The Whining Thread

[LomondSnowstorm]

I second (or fourth) Norrance's whine - everything good so far but no real biggie yet.

[Neilsouth]

Deeper , deeper !

[Summer of 95]

Same story here- except unlike the East Anglians we missed virtually all the snow before New Year too. Currently on 7 days of snow lying (only 1 in December), but the greatest depth only 3cm. In that regard it has just beaten so far the great Arctic winter of 2001/02 (7 days snow lying, greatest depth 2cm)- hardly the worst for 30 years I'd say

The temps have been noteworthy, yes, but no more so than in 2000/1, 1996/7, 1995/6, 1990/1- it'll only be anywhere near a "true" cold winter if we a) see at least 10cm of snow at some point and have a cold February (Remember 1996/7: cold late December, cold January, minging mild wet February). Yes it's better than many 90s/00s winters, but thus far not comparable to 1963!

[paul tall]

You really have been unlucky mate.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that somehow you get a good pasting over the next few days.

[Mullet]

Aaaaaargh missed all the showers again this morning, and now the main event for my region is going to bring us, wait for it, 3cm tops. Kent the place to be once more.

What's most frustrating is seeing those west, north and south of us getting hammered no more than 30-40 miles away while we sit watching endless blue sky and slow dripping.

Abiding memory of this once in a generation cold spell - utter frustration. Bring on the Bartlett!

Edited January 9, 2010 by Mullet

[paul tall]

What's most frustrating is seeing those west, north and south of us getting hammered no more than 30-40 miles away while we sit watching endless blue sky and slow dripping.

Take heart from the fact that those people 30-40 miles away will be lying about their snow depths, so you won't really be missing out on what you think you are.

I heard it was impossible to get more than 5cm dahn sarf.

[Mullet]

Take heart from the fact that those people 30-40 miles away will be lying about their snow depths, so you won't really be missing out on what you think you are.

I heard it was impossible to get more than 5cm dahn sarf.

Ha yeah I suppose you're right.Good job we don't get any more snow really, the way the news reports ramp it up as soon as a few cms hit south of Watford!

[DaBrigg]

I have seen new low temp records smashed, snow-covered frozen canals, and major disruption, all within ten miles of here. BUT, absolutely nothing of note happened here, where it matters, IMBY!!!!!!!

Its never great living on the Irish Sea coast, with sea to my east and north. The sea warms the air too much, even under very cold upper air. However, to make matters worse, time and time again this week, I watched heavy showers, sometimes thundery, slip by me, literally by a few miles.

I must be in the only place in Eastern Ireland with no snow cover, literally!

A few showers of graupel, and some very light snow flurries resulted in a snow-like covering almost 1cm deep, at the very best, but that can happen from a heavy shower on a cool April afternoon!

I have never found reading other peoples' post so depressing. A memorable winter event is occuring a few miles all around me, but not IMBY!!!

Edited January 10, 2010 by DaBrigg

[conor123]

North, East, South & West have all had more snow than Shropshire, the fact Tuesdays/Wednesdays weather system will probably stall about 30 miles west of here is just another slap in the face.

Even the dire winter of 2006-2007 gave a snow event 50 times better, and it looks like for those of us with Seasonal Affective Disorder this week couldn't be any worse, anticylonic gloom only without the anticylonic haha.

I know ive moaned a lot in this thread but people go on and on about comparing this to 1963 when it's just been pretty much the same as the cold spell late December/Early January last year for here, lots of cold days and a few very weak snow events.

[I remember '63]

It seems hilarious when people compare this to 1963 - the snow stayed around until the beginning of March.

I realise that some people have had heavy falls and there have of course been low temperatures but for my locality near Loughborough we have had very little snow. So not all that memorable I'm afraid.

[paul tall]

63 was mega exceptional with 2 months snow cover, but do not forget some of us are nearly at a month in this spell.

[Let_it_snow]

Ok, no one will probably read this but i will say it anyway. I have been a member on this site for a few years and I only post in Winter as that is my weather preference. I only post on threads that i can post on like the chat threads that have been set up for the different regions. I never post on the technical threads as although i understand what is being talked about I do not undersatnd how the experts forcast what is going to happen as it is far too complex for me and tbh I just like reading what they have to say.

