Winter 2021-22 Chat, Moans and ramps thread

[mb018538]

24 minutes ago, LetItSnow! said:

On the flipside, down here in London this is turning into one of the nicest Januaries I can remember, especially after a foul December. Apart from the mild start, it's generally been seasonable to cold since the 4th. The past week has seen unbroken sunshine apart from a short cloudier interlude 2 days ago, which even then had some bits of blue. Lots of cold nights as well. Memories of January 2017 but I don't think even that was this dry and fine. On the anomaly maps I expect this month may come out cold in the south, mild in the north. One thing I have been thinking though is that if the dry theme continues into February then it will probably lead to a more unsettled spring/early summer as patterns don't usually last for months on end without alterations. Just like how very warm springs rarely lead to thoroughly hot summers. Anyways, back to the present... beautiful month so far. In winters like last year, 2020, 2016 etc where January was so depressingly dull, mild and dank, this is a Godsend. I can tell because usually January drags on but it's flown by for me. May the sunshine continue!

Yep, been lovely here too. Plenty of sun, which is always nice in winter with clear and crisp skies. There's always a trade off in winter - mild weather is almost always brought along by cloudy and damp SW winds....sunshine usually means pretty cold. That said, we've still seen 8/9c in the sunshine, which isn't bad at all.

[MP-R]

30 minutes ago, LetItSnow! said:

On the flipside, down here in London this is turning into one of the nicest Januaries I can remember, especially after a foul December. Apart from the mild start, it's generally been seasonable to cold since the 4th. The past week has seen unbroken sunshine apart from a short cloudier interlude 2 days ago, which even then had some bits of blue. Lots of cold nights as well. Memories of January 2017 but I don't think even that was this dry and fine. On the anomaly maps I expect this month may come out cold in the south, mild in the north. One thing I have been thinking though is that if the dry theme continues into February then it will probably lead to a more unsettled spring/early summer as patterns don't usually last for months on end without alterations. Just like how very warm springs rarely lead to thoroughly hot summers. Anyways, back to the present... beautiful month so far. In winters like last year, 2020, 2016 etc where January was so depressingly dull, mild and dank, this is a Godsend. I can tell because usually January drags on but it's flown by for me. May the sunshine continue!

Totally agree! Jan 2006 will take some beating re lack of rainfall but I’m loving the lack of rain here since the first week.

2006 had a wet March and May then a lovely summer... something like that would go down nicely, much more so than a wet summer lol.

[LetItSnow!]

3 minutes ago, MP-R said:

Totally agree! Jan 2006 will take some beating re lack of rainfall but I’m loving the lack of rain here since the first week.

2006 had a wet March and May then a lovely summer... something like that would go down nicely, much more so than a wet summer lol.

If the anticyclonic pattern holds and the ideas of a return to westerlies is pushed back/cancelled then we are probably looking at our driest January since 2006 or perhaps 1997. I suspect 1997 would be more locally. Perhaps another exceptionally dry month to add recent years. I've noticed almost every year since 2014 has had at least one very dry month. September 2014, April 2015, July & October 2016 (locally), April & the autumn of 2017, June & July 2018, spring 2020 & most recently April & November 2021. Some of them are more locally exceptional than others but they seem to be happening more frequently than exceptionally wet months.

[SqueakheartLW]

15 hours ago, Fearthegrimp said:

Fellow weatherites, newbie here. I come in peace and in search of knowledge.  I realise there are a lot of coldies out there who yearn for blizzards, snow drifts and ice days.  We all know the classic years, but which were the mildest winters in terms of CET and how mild were they?  Have we ever had a dry and mild winter?

Mildest winter by overall CET is 1868/1869

December 1868        7.2C

January 1869             5.6C

February 1869           7.5C

OVERALL Average     6.77C

Mildest winter CET's by months

December 2015        9.7C

January 1916             7.5C

February 1779          7.9C

[summer blizzard]

Where do we stand on sunniest January's, I can't speak for the rest of the country but another week of this will produce an extremely sunny January for Leeds.

