Winter Review

[cobbett]

Certainly a winter for me that won't ever be remembered (there are a lot of those) - no redeeming periods apart from some pleasant frosty days - 1.5/10

[Rob 79812010]

A good one for Mancunions. 6 out of 10 maybe nearer 7. Fantastic cold spell December and absolutely in the right month as someone alluded to. We had lying  snow for a week in January. That is the exception  in Manchester and even in cold winters past that  never happened much. Feb had lovely sunrises and sunsets. Of course it wasn't a memorable one in epic terms bit good all the less

[The PIT]

Not a tremdous with more Snow falling in spring than in the winter itself. Five days with Snow falling five in Dec and two in Feb. Winter seemed to be only four weeks with spring and autumn like weatherfor the other eight weeks. I'll give it five out of ten for sheffield area.

Winter 2022- 2023 for the general public won't be remembered as anything special. However it did feature some notable cold spells offset by even milder spells of weather in December and January which helped the winter to come in at average temperatures overall. The temperatures 0.6C above the average which counts as average.

December was a month of extremes starting with temperatures just below average for the first seven days then a strong cold spell from the 8th to the 17th which brought the month to be well below normal by the 17th. Any thought at stage of the month coming close to normal seemed to be very unlikely. The notable features of the cold spell was the lack of Snow only two falls gave any depth with the snow at it's deepest on the 12th with 4.5cm. This lasted six days quickly melting on the 18th. The coldest day was on the 11th when the high was only -0.7C a rare ice day. The period from the 12th to the 19th saw some notable air frosts with -4.4C on the 13th followed by -5C on the 14th and then -4C on the 15th. There was a period of 12 days which had an air frost recorded. Spring arrived on the 18th as temperatures rocketed from -1.6C to 12.2C the next day did better with a high of 13.5C from a low of -1.4C. It remained mostly mild to very mild to the end of the month with double figures reached on four more days. The final average temperature for December was 3.6C still considered within normal values. It was the coldest December since 2010. December was the only month not to be above average in 2022. However it failed to prevent the warmest year on record being recorded.

Rainfall for December was average with the majority of the rain falling in the second half of the month with 15.9mm on the 23rd and 10.7mm on the 28th being the wettest days. It wasn't a windy month at all.

January saw some very mild weather and a spell of cold weather from the 17th to the 23rd which prevented the warmest January on record which looked to be almost certain by the 12th. Spring arrived on the 3rd as temperatures reached double figures which they did for five consecutive days and again from the 10th to 12th. 12.2C on the 3rd would normal be enough for the warmest day however the 2nd burst of spring like weather saw 12.7C being reached on the 10th. The start of the first warm spell actually came of an air frost as temperatures dropped to -0.9C on the morning of the 3rd. The warmest night soon followed on the 5th as 9C was the low. Temperatures dropped away from the 12th and by the 15th were back to normal. The period form the 16th to the 23rd saw temperatures below normal. This included 7 consecutive air frosts and the coldest nights on the 17tha nd 18th when a low of -27C was recorded. The coldest day was on the 17th when 1.8C was the high. The 15th and 16th saw the only Snow of the month. Needless to say it didn't settle.

The first half of January was very wet with 15.5mm falling on the 3rd, The 10th and 11th seeing the wettest day with 16.7mm quickly followed by 14.5mm. A few days later 13.8mm fall. At this point 100mm plus seemed very likely. However only 4.4mm fell from the 14th to the 31st bringing the total to 85.1mm. rainfall came in just above average.

Although January didn't see any named storms two days would have have been named in the past with 50 mph reached on the 12th and 54mph on the 31st.

February was another mild month and a very dry one being the 2nd driest on record. The month saw spring make a comeback and didn't see any cold weather at all although most people felt that average temperatures were cold as they got used to the very mild conditions.

The month started on the mild to very mild side with the cooler days being average. The 2nd and 3rd saw temperatures by day into double figures with the warmest night being recorded in this period as temperatures only dropped to 8.2C. temperatures fell away generally after this but never were on the cold side and generally just above. Temperatures dropped to freezing on the 7th, the coldest night of the month with 6th being close at 0.3C. The 7th was the only air frost of the month. Even in this average spell double figures were reached on the 7th, 10th and 11th. More spring like weather from the 14th to the 21st so double figures in the day with the warmest day on the 14th as 13.3C was reached. Night times were average to mild and even very mild at times with second warmest night on the 18th when 8.1C was the low. The last day to reach double figures was the 24th then temperatures returned to expected values for the time of year by day.

Rainfall wise the month was a case of spot the rain drop with the dry weather from the end of January continuing into February. Rainfall failed to reach double figures for the month with month being the 2nd driest on record. Even Storm Otto only provided 0.3mm. The wettest days were on the 27th and 28th if you could call them wet with just 2.5mm of rain. Only 0.2mm of rain fell through the first 14 days. The final value of 9.7mm was worrying due to dry weather of the previous year and if spring follows the same pattern water rationing is very likely over the summer.

There wasn't any Snow during February but it did provide a rare wind storm on the 17th as winds hit 61mph due to Storm Otto unnamed by the Met office but the Danish Met was the ball. There was a sleet shower on the 25th.

