New year weather

[damianslaw]

New Year's Eve tomorrow, we had a thread about festive christmas weather memories, thought it appropriate to have one about New Year weather.

Recent New Year's Eve's and Day's have been rather mundane, often damp, wet, windy and mild and not very memorable.

Indeed struggling to remember what the weather was up to since about 2010. I just remember most being mild.

My memories of New Year periods 1990s and 2000s much stronger. Most memorable namely because they featured something wintry:

1992/93 - cold and frosty

1994/95 - cold with an arctic northerly gave heavy snow showers early hours of New Year Day

1995/96 - thaw on new Year's Eve after 7 ice days. New Year's Day was grey and raw.

1996/97 - bitterly cold, heavy snow showers blizzard conditions thanks to strong easterlies overnight, lasting through New Year's Day

2000/2001 - snow on New Year's Eve, thaw early hours New Year's Day

2001/2002 - freezing cold, freezing fog with snow cover on the ground

2002/2003 - snow showers I think

2003/2004 - another cold one, 4 in a row, with some snow showers about

2008/2009 - very cold, icy , snow showers

2009/2010 - as 2008/2009

New Year's Eve 1978 brought blizzards to many.

New Year's Eve 1983 a power cut

 

 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

1997 the best here, snow all day, mostly light but lot from few days before

2000 was quite snowy, before thaw on 1st day of 2001

remember 2001 into 2002, (last few days of Atlantic 252) but was one of coldest, 3-4 days in a row of unmelted frost

Edited December 31, 2020 by I remember Atlantic 252

[damianslaw]

1 hour ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

1997 the best here, snow all day, mostly light but lot from few days before

2000 was quite snowy, before thaw on 1st day of 2001

remember 2001 into 2002, (last few days of Atlantic 252) but was one of coldest, 3-4 days in a row of unmelted frost

Winter 01-02 and 96-97 were very similar, cold blocked Decembers, cold starts to January then mild all the way. Late Nov 96 - early Jan 97 was colder than Dec 01, early Jan 02 and brought more snow. 

Winter 96-97 and 10-11 also close cousins, timing of cold conditions.

Trends over christmas period is the pivotal point in the winter, when the northern hemisphere beds into its full winter state, either goes one of three ways :

a - the mild atlantic steamtrain of early winter (Nov-Dec) rages on (most recent winters)

b - the colder blocked start to winter is derailed by the atlantic as New year arrives (winters mentioned above)

c - the milder atlantic train is derailed by cold continental more blocked weather 

 

[virtualsphere]

36 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

Trends over christmas period is the pivotal point in the winter, when the northern hemisphere beds into its full winter state, either goes one of three ways :

a - the mild atlantic steamtrain of early winter (Nov-Dec) rages on (most recent winters)

b - the colder blocked start to winter is derailed by the atlantic as New year arrives (winters mentioned above)

c - the milder atlantic train is derailed by cold continental more blocked weather 

 

The two I remember well are snow showers in 94/95 and the very cold new year in 01/02.  Agree recent new years have been very bland in comparison with the 90s - 2010 period. The one I remember in the last decade was 2013-14, being woken by thunder overnight and then our chimney cap being blown away by a gale on new year's morning!

I wonder if we'll end up with your option c this winter? Looks promising at this point, a bit like 12/13 but running a few weeks earlier.

[damianslaw]

57 minutes ago, virtualsphere said:

The two I remember well are snow showers in 94/95 and the very cold new year in 01/02.  Agree recent new years have been very bland in comparison with the 90s - 2010 period. The one I remember in the last decade was 2013-14, being woken by thunder overnight and then our chimney cap being blown away by a gale on new year's morning!

I wonder if we'll end up with your option c this winter? Looks promising at this point, a bit like 12/13 but running a few weeks earlier.

Yes there are some similarities with 12/13 so far, late Nov and first part of Dec 12 was cold, then a much milder second half, and first half to Jan, this time the milder interlude shorter lived.. there was a SSW early Jan 13, the second half was very cold, and there was only a milder blip end of Jan into Feb, then cold again, with the infamous cold March.

 

[MP-R]

Going back through the records for this location:

02/03: cloudy and cold NYE, then very wet on NYD with localised flooding after very wet weather to end December. It turned much colder by the 3rd

03/04: watered down version of the year before, then cold again by the 2nd

04/05: mild, breezy and unremarkable

05/06: brief Atlantic interlude between cold spells; thunder showers on NYE and grey damp NYD

06/07: mild and stormy with thunder and hail shortly after midnight

07/08: cool, dry and benign

08/09: very cold and frosty with freezing fog on both days

09/10: cold and frosty and sunny

10/11: cold, cloudy but dry 

11/12: mild, wet and windy

12/13: mild, dry and benign

13/14: mild, wet and windy 

14/15: very mild and breezy but not overly wet

15/16: wet and windy NYE; frosty start to NYD then rain again

16/17: mild dry NYE; cold wet NYD then  very cold and frosty from the 2nd

17/18: relatively mild but stormy, climax of which was on the 2nd

18/19: mild, dry and benign, before cold and frosty from the 2nd

19/20: average temperatures, cloudy and benign

 

So New Years have been rather boring affairs in recent years but often benign, sometimes with cold following in some fashion shortly after. There hasn’t been a properly cold NY since 2010, although 2011 brought snow shortly after NY.

[A Face like Thunder]

Looking further back:

New Year's Day 1962, 1963 and 1978 were all cold and snowy (S London)

New Year's Eve 1995 - intense cold and showers of rain, sleet and snow made the car journey from Sussex to Lancashire a complete nightmare. In particular, clear skies and intense cold, plus the 'gunge' on the M6 following a couple of showers of freezing rain which could not be cleared off the windscreens because the'nipples' of the water containers had frozen, made the journey through the West Midlands a lottery, with car drivers using the inside lane to stop and clean their screens at regular intervals.

[damianslaw]

2 hours ago, A Face like Thunder said:

Looking further back:

New Year's Day 1962, 1963 and 1978 were all cold and snowy (S London)

New Year's Eve 1995 - intense cold and showers of rain, sleet and snow made the car journey from Sussex to Lancashire a complete nightmare. In particular, clear skies and intense cold, plus the 'gunge' on the M6 following a couple of showers of freezing rain which could not be cleared off the windscreens because the'nipples' of the water containers had frozen, made the journey through the West Midlands a lottery, with car drivers using the inside lane to stop and clean their screens at regular intervals.

NYE 1995 brought a wintry freezing rain mix to here, was forecast snow.. rapid thaw set in during the early hours of 1996, New Years Day was very raw cloudy foggy misty mirk. The next 3 weeks were also very cloudy and miserable fairly mild, then a change to a notably memorable cold snowy period culminating in the infamous snow of 5/6 Feb 96. 

[A Face like Thunder]

South London, New Years Day 1962. I guess we won't be sledging on this hill 59 years later!

[danm]

For London, New Year’s Day 1995 had some snow that settled, and NYD 1997 was bitterly cold with snow. 

Edited January 1, 2021 by danm