Winter 2022/23 - Moans, Ramps & Chat

[SLEETY]

Well im so shocked to see feb heading very mild again.

Probably means a very cold spring though to make up for it

[Nick L]

Minimum of -2.3C here last night. Severe indeed.

[Penrith Snow]

9 hours ago, Met4Cast said:

It’s not supposed to be different? It’s about clearer public messaging around severe weather. 

By naming depressions like we do Hurricanes places in the public mind the impression that our climate is now more severe which it isn't, Weather relate deaths were much higher in the 60's

Edited February 6, 2023 by Nick L
Let's not drag Brexit into this please

[Nick L]

I don't mind the concept of naming storms, but the way it's been done has been a mess. There is no consistency with what constitutes a named storm, and other Met agencies often name them before our Met Office meaning that the alphabetical order gets completely lost. They also tend to get named far too late, so that they don't raise awareness or enable people to prepare anyway!

[TEITS]

The recent model output and weather in general for this winter has only reminded me why I don't post as often as I used to. I do not have as much spare time, but the main reason is I become tired of chasing cold spells that would become downgraded or disappear from the model output. This left me with the feeling of having wasted so many hours which I could of put to better use.

A good example is the recent GFS farce. At one stage the GFS was suggesting an E,ly bringing cold upper temps between -12 to -15C. Now for the same time period the models & ensembles are suggesting upper temps around +5C!!!

I see some posts referring to cold spells in March but to be honest once we get to the end of Feb, I switch into spring mode and desire warmth and sunshine.

 

[SunSean]

I'm gonna have the torches out for me for saying this and i don't give a monkeys but I honestly can't stand the phrase "conspiracy theory" being chucked on people for having a different opinion to the mass group think. Its so belittling. Whatever happened to respecting anothers opinion (whether you think its right or wrong) and having an open mind? Especially when the "leaders" & "elites" of the world are telling us to reduce carbon while zipping about on private jets all the time and buying ocean front properties. I can think of plenty of so called "conspiracy theories" of the past few years that turned out to not be so much of a conspiracy after all, but i won't get into that as this is a weather forum. On that note, really stoked to see lots of sunshine to come this week!

[alexisj9]

8 hours ago, skifreak said:

So Storm Frank... you want to tell the people flooded out of large parts of Ballater,  that it wasn't a real storm? Just a wet and windy day that obliterated from existence a couple of hundred yards of the A93, left a bridge at Braemar unstable so that the only way in and out was over the 2200ft Cairnwell Pass which had to be kept open 24/7 through January and February? That the arches on the A90 Bridge of Dee went full bore for the first time in 488 years was just a damp winters day?

Just a wee breeze that Frank, a breeze that ripped a roof of a chairlift drive at Glencoe ski area with such force it smashed a hole in a building further up the mountain and knocked a ski lift tower out of alignment before disintegrating, maybe tell the owner of the car overturned in the carpark at 1200ft at Glencoe that Storm Frank wasn't actually real wind?

Some serious pish gets posted in this thread.  

That's the main problem, people think if it wasn't bad where they were, it wasn't bad anywhere. You need to look at the warnings too, and not ignore the amber or indeed sometimes red areas. Elsewhere isn't really effected badly.

[stainesbloke]

The vile gales have abated here thankfully but it’s gone pretty chilly now under high pressure. -6°C overnight Good views of the full moon though

[Weather-history]

It is looking more and more like the meteorological winter of 2022-23 could have distinct halves precipitation wise for England and Wales at least.

The first half has had about 185-190mm or so far but since mid January it has been very dry and it could be a very dry second half of winter.

 

[kold weather]

1 minute ago, Weather-history said:

It is looking more and more like the meteorological winter of 2022-23 could have distinct halves precipitation wise for England and Wales at least.

The first half has had about 185-190mm or so far but since mid January it has been very dry and it could be a very dry second half of winter.

 

Whats crazy is most of the rain fell in a 30 day period, outside of that its basically been extremely dry. so really its been 2/3rds very dry, 1/3rd very wet, I've not done the figures but locally I suspect that 30 day period would be right up in the top 10 wettest such periods in winter.

Anyways looking like we will be going into the final 15 days of the winter still snowless for large portions of the country. I always find the last 15 days similar to the last half of August, there is a subtle but definite shift, things get that bit lighter, locally the maxes rise from an average of just over 7c to around 8.5c and it can feel very spring like at times in the right conditions. Of course thats not to exclude cold spells, which absolutely can still have a strong bite (though the means by then rarely compete with the levels that can been from mid December through to late January).

