Autumn 2011

[Cheese Rice]

Personally I preferred the winter of 2008/2009. Although Nov/Dec 2010 was good I'm not particularly interested in how cold the temperatures are, rather how much snow there was. During the second half of December we only saw about 1cm, accompanying that was regular sub -10.c which while interesting I'd prefer snow over record cold.

The winter of 08/09 was particularly good here as the cold spells were spread out with December brining 15cm of snow lying for over 10 days, and February saw 20-30cm lying for 14 days,

[summer blizzard]

Isn't west based bad for our cold winter prospects, i thought west based indicates a more positive AO, but i am not sure. And i expect that the CFS is overdoing the la nina as other sites suggest much weaker conditions

Quote from paul hudsons blog, During periods of low solar activity (few or no sunspots) an easterly QBO causes a negative AO, but a westerly QBO causes a positive AO. But now we have quite a few sunspots, 97 infact would this change the effect?

Thanks.

Solar flux levels are still fairly low, so a -QBO should translate to a -AO.

Will try find out the different effects of west and east based, can't remember which is the better off the top of my head.

[coldwinter]

Thanks,

[summer blizzard]

Personally I preferred the winter of 2008/2009. Although Nov/Dec 2010 was good I'm not particularly interested in how cold the temperatures are, rather how much snow there was. During the second half of December we only saw about 1cm, accompanying that was regular sub -10.c which while interesting I'd prefer snow over record cold.

The winter of 08/09 was particularly good here as the cold spells were spread out with December brining 15cm of snow lying for over 10 days, and February saw 20-30cm lying for 14 days,

Interesting how our two locations differ despite only being about 10 miles apart and not significantly different in height (place up the road actually gets to 225m).

Winter 2009 for me was good in terms of it was cold and it snowed a fair bit but December did not have snow that stuck around that long for me, though February did see 14cm of snow lying for 16 days.

Winter 2010 was the best for me. The snow did not melt from 18th December to 18th January and on 5th Jan i recorded 29cm of snow, the most i have ever seen.

Last winter was fantastic in terms of cold during late November and December and between the last saturday of November and thursday 2nd December i had 23cm of snow. The rest of the month though was very dry aside from the northerly around the 18th. That said, snow lye for 25 days consecutively.

The 2nd coldest December on record, a phenomenal 5 week period, the likes of which has never been recorded in reliable records for that time period, that would go down in the annals of cold spells, it was colder than the fabled January 1940, record date minima falling like nine pins, coldest November-December period since 1878 and some people are still not satisified?! And incidentally, there was only 1 month out of the winter 2010-2011 that was mild. January was not a mild month.

I couldn't give two hoots, it was pear-shaped no matter how many people harp on about it. Just be grateful, you lived through one of the most remarkable cold spells ever. Because that's what it was. Remember, people were questioning even if you could get a 4 week period that was sub 1C only 4 years ago. Get over it and move on!

Agreed, pear shaped or not the cold spell was nothing less than phenominal and Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland all recorded their coldest MONTH on record. An anomoly of -5.8C against the 1971-2000 is something i do not think anybody thought would happen and in January or February would have delivered a CET of -1.6C.

Even February was not that bad here, a full day of snow and a full day of sleet.

[Ladyofthestorm]

Autumn is looking a tad interesting, if the GFS outputs are anything to go by. September looks increasingly unsettled and potentially quite stromt as the atlantic looks set to move up a gear or The CFS is going for a genral trend of unsettled in North and slightly more settled in the south which is closer to that area of high pressure.

We are kind of sandwiched bewteen High pressure over Greenland and over South Europe, with low pressures being hurled in our direction.

Some Nly out breaks likely though as both areas of high pressure join for short times.

I must admit I would prefer a stormy winter with brief Nly outbreaks... the extreme cold is a pain in the ice.

Edited August 27, 2011 by Ladyofthestorm

[Weather-history]

Winter 2009 for me was good in terms of it was cold and it snowed a fair bit but December did not have snow that stuck around that long for me, though February did see 14cm of snow lying for 16 days.

.

Winter 2008-09 was basically 3 cold spells. First half of December, that had some wintry weather. Post Christmas-early January which was largely anticyclonic and the real snowy spell of that winter of the first half of February.