[B87]

We are massively overdue a sunny month here. Since September 2020 I've only had one such month - April 2021. If I look up the last 10 sunnier than average months here, that takes me to March 2019 (34 months ago).

[Stabilo19]

Lot's of glorious sunshine in London lately. Hope it continues until September! But knowing our luck, we'll have cold, snowy easterlies in March & April just as the rest of the northern hemisphere enters spring. 

[TheOgre]

2 hours ago, LetItSnow! said:

If the anticyclonic pattern holds and the ideas of a return to westerlies is pushed back/cancelled then we are probably looking at our driest January since 2006 or perhaps 1997. I suspect 1997 would be more locally. Perhaps another exceptionally dry month to add recent years. I've noticed almost every year since 2014 has had at least one very dry month. September 2014, April 2015, July & October 2016 (locally), April & the autumn of 2017, June & July 2018, spring 2020 & most recently April & November 2021. Some of them are more locally exceptional than others but they seem to be happening more frequently than exceptionally wet months.

It goes back further than 2014, Summer 2013 was dry, March 2012, Spring 2011 and Spring 2010.

Edited January 17, 2022 by TheOgre

[Nick L]

Yep, loving this spell of weather. Might dry things out a bit after months of damp, dreary misery. Makes the gain of daylight more pronounced too. Still twilight at 5pm now.

[syed2878]

8 hours ago, carinthian said:

Picture from Samotracia, Greek Islands, last week. Another pulse of Arctic sourced cold air forecast heading that way this time next week. Meanwhile back in most of Western Europe, the non description of a winter grinds on relentlessly . Hopefully, winter soon returns to Austrian Alps going by the charts as the Scandinavian trough drops close by.

C

  I bet you anything the cold lovers of Greece love a big UK high because they get all the cold and snow I do hope we get rid of this hi soon I would be happy even with some Atlantic storms as this few weeks have been boring weatherwise one thing it has been really frosty and we had fog except Saturday night

[Evening thunder]

6 hours ago, Mariescb said:

With respect there are many things in life that make us feel angry and frustrated but weather shouldn't be one of them. At least boring weather means there is no threat of flooding, wind damage, power cuts and burst water pipes etc - surely they're the sort of things that make people angry and frustrated.

I agree, I often think that when I see posts which are basically people getting wound up and winging about other people's weather preferences.

Having said that December was about the dullest period I remember, From 10th Dec-10th Jan, Exeter Airport had one decent day of sun, and a measly 12.9 hours in total (6.1 hours if you remove the one day of decent sun). Before that, I had been in Lancaster which was duller than Exeter early in December.

I have seen a few nice sunny days recently but today, I'm back in Lancaster which is in about the only part of England to be dull and grey again.

Doesn't make me frustrated and angry but has added to a depressing feel of things in the darkest months.

The cloudiness or sunniness going forward will make a massive difference to how I rate this winter

Edited January 17, 2022 by Evening thunder

[MP-R]

4 hours ago, LetItSnow! said:

If the anticyclonic pattern holds and the ideas of a return to westerlies is pushed back/cancelled then we are probably looking at our driest January since 2006 or perhaps 1997. I suspect 1997 would be more locally. Perhaps another exceptionally dry month to add recent years. I've noticed almost every year since 2014 has had at least one very dry month. September 2014, April 2015, July & October 2016 (locally), April & the autumn of 2017, June & July 2018, spring 2020 & most recently April & November 2021. Some of them are more locally exceptional than others but they seem to be happening more frequently than exceptionally wet months.

Yes indeed. Plenty of other very long dry periods that traverse more than one month too.

1 hour ago, TheOgre said:

It goes back further than 2014, Summer 2013 was dry, March 2012, Spring 2011 and Spring 2010.

Dec 2010 was dry too, if you don’t count the snowfall. Feb 2012 also, drier than the March here in actual fact.

Interesting that between May 2007 and December 2010, there were very few mega dry months. 

