Winter

[Just Before Dawn]

This winter has seen nothing at all of any note, thanks in large part to the North Sea SSTs - so that makes it probably the poorest 'cold' winter in my memory for snow, going back to 78/79.

[jamovthenortheast]

The warm north sea has lead to no lying snow and very few air frosts, this winter has been very poor from a cold point of view. Better luck next year i hope

[TEITS]

Very disappointing although I have seen worse in terms of snowfall.

Combination of SST's, El Nino, Stratospheric cooling in Nov resulting in positive AO, GW all combined to bring a winter that was not only very mild it was dominated by SW/W,lys with blocking hardly ever a feature.

What also made the winter very disappointing is how boring model watching was from Nov to Jan. The signals were that poor even the GFS couldn't produce some stunning FI charts to drool over. This improved from late Jan onwards with the snowfall and more promising FI charts which unfortunately failed to arrive.

Still come next winter my hopes will still be alive but we need to lose this positive phase of AO that we have seen over the past 20 years for a starter!.

[jimted]

I think I had about 2 days of frost and 1/2 a day of lying snow which was gone by lunchtime and it was only about 1 cm anyway lol the worst winter here in my memory tho im only 17

[Stu_London]

It's been an interesting season, albeit disappointing for people looking for sustained cold and snow.

The remarkable thing about this winter has been the power of the jet and atlantic no doubt fired up by El Nino conditions prevailing for most of the season. I can't remember such a sustained hammering of deep lows (sub 970s) smashing into the UK as we have had especially in December, but also at times during the rest of the season. What has made it more stormy is that the jet was slightly further south than atlantic dominated winters that I can remember clearly, which meant that depressions ran straight into the UK more often than not rather than the corridor between NW Scotland and Iceland as one would normally expect.

Good news for those suffering from the 2 year drought, although in the south east of the UK these problems are as much to do with infrastructure as lack of rainfall.

Despite the jet being positioned ever so slightly south, the season was once again in the exceptionally mild category, although after the record breaking autumn which left the UK surrounded by anomolous SSTs, it would have needed a quite severe early cold spell for these to have cooled sufficiently to affect the air being modified as it came off the sea masses around us. These SSTs themselves would have contributed to the recurring zonal pattern.

The season was notable for the lack of mid atlantic and greenland blocking. It would be interesting to see presure anomolies for these locations for the season. As a result, there was not a single arctic origin northerly event (by which i mean 1-2 day minimum) throughout which in itself much be quite a rare event.

As with any UK winter, the stats themselves do not tell the whole story. Central London recorded laying snow on two separate occasions in the winter, which is the first time I have recorded this since I started taking notice in 2000. On the second occasion, this was due to a widespread frontal snow event from the south west which is a rare event these days and something which some people had written off as an impossibility in the modern day winter.

Wrong forum but: Does all of this add up to AGW?

Possibly, certainly global temperatures have risen in the last 20 years but my feeling remains that much more data is required before any conclusions can be drawn and also that other external factors exert a lot more influenece that people realise.

[Thunder Snow]

1 week of frosts, but no snow

Edited March 4, 2007 by Thunder Snow

[Kent Snow]

This winter has been very poor for myself personally. One spell of frontal snow in Feb which had all gone by the next day, and a dusting in Jan.

Plus frosts have been rare this winter too.

[Derbyshire_snow]

The worst winter if you can call it that ever

[Bobby]

Horrific. Apart from the 7 inches of snow we had in early Feb.

[Mark Bayley]

This winter has been bad with hardly any snow or frosts. However we did see some of our heavyest snowfall for some areas for some years in febuary. So i surpose it could of been worst.

Edited March 4, 2007 by mark bayley

[Don]

Very, very poor Winter. Although in terms of snow fall there have been a fair few worse. However, the lying snow melted so quickly it hardly counted for anything! One thing I did find interesting about the Winter was that although it was nearly record breakingly mild, the continued trend for increased snowfall seemed to continue, as it wasn't as snowless (in my area anyway) as Winters 1997/98, 1998/99 or 1999/00 etc.

