I'm looking forward to this upcoming spell of more active weather as we move into February. I'm bored of all this high pressure nothingness now, to be honest (quite surprised I'd say that). At least this spell will give something a lot more interesting than this spell has.

Yeah if we can't get some decent snow then some "disturbed" weather wouldn't go a miss but obviously not as frequent as last year causing floods!

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Yeah if we can't get some decent snow then some "disturbed" weather wouldn't go a miss but obviously not as frequent as last year causing floods!

No I don't want any flooding. There's nothing good about that. Hopefully it will fill up the reservoirs a bit though, ready for a long, hot summer 2017 (hopefully)!

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Absolutely awful winter beyond comprehension. Living here and being interested in weather is akin to living in the Netherlands and being interested in mountaineering or living in Bhutan and being interested in yachting. Just a sick joke

The last couple of days the rest of Eastern Scotland has got down to -4C whereas here the nightmare of never ending mild dross just goes on and on with no lower than 1.8C. Just depressing grey crap. The Scilly Isles must be the only other place above 45 degrees north, besides here, to have had no frost in the past week

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Minus three overnight and didn't get above freezing all day. Then the temp rose this evening and we now have cold rain!!

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Minus three overnight and didn't get above freezing all day. Then the temp rose this evening and we now have cold rain!!

Opposite for Cyprus today as they had heavy snowfall in lowlands areas, not in Nicosia I think but almost hit there.  They managed to get heavy snow at 3-4C temps even on the coasts was very cold against the 17C sea temps.

It show how real cold should hit if happen here say London is 8C the average then a cold air arrive sent the temps down to -2 to -5C quickly with heavy snow.  Not like last 2 weeks ago when temps only a fraction drop from 10C to 4-6C with poxy weak snowfall compare what I saw on the Cyprus News TV tonight.

Definitely NO WAY will invest a weather station in this country ever again with the stupid behaviour of temps that refused to drop when a cold air arrive every time.  Been 5 years now I stopped and only come back during heatwaves days only.  I still have the data from 1990 to 2012, then full month of July 2013, 2014 and few days in 2015 and 2016 since it only few days hot spell.

Minus three overnight and didn't get above freezing all day. Then the temp rose this evening and we now have cold rain!!

I guess if this cold spell had broken down with a good snow storm or snow to rain event then it would have cheered many up or perhaps would have done, however the fact it's cold rain and there is nothing cold for the next week to 10 days it was a disappointment yet again.

I will give this 1/10  - and only 1 because there was frost. Just shame there wasn't a flake of snow to go with it. NOT here anyway.

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It just gets worse and worse with this current spell of utterly putrid gloom. 3 days now of grey skies with the temperature stuck between 2 and 5C. Almost no deviation from 4C for 20 hours and constant drizzle that is making today a complete write-off despite the total unlikely to exceed much more than 1mm. Just typical of this cancerous winter

Not a single colder than average week so far this winter and even in 13/14 there was one due to the first week of Dec being marginally cooler than average.

1 -7 Dec: 5.3 (+1.0)

8-14 Dec: 6.8 (+3.0)

15-21 Dec: 6.1 (+2.8)

22-28 Dec: 4.3 (+1.5)

29 Dec - 4 Jan: 5.7 (+2.7)

5-11 Jan: 4.6 (+1.3)

12-18 Jan: 4.2 (+0.7)

19-25 Jan: 4.1 (+0.5)

The most consistently mild, frost-free, boring and non-wintry winter since 1988/89 

 

 

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This is more a moan about the Met Office than the weather. Yesterday morning it was -7C at Edinburgh Airport and -6C in my back garden in Livingston, but the weather forecast charts on the BBCs Breakfast show had the central belt at 0C. The night before they had forecast +2C for Edinburgh when it was already well below zero outside. There is a huge difference in conditions between zero and -7C and people here watching the weather would have been given the wrong impression about conditions outside. The point of a weather forecast is to assist us in planning our day, preparing for adverse conditions, etc. That's what the Met Office are paid to do.

I know frost can be difficult to forecast, but even the day before temperatures here were already well below zero when they were predicting a frost-free night. Well over a million people live in the central belt of Scotland and they deserve a better service than that, especially when there is no forecasting involved in letting morning viewers know what the weather is like at that time. I've seen this from them many times in the past. Are they incompetent, or simply unable to admit to error?

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Seemingly endless days of cold, alright not really cold, but cold enough for snow.

Do we get any, NO, except for some measly slushy bit briefly at the start.

One day of warmer temperatures and we promptly get 10 hours of rain 

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Fog and drizzle to contend with when going out for a walk.... Glad to see you posting again....

