Winter 2021-22 Chat, Moans and ramps thread

[markyo]

A weekend of actual weather! Makes a very welcome change. The only positive about this winter is energy bills won't be as high as they could have been for many. There has literally not been a cold day so far, winter cold. Just praying this summer is void of long hot spells, the cost for air con will be crazy. A college has just had his usage estimate for the next 12 months...£4.5kjust on the electric. Like me he relies on home aircon to cope. But he does run his year round i admit.

Edited February 6, 2022 by markyo

[Mair Snaw]

Meanwhile up North we have some proper weather happening.. just goes to show that even when the models are really poor and nothing seems to be happening things can still pop up unexpectedly..just 15 mins between these two photos.. wasn't expecting it at all.

[jy]

Some superb photos as always some lovely views.A question I garden for a living in the balmy New Forest in Southern England.Just wondered if any gardeners would PM me with how easy or difficult it is doing the same job extreme weather impact on length of season ect in Scotland.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

Today is a day of sunshine and showers for my neck of the woods. It makes a nice change to have something different. The showers are so refreshing and the sunshine feels nice and pleasant too. Certainly starting to notice the increasing strength in the sun now.  

I even saw a nice rainbow earlier on. 

Edited February 6, 2022 by Weather Enthusiast91

[Sceptical]

Heavy snow coupled with strong winds.

 

[Sunny76]

5 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

That's the thing, there have been too many of these short, intensely hot and humid spells in recent years, and not enough proper prolonged settled sunny weather with moderate (say 25-27C) temps in the summer. Since 2015, only 2018 has had prolonged settled spells. Things like that 3-day wonder in July 2019 are about as much use as a (molten) chocolate teapot. I think it's such a shame that the temp record went in a spell like this, rather than the much more deserving (in the sense that it was a proper persistent fine spell) August 2003 retaining the record.

We've had plenty of examples of 33C+ in recent years, but almost no examples of prolonged fine, settled weather in summer. I hope this is not the pattern to come: cloudy summers with 50% of the days failing to attain 21C even in the south, but each of the three summer months getting to 33C+ with extreme humidity for two days, before crashing down to 19C, cloudy and breezy again immediately afterwards - of course with the change being accompanied by no thundery weather whatsoever, the other annoying trend of the past 20 years.

Ideal summer climate for me would be temps building from say 21C to 30C with prolonged sunshine over the course of a week, proper thunderstorms, 21C again after the thunder, perhaps one or two cloudier days to appreciate the sunshine more, then rinse and repeat for three months. I spent two weeks one summer in Montreal and the weather was precisely this, sadly this kind of summer is very rare here. Perhaps 1994 most closely matches.

The cloudiness, in particular of recent summers is notable. I don't have the stats but I suspect the only summers since 2007 to exceed long term sunshine averages in southern England were 2013, 2014 and 2018.

I think that’s right. That’s the main reason I consider most of the recent summers as poor. When cloudy days outweighs sunny ones, the summer is a bust in my opinion. 

[Freeze]

All these snow pictures and its 12c here! 

[Sceptical]

1 minute ago, Freeze said:

All these snow pictures and its 12c here! 

Technically it's snowed up here November, December, January and now February. Snow depths have varied between 1cm and a couple of inches. This area in the 80s used to get feet of snow.

[Summer8906]

What's often notable in this sort of setup is how much colder the north is than the south. Granted you'd expect to be a bit colder, but when you're talking 12C in the south (according to @Freeze) and snow in Scotland that seems more than can be expected merely from latitude difference. I'm sure winter Pm airmasses used to be both clearer and colder in the 80s.

Today has been a very 'wishy-washy' sort of day. Some heavy rain in the morning but no proper clearance until about 1730, just after dark. In the meantime windy, overcast and occasionally slightly damp.

Very reminiscent of 1997 and 2000 when the jetstream moved south going from January into February and settled weather gradually became more and more unsettled. One good piece of news though is both those years had sunny Marches; we haven't really had a sunny March for a good number of years now, not throughout the month anyway. Last I think was 2014.

Edited February 6, 2022 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

1 hour ago, Sunny76 said:

I think that’s right. That’s the main reason I consider most of the recent summers as poor. When cloudy days outweighs sunny ones, the summer is a bust in my opinion. 