Still looks pretty grim for future Winters.

[cheeky_monkey]

wet very mild..sunless

my temps are as follows:

dec = 7.4c, jan = 8.8c, feb = 8.1c

just 2 air frosts

no snow cover or snow falling...in fact not one snow flake

easily the worst in terms of cold and snow in my area in my memory!!

[Stuart]

mild and wet

[grab my graupel]

Isn't this just the same as the winter whingeing thread but under a different title :lol:

I liked the spot by Ian Brown regards the winter being summery, When the title should

read Summary :unsure:

Anyway, I like most on here have been very frustrated and dissapointed by this winter.

I expected a mild/average start to the winter, but I firmly believed that the second

part of the season would deliver, and would give all of us something to remember.

However watching each model run everyday became increasingly frustrating as

the Polar Vortex became established over Greenland and showed no real signs of

moving, and with that, there was never Going to be any blocking to the North.

Along with a Raging Jet driven by steep temp gradients and low after low steaming

in from the Atlantic, and for much of time a strong Euro High, the cold was as far away

as possible, for a huge chunk of the winter.

When eventually the synoptics became a little more favourable for something a little colder

they were always transitory and we never had a single occasion where real Blocking

was able to establish itself long enough for a proper sustained blast, which resulted in

a serious lack of General cold and Snowfall for Much of the Country.

My total snowfall for this winter was 2cms, and I believe some didn't have any Snow at all.

Lets hope that Next winter isn't as Depressing

Brian.

[Mr Sleet]

winter crap but the double whammy of snow 8-9 feb was ace. but only one cold spell with snow from Nov 15th ish to mid March PATHETIC :unsure:

i hope our future winters are not gonna be completely zonal and westerly dominated with CC and GW etc

Fear not, the recent IPCC report (for policy makers) states the following "However, the observed changes in the Northern

Hemisphere circulation are larger than simulated in response to 20th century forcing change."

Basically meaning that the positive average NAO for the last 20 years ( coinciding with winter going awol in our part of the world) is not explained by global warming forcings.

http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf

[Summer of 95]

Winter here lasted all of 3 days, the rest of the quarter was almost unrelentingly mild with as few airfrosts as I can remember in any winter. Still the winter quarter we actually had more snow (lying) than last year when we had to wait till March for any decent falls!

Date of first snowfall was latest for years, as I've said before I don't remember a single flake falling in 1991/2 (hence that year appears in the sig) but if there was a flurry at 4am say that December it's the latest since who knows when.

[nick sussex]

On snowfall alone not too bad with two notable snowfalls of over 5cms, but this didnt last long and there were no lovely crisp sunny days with snow lying to enjoy this. In terms of temps very mild and completely forgettable with very few air frosts. So overall extremely poor and not helped by the relentless rain.

The lack of any proper cold has been remarkable and in my memory the worst winter since 1988/1989, not helped by my friends in Canada having just reported the coldest february there on the eastern side for nearly 20 years and as of last night temps down to -20, apparently some records were broken over in the ne usa and eastern canada yesterday which just annoys me even more. There is cold out there in the northern hemisphere except it refuses to grace these shores.

The uk, the land that cold forgot!

Edited March 7, 2007 by nick sussex

[Greyowl]

Unless we get an unlikely fall of snow in FI 2 days of snow that didn't even last a whole day won't be a year to remember for me. Then again if the talk of AGW is correct we may start to think on this one as a good winter.

[Guest Mike W]

What's remarkable is that the winter of 2006 Russia or was it even Europe, but at least Russia had it's coldest winter since 1947 and normally when that happen's we used to follow and get a notably cold and snowy winter at the same time, not anymore it would seem. If Europe getting it's coldest winter since 1947 can't deliver then any chance we had of getting a snowy winter has to be dead and buried, well certainly for the forseeable future.

