Winter 2023/24 Chat and Discussion

[Sun Chaser]

Merry Christmas everyone! I was greeted yesterday with some snow on arrival here in Poland that settled quickly (about 5cm) but it's all melted now. Hopefully that's not all for this winter

[al78]

15 hours ago, CLReeve said:

I'm seriously thinking of emigrating from this miserable, rain-soaked sh*thole of a country.  Awful, seasonless weather, lousy quality of life, shabby towns and cities and bland countryside.  Hope to get away within a decade or so.

Quality of life in the UK is still decent by global standards, there are way worse places to live, which is one reason we have people willing to risk their lives to get here in small boats to claim asylum. This year has been particularly miserable weather-wise and it is easy to get caught up in the here and now and miss the bigger picture of how beautiful the UK is as a country, and it is easy to get pulled into the media doom and gloom. Everywhere has its grotty spots (which the tourists will be sheltered from when on holiday) but visit any of the national parks for outstanding natural beauty.

[Summer Sun]

The UK has provisionally recorded the highest daily minimum temperature on record for Christmas Day, with Exeter Airport and East Malling not falling below 12.4c

[Summer Sun]

'Snow bomb’ lasting 15 days set for Britain as polar vortex sweeps country - Teesside Live

WWW.GAZETTELIVE.CO.UK

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Snow is currently predicted to last until January 8.

 

[RJBingham]

7 minutes ago, Summer Sun said:

 

'Snow bomb’ lasting 15 days set for Britain as polar vortex sweeps country - Teesside Live

WWW.GAZETTELIVE.CO.UK

---

Snow is currently predicted to last until January 8.

 

"weather experts" and "Exacta Weather" are exact opposites  

[Summer Sun]

Some parts of the UK could end up with temperatures just 3 or 4c lower than Adelaide, Australia, where they've just had their coldest Christmas Day since 2006 struggling to get above 16c

[slater]

Went for a spring like walk this morning, so calm 12c and sunny, you would have thought it was April….now clouding up..Wasn’t going to moan today, but fed up with X weather enthusiasts tweeting only just yesterday that we are on for a full on onslaught of cold in a week posting snow charts etc, then the same posters now put ensemble that are complete opposite which are showing none of it …They obviously are just rampers 

[In Absence of True Seasons]

21 hours ago, TillyS said:

This is England / UK. This is  the weather, and anything else is anomalous. We are an island warmed by ocean currents and prevailing south-westerlies.

I’ve lived all over the world and although the weather here can certainly be ‘dreich’ it does keep this country green and pleasant, with good water supplies. And it means we have wonderful flora and fauna.

Have a very nice Christmas.

xx

This is very standard British fare weather-wise. But incredibly mild for December. 

But to say that a place needs overcast, dull and drizzling weather for 80% of the time in order to be green and pleasant is a cope imo.

There are lots of countries across the world that are incredibly vibrant, lush and beautiful that are not plagued by dreich like the British Isles are. 

Places in North America for example that get double (or more) the sunshine hours annually than Britain, and probably the same or more rainfall...but their rain is condensed and heavy, rather than the piddly nonsense like we get. 

Regardless. A very British Christmas day today...lights on all day, sort of raining but sort of not, not a scrap of blue sky / sun to be seen, and no winter coat required! 

Ho ho ho one and all!

[In Absence of True Seasons]

18 hours ago, marky810 said:

I guess that proves it's weather that provides the bulk of the UK's heat. Not the position of the sun.

Indeed. But the way we experience that weather is very different depending on the time of year. 

15c and fully overcast in December feels completely different to 15c with the sun on you in, say, early May. I've been sunburned in the Lake District in 15/16c in late April before. An impossibility in Britain in December. 

So position of the sun does matter too. 

[In Absence of True Seasons]

4 hours ago, SunnyG said:

I second that. In my case though, I'm looking to go to a place with constant 20C+ temps and not a sight of any wintery weather. I had enough of that to last me a lifetime. PS Not Dubai though. A real place, not a manufactured one

Dubai sucks imo irrespective of it's climate. Not to get toooo deep on Xmas day but It's a microcosm of everything wrong with modern, hyper-consumerist and globalist society. 

My parents have a place in coastal Andalusia which is a great region imo. Plenty of sun but often not the extreme heat that inland Spain can get. Beautiful historic villages and great food. 

I'm not quite sure on my long term plan yet as I'm still young and slightly rootless but definitely not wanting to live in London forever...

Merry Xmas and hope you're enjoying the mildness even though zero sun 

[Weather Enthusiast91]

25 minutes ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

Indeed. But the way we experience that weather is very different depending on the time of year. 

15c and fully overcast in December feels completely different to 15c with the sun on you in, say, early May. I've been sunburned in the Lake District in 15/16c in late April before. An impossibility in Britain in December. 

So position of the sun does matter too. 

Yes. During that heatwave back in September, I wore no protection and had nothing more than a slight tan. Had it been a heatwave in June or July with no protection, I would have no doubt have been burnt.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Weather Enthusiast91

[East Lancs Rain]

Yet another mild and gloomy Xmas day. Currently dry, calm, overcast and 8.8°C. Boring is the word. 

[Summer8906]

1 hour ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

Indeed. But the way we experience that weather is very different depending on the time of year. 

15c and fully overcast in December feels completely different to 15c with the sun on you in, say, early May. I've been sunburned in the Lake District in 15/16c in late April before. An impossibility in Britain in December. 

So position of the sun does matter too. 

Exactly, you're never going to get 20C in December let alone 30C (unlike May to September).