 

[SussexSnowman]

A dry, sunny crisp start to the day. 5oc here at the moment. 

Contrary to some, I've actually enjoyed this winter more than the previous ones of late. Had more cold and average temp days than others gone by. Should Feb close out with a dry average spell, that's ok with me. I've had snow, frost and dry cold days and sadly mild rain guff in between. Though offered to me at the start of winter and I would've taken your hand off. Would've preferred more snow, but hey can't have it all.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

As far as UK winters go, so far it hasn't been that bad here and is far better than many other recent winters. We have had some decent cold spells accompanied by sunshine which have been lovely. A bit more snow would have been nice, but I am more than happy with what we had.

Despite having many rainy days, it has been a very quiet autumn and winter storm wise, with still no named storm yet. I don't see much hope for February providing anything of the kind either.

I think February will end up being largely a benign month with some cold days here and there, particularly the closing days of the month. 

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Weather Enthusiast91

[Frigid]

The overall Winter CET could be quite similar to 2001/02. Another mild February potentially in the books.. and that's after 2019, 2020, 2022 being exceptionally mild. The month had potential with the models playing with the idea of a scandi high, but that's all but disappeared. 

[TheOgre]

Looking very sunny this week. It’s been a very sunny winter overall with lots of frost. Much better than last year.

[Nick L]

Another beautiful day here, max temp of 8C. I agree too about the frosts this winter, not been many winters in recent times this frosty.

[johncam]

Not sunny everywhere , been and looking to be mostly cloudy gor 2/3 country 

 

 

[matt111]

Nice to have a day that stays sunny all day for a change, hadn't had one of those for a while. 

I've had a decent number of frosts here too this winter, far more than I've seen in the last couple of winters that hardly had any at all. 

[Methuselah]

What a lovely forecast from the UK Met: Oodles of sunshine, once any early morning fog dissipates: 

 

[snefnug]

Spectacular sunset tonight, lots of cloud fluffs coloured deep red to salmon pink.  Is that a mackerel sky?  Anyway cloud fluffs still overhead so wonder if that will mitigate forecast frost tonight.  Lovely sunny day today if very chilly out of the sun.  

[knocker]

February looks like turning into a grand month, so much so Sidney's offspring have been raiding the larder

[Summer of 95]

This winter round here is starting to remind me of 2005-6; one which definitely seemed to have more in the way of cold setups than we had seen in most of the winters leading up to it, had a notable lack of really mild weather, had a cold snap in December and a couple more in Jan and Feb, wasn't short on frosts- yet it had hardly any snow until March (which then produced the biggest snowfall here for 10 years). A cm or so in Jan on 7-8th, similar to 18-19th this year- but that was about it for the winter months. The rainfall was more evenly distributed through the season in 05-06 though. Hopefully March this year will do the same as it did that year! Unless we finally get a decent snowfall in February the way we finally got a sunny August in 2022...

[Mapantz]

26 frost days here, including today's. That's lower than last year.

[kold weather]

Around here I'm struggling to remember a recent winter as frosty as this one, though the autumn period was severely lacking in them of course bar the odd one here or there.

Also we've had far more severe frosts than I can remember, probably the last one that saw so many -5c or below locally would have to be 10-11, though maybe 12-13 would be close?

Anyway another frost incoming for tomorrow morning, probably going to have one most mornings this week, though maybe we might just get away without one on Thursday.

[Weather-history]

I’m sure some misread pressure anomaly charts and assume that higher than average pressure shadings is the equivalent of high pressure. It ain’t necessarily so as the song goes because it depends on what the average pressure reading is for that area.
 

For instance, a +10mb anomaly could just mean instead of an average of 980mb in that area it is 990mb. That’s still low pressure just a weaker than average one for that area. 

[Don]

2 hours ago, Summer of 95 said:

This winter round here is starting to remind me of 2005-6; one which definitely seemed to have more in the way of cold setups than we had seen in most of the winters leading up to it, had a notable lack of really mild weather, had a cold snap in December and a couple more in Jan and Feb, wasn't short on frosts- yet it had hardly any snow until March (which then produced the biggest snowfall here for 10 years). A cm or so in Jan on 7-8th, similar to 18-19th this year- but that was about it for the winter months. The rainfall was more evenly distributed through the season in 05-06 though. Hopefully March this year will do the same as it did that year! Unless we finally get a decent snowfall in February the way we finally got a sunny August in 2022...

Although 2005/06 was colder than the three proceeding winters, it produced less snow for me!

Edited February 6, 2023 by Don