True, cloudiness has been the main defining feature of recent summers, along with a large number of days which fail to attain the mean max. This is the case much more so than excessive rainfall: it's been a while (2012) since we've had a really wet summer, though some others have had very wet months (June 2016, July 2017, June 2019, August 2020 for example). Hoping then that this isn't going to be the year!

By contrast, most of the summers from 1989 to 2006, even some of the more changeable ones, seemed to have average or above-average sunshine. Only 1992, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004 seemed cloudy to me (IIRC the stats do back this up) - and of those, 2002 and 2004 were saved somewhat by warmth and 2000 by dryness.  By contrast, in the next 18-year block (2007 to 2024), at least 12 will have been cloudy!

Edited February 6, 2022 by Summer8906

[richie3846]

3 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

True, cloudiness has been the main defining feature of recent summers, along with a large number of days which fail to attain the mean max. This is the case much more so than excessive rainfall: it's been a while (2012) since we've had a really wet summer, though some others have had very wet months (June 2016, July 2017, June 2019, August 2020 for example). Hoping then that this isn't going to be the year!

By contrast, most of the summers from 1989 to 2006, even some of the more changeable ones, seemed to have average or above-average sunshine. Only 1992, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004 seemed cloudy to me (IIRC the stats do back this up) - and of those, 2002 and 2004 were saved somewhat by warmth and 2000 by dryness.  By contrast, in the next 18-year block (2007 to 2024), at least 12 will have been cloudy!

Glad I'm not imagining that summers have gotten cloudier. I hope it's just variability, and not something we are locked in to that could be related to climate change. I've had this completely non scientific idea that even small rises in temperature could evaporate more off the seas and give us increasing cloud, mainly because of our geography. The summer of 21 was so cloudy, that my veg glut came in September, about a month late, on the back of good sun and warmth. August was practically sunless here, and almost totally devoid of the stronger middle of the day sun a plant needs.

[shunthebartlett92]

5 hours ago, Sceptical said:

Technically it's snowed up here November, December, January and now February. Snow depths have varied between 1cm and a couple of inches. This area in the 80s used to get feet of snow.

Barely been much though, none on the local hills and just a little today. a couple of dustings since i came up a few weeks ago!

[Mapantz]

Please stick to to winter chat in here.. 

[Don]

8 hours ago, Freeze said:

All these snow pictures and its 12c here! 

The joys of the southerner winters! 

[lassie23]

On 05/02/2022 at 17:02, North-Easterly Blast said:

Looking at past years weather records the two significant links that I can identify in the UK's weather patterns that appear to exist are the mild February = mild March theory, and the warm September = mild winter theory.  I cannot see a link in any of the other months in the year that appears to be as strong or significant as these two.

One is that I find that really mild February CETs (6c and above), are nearly always followed by mild Marches (above 7.5c CET); 1995 being one exception in recent decades, and a couple of other recent 6c+ CET Februarys that were followed by March CETs in the high 6s, so a clear significant correlation there.  The other significant correlation link that I can see that exists just as much is that warm Septembers (CETs high 14s and definitely 15c and above) are nearly always followed by milder than average winters, with a couple or three at the most that were not far from average, but I cannot think of a cold winter in recent decades at least that has followed on from a really warm September (September 1985s CET of 14.6 is the warmest I can think of that was followed by a winter in the colder category).  So based on this evidence I would say that it is highly likely that there is never a chance of a cold winter after a really warm September, and that a correlation between warm Septembers and milder winters to follow with little in the way of cold patterns in them, definitely exists.

I use the October Fog Index

[SnowBear]

Really don't like winters like this, you end up feeling cheated as you go into spring. Even a day of snow is enough to just say, yes, winter has been. 

Bleh

[mb018538]

16 hours ago, Freeze said:

All these snow pictures and its 12c here! 

It's Aberdeenshire....not really that much of a shock to see snow in Scotland during the winter, however bad the winter is 

Meanwhile, for the other 95% of the country its business as usual, with another pointless winter where nothing has happened. The beige winter.

[Hull 1963]

Valentine's Day is poised to be colder than Scandinavia right here in the UK, according to forecasters.

According to the met 1,500 mile wide snowstorm is to hit the country.

"The Met Office warns from February 11 to February 20: "Rainfall will be limited at first with a risk of some wintry showers in the north and east, with an increasing chance of rain in western and northwestern areas later. And it warns temperatures could be "colder" than average.