Before this cold snap happened it was excellent, i could read through expert opinions of what was going to happen and it was all very interesting/exciting. At the moment....and this is my moan.....the general model discussion thread has been ruined by people who dont know enough about how things are going to pan out. I think this has stopped some of the more knowledgable members posting there. Maybe im wrong but now i read the thread and I have to pile through loads of crap before finding something that I actually want to read. I know this is an open forum but I feel that the threads that actually give value are being ruined and I wish people would just stick to threads that is at there level and leave the experts get on with what they do best.

I know this will not be seen by any of the experts in here but tbh i cant wait for this cold spell to go away so I can get excited when all these random posters have gone away and I can look forward to the next cold spell that no one knows about!

Because of these random posters i really do not have a clue about what is going to happen over the next week or even the next couple of days, maybe i should find a less popular site which is filled with quality and not quantity!

[Thundery wintry showers]

Your issues are of the kind that come up every winter- it's a fiendishly difficult problem to address as there's a fine line between keeping all the drivel out of there and being seen to be too elitist.

If you're really finding it tough in there and just want to know what the 'experts' think about the upcoming weather, the forecasters' blogs may be useful. Nick F and John Holmes have both produced pretty detailed outlooks recently, Nick focusing on the short term and John on the long term.

[conor123]

Telford in the dry gap whilst the rest of the Midlands gets a pasting, ive been shocked by the rubbishness for snow so far this cold spell but this is 50 times worse.

[Let_it_snow]

Your issues are of the kind that come up every winter- it's a fiendishly difficult problem to address as there's a fine line between keeping all the drivel out of there and being seen to be too elitist.

If you're really finding it tough in there and just want to know what the 'experts' think about the upcoming weather, the forecasters' blogs may be useful. Nick F and John Holmes have both produced pretty detailed outlooks recently, Nick focusing on the short term and John on the long term.

Dont suppose you have the links for those blogs, as i cant find them!

[weathernewbie]

Thank goodnews the cold snap (for most) is largely coming to an end this week.

Largely speaking most places have not had anything comparable to the 60's years, and yet its been over dramatised as if the new ice age had arrived.

If the councils actually spread a bit of grit about, and people didn't drive like morons, all would be fine.

The other thing annoying me is the "met office", which has become largely impotent.

I may as well write the Met Office long range summer, autumn, and winter outlook for 2010 now.

"Summer temerpatures are expected to be near, average, or just above, or below average, with wet periods, dry periods, some sunshine, and some hot spells".

"Autumn is expected to be wetter than average, or around average, or just over average, as well as a similar thing for temperature, and wind"

"Winter is expected to be less cold than 09/10, but is likely to include some cold spells, temperatures will be average, or just below average, or maybe just above average, or even average, with spells expected of snow, sleet, rain, hail, lightening, and wind".

AND NEWSFLASH WARNING!!! IT MIGHT Snow somewhere in the UK, so be prepared! Yellow Alert! More ambiguous details to follow. :lol: :lol: :unsure:

Excellent value for Tax Payers money! Met Office can also give Astrology readings Apparantly.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Dont suppose you have the links for those blogs, as i cant find them!

You can access them directly from Net-Weather under "Netweather Forecaster blogs", or use this link:

http://forum.netweather.tv/forum/85-netweather-forecaster-blogs/

I could whine about how sunshine will be at a premium for the foreseeable future with a good deal of slush, but I've been spoilt over the last three weeks with easily the longest spell of "sunshine and snow showers" (the holy grail in winter as far as I'm concerned) since I started observing the weather, so can't really justify complaining.

As is often the case I think the attack on the Met Office is OTT, though I agree that their recent seasonal forecasts have oozed "sitting on the fence". It reminds me of a media forecast that Shuggee once posted for Edinburgh, which went like this: "It will be cloudy but some sunshine might come through, and although it may be dry, there may be a little bit of rain".

[kernowman]

WeatherNewbie, your Met Office prediction is spot on. They are a joke to be honest.

[weathernewbie]

WeatherNewbie, your Met Office prediction is spot on. They are a joke to be honest.

Indeed, they are in my opinion useless, completely useless. Their predictions and season forecasts are wishy washy, liberal rubbish.

Why can't they just say, this Winter will most likely be colder than last year. I don't need to know the comparison to a 30 year average, or the possibility of what may happen. Utter nonsense. I just need to know if its going to be cold, or milder in their opinion.

EVEN their warnings, cautions, and be prepared rubbish alarts, are all hedge betting, and fence sitting, and healthy and safety driven nonsense!

YET everytime there has been a major weather event, they MISSED IT!

Perhaps if they issued an ALERT every day, they would never be wrong.

So here is my weather warning System.