People were complaining about the lack of snow during January 2011, I don't recall a lot of snow during January 2009, to be honest. It was hardly a snowfest. So people saying that it was a better winter than 2010-11 because the cold spells were spread out, their arguments are pretty weak to be honest because you really needed height for the first cold spell in December, there was little snow during the second cold spell which left the first half of February which incidentally went pear-shaped which could be one of the most pear-shaped months ever! What irony!!

Edited August 27, 2011 by Mr_Data

[summer blizzard]

Winter 2008-09 was basically 3 cold spells. First half of December, that had some wintry weather. Post Christmas-early January which was largely anticyclonic and the real snowy spell of that winter of the first half of February.

People were complaining about the lack of snow during January 2011, I don't recall a lot of snow during January 2009, to be honest. It was hardly a snowfest.

I quite liked January 2009 and January 2011, it was December 2009 that i barely remember other than an occasional northerly. Jan 09 for me was my first real experience of cold zonality, so for me it was good to see that it produced east of the Pennines. Jan 11 had 2 fronts and a couple of showers coupled with dry and sunny weather, a nice month overall (winter 06 esq).

Looking back at the historical records and seeing these events that produce 30cm in one fall, i have realised in recent winters that they are rarer than made out to be (they stick out because they were relatively rare) because most single falls here have been less than 10cm (barring 5th Jan 10 and 31st Dec 03). It is possible to get great snow depths, but i now realise that they require several falls building up.

A standout memory of last winter for me is the recorded snow depths in Northumberland at 1m+.

[A Winter's Tale]

Winter 2008/2009 was pretty good, but the following winter and 2010/2011 beat it many, many, many miles. I seem to have a place for 2008/2009 because it was the snowiest and coldest winter in a while, however our first really decent snowfall was in Feb 2009 and even so, we had to wait til around the 7th/8th for our first really decent snowfall. There were a number of snowfalls that did bring some accumilations of a cm at most or a dusting. In my opinion, the winters of 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 are better than 2008/2009 because there were plenty of decent snowfalls (particulary December 1999 which was a notably snowy winter in parts of Scotland).

[Optimus Prime]

The second half of February 2009 was dreadful. Dull, extremely mild (warmest second half February in my records at 8.2c) and lifeless. The first half had some good snow but nothing that cold with an absolute minimum of -4.2c. December 2009 (-6.8c min), January 2010 (-8.8c min) and way more especially December 2010 (-12.1c min) were far more productive for cold. Even November 2010 managed a lower minimum at -4.4c.

[Harry444]

Well, here in Greater Manchester, we had some very harsh snowfalls in December 2008 (on the 1st and 3rd), then we had a pretty good light covering on New years,

then we had a moderate covering on something like mid January (somewhere between 10th and 15th I think, which caused traffic chaos in the afternoon) then the snow from that spell remained until it finally thawed on the 25th (apart from what I think snow patches remained on the Southern Pennine Hills nearby from the December spell), then of course we had All the February snowfall. Wouldn't be surprised odd snow patch on the hills survived the first cold of the winter in December all the way to the final thaw in early March.

From my point of view hear in the North West anyway, 2008/2009 was the best out of this recent cold winter cycle, due to its cold consistency.

2009/10 might have been a little more severe, the December 2009 cold spell was equal to February, and the January 2010 spell was even worse, But then of course we had a very mild february ...

2010/2011 was pretty similar to 2009/10, perhaps a bit calmer.

[Summer Sun]

Those hoping for a cold snowy winter could be disappointed,

Brian Gaze of TWO say's there's a chance of a mild winter

1) A mild winter overall (I know many people disagree with this)

2) A sharp or severe cold outbreak within ~6 weeks

Still time for change yet but Brian's LFR's have a fairly good record.

[Cheese Rice]

There is surprising variation between relatively short spaces. For example the 2nd/3rd of February 09 brought 20CM lying on all surfaces, while Leeds Bradford Airport reported 30-35cm on all surfaces, here 25-30cm was achieved on the grass. So while that spell of snow brought deeper depth, the 5th December 2010 spell of snow saw 20cm on the ground, while your area saw 29cm.

Anyway the screen shots I posted are from LBA weather station which might be of interest..

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/EGNM/2011/8/27/MonthlyHistory.html

[coldwinter]

But did brian actually say that, i thought what he said is that anomalous warmth in north western europe in september causes milder winters, isn't september looking average to below average for north western europe.