[damianslaw]

3 hours ago, SqueakheartLW said:

Mildest winter by overall CET is 1868/1869

December 1868        7.2C

January 1869             5.6C

February 1869           7.5C

OVERALL Average     6.77C

Mildest winter CET's by months

December 2015        9.7C

January 1916             7.5C

February 1779          7.9C

So much for climate change! Feb 1779 still holds record!

[SunSean]

Bizarre stat here for the South East where I am (Basildon /Southend area) - the last 6 years, including this one, January 17th has been at least decently sunny every single time! 

[LetItSnow!]

1 hour ago, MP-R said:

Yes indeed. Plenty of other very long dry periods that traverse more than one month too.

Dec 2010 was dry too, if you don’t count the snowfall. Feb 2012 also, drier than the March here in actual fact.

Interesting that between May 2007 and December 2010, there were very few mega dry months. 

Perhaps the latter is because of a more southerly tracking jet stream that aided in colder winters and cooler summers, Each of these years brought colder episodes in the winters (bar 07-08) and cool, wet summers. Since 2014 we’ve seen the jet stream more positioned over and to our north, aiding mild winters and hot spells in summers, therefor more inclined for drought than flooding.

That said, Autumn 2007, May 2008, September 2009 and April 2010 all brought some very dry weather - albeit with some variability in some of these months. 

[Weather-history]

The coming and going of mist and fog baffled me sometimes

 

[MP-R]

26 minutes ago, LetItSnow! said:

Perhaps the latter is because of a more southerly tracking jet stream that aided in colder winters and cooler summers, Each of these years brought colder episodes in the winters (bar 07-08) and cool, wet summers. Since 2014 we’ve seen the jet stream more positioned over and to our north, aiding mild winters and hot spells in summers, therefor more inclined for drought than flooding.

That said, Autumn 2007, May 2008, September 2009 and April 2010 all brought some very dry weather - albeit with some variability in some of these months. 

Yeah.. and as such some very notable wet months too e.g. November 2009. 2012 taking first prize with exceptionally wet weather in June/July, September, and November/December!

And interesting re your last point, we had 141mm here in May 2008, versus on 43mm in that June. Lots of thundery activity and southerly tracking lows caused that, which then switched to a mostly benign westerly or northerly setup in June. 

April 2010 is often forgotten about, but I certainly remember it a largely sunny month, albeit mostly cool.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

Another beautiful sunny and crisp winter's day. 

[johncam]

6 minutes ago, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

Another beautiful sunny and crisp winter's day. 

Lucky you mate , another cloudy day here seen the sun 3 times since 12 Dec 

[KTtom]

2 hours ago, damianslaw said:

So much for climate change! Feb 1779 still holds record!

Yea, i did wonder what the most benign winter on record (not sure it is, just feels like it) will do for the theory about the frequency of violent winter storms!

I see the Met are also joining the winter fun and suggesting a slow decline SOUTH for our high during February! 

[LetItSnow!]

52 minutes ago, MP-R said:

Yeah.. and as such some very notable wet months too e.g. November 2009. 2012 taking first prize with exceptionally wet weather in June/July, September, and November/December!

And interesting re your last point, we had 141mm here in May 2008, versus on 43mm in that June. Lots of thundery activity and southerly tracking lows caused that, which then switched to a mostly benign westerly or northerly setup in June. 

April 2010 is often forgotten about, but I certainly remember it a largely sunny month, albeit mostly cool.

May 2008 I believe was a wet to exceptionally wet one in the south but across Scotland, particularly the far north, it was extremely dry.

[Weather-history]

I recall a poster saying at the start of the month saying this January is looking wetter than December.....

[stainesbloke]

Quite a busy day of weather here with gales, rain, sleet and a brief interlude of heavy snow. Much quieter now 

[Skullzrulerz]

Had our first frost here today, it's hard to believe that it's getting rare for any cold weather here.

[SqueakheartLW]

47 minutes ago, Weather-history said:

I recall a poster saying at the start of the month saying this January is looking wetter than December.....

There's still time for that yet. Remember what happened in September 2019. Dry up to around the equinox then a total washout to end the month. Came out wetter than average despite the first 20 odd days of dry.