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This is more a moan about the Met Office than the weather. Yesterday morning it was -7C at Edinburgh Airport and -6C in my back garden in Livingston, but the weather forecast charts on the BBCs Breakfast show had the central belt at 0C. The night before they had forecast +2C for Edinburgh when it was already well below zero outside. There is a huge difference in conditions between zero and -7C and people here watching the weather would have been given the wrong impression about conditions outside. The point of a weather forecast is to assist us in planning our day, preparing for adverse conditions, etc. That's what the Met Office are paid to do.

I know frost can be difficult to forecast, but even the day before temperatures here were already well below zero when they were predicting a frost-free night. Well over a million people live in the central belt of Scotland and they deserve a better service than that, especially when there is no forecasting involved in letting morning viewers know what the weather is like at that time. I've seen this from them many times in the past. Are they incompetent, or simply unable to admit to error?

I think the beeb now get their weather data off someone other than the net office, but yeah been chilly in Edinburgh last few days, lower than met office web forecasts

 

 

If mid February doesn't deliver, then we would have either been the 'luckiest' country in Europe to have missed all the snowy chaos OR we are going to get battered!

 

Will this country cope? I fear for the elderly and the homeless. It could be a disaster even though we would like some snow.  

 

Time will tell...

Number of air frosts during Dec & Jan:

2005/06: 12
2006/07: 15
2007/08: 19
2008/09: 21
2009/10: 30
2010/11: 31
2011/12: 16
2012/13: 19
2013/14: 11
2014/15: 23
2015/16: 11
2016/17: 7

Just sums up how utterly dire December and January were. Worst for frosts in my records by far. A truly desperate state when it’s not even close to the rock bottom standards set by 13/14 and 15/16.

After enduring that crap we are long overdue for something decent and what do we get? Horrendous, torturous, soul destroying, SE winds delivering dank grey muck, fog, rain and one degree diurnal ranges. Another spell of the worst of all synoptic set-ups to add to the ridiculous amount already suffered in this run of record breakingly awful winters post-2010.

Reports of flooding already in the local news https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/downpours-and-high-winds-arrive-to-round-off-january/  Asides from the dubious stats in that article (nothing like 50mm up to Sunday and I had 16mm yesterday so totals given for Dyce and Craibstone also look dodgy) this pig ignorant comment riled me: “One crumb of comfort is the temperature which will remain high for this time of year,”

What a complete clown Perhaps he would have liked to have gone up to Ballater last winter and said that to the residents. Would have likely ended up floating down the river like the rest of the debris. Clearly never sets foot outdoors except to open his car door if he thinks 6C with a 40mph SE wind and driving rain are anything but thoroughly nasty and repulsive conditions with no redeeming qualities 

See my signature for examples from a sadly long gone era of common sense when commentators in the newspapers were sensible and came across as well educated.

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Almost two days of rain - heavy rain followed by drizzle and persistent rain today and now heavy rain again! Utterly dire! - Mild & wet!

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For quite a while now, there has been a lot of talk about us going into a much more unsettled weather pattern with the likelihood that February would end up being much wetter than what we have used to during this winter so far. However, the question which I have to ask is where on Earth is this "unsettled" weather that everyone has been talking about, since I'm still seeing absolutely no signs of that here in Edinburgh where I live. We did have one wet day last Saturday, but that came at the end of a very long dry spell and one wet day on its own is never going to be enough to break what could still be a potential drought situation as we head futher into the year towards the summer.

We were supposed to get some rain on Tuesday, but we got absolutely nothing from that system other than a few spots of rain during the previous night and a few lightish showers during that afternoon which didn't really come to anything. We were then supposed to get some rain this morning, but we have nothing from that so far and the latest radar map isn't even showing any signs of that here as I write. On top of that, subsequent low pressure systems after that now look set to take a more southerly track.

From what I can see, the best chance of us getting any rain might come on Saturday as the first of those low pressure systems swings northwards towards us but even with that, the forecast maps which I have seen so far are still not showing very high rainfall totals for here, even on that day. Beyond that, it looks as though high pressure might build across Scandinavia. There is a question mark about whether this might lead us into a colder pattern, and the fact that we have just had a SSW event might possibility make that a slightly better possibility than what we have seen so far this winter. However, there has been too many times where the models have shown the possibility of a Scandy High only for that to never happen, that I can't really trust that either even with that SSW event.

So far whenever a Scandy High has been indicated to form, it has always been too far south to deliver any cold weather here which has meant that most of that cold weather has gone into southern Europe and although some of that did extend into the south of England during January, we have always still been left in that milder Atlantic air mass, and it wouldn't surprise me if that is what ended up happening again, given the way that this winter has gone so far. Whether we actually get that Scandy High or not though, the fact that high pressure is likely to be nearby and influencing our weather will reduce that risk of rain which is being shown just now.