Ryan.

[Summer Sun]

But did brian actually say that, i thought what he said is that anomalous warmth in north western europe in september causes milder winters, isn't september looking average to below average for north western europe.

Ryan.

Yes he did write it,

1) A mild winter overall (I know many people disagree with this)

2) A sharp or severe cold outbreak within ~6 weeks

Other indicators are the usual suspects - October dry and warm, solar activity, anomalous warmth / cold during the preceding 12 months or so, recent winters, ENSO etc. Probability is a factor too (again many won't like this), 3 successive cold winters increases (not decreases) the chance of the next one being cold. Imagine you are throwing a weighted coin...for 20 years successive years it lands heads, so you'd reasonably conclude the odds of a landing a head are higher than a tail. So on the 21st year you'd start off by thinking there's a higher probability of another head. Likewise, 3 tails on the bounce, and you'd start to increasingly think something in the weighting of the coin had changed, and the chance of another tail would be higher. This is applicable to the weather because the weather isn't 'random', it just appears that way because of lack of data and understanding of the current starting position. So if you were issuing a winter lrf now, and you were purely guessing (ignoring all other available information) this would be a better than average year to guess cold. Much better actually.

http://www.theweathe...5212#post195212

[coldwinter]

No but isn't he saying that the forthcoming winter would be mild IF there was anomalous warmth in september.

Ryan.

[Cheese Rice]

Some pictures from the December 3rd 2008 cold spell.

Snowy Morning 4-12-08-2 by Ackers- Schoolboy Hero!!!!, on Flickr

And taken at 6am in my garden, it didn't stop snowing till 10am, with intermittent snow from 10am onwards.

And the morning of February 3rd 2009, showing the depth on the the table....

Edited August 27, 2011 by Cheese Rice

[Weather-history]

Well, here in Greater Manchester, we had some very harsh snowfalls in December 2008 (on the 1st and 3rd), then we had a pretty good light covering on New years,

From my point of view hear in the North West anyway, 2008/2009 was the best out of this recent cold winter cycle, due to its cold consistency.

2009/10 might have been a little more severe, the December 2009 cold spell was equal to February, and the January 2010 spell was even worse, But then of course we had a very mild february ...

2010/2011 was pretty similar to 2009/10, perhaps a bit calmer.

Hi Harry, I'm from Greater Manchester but I don't really agree though with your thoughts. Winter 2009-10 was a much productive winter for cold and snow than 2008-09 was. The cold lasted into early March whilst it ended mid February 2009. We had more lying days of snow during the winter of 2009-10 and 2010-11 than we did during winter 2008-09. Even taking in altitude I think this would still hold true. I remember seeing snow patches on the Pennines during March 2010 that had been there since December 2009

The Manchester Winter Indices for 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 were 105, 197 and 119 respectively. The higher the value the more significant the winter was in terms of cold and snow.

[damianslaw]

We have not had record breaking winter after record breaking winter. To call a winter "severe" it really needs a CET of less than 2*C, which has not happened since 1978-79.

This is more the case of winters from 1988-2008 in terms of mild, the large majority of these winters were either in the top ten warmest winters ever, or if not at this level overall still had long spells of very mild Barlettised, polar vortex south-westerlies. Certainly the vast majority of winters from 1988-2008 were devoid of any significant spells of proper cold synoptics, and any brief cold spells were from mid-latitude Rex blocks creating an inverted cold. You only have to look back at records, I cannot see any 20 year period with winters like most of them were from 1988 to 2008.

Winter 2008-09 had a CET of 3.5, and cold spells were also reasonably spread through the winter, which by recent standards would be seen as cold but by historical standards it was almost average. Given the standards of most UK winters since 1988, winter 2008-09 is a winter that myself was happy with and most others would be. Winter 08-09 was cold for around half of it, and there was even some cold zonality in the second half of January which did deliver snow to higher parts at least. To get a winter that is cold for half of it, with cold spread through the winter is still a big improvement to me on 2010-11.

Winter 2010-11 had the exceptional early freeze up, but it had an overall CET of far from severe at 3.1*C, and was the most extreme case since records began (the most pear shaped winter on record), of a winter having an early cold spell that deteriorated into nothing, and more so even before December was out. Take the period 1st - 27th Dec 2010 out of the equation, and winter 2010-11 has a CET of 5.0, not the 3.1 that it ended up; with just the first 27 days removed from 90 days of winter.