The worst of the weather is anticipated at the back end of this week and into next, with the middle of February looking like a bitingly cold one.

[SLEETY]

What an utter joke this winter has been, with temps each month above the average again, Same for most of Europe too, yet other places in the world register below average winter months

France has warmed also so much in the winter since 80s,i note metiociel fr mention how much climate has warmed in France since 80s so not just UK having these junk winters with high pressure anchored to S or SW for months on end in Winter to magically vanish once Winter ends! 

 

I hardly class January and Feb as winters months anymore. 

I note the jet stream beginning to head South though as we approach the end of Winter again, how typical!! 

[Dimie10]

19 minutes ago, Hull 1963 said:

Valentine's Day is poised to be colder than Scandinavia right here in the UK, according to forecasters.

According to the met 1,500 mile wide snowstorm is to hit the country.

"The Met Office warns from February 11 to February 20: "Rainfall will be limited at first with a risk of some wintry showers in the north and east, with an increasing chance of rain in western and northwestern areas later. And it warns temperatures could be "colder" than average.

The worst of the weather is anticipated at the back end of this week and into next, with the middle of February looking like a bitingly cold one.

By Met Office I presume you mean Daily Star?

[Josh Rubio]

Looks like we’ll finally get some ‘interesting’ weather soon after weeks of ‘nothingness’. Typical that it happens so late in winter. 

[HafrenLMP1]

3 hours ago, SnowBear said:

Really don't like winters like this, you end up feeling cheated as you go into spring. Even a day of snow is enough to just say, yes, winter has been. 

Bleh

Yeah, I'm similar. However, one day of late winter snow won't do it for me.....Too little too late. 

[*Stormforce~beka*]

5 hours ago, SnowBear said:

Really don't like winters like this, you end up feeling cheated as you go into spring. Even a day of snow is enough to just say, yes, winter has been. 

Bleh

That and we were cheated out of summer and spring last year!! So a whole year of urghness!

[Bradley in Kent]

To balance opinions out, I'm reasonably satisfied with this Winter so far. Here in Kent snow is always hard to come by without an SSW which was never really on the cards this winter. I did get my hopes up mid-December for that possible trop-led cold spell, but previous experience told me it was always on thin ice, or in reality, no ice at all...

To be honest, given the choice, I'd go for a drier and sunnier than average winter with no snow, rather than a few days of snow surrounded by dark dross. The dream winter (IMO) is a sunny one with the odd snowfall like Central Asia or Northern China (without the smog).

January this year really has felt bearable with many frosty mornings and warm 'eat lunch outside' afternoons. Moreover the sun has kept the house warm without the need for much heating, only a couple of hours needed mid-evening which given gas prices is ideal. I'm aware though, that sun has varied across the UK and we all live in different types of building. 

Looking ahead, if we can avoid the worst of the Atlantic before entering Spring, things won't be too bad at all. Weather is weather, and we can only make the best of it, or move abroad!

[mulzy]

25 minutes ago, Bradley in Kent said:

To balance opinions out, I'm reasonably satisfied with this Winter so far. Here in Kent snow is always hard to come by without an SSW which was never really on the cards this winter. I did get my hopes up mid-December for that possible trop-led cold spell, but previous experience told me it was always on thin ice, or in reality, no ice at all...

To be honest, given the choice, I'd go for a drier and sunnier than average winter with no snow, rather than a few days of snow surrounded by dark dross. The dream winter (IMO) is a sunny one with the odd snowfall like Central Asia or Northern China (without the smog).

January this year really has felt bearable with many frosty mornings and warm 'eat lunch outside' afternoons. Moreover the sun has kept the house warm without the need for much heating, only a couple of hours needed mid-evening which given gas prices is ideal. I'm aware though, that sun has varied across the UK and we all live in different types of building. 

Looking ahead, if we can avoid the worst of the Atlantic before entering Spring, things won't be too bad at all. Weather is weather, and we can only make the best of it, or move abroad!

A decent summary there Bradley.  December was dull but January and February to date has been rather sunny (for Winter).  Add in the crisp clear frosty mornings and it hasn't been awful.  I really hope we can avoid the storminess that some of the NWP is suggesting in the medium term - hopefully high pressure remains with us as we enter spring.