That means that sepite all of the take about a pattern change and something more interesting coming up, it is now looking as though month will probably end up once again with that same old story, of the usual mild dross and very little actually happening and to me, it is a bit like having to sit through a football match which was built up to be a really big and exciting game, only for that to end up as a really dull and boring no-scoring draw and quite frankly, it is far more exciting watching paint dry than watching our weather just now. We used to say that one of the interesting aspects of our weather comes from the fact that it is constantly changing.

However, recent experience appears to be showing that in that part of the world at least, this hardly ever seems to be the case any more.

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We've had damp, grey nothingness for days but a breeze is getting up now. A bit of snow is needed to give a bit of sparkle. We'll probably get it on 21st February when I go away. It usually starts just before we drive to the airport and has thawed by the time we get back!  Sod's law!  

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Still no rain here and for anyone looking to quell any possibilities of a summer drouight later on this year, this period has been quite a massive letdown in that part of the world because it seems as though no matter what the synoptics throw at us just now, we are always going to get that same old mild, grey and boring nothingness which we have throughout this winter, and which we also got for a good part of last summer as well.

Having said that though, it is now quite a lot windier than what it was earlier on and I have noticed that the rainfall which was forecast for this part of the world on Saturday has been upgraded a bit, and brought forward to later on tomorrow night as it appears as though that low pressure system might end up turning northwards a bit quicker than what was previously expected.

Meanwhile, Gary Nicholson at Weatherweb.net has also suggested that this system could come back at us a bit from the east during Sunday, although tonight's Week Ahead forecast wasn't in agreement with that, and has that rain staying out to the east of us. However, my main gripe here tonight is with the temperatures. Throughout this winter, we have often had people like Richard from Aberdeen complaining about the temperature being stuck at something like 3C both by day and by night in their neck of the woods, with the result that there is very little or no frost.

However, what we are seeing here in Edinburgh just now, is the same sort of thing but at a much higher temperature still which in my books, makes that a lot worse at this time of year. During today, we had quite a balmy 12C but even with that, the temperature still hasn't got down to below 11C (and that is at coming up for 11pm as I write) which for this time of year is absolutely ridiculous when you consider that I have seen cooler nights than that, even in the middle of summer.

Were it not for the fact that the SSW event which has just occurred could be about to rescue our winter (and there isn't even any guarantees that this will happen), I would therefore pretty much have to say that our so-called winter is probably over for another year, not that we have had much of a winter in this neck of the woods anyway.

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Very windy tonight. It's been a while since I last heard that distinctive howling and the house rattling!

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Finally, we have managed to get some rain here in Edinburgh, Halleluyah!! We actually had quite a heavy shower during the early part of this morning which ended yet another fairly lengthy dry spell which with the exception of those few very light and drizzly showers on Tuesday, had extended all the way back to last Saturday. That didn't last long though, and it then become nice and sunny for most of the day after that until it eventually clouded over during the afternoon.

However, we have since had some further rain tonight from what is actually the remnants of an old storm system which affected parts of France recently. According to what I heard, there were some weather warning issued for that by the French Met Office which were the equivalent of the amber warnings which we have here. Since it was mainly the north of France which was most badly affected by that, that means that had this weather system approached from slightly further to the north, that would probably have resulted in an amber warning being issued for the south of England which would have been enough to mean that we would now be talking about this system being known as Storm Doris as it would have been called.

As it is though, the worst of the weather stayed to the south of the UK which means that there were no amber warnings (although the south of England did still get a yellow warning for that) anywhere in the UK and this is what resulted in this latest system not being classed as a named storm. The actual difference between those two scenarios is actually quite small, but this shows how even a really short difference like that can make a massive difference.

I will add though, that it took quite a while for that rain to reach us, given the fact that this rain area was so close by for over an hour or so beforehand and even now, it's not raining all that heavily. This therefore shows that we continue to have a real struggle just now to any rain here, and that makes me wonder why on Earth, it has suddenly become so difficult lately, for us to get any sort of decent amounts of rain in this part of the world, especially since the rain shadow effect can't be used as any excuse for that on this occasion due to the fact that the main centre of low pressure is sitting just to the south of us at the moment, which means that the wind is actually coming from the east around that area of low pressure.

Having said that though, the latest BBC forecasts have suggested that it could take well into tomorrow (possibly until around or just before lunchtime) for that rain to clear away northwards. Beyond that, there is then the potential for quite a bit of rain during the latter part of Monday into Tuesday as the next weather system comes in and gets stuck as it comes up against that developing Scandy High. It will therefore be interesting to see whether we do actually get quite a bit of rain out of that, or whether that rain shadow effect gets in the way of us getting anything at all from that, which could happen since the wind is likely to be coming from the south at that point in time, with the result that we coukl once again be sheltered by the Pentland Hills.

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Snowing quite heavily here at the mo. A bit of a surprise as was not expecting it. Trying to stick but ground too wet.

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