Judging by the above, you can also say that winter 2010-11 was largely mild with little cold synoptics and snow for its large part (over two months), and more typical of many winters in the 1990s and 2000s. There have been other pear shaped winters, like 1996-97, 1917-18, 1925-26, 1927-28 etc, but none of these were at the extremity of how pear shaped 2010-11 winter was. Just in the same way that winter 1683-1684 is remarkable for being the coldest UK winter ever, winter 2010-11 was equally the most remarkable winter for how pear shaped it was.

In the last three winters winter 2009-10 was certainly cold overall, and by all means would be seen as a good cold overall winter for most, but even then it still wasn't severe overall with a CET of 2.4.

Looking back, in the 1910s, 1920s, it was a bad time for pear shaped winters, there were three in an 11 year period.

Looking at ENSO, I am really dreading a strong La Nina this winter, as strong La Ninas are now becoming a stuck record, like the mild winters from 1988-2008; two of the last four winters have seen a strong La Nina, and it is now strengthening now and some forecasts are predicting another strong La Nina this winter. Will it ever end, and will we see a neutral ENSO winter again? A weak La Nina would be OK, some in the past have delivered a decent winter, but if La Nina gets too strong, then I am dreading this meaning another mild 2007-08 type winter, or a pear shaped winter in similar fashion to 2010-11.

Granted last winter was one of two distinct halves. Dec freezing cold, Jan quite average conditions nothing that mild, and Feb a mild snowfree fest.

I have to disagree with your analogy of winters between 1988-2008, we did see 2 or 3 quite cold ones in 1990/91, 95/96 and to a lesser extent 96/97 (another 'pear shaped' winter in your book). These three winters didn't see cold from 'rex blocks' they saw proper cold from nothern blocking/strong heights to the east particularly in Feb 91 and late dec 96/early 97. Dec 95 was a consistently cold month culminating in some exceptional cold in the last week, so to tarnish all winters between 88-08 with the same brush is misleading.

Also I don't believe the state of ENSO itself is the be all and end all factor for our winters. I recall winter 09/10 recorded a very strong el nino and everyone was calling 'game over', however, other factors came into play such as solar activity, state of QBO etc and overode the ENSO.

[damianslaw]

Has anyone noticed that the leaves are already turning brown and falling. I cannot remember this ever happening so early, let alone in August. I have also noticed that many of the geese have already starting migrating much earlier than in previous years.

September - average temperatures and slightly above average rainfall. No late Spanish plumes of warmer air, Atlantic themed weather although not stormy gales force winds. First frost towards the end of the month

October - average temperatures, not especially stormy or windy, some frosts, below average rainfall,.

November - a repeat of last November. A mild start followed by a much colder end. Average rainfall / precipation.

Just going back to the brown leaves; they have been turning brown for well over 10 days now, has anyone else known this to happen so early in the year? I live in the South East and I normally note that the leaves start to turn brown from green in the 3rd week of September. I enjoy watching the changing of colours and the change of seasons, which to me appear out of their normal timing

Yes leaf colour change does appear to be exceptionally early this year - equivalent to mid sept state. I always take note of conditions in a group of trees on the A591 near Ings. I think one of the trees is a horse chestnut and it is always one of the first trees I notice to change its leaf colour. Today I noticed how red the leaves are - very early. A number of other trees in the group have golden colour splashed all over them. I think the very warm April has had its part to play, all plants saw a major growth spurt during the month and the dry conditions probably fooled them into thinking it was early summer, hence everything is out of sync, nature probably believes it is nearly October given the exceptional warmth we saw back in April.

[North-Easterly Blast]

Winter 2008-09 was basically 3 cold spells. First half of December, that had some wintry weather. Post Christmas-early January which was largely anticyclonic and the real snowy spell of that winter of the first half of February.

People were complaining about the lack of snow during January 2011, I don't recall a lot of snow during January 2009, to be honest. It was hardly a snowfest. So people saying that it was a better winter than 2010-11 because the cold spells were spread out, their arguments are pretty weak to be honest because you really needed height for the first cold spell in December, there was little snow during the second cold spell which left the first half of February which incidentally went pear-shaped which could be one of the most pear-shaped months ever! What irony!!

