Scarcity Of Air Frost In 2011

[casparjack]

As I collated the figures for October and started to compare the year with others, apart from the obvious rainfall deficit (272mm here to date against the long-term average), it occurred to me that there have been very few air frosts this year.

My recent counts are as follows:

2007 - 32 exceptionally low

2008 - 47

2009 - 46

2010 - 83

2011 - 28 to 13th of November with little prospect of any for at least a week based on current modelling (17 in January and 9 in March, just 2 in February).

We haven't yet had an air frost this season, the lowest temperature being 0.9c on 7th November, with only three ground frosts. The annual average at Shobdon (Uk MetO) just five miles from here is 47 - they are slightly lower than my station and often in marginal conditions will record a figure just below 0c when my station is just above, but over a whole year this balances out.

It follows that to even approach the average we'll need to see another 20 air frosts in the remaining 48 days of the year, unless we see a dramatic pattern change very soon, then I doubt we'll even get close.

Interested to know how this compares with other people's records...

[Aaron]

28 so far this year, only because of how mild February was (more air frost in March then in February)

[Scorcher]

Very interesting, thanks for posting. And some still think we are heading into an ice age!

[Teesdale]

Just 37 here, its not just lack of air frosts. Lack of snowfall as well. Very limited snowfall since Dec 3rd 2010, here.

[casparjack]

I agree there hasn't been a great deal of snow either, though we did get snow throughout December 2010 (unlike you guys further North and East) and three times in January 2011, but nothing since.

This feels less unusual however to me, as I have become resigned to the lack of real old fashioned frontal snowfall in the past 15-20 years, but I don't recall having so few air frosts, that's why I wondered if it was my imagination or something more noteworthy...

[sundog]

Very little airfrost here this yr,i dont know exactly how many air frosts ive had but id say its in single figures and no airfrost so far this Autumn. Its been a very snowless and frostless yr this yr very differant to last yr,oh well you win some you lose some hopefully next yr we will get our frosts and snow back.

[gottolovethisweather]

25 here so far in 2011. 14 in January, 2 in February, 9 in March and 0 (zero) since then.

The last time the Air Temperature was freezing (0c or below) was at 9.21am on the 19th March.

No small wonder, Spring in terms of approx. 21st March through 21st June was in a hurry to start this year and nature indeed, thrived because of it.

Interesting stats from all of us here.

Cheers

gottolovethisweather

Edited November 13, 2011 by gottolovethisweather

[Weather-history]

Its funny because the other side of the coin is the distinct lack of really mild nights during the summer months. Lack of air frosts and a lack of really mild nights during the summer season.

[reef]

There have been 12 air frosts here so far in 2011 (9 of which were in January), which beats 1990 (6 days) and 2002 (8 days) in the last 30 years.

Its been the most snowless year on record so far though. Only 3 days in 2011 so far have seen sleet or snow falling compared to 1992 (7 days), 1989 (8 days), 2002 (9 days) and 2007 (9 days).

There has been no days with snow lying as yet, matched only by 1992. 2007 and 1990 both managed one day.

The min temp so far this Autumn is 2.2C and only three days have had sub-5C minima - none of which were in November.

[Gord]

It's been as recently as 2009 as to when the first air frost took as long as this. If I recall we didn't get our first air frost until the 1st December that year. That Autumn was quite different to this one with the amount of rain though. I'd be surprised if this weather pattern holds out and we go beyond the first week of December without one...although thats not beyond the realms of reality right now.

As for 2011 as whole, we've had a distinct lack of any kind of weather around here including air frosts. If winter does get going beyond the new year...then 2011 will be remarkable for it's unremarkableness, (although the 1st October will always be one stick out date for entirely different reasons!) Some of the years that 2011 is being compared to in this thread highlights this!

Edited November 13, 2011 by Gord

[Terminal Moraine]

23 air frosts here so far this year and the record low for any year is 27 in 2002 and 2007.

Only 12 days with sleet or snow falling so far and the record low is 21 in 2007.

3 mornings with lying snow with a record low of 7 in 1992.

December is really going to have to produce something to prevent several records falling.

All records since 1977.

[SP1986]

So far this year here we have had 12 airfrosts.

9 came in January, and 3 came in February and one came in November, a few weeks ago.

It looks like we'll have another on Wednesday morning, but after that no guarantees.

This Autumn has seen just 1 ground frost (the same night as the air frost), and the lowest temperature in 2011 has been -4.9C (which is fairly low given the average conditions)

Sorry I meant 3 came in March, not February, we didn't get any here in Feb surprisingly.

[Wynn D Woo]

We have had just 26 air frosts this year, 14 in January, 3 in February and 9 in March. No air frost this autumn yet with just 1 ground frost and looking quite possible we will be well into December before we do get one.

[Norrance]

Up here near the coast in Eastern Scotland too there has been a scarcity of air frosts this year. Total of 29 in 2011.

Jan 19.

Feb 4.

Mar 6

None at all since March though Oct had a couple of +0.1s with places nearby being under zero.

We did have 19 days with snow lying but 16 were in January mostly from Decembers snow. 2 in Feb and 1 in March.

Days of snow falling were 4 for Jan, 2 for Feb and 1 for March.

[Harps]

32 days here in the north of Ireland, just one so far since April though. We seem to have done better than most in February with 8 air frosts. As a comparison, last November and December had 39 air frosts between them.

Dont have a record of lying snow but probably about average with a few days each in Jan, Feb and March

Edited November 13, 2011 by Harps

[damianslaw]

Yes few air frosts this year compared to normal thanks to the very mild feb and April and recent weeks. We have seen 3 air frosts so far this autumn, which compared to some locations isn't bad. The general mildness of nights this autumn has been especially apparant. Likewise the coolness of the summer evenings was also very notable. This year has felt very homogenous with the seasons all merging into one great sea of blandness unlike 2008, 2009 and 2010 which delivered fairly distinct seasons, but still with poor summers it has to be said. I'm hopeful 2012 will bring much more variety and we are long long long overdue a cold spring.. and cold autumn and overdue a warm summer.

[sundog]

The last 12 months have been very strange,a bitter cold December,a very mild spring,a cool summer and very warm autumn. The only month really that springs to mind in 2011 that kinda felt normal was Jan which was an average month,since then all the seasons have felt -well, unseasonal. Many days in spring felt kinda like summer,many days in summer kinda felt like autumn ,many days in autumn kinda felt like summer or spring.