What Did You Think of Winter 2015/16?

[BlueHedgehog074]

2 hours ago, Walsall Wood Snow said:

We've also had snow today which as all but disappeared (though been as its meteorological Spring now I suppose it doesn't count as happening in Winter 2015/16, though it is still astronomical Winter so in that sense it can be included). But at least here been a long way from any natural rivers we haven't had the misfortune of floods like some people in other parts of the country this Winter just gone and that of 2 years ago, so I shouldn't complain really. But as one who looks forward to Winter for snow potential it's been a huge let down, and I can only hope that next Winter isn't similar.

Same. Though wet and sleety, today marks the first time this year to see a bit of snow fall during the daytime. To think it has happened just as the meteorological part of Winter is through with us. 

Agree about the part regarding the floods - should be grateful to not had much problems with that. Imagine North-Western parts, especially, will be welcoming a much drier period of weather. A sustained period of proper settled weather seems to have been lacking for a while now (even though, to be fair, February generally delivered some quieter and less disturbed conditions). The High Pressure systems' just don't seem to want to take a 2 week, or longer, holiday over the UK. But maybe something will make them change their mind at some point. 

Edited March 2, 2016 by DiagonalRedLine
Correct typo and add a bit of extra content.

[Snowman.]

Frustrating winter can't recall a time I've been lead up the garden path so many times. The PV was impressive I will give it that.

[Alexis]

Had a couple of cm of snow on one day, so less awful than some in the past. 2013-14 remains the worst with just one night of frost, which is impressive.

Still dire though.

 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

maybe a wee bit better now, as I saw heavy falling wet snow today, but still typical of modern times

[Thundery wintry showers]

On 3/2/2016 at 9:19 AM, MP-R said:

Simply out of interest, is a climatic shift possible that quickly? I can't help but think that the almost incessant southerly/southwesterly winds in November and December were the culprit to such a warm Arctic, which as we know was thanks to the El Nino. 

The southerlies around Britain were probably related to the El Nino, but the association is far less clear for areas above 70N, which actually had a colder-than-average winter in 1997/98.   This winter, the Arctic was indeed pounded by southerlies in November, but the southerlies faded in early December and temperatures did fall close to the long-term average around mid-December.  But the region never seemed to recover from that southerly blast at the end of December.  The very negative Arctic Oscillation in January didn't help matters either.  February was the most concerning month, with exceptional warmth and unexceptional synoptics.

I think the region had an abrupt climatic shift in 2005, so it is indeed possible, though there have also been one-off instances of exceptionally warm winters that were just a blip, which is probably more likely to be the case in a strong El Nino winter.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Thundery wintry showers

[Weather-history]

CEP Brooks wrote an article about the warming Arctic back in 1938. I noted that Spitzbergen region  returning regular  +ve temp anomalies in the 20s and 30s.

[Snowyowl9]

This winter.

As Eric Morecombe would say rubbish.

Edited March 7, 2016 by Snowyowl9

[Geordiesnow]

With me living in Morecambe now, I was expecting too see less days of seeing snowfall(if actually seeing snow falling at all!) but I have seen a few days of snow falling and even in some cases lying. The main snow event was during January where forecasters were telling us it was going to be the coldest night in March 2013 only for the forecast to end up spectacularly incorrect and instead large parts of the UK had a surprising snow event but the problem here was the time of day it occured and that despite 8 hours of continious snow(albeit not always heavy but most of the time it was a of a decent intensity), in the end only 2CM's actually was lying. I just can't help but think how much snow we would of got if it occurred at night and slightly colder temps... 

Problem with this winter was whilst we saw cold shots, usually they would end up fairly slack and milder sectors would appear thus snowfall tended to be quite limited at times, also with Svalbard being very mild this winter, that may not of helped too much in the potency of such cold shots either. 

I don't think this winter is the worse we will ever seen but we have seen a lot better for sure. 

 

[wishingforsnow]

The second worst winter to 2013/14 sums it up for me. Just a worse extention of Autumm. When the significantly wet weather began last November after a fairly dry Autumn I was hoping it wouldn't be the start of months of the same conditions again. And I was unfortunately wrong. What redeemed 15/16 slightly is that in the South we didn't get as much heavy rain as we did in 13/14 and the 10 day settled spell in January as well as improvement from February in terms of more dry and usable weather; for me 13/14 was one long barrage of wind and heavy rain for days and weeks from early December until the middle of March! However in 15/16 when it wasn't raining most of the time there was still drizzle and dark clouds in the sky. In November-January this was particularly bad as the days were so short sometimes days felt like one long stormy evening as it was often so dark in the daytime due to a lack of sunlight that I had to turn the lights on in the house! November 2015 in particular had a distinct lack of sunny days. It was all extremely depressing sometimes as it felt like being in one long dark, wet windy tunnel and not knowing when you would reach the end and see some decent sunny weather again. Same thing in Winter 13/14. And of course, snowless for 3 years running round my parts. Hopefully next winter won't be as dire without the El Nino around.

Edited March 9, 2016 by wishingforsnow

[reef]

The first half was absolutely abysmal. Those 46 days saw just 57 hours of sunshine, 7 days without rain, three air frosts with a low of -0.4C and just 6 days with maxima below 7C and two below 5C. The second half was much better with 150 hours of sunshine, 14 air frosts and temperatures only around 0.8C above average. Even that however wasn't enough to stop us recording the warmest winter on record, beating even 1997/98 - the previous holder of the record and another El Nino winter.

