's been nothing special, other than that we've mostly avoided the frequent really mild periods that have blighted most recent winters. Well, except in Scotland where it's been virtually one continuous really mild period....

[Thundery wintry showers]

Most of the time our country's climate is quite benign, but we do get occasional years with frequent remarkable weather events.

There's 1947, 1955, 1963, 1975, 1990, 1995 and 2003, just to quote some that had more than their fair share of memorable events. 1995 was probably the year that really kickstarted my interest in meteorology, while 2003 was just three years ago.

However, overall, our climate does seem to have moderated in recent decades. Rather than the hot spells reliably getting hotter, there seems to have been more emphasis on the cold spells getting less cold, and homogeneity in the CET anomaly record. Philip Eden's latest book, which I got a copy of for Christmas, even seems to suggest that thunder has reduced in frequency over the past 20 years.

[Nick F]

From my own Essex/Kent perspective over the years, benign winters since 1987 have far outweighed interesting ones. Since 1987 only three winters stick in my mind for weather interest in the SE. Jan 1990 saw the Burns' day storm which was almost a repeat wind-wise of Oct 1987, then came Feb 1991 severe cold spell which brought much snow and day maxes well below freezing in the SE, then after that I can recall a short but quite snowy spell in Kent around New Years' 1997, and since then there's been the odd cold spell with some snow but nothing that will stick in the memory. come 10 years from now.

[Stratos Ferric]

This winter has been unusual. Unusually dry.

But temperaturewise it's been nothing special, other than that we've mostly avoided the frequent really mild periods that have blighted most recent winters. Well, except in Scotland where it's been virtually one continuous really mild period....

Which I think was essentially my starting point: for a winter without any particular warmth this has been (to date) remarkably snowless. That's the sense in which I was arguing that it's unusual.

[snow raven]

Its been a strange winter in as much as for once, its been very cold (well, colder than what has been deemed the 'norm') I've probably had more frosts this winter so far than in the last 5 winters put together.

But, for all the cold, its also been the driest winter I can remember - both rain and snow wise. Even in the recent 'milder' winters, I've had more snow lying on the ground than this. So far, I've had 1 snow shower, that was about 2mm deep!

So, for me personally, the METO had its winter forecast spot on.

Edited January 26, 2006 by snow raven

[wolves78]

ill say unusuall im looking athe the temp here on my weather station and its saying its 7.7c atm thats surely wrong?

[Dave J]

Although I was lucky enough get around 13cms of snow down in Kent just after Xmas '05, that particular short cold spell again failed to deliver cold enough air in the sunshine between the snow showers to stop snow melt - it was another classic syptomn of cold spells in recent winters, even in the depths of late December with a low sun of air temps being 3-4C during an Easterly or Northerly for that matter - with snow showers at low levels. Though the rate of snow melt wasn't quite as rapid as late Feb '05 due to the sun being less strong.

Late December with a cold continental feed you'd be gauranteed pre 1988 of an ice day with snow showers and sunshine in most low lying areas of the SE. For the SE, we have to go back to the cold spell of New Year 1997 which managed at least a few days where the temps stayed around freezing all day with snow showers and sunny intervals. Ironically at the tail end of last December's cold spell ice days were widely achieved, but there was no snow falling anywhere that particular day.

I'd disagree re: recent snow event in late December. Although on the 27th the temperature did rise above freezing between the snow showers, it only peaked at 0.8C in Leavenheath and there was very little thawing of snow.

On the 28th, despite the mostly sunny skies the temperature peaked at just -0.5C, the first ice day I've recorded since January 2003, and many parts of Norfolk and Lincolnshire had frequent snow showers during the day with temperatures remaining at or below freezing.

[Weather-history]

Number of below average winter months since 1987-88

1987-88: 0

1988-89: 0

1989-90: 0

1990-91: 3

1991-92: 1

1992-93: 1

1993-94: 1

1994-95: 0

1995-96: 2

1996-97: 2

1997-98: 0

1998-99: 0

1999-00: 0

2000-01: 1

2001-02: 1

2002-03: 1

2003-04: 1

2004-05: 0

2005-06: 1 so far

We had a run of 5 winters with no below average winter month.

1971-72: 0

1972-73: 0

1973-74: 0

1974-75: 0

1975-76: 0

Edited January 26, 2006 by Mr_Data

[acbrixton]

The garbage where I live isn't white - well, it is but it also has a strange red, yellow and orange M on it - can anyone explain? The chavs from Keighley seem to delight in sharing their food wrappers with us country dwellers: don't they realise we grow our own?

Tamara,

do please assure me that you have not, secretly, been dating EITS? lol!

Heavens...A possibility first mooted by Mr Roger Smith (wedding nuptials to one of GF Handel's lesser known orartorios "The Freeze of 1739/40")

regards

ACB

[The Enforcer]

Number of below average winter months since 1987-88

We had a run of 5 winters with no below average winter month.

Good work there and surprising findings. Disappointing that seven below average months have failed to deliver an appreciable snowfall in CSE.

I suppose the figures may be distorted, because the 'average' has shifted (upwards) over time.

Edited January 26, 2006 by The Enforcer

[snowray]

Heavens...A possibility first mooted by Mr Roger Smith (wedding nuptials to one of GF Handel's lesser known orartorios "The Freeze of 1739/40")

regards

ACB

How about this January freeze chaps, my dad just called, was going to go see him this weekend after seeing last weeks charts for N Italy, but decided not to go because our charts were looking just as good.

Well FI seemed to work ok for Athens yesterday, have a look at Genoa today, 0 asl on the med. 30cm fell in a few hrs, thats a foot!

He's up at 650m and its still snowing heavily at -6c, the ppn is expected to continue til Sat/Sun when the snow level is expected to rise to apx 1000m. Could end up with a good meter of level snow, currently 40cm, maybe more.

Currently its raining and windy in North Kent.

[Guest Mike W]

A question to Mr Data, are you using the 71-200 series for those stats, because that is the only way that 2003/04 winter could have 1 below average month.