Winter does seem to be more prone to extreme mildness than summer extreme coolness. While temps 5 degrees below normal are possible in late June, they don't occur anything like as often as 5 degrees above normal in late Dec. Summer daytime coolness, while quite common, seems to be more moderate (perhaps 2C below normal day maxima) than winter mildness, where 5-7C above normal seems to be not at all uncommon.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

19 hours ago, raz.org.rain said:

It's sounding like the January cold spell is already verging on being a flop judging by some of the comments in the models thread. I swear if this turns into another drab winter followed by a cold spring I give up.

I don't think there'll be a cold spring, the normal in this kind of winter is to remain mild/warm but turn drier.

Still betting on June as the first colder-than-average month of 2024. Wouldn't surprise me if we get our heaviest snow in early April but a spell of 20C+ temps will result in it being slightly warm overall.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

36 minutes ago, East Lancs Rain said:

Yet another mild and gloomy Xmas day. Currently dry, calm, overcast and 8.8°C. Boring is the word. 

I guess at least 8.8 is vaguely seasonal, being only a little (1C or so?) above average.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

13 hours ago, TwisterGirl81 said:

Well I think we have many beautiful places and cities/towns in this country and I’m grateful I was born here rather than some countries in the world. We have had a very wet autumn and wet start to winter. And I think some of us are ready for spring already, it’s been a testing avoidable 4 years in many ways and has really changed a lot of people’s psyche, people are more angry than they have ever been because of it all, hopefully brighter days ahead, also hopefully it means we will be overdue a dry spell at some point, preferably in spring and summer. But it’s true our changeable weather does let the country down as everything looms and feels better in sun.

I'd tend to agree there, the British countryside is very nice in places but can be spoilt by dull, Atlantic-dominated weather. To be fair dull and damp weather can add atmosphere to mountainous areas but doesn't really go well with the lowlands.

With our extreme lack of frosts never mind snow, winter these days is by far the blandest season, I'd tend to agree the UK countryside can look a bit washed-out from late Nov to Feb. Spring, summer and autumn can all have appeal if the weather plays ball (more common in spring and early summer than late summer/autumn). The coming of the spring flowers and then the appearance of green makes a big difference.

I tend also not to get the phrase "green Christmas" because at this time of year, browns and greys are the dominant colours.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

21 hours ago, SunSean said:

It's not so much cold temperatures I'm concerned about with another SSW, it's the perpetual unrelenting dullness. If it resulted in months like April 2021 then I'd be all for it! But looking at recent SSW aftermath, it normal correlates to gloom in Spring and after enduring such a dull and cloudy year, it's the last thing I'd want to see. SSW in my book, stands for Sudden Spring Wrecker.

True.

I wonder if we are in with the chance of the dullest month of any name on record this month in some locations? Dec 2023 seems to have been very dull indeed here, we had about 3 days with some sunshine around the end of the first week and start of the second, but almost nothing since.

That said, Dec 2021 also barely saw the sun so there's stiff competition.

More generally, obviously December is going to be the dullest month of the year but it does seem to have been particularly dull from 2011 onwards compared to the period before. In recent years, only Dec 2014 seemed to have relatively good sunshine levels, while many in the 90s and 00s seemed to be relatively sunny for the time of year.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

On 24/12/2023 at 14:21, Methuselah said:

One thing's for certain: it's warmer today than the first week of June was! 

The first week of June?

I'm surprised: here it was constant warm sunshine with max temps around 20C or a little higher. Arguably the most settled and finest spell of the entire year, as it became a little less settled once the hot weather came in.  I guess the nights were cool, 20C max 8C min has the same mean temp as 15C max, 13C min. Perhaps the nights were lower than 8 which would indeed bring the mean down to below now.

If so it's a perfect illustration of why mean temp isn't necessarily a good indication of weather.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

On 24/12/2023 at 11:49, MP-R said:

Comparable to December 2015 here for dullness and wetness, just not quite as excessively mild.

I did see snowdrops in one garden today; snowdrops on Christmas Day is just plain bizarre. Don't normally see them until late Jan. Reminds me of when daffodils came into flower at the end of Jan in both 2016 and 2020, under dull wet conditions, which I thought was a shame as if they come out too early under dark. dull, wet weather before spring-like weather arrives, you can't enjoy them.

Particularly as, generally, it hasn't been really silly mild until now; autumn was actually less mild than 2021 and 2022 according to the Met Office. I don't remember seeing the same in 2015.

Perhaps the sequence of events which confuses nature the most is cold followed by really mild. We did of course have something of a cold spell in late Nov, while in 2015 it was just constantly mild except for one cold weekend.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Summer8906

[raz.org.rain]

29 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

I don't think there'll be a cold spring, the normal in this kind of winter is to remain mild/warm but turn drier.

Still betting on June as the first colder-than-average month of 2024. Wouldn't surprise me if we get our heaviest snow in early April but a spell of 20C+ temps will result in it being slightly warm overall.

I get the impression that 2024 will be another year with every month being above average. Although, as we saw with July and august this year, it can still be unrelentingly terrible and come out above average...

[raz.org.rain]

Another mild NY by the looks of this...

 

[Methuselah]

I'll take talk of a cold January semi-seriously, for the moment, because the UK Met is also suggesting it. But, be that as it may, I'll also take it with a snow-shovel-worth of salt! 

[Metwatch]

Merry Christmas to all from Fuerteventura!

Second cloudless day, and up to 21-22°C. Many enjoying surfing or sunbathing, everyone happy Back to reality in 72 hours so making the most of it all!

[Summer Sun]

The UK has had it's warmest Christmas Day since 2016 with 13.6c at Exeter Airport

[Freeze]

32 minutes ago, Metwatch said:

Merry Christmas to all from Fuerteventura!

Second cloudless day, and up to 21-22°C. Many enjoying surfing or sunbathing, everyone happy Back to reality in 72 hours so making the most of it all!

Kind of like a july day here, but replace the sand with shingle!