The most notable absence yet again was lying snow at 0900; there was none whatsoever. We had a couple of dustings which lasted a few hours but its now 38 months since any measurable lying snow. Its also been the same length of time since we had a temperature below -2.4C. The lowest of this winter was -2.1C. Like TWS above, what concerned me was that we had setups that would have delivered in the past but which failed due to the exceptional mild in the Arctic.

A rather alarming statistic is that we've only had minima at -2.0C or below on 24 days now since December 2010 and only 8 of those came since March 2013.

A truly awful winter and much worse than 2013/14 here as that was quite a sunny winter with close to average rainfall. The only thing I wonder is if this is a sign of things to come. Hopefully not. 

[Mildcarlisle]

And if I may,in Scotland this winter has been slightly milder (by night) but snowfall has been a regular visitor.Even in the Scottish Borders/Cheviots there is still snow lying in drifts(as there should be at this juncture) but the Highlands are as always well endowed with snow,check the relative websites.There is a definite north/south disparity to be observed from this winter and of the last three or four.I suffer the pain of those down south;in years to come this snowless zone may well move north but for now I am happy with the winter gone,I did see snowfall and I recorded -4c in Galashiels as a low likes.

 

[NorthYorksWeather]

Another poor winter gone by, less frosts so far than 2013-14 however we have had more snow this year with a measly 4cm and a colder min -4.5c in comparison to -3.6c. High ground however there has been a lot more snow so above 200m it's not been too bad, so at least I've been able to jump in the car and get my fix. Here's my dashcam edit for this winter. 

 

[mulzy]

Dreadful here in London though marginally better than the nightmare that was 13/14. Just one day of falling snow and 1cm of slush that melted within 2 hours.  Rating =1/10.

Edited March 11, 2016 by mulzy

[knocker]

The huge negative for this winter was the excess rainfall in December that brought misery to so many but putting that aside it's been very good although some more sunshine in December would have been a bonus.

[Stargazer]

Overall, pretty mediocre here in Reading (I seem to remember using the same word to describe last summer too).  Exceptionally mild and rather stormy start, more typical second half with temperatures only slightly above average.  We did get the lowest temperature here since February 2012 (-6.0 on 20 January).  Overall it has been very mild, slightly duller than average and with rainfall close to average.  Unlike many parts of the UK Reading had a rather dry December, with the exceptionally high temperatures and lack of sunshine that month being more notable.  Like last winter, it only snowed twice and snow settled just once for a couple of hours - we haven't had more than a light dusting of snow here since January 2013, although Reading is hardly known for its snowy winters.

[Lettucing Gutted]

I absolutely hated it.  It was unbelievably and ridiculously depressing and bloody rubbish and bloody horrible.  It was also as physically and mentally challenging as a record breaking heatwave a'la late June through early July 2015 to name just the worst of countless heatwaves I've suffered in my time.  I picked "The worst one on this planet" but if I could have picked more than 1, I would have also picked "Absolutely disgusting" and "What? You think we even had a Winter??".  Just when I thought I had seen 'em all eh?, somehow I managed to experience the worst winter on record.  Ridiculously warm, a ridiculous number of named storms, a sh*tload of rain and the warmest December on record.  Pass me the bucket indeed! 

Even January and February were a joke!  Too many false promises of cold spells that never came and the few pitiful washout topplers and faux colds in January and February could not possibly save this so called winter.  The worst thing was that I predicted the warmest December on record and yet even I was too low!  Rest In Pieces "Winter" 2015/2016!

A big fat 0/10! 

Edited March 27, 2016 by Lettucing Gutted

[lassie23]

It was CRAP!

[Weather-history]

Interesting the Manchester Winter Index for 12th December 2015 to 11th March 2016 is 41

Winter 2013-14 had an index of 7

[Bobd29]

Not a single snowflake the whole of DJF, and half a dozen frosts do not make a winter. A season gone missing....AGAIN!!!

[The PIT]

Never started really. Says a lot when early spring was colder than Feb.

[iapennell]

Definitely one of the worst winters I have had the misfortune to endure where I live in the North Pennines: Sure December (November too) was by far the wettest on record with almost 28 inches of moisture falling and there was catastrophic flooding early in December 2015 when over ten inches of this rain fell in just 36 hours! December was alas, also the mildest on record with a mean temperature of 6.2C. All that aside winter 2015-16 had just a few short frosty snowy spells, none of these gave more than a few inches of snowcover. The coldest it got all winter was -6C which for over 400 metres up in the North Pennines is a bit pathetic! 

Now I don't mind a good couple of vicious North Atlantic gales in winter , but they are better if they veer to north-westerly or even northerly so that they bring a bit more than just boring old rain! A proper Winter for me would have a few weeks with winds sweeping down from northern Siberia bringing blizzards and temperatures well below -10C!

So I pass on this winter, definitely one of the more boringer ones: Rating 2 out of 10!

[Fozfoster]

What winter!!!!!

[stainesbloke]

Quite a boring, dreary winter here. Way too much cloud and wind in general with a lack of high pressure. Saying that saw falling snow three times and it settled twice. Rapidly melted but not bad for here. Some nice fogs early on but the whole winter passed by at a silly speed, I must be getting old!