[mackerel sky]

Pretty naff here. The most disappointing bit was having to wait until late January to see any snow. I wouldn't have minded so much if February had been a blinder. So two snowfall events separated by a fortnight, reasonable as they were 2inches and 5inches. Would have been nice if both events had been followed up by cold settled weather rather than the Atlantic roaring back in. A longer period of snowcover would have created the illusion is was better than it was.

Poor, even by recent standards.

[Bottesford]

Well mildness has kept the bills down and made cycling to work much more pleasent - hat & gloves a rarity this winter in complete contrast to last winter. But the relentless rain has been pretty dire - despite how useful its been in staving off drought.

However, the lack of sunshine has been the biggest issue for me this winter. Through most of December I bearly saw it at all - in fact there was a 3 week period with not one glimmer of sunlight. It's also meant I've been unable to get my telescope out in what is normally the best season for it (if well wrapped up!).

So, in summary:

Positives-

- Lower fuel bills

- Less harsh mornings (easier to get up when not as cold & easier to cycle in)

- Plenty of water for reservoirs

- More pleasent sitting in the semi heated pub garden (our local spills into the garden at all times of the year!)

- Exciting wind storms altho a little dangerous

Negatives-

- Lack of sunshine/clear skies (much harder to get up, more depressing, can't do astronomy)

- Too much rain which is no fun for going out in (worse than severe cold)

- Little snow

- Lots of whinging on here!

- Realisation that GW is definitely real...

Overall I'd prefer last winter simply due to the clearer skies. However, I'd ideally like some short (1 week) *severe* cold spells with ooodles of snow in an overall average winter (so including very mild spells too). A very variable winter basically...

[mackerel sky]

- Realisation that GW is definitely real...

Looking forward to that documentary on Channel 4 tomorrow night "The Great Global Warming Swindle". I've read a few articles in EOS which show the warming since the mid 1980s has little to do with increasing CO2 emissions. Should be an interesting watch.

[Thundery wintry showers]

However, I'd ideally like some short (1 week) *severe* cold spells with ooodles of snow in an overall average winter (so including very mild spells too). A very variable winter basically...

The more I hear your views, the more I get the impression I have a lot more in common with you than I first realised- I think that's pretty close to what I'd think of as an ideal winter.

Certainly, 'lack of variety' and, particularly for the last two-thirds of February, 'lack of sunshine' are phrases that I think let this winter down somewhat in the North East, though I think we did rather better for sunshine than Nottingham in December and to a lesser extent January. December had 50% above average sunshine here, yet most other regions had a dull month.

[mackerel sky]

I think we did rather better for sunshine than Nottingham in December and to a lesser extent January. December had 50% above average sunshine here, yet most other regions had a dull month.

I get the impression that the East Midlands has been above averagely dull at times this winter. Particularly January. I was away for much of December so I can't comment on that. Many times my mum has said what lovely sunny days they'd had in the NE and we hadn't seen the sun for best part of a week.

[Bottesford]

The more I hear your views, the more I get the impression I have a lot more in common with you than I first realised- I think that's pretty close to what I'd think of as an ideal winter.

Certainly, 'lack of variety' and, particularly for the last two-thirds of February, 'lack of sunshine' are phrases that I think let this winter down somewhat in the North East, though I think we did rather better for sunshine than Nottingham in December and to a lesser extent January. December had 50% above average sunshine here, yet most other regions had a dull month.

Well glad someone agrees with me! I can cope with lack of variety when it means lots of sunshine - especially in summer. I think we may differ there since my ideal summer consists of reliable hot sunshine throughout. The odd dramatic thunderstorm to damp things down is very welcome though but I'd certainly rather keep the dry & hot theme going. Winter needs variety as it needs something to make it less depressing - consistantly cloudy weather is really bad for peoples moods.