Your Ideal Late Jan-March Weather

[Optimus Prime]

Craig Evans makes the Metoffice look good at long range forecasting.

[❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️]

I've only just seen this thread. I probably don't need to go into too much detail, as anyone who has been on here for a while will know.

Let's summarise by saying 1947 amounts of snow throughout Feb' and March, an April like early April 1917 followed by a desperately slow thaw into late June.

July and August the temp' climbs to around 10c with frequent rain and gales before mid- September sees the first snows of next winter arriving.

It would make my job as a gardener a bit challenging and do my finances no good at all but I'd freeze to death a happy soul.

Have you thought about moving to Barrow, Alaska or other such places?!

Edited January 17, 2010 by RAIN RAIN RAIN

[Derp Patrol]

Idealy, after a long and unusual period of cold weather like we have just had, I would like a very mild set up with sswerlies bringing in temps of 13-15C in the south. After a week of that, returning to colder conditions with sunny days in an anticyclone set up. One final heavy snowfall at around the 10th-15th February (after this date it usually becomes very marginal in this area as it is starting to warm up, and with the days getting noticeably longer and the sun strengthening, it doesn't lie around for long.) Following this, a period like the second half of Feb 2009 would be great, mild and sunny. Going into March, temps approaching 17C with sunny days, and then by the end of the month temps widely reaching 20C as the days are now long and mild nights of 10-12C allowing me to feel comfortable wearing a T-shirt. Into April and a few thunderstorms would be nice, keeping the warm weather. By the end of April, warm/hot southerlies bringing the first 25C of the year and the beginning of a long, hot summer with 0mm rainfall apart from the odd thunderstorm. Plenty of days reaching 30C and the odd day reaching 35C. During the night, temps retreating no lower than 18C - so no need to take the shorts off! By the end of September, the first signs of Autumn begin to kick in.

I'm hard to please

Edited January 17, 2010 by robthefool

[damianslaw]

For children and adults alike who love the snow, probably the best scenario is for the first 10 days or so of Feb bringing heavy spells of snow, and then for a cold anticyclone overhead to develop in time for the half term holidays, high pressure oftens comes on the scene during the middle of Feb lasting towards the months end, and often it is of the cold variety.

[Milhouse]

Idealy, after a long and unusual period of cold weather like we have just had, I would like a very mild set up with sswerlies bringing in temps of 13-15C in the south. After a week of that, returning to colder conditions with sunny days in an anticyclone set up. One final heavy snowfall at around the 10th-15th February (after this date it usually becomes very marginal in this area as it is starting to warm up, and with the days getting noticeably longer and the sun strengthening, it doesn't lie around for long.) Following this, a period like the second half of Feb 2009 would be great, mild and sunny. Going into March, temps approaching 17C with sunny days, and then by the end of the month temps widely reaching 20C as the days are now long and mild nights of 10-12C allowing me to feel comfortable wearing a T-shirt. Into April and a few thunderstorms would be nice, keeping the warm weather. By the end of April, warm/hot southerlies bringing the first 25C of the year and the beginning of a long, hot summer with 0mm rainfall apart from the odd thunderstorm. Plenty of days reaching 30C and the odd day reaching 35C. During the night, temps retreating no lower than 18C - so no need to take the shorts off! By the end of September, the first signs of Autumn begin to kick in.

I'm hard to please

You've just summed up my perfect Spring/Summer too. A repeat of Spring last year would be great, followed by a summer like 2003 or 2006. Fairly simple really.

[Rollo]

Ideal weather would be.

Rest of Jan- Easterly, with big snow showers

Feb- Same

March-Same

April+ Warm and sunny

Sounds good to me!!

[*AL*]

I'd like an unusually warm winter so i can get out on my R1 , plenty of summer storms too.

[mcweather]

The best late jan to march weather was called the winter of 1947

[Jamie.]

Cold HP weather with regular snowfall from passing fronts N and S of UK.

Then from April - very warm with thunderstorms.

[Thundery wintry showers]

If I could choose a first five months of the year made up from past months, we would have: January 1958, February 1970, March 1995, April 1990, May 1948.

Restricting it to recent years (1993-2010) we'd have January 2010 (I think the 1st-9th of this month makes it certain to beat anything since before 1993), February 1996, and then 1995 would take a clean sweep of the spring months.

[HotCuppa]

I truly hate the heat of the summer in Britain. Give me the coldest times anyday of the year and Id be very happy. Jan - Mar should be like Minnesota or Michigan, very very cold and deep snow piles.