WARNING!!!! WEATHER ALERT!!!!

WARNING!! BE PREPARED!! TAKE ACTION!! CAUTION! BE ADVISED!! ONLY TRAVEL IF NECESSEARY, OR WANT TOO!

L0CATION: SOMEWHERE IN THE UK, POSSIBLY, MAYBE, PERHAPS.

EXTREME WEATHER LIKELY, POSSIBLY, BELOW AVERAGE, AVERAGE, OR AN ABOVE AVERAGE CHANCE TO HAPPEN.

IT COULD BE SNOW, RAIN, SLEET, FREEZING RAIN, HAIL, ICING ROADS, EXTREME COLD, EXTREME HEAT, FOG, SMOG, MIST, MONSOON, TYPHOON, HURRICANE, TORNADO AND/OR OTHER POSSIBLE WEATHER PHENOMENON NOT YET KNOWN, OR OMITTED FROM THIS LIST.

VALID FROM NOW, UNTIL TOMORROW MORNING, WHEN SAME ALERT WILL BE ISSUED AGAIN.

:( :whistling:

[Paul Sherman]

Well I agree with some of what you say about the Meto but not ALL!

And I believe this Goverment have the Meto in their Pockets with their agendas etc, anyhow that is another subject completely.

Now I dont think the lower tier of their warnings are warranted but the 3 Occasions they have use the "RED ALERT" They have been spot on IMHO

Red Alert In February for London - Result was 1 Foot of Snow and Travel Chaos - Was this warranted well absolutely.

Red Alert In November for Cumbria - Result was continous Rainfall with Loss of Life and Property and Record Daily Rainfall Totals - Was this warranted 100% YES

Red Alert In January for SW London and Hampshire etc - Result was 40cm of Snow and Power Outages etc - Was this warranted 100% YES

So there is a pattern that they have nailed the Red Alerts..........but the usage of Orange "Be Prepared" is totally over the top and serves only as a reminder that travelling etc may become tricky and I think people on here are expecting Impending armegeddon when they see the orange, the reality is nowhere near

Paul S

[LomondSnowstorm]

We've had 25 straight days of snowcover, 23 days when snow fell, a maximum depth of 10 inches (very unusual for Fife to even hold on to 4 for over a day or two) and instead of it going out with a bang, all we get is 3.6C constantly with locally sourced easterlies! Even a nice atlantic storm would be nice!

[conor123]

Whining needed again at the fact that what was looking yesterday like being a decent snow event tommorow night here has now been swapped for Overcast DRY weather whilst yet AGAIN it slides along through Reading towards Kent where there's been the most snow in the past week.

[Gord]

I'm 31 now. i lived on the east coast in Lowestoft during 1987 and 1991. I've seen heavy falls of snow when I lived in Sunderland between 2001 and 2004 and again in Ohio between 2004 and 2006. And now i've been in the West Midlands since 2006 and seen February 2007, April 2008, February 2009 and January 2010...

...and yet, i keep forgetting that after every great fall snow there is this horrible slushy bit we have to go through! Everything is so grey this week...the sky, the ground. However, is it worth paying this price for the snow we had last week?

...of course it is!:lol:

[Yellowbelly]

I'd just like to add my little whinge to one or two I've read about the Model Output thread.

My gripe is with the lack of objectivity of some posters. There really are too many qualifying words used about the charts - 'excellent' 'fantastic' 'poor' 'dreadful' etc. What might be 'excellent' to you could be 'dreadful' to me (I'm a taxi driver), and vice-versa. My opinion is that those who use such words are probably biased in their interpretation, and I try to avoid them, which makes going through the posts more of a grind than it needs to be.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Yes, it's much the same problem as my main gripe with most media forecasts these days, which take a rather different line on what is good and bad, but ram it down everyone's throats at every opportunity. Not only does it make life difficult for those with different views, it can also lead to misinterpretations when people interpret "fantastic" differently to what is really meant by it.

I think a modest amount of it is alright- both in the model threads and the media forecasts- but it becomes troublesome when it gets excessive and rammed down everyone else's throats.

For me, it gets worst in the spring, where the GFS might show a northerly with sunshine and snow showers and high levels of CAPE, and the result is that we get posts talking of the "dreadful" outlook on the GFS, and even comments that it shows a "cold dull drizzly" outlook, fuelled by a confirmation bias that since people have "moved on" from wanting cold and snow, anything cold must be dull and drizzly. The latter is also a classic case of people letting preferences bias their perceptions of what the models show.