Overall Winter 2022/23 won't really be remembered away from the Weather community. It did produce some extremes temperature wise and in regards to rainfall. The cold spells did produce some notable figures elsewhere in the UK but without accompanying heavy Snow will be quickly forgotten by the public.

[damianslaw]

21 hours ago, Metwatch said:

Would give this winter a 5/10. 

I would call this winter in terms of snow a back loaded one, having to wait until the first full week of March until some decent laying snow. That however mainly stayed on the ground during the morning, quickly melting either from cold rain or the increasingly strong March sunshine. 

The December cold spell though it delivered for some with snow, there was a big lack of it here with a dusting maximum. The sunny days and frost surviving all day was somewhat interesting in my opinion. 

January there was also a lack of snow despite the cold but again for my location was expected. 

A very dry winter month (February) for a change was nice to experience (4th driest since 1873 for my locality.)

An interesting quirk which I probably think is the first to happen here in memory is that 2 back to back winters having the best falls of snow outside of meteorological winter (winter 2021-22 best snow end of November, the 28th, 3cm & this winter of course with 7cm in March.) 

Yes becoming quite common seeing best snowfalls outside of the winter months in recent years, here too March has brought the biggest falls, last year November did. 2020-21 not so though, Jan did. 2019-20 brought only decent snowfall late in Feb, just within winter period, 2018-2019 Jan, 2017-18, 28 Feb only just, mid March gave it a run for its money.

Hoping winter 23-24 delivers its coldest and snowiest conditions mid Dec to mid Jan, but we hardly ever have sustained cold weather in that time period since 2010. 2020-21 only time.

[summer blizzard]

Assuming that no more falls then for snow this will go down as a 7/10. 
 

- 22 days lying snow in total, essentially split over 3 periods, this was the most since 2010 potentially. 

- 15cm (14cm single fall) was the heaviest snowfall since Jan 13.

- Main downside was that it was basically a few glorified showers and a big front so not often. Contrast to winter 21 which saw weaker but repeated frontal events.

- Duration was also good. Winter arrived in late November and looks to have left mid March.

- Temperature let’s the winter down. December was lovely, Jan and March acceptable but February poor. 
 

Like 2021, it was the best since 2013. Hard to say which I preferred.

Edited March 24, 2023 by summer blizzard

[Don]

For winter period December to February not too bad by recent standards.  However, recent standards are pretty poor!!  For my back yard I would give it 3/10, mainly due to seeing very little in the way of snow with a flurry in December and only a couple of flurries during the second half of January.  That said, some areas not far from me did well during the December cold spell and so did some areas in the south, so could have made all the difference.  Meanwhile, February was very poor indeed.  Second week of March was great with two substantial snowfalls and had the same setup occurred a month earlier, snow depths could have been very impressive indeed!  However, the month has been let down by predominately mild weather since.

[Dark Horse]

Not a decent winter here probably 5/10 at best.  Not a lot of snow compared to what we usually get. If it wasn't for the bitter cold spell in December I'd have probably rated it only 3. Too much mild dry boring weather in between any cold as well. In the last 10 years or so 2011-12, 2012-13, 2017-18 and 2020-21 were all far better winters than the one just gone in terms of snow in this location.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Dark Horse

[damianslaw]

20 hours ago, summer blizzard said:

Assuming that no more falls then for snow this will go down as a 7/10. 
 

- 22 days lying snow in total, essentially split over 3 periods, this was the most since 2010 potentially. 

- 15cm (14cm single fall) was the heaviest snowfall since Jan 13.

- Main downside was that it was basically a few glorified showers and a big front so not often. Contrast to winter 21 which saw weaker but repeated frontal events.

- Duration was also good. Winter arrived in late November and looks to have left mid March.

- Temperature let’s the winter down. December was lovely, Jan and March acceptable but February poor. 
 

Like 2021, it was the best since 2013. Hard to say which I preferred.

22 days is very good, probably better than most parts of England and Wales. I assume you had a cover early in the Dec cold spell that stuck until the 18th, a further cover around the 16th Jan that stuck until the 22nd, and perhaps a day or two early in March.

We could have had 9 days in Dec, but the snow was very slight overnight 9th/10th and had gone the next day, places not far away had a few inches that stuck around through the 18th. Likewise could have had about 4-5 days in Jan but just a slight dusting here. We had three good covers in March but each thawed / washed away quick. Could have been much better.

[summer blizzard]

30 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

22 days is very good, probably better than most parts of England and Wales. I assume you had a cover early in the Dec cold spell that stuck until the 18th, a further cover around the 16th Jan that stuck until the 22nd, and perhaps a day or two early in March.

We could have had 9 days in Dec, but the snow was very slight overnight 9th/10th and had gone the next day, places not far away had a few inches that stuck around through the 18th. Likewise could have had about 4-5 days in Jan but just a slight dusting here. We had three good covers in March but each thawed / washed away quick. Could have been much better.

Yeah.

A week in December. 

Just about 10 days in January (albeit that one gradually disintegrated rather than got washed away). 

Weds-Sun in March.