Have you thought about moving to Barrow, Alaska or other such places?!

Barrow Alaska has been unually mild this past 12 months, snows did not come until late on.

[SouthernSnow]

Its starting to get cold again here

[Stargazer]

If I could choose a first five months of the year made up from past months, we would have: January 1958, February 1970, March 1995, April 1990, May 1948.

Restricting it to recent years (1993-2010) we'd have January 2010 (I think the 1st-9th of this month makes it certain to beat anything since before 1993), February 1996, and then 1995 would take a clean sweep of the spring months.

...and the rest of the year too for me

[Derp Patrol]

From the 00s: January 2010, February 2009, March 2002, April 2007, May 2008, June 2006, July 2006, August 2003, September 2006

[Thundery wintry showers]

...and the rest of the year too for me

Aye, that was definitely my favourite year for weather- and I can't find a single year in the archives that looks like it might have been as good from my perspective.

[kold weather]

I think the best year in that respect though would have to be 1947, it would take some doing to beat that year when it comes to weather events, severe long lasting snowy cold spell, then a very wet March indeed with some very noteable wintry events in the first half, then powerful storms and flooding for the second half, then a nice varied April. May saw a very strong heatwave in the backend of the month and one of the warmest May's on record still.

The whole of the summer was very warm/hot with 34C being reached on two seperate hot spells, also a very dry and very sunny August so nearly an ideal summer, with occasional thundery breakdowns, followed by an Indian summer in the Autumn with a warm September, a very dry spell kicked in for October leading to one of the driest October's for the south, followed by a very sunny November with some good contrasts in temperatures. The only month that doesn't really have anything of real note is December!

Overall that year must have been heavily dominated by Europe, I'd have thought that year is the closest we've come to a continental climate in the country, though 2006 probably is a modern comparison, though the winter wasn't all that impressive in terms of cold at least.

[smarty81]

Thats it, now no more snow for me, that would be good, 2 weeks of the stuff in any winter is more than enough, cant work when it's on the ground and the dog just wants to run and run in the stuff, no give me the odd frost and the occasional westerley blow.

Some of you that wish for arctic weather must have deep pockets to pay those heating bills, or are snug and warm in a centrally heated office, whilst the rest of us!!

Thank You!!

[Thundery wintry showers]

Some of you that wish for arctic weather must have deep pockets to pay those heating bills, or are snug and warm in a centrally heated office, whilst the rest of us!!

Thank You!!

Again a bit more tolerance of other views would be nice.

I agree about 1947 having been a very exceptional year which had pretty much everything. The main reason why I don't quote it as my favourite year from the archives is because I'd almost certainly find a two-month combination like Feb/Mar 1947 rather too extreme, particularly as it was also combined with a marked sunshine deficiency for most parts of the country. But I would certainly enjoy a repeat of April through November 1947. It's a shame the WZ reanalysis only goes back to 1948 as it would be interesting to see how cold/warm those uppers were during the contrasting episodes of 1947.

Edit: another possible candidate may be 1955, which had that "Operation Snowdrop" in January/February separated by a mild interlude in late Jan/early Feb. A cold bright snowy March followed, then a warm dry sunny April, then a mixed May with a Fen dust blow early on, and then widespread snowfalls around the 14th-18th. After a cool cloudy June for southern areas, summer really took off from July to September, with one of the sunniest Julys on record (probably second over the UK as a whole only to 2006), and August was particularly warm. There was a dry sunny varied October with contrasting temperatures. November turned out mild and anticyclonic with not a lot of note, but then December 1955 had heavy snowfalls in the north interspersed with mild interludes.

Edited January 21, 2010 by Thundery wintry showers

[Summer of 95]

Regarding 1947, it does seem to have been a truly exceptional year; however I'm not sure I'd have been too keen on the endless rain that seems to have been the story for the second half of March, at least in the south. If anything I'd prefer the flooding to come BEFORE the snow, with dry sunny weather after it.

The one summer I can find in the archives that I would love to have experienced is 1959; it seems to have been sunny, warm and dry almost without a break from May to mid-October, but never too hot- mostly in the mid-20s. Rather that than 3 days around 30C followed by weeks of rain, then another 3 hot days!

As for Jan-Mar, a mixture of snow and cold, clear anticyclonic weather would do it for me, with it warming up in the sunshine towards the end of March.

[sunny scunny]

Ideal weather would be.

Rest of Jan- Easterly, with big snow showers

Feb- Same

March-Same

April+ Warm and sunny

Same here