What I mean to say is that winter 2008-09 had cold spells spread through the winter - it was only after mid Feb that it was all over. It was very different from winter 2010-11, which was all over even before Jan arrived, to leave the rest of the winter up to nothing. Certainly no-one can argue that a large part of winter 2010-11, over two months of it, were largely mild and devoid of any proper cold synoptics. It certainly had a CET of 5.0 with the 1st - 27th Dec taken out of the equation.

Granted last winter was one of two distinct halves. Dec freezing cold, Jan quite average conditions nothing that mild, and Feb a mild snowfree fest.

I have to disagree with your analogy of winters between 1988-2008, we did see 2 or 3 quite cold ones in 1990/91, 95/96 and to a lesser extent 96/97 (another 'pear shaped' winter in your book). These three winters didn't see cold from 'rex blocks' they saw proper cold from nothern blocking/strong heights to the east particularly in Feb 91 and late dec 96/early 97. Dec 95 was a consistently cold month culminating in some exceptional cold in the last week, so to tarnish all winters between 88-08 with the same brush is misleading.

Also I don't believe the state of ENSO itself is the be all and end all factor for our winters. I recall winter 09/10 recorded a very strong el nino and everyone was calling 'game over', however, other factors came into play such as solar activity, state of QBO etc and overode the ENSO.

I did not say all winters between 1988-2008 were mild - I said that most of them were for the majority of the time. Yes, 90-91 particularly Feb 91 was pretty good, and 95-96 saw a number of wintry spells through most of the winter - but, as I say, cold spells like these were certainly few and far between.

Add to 96-97, I don't recall the easterly spell being particularly snowy, and it never became especially cold except at the end of Dec 96 and into early Jan 97, and as I say, that was another pear shaped winter - the cold was all over by Jan 10th and the rest of the winter was rubbish, albeit it lasted a couple of weeks longer than the 2010-11 pear shaped winter.

The 2nd coldest December on record, a phenomenal 5 week period, the likes of which has never been recorded in reliable records for that time period, that would go down in the annals of cold spells, it was colder than the fabled January 1940, record date minima falling like nine pins, coldest November-December period since 1878 and some people are still not satisified?! And incidentally, there was only 1 month out of the winter 2010-2011 that was mild. January was not a mild month.

I couldn't give two hoots, it was pear-shaped no matter how many people harp on about it. Just be grateful, you lived through one of the most remarkable cold spells ever. Because that's what it was. Remember, people were questioning even if you could get a 4 week period that was sub 1C only 4 years ago. Get over it and move on!

January 2011 may not have been a mild month - but as compared to the December it felt milder than it may actually have been. Had January 2011 followed a more average December then it would, to me, have felt colder than it did. To add to it, January 2011 was a fairly average month and the only real cold came from a Rex Block in the second half - the first half hardly brought any cold weather - it was about average to the 10th, then very mild to the 16th.

Regardless of how exceptional pre Xmas 2010 may have been, I would stil much prefer a more spread out winter with it having something to look forward to until Feb is out, instead of it all being over by Xmas. It just feels like you have Xmas / New Year and then you are straight into March; like having three Marches before you get to April, and no Jan / Feb if they don't deliver.

[A Winter's Tale]

I imagine that Febuary 2011 was a different story in the North than it was in the South.

From my Blog:

Wednesday 3rd February - Heavy snowfall late on from the west - Lying snow on some surfaces

Thursday 4th February - Heavy snow in Morning - An inch of lying snow

Monday 7th February - Rain turned to snow - no lying snow

Monday 14th February - Rain turned to snow - A cm of lying snow

Saturday 19th February - Rain turned to sow briefly in the early hours - No lying snow

Monday 21st February - Snow arrived from west - Despite persistent snowfall, it failed to settle

August 2011 Review of the Snow events and Ratings out of 10:

Friday 26th November - 6/10

Saturday 27th November - 6/10

Sunday 28th November - 7/10

Monday 29th November - 4/10

Tuesday 30th November - 4/10

Wednesday 1st December - 3/10

Thursday 2nd December - 4/10

Friday 3rd December - 2.5/10

Sunday 5th December - 1/10

Monday 6th December - 8.75/10

Thursday 16th December - 1.5/10

Saturday 18th December - 2.75/10

Sunday 19th December - 3.25/10

Monday 20th December - 1/10

Saturday 25th December (Christmas) - 5/10

Monday 3rd January 2011 - 1/10

Wednesday 5th January - 1/10

Friday 7th January - 5/10

Saturday 8th January - 5/10

Wednesday 12th January - 2/10

Saturday 29th January - 1/10

Wednesday 3rd February - 3/10

Thursday 4th February - 3/10

Monday 7th February - 1.25/10

Monday 14th February - 2/10

Saturday 19th February - 1/10

Monday 21st February - 3.5/10

Wednesday 9th March - 2/10

Thursday 10th March - 1/10

Friday 11th March - 1/10

Saturday 12th March - 2.75/10

Sunday 13th March - 1.25/10

Monday 14th March - 1/10

Tuesday 15th March - 2.25/10

Not too Bad....

This Winter I hope to Keep an even more detailed log about the weather with:

- My Diary of Snow Events This Winter

- Minimum Temperatures around the Country

- Photos

- News and Review of the Weather Around the Country

- Links to Main Headlines during Snow Events

- A review each night of the Day

- A Map of my Location

- And an archive of events and moments of the Winter.

- Collection of Forecasts

I hope to see my First Snowfall of the Winter THIS YEAR in Late October to make it the earliest start to the snow season ever, earliest lying snow, White Christmas, Snowier Jan/Feb, Latest Lying Snow, Last Snowfall of the Winter in May and of course an even snowier year than last year with my largest ever snow depths.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Last winter was certainly a pear-shaped winter in the Norwich area- it started off with a spell of sunshine and snow showers at the end of November, but from 30 November onwards it was stuck in the "dry corridor" (in what was traditionally Norwich's most reliable synoptic setup for snow) and, as if that wasn't enough, the snow partially thawed overnight 29th/30th November and then re-froze, leaving ice everywhere. Then, although they had a bit of snow before Christmas, it thawed on the 23rd/24th according to the locals.

I found it a real kick in the teeth being in Norwich during that easterly spell, though offset to some degree by being able to closely monitor the remarkable conditions around South Tyneside, but going up to Cleadon for the Christmas period and having plenty of sunshine, frequent snow showers, and a four-inch snow cover on Christmas Day largely made up for it.

Other than the few areas that missed out on the snowfalls, I don't think snow lovers have many strong grounds for complaining about last winter. True, like many others, I prefer to have snow events spread through the winter rather than concentrated all at one end, but for many of us, it was a chance to live through a sub-zero winter month. In addition, away from the southeast it was a generally sunny month, making for more picturesque scenes, and even in the dull southeast December 2010 was nowhere near as dull as December 1890 (an exceptionally dull, dry sub-zero month), when Kew in London recorded no sunshine at all.

In terms of overall snowiness Winter 2008/09 wasn't far behind 2010/11 (though some regions had frequent wet snowfalls that didn't produce much on the ground, e.g. the Hull district had very little lying snow). But both were significantly behind 2009/10 which, taking the country as a whole, was probably the snowiest since 1978/79 or perhaps 1981/82, and had near-nationwide snow cover by the end of the first week of January 2010.

[Cheese Rice]

January 2011 was a cold month.... 17 of the days were below-significantly below average...

[Aaron]

January was pretty average, plenty of frost and snow for this part of the world.

Yes he did write it,

http://www.theweathe...5212#post195212

You are misquoting Brian. He has no views at the moment, it's way too early.

Winter 2008/2009 was pretty good, but the following winter and 2010/2011 beat it many, many, many miles. I seem to have a place for 2008/2009 because it was the snowiest and coldest winter in a while, however our first really decent snowfall was in Feb 2009 and even so, we had to wait til around the 7th/8th for our first really decent snowfall. There were a number of snowfalls that did bring some accumilations of a cm at most or a dusting. In my opinion, the winters of 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 are better than 2008/2009 because there were plenty of decent snowfalls (particulary December 1999 which was a notably snowy winter in parts of Scotland).

Winter of 2008 - 2009 good for snow but crap for cold in all honesty. January 2009 was colder.

[Summer Sun]

January was pretty average, plenty of frost and snow for this part of the world.

we didn't have any Snow at all during Janurary the closest we came was Sleet one Saturday morning early on in the month, it was cold for the first half then from mid month we hit a spell of sunshine and no rain for a week