It lasted into the start of spring, but the Beast arrived in my area on 27th Feb, which technically was the penultimate day of the meteorogical winter. Sure, it would have been even better if it had come several weeks sooner, but not that I was complaining.

06z has stepped back from northern BLOCKING:

See all the blues and purples up north and a strengthen PV and azores hp:

cOMPARE THAT WITH THE 00Z run at 284: - Where there is no azore HP.

00z control turns out really cold: - Potential channel low and blizzards for the south of the UK - gale force easterly! Of course not well supported and it's in FI but still something to look at and bare in mind: - With -5 to -8c uppers over most of the Uk, colder in far SE.

To be honest I don't give a damn when it arrives after the wait we've had , if I get 20cm and cold temps in March then good , at least Ive got it , the problem this year we had so much hope at the end of November .

For me Id rather have cold in the 2nd half of the Winter , in 2010 my Jan and Feb was rubbish and after the Nov and Dec that was such a disappointment.

This has to be without a doubt the most frustrating winter in a generation. At least with the zonal winters we can unequivocally write winter off early. This one is like pulling teeth. All the background signals are there but as you say Marcus, the weather will do as it pleases. I don't think the signals make a blind bit of difference in this part of the world.

Not quite sure what you mean by this. The atmosphere is a contiguous and fluid volume - what happens at 180deg long. affects what happens at 0deg long. This is why the modelling of the Pacific (eg MJO) has a knock on effect on the Atlantic and so on and so forth. We can’t just look at our small neck of the woods in isolation.

Even with zonal winters, I don't really think that at the start of December, anyone can say with unadulterated 100% certainty that there will definitely be no spell of meaningful cold before the season's end. Three weeks is a long time when it comes to forecasting the British weather, never mind three months.

Look at winter 2004/05 for example. The early-middle part of that winter was no better for coldies generally than this one thus far has been save for the fact that some areas had a White Xmas in 2004. Later in January and early Feb 2005 though the zonality began to ease and there were suggestions of a cold spell of sorts to end that winter. I can recall the famous occasion in Feb 2005 when the models, having for a while suggested a cold outbreak, then seemed to renage on it and one esteemed member here declared that winter was over. How wrong the member concerned turned out to be!

I think the current jelly high spell of weather is a case in point. Here it delivered several rather cold days, with the lowest max of 3.3C on Friday 4th, but only one frost. There was speculation in the MO thread about an inversion leading to the ice days and widespread frosts. It hasn't happened. As I pointed out spells of weather like that are as rare as genuine upper level cold outbreaks from the north or east. I think Maunder flagged up an example that occurred between 10 or 15 ago and from recollection he was right.  

We still have plenty of winter left and the models still toy with us. I'm sure at some point we will have fall of snow in parts of the UK and frosts.

However the long range forecasts have proven to be JFF!!😁😥

Disappointing output as the 'promise' of something much colder once again slips away to our east with high pressure holding on over the UK instead of repositioning more to our north east.  Still plenty of 'jam tomorrow' on show but as we know that's generally where most of them stay!! The ECM chart I posted the other day had two to three cold days here in the Channel Islands from a half decent easterly with 850s circa -4 to -6 or 7 with the promise of more to come and now we have nothing and little sign of anything really cold on the horizon. It would be nice to see a short-term upgrade in the models for once rather than the standard down grades!

Indeed! I remember this chart I copied and saved in early Jan 2017 - Looks like a deja vu sadly but in Jan 2019:

Yet the Irony is that NW Europe is meant to be the coldest spot or at least cooler according to many LR Model forecasts with the south east meant to be the mildest - so many LRF seem wrong esp the CFSv2 monthly which was due to come out 2 to 4c above average for many parts of south east Europe with north west Europe being average in terms of temps. I guess the only hope is that Jan is only 6 days old and if we want to start seeing something colder and more blocked we really do need to crank this up and bit and soon!!!

Meanwhile it;s still anticyclonic boring gloom!

2 years ago to the very day: - We see a similar pattern!  

6th Jan 2017

NOW FOR 6th Jan 2019:

That chart has happened multiple times over the last 20 years. The reverse only a handful of times.

There is some colossal snowfalls taking place in Italy and Austria atm. Some where in Austria last night there was a 3metre fall.

No, friends who live in Greece say they locals say there been snow where they live in the last 20 years than they remember in their lifetimes.

We know why - inability to build HLB.

😅. Nicely put. It never ceases to make me chuckle how people think the UK has a colder mid winter climate than most of Greece. It does not!

As you put it, it’s called a continental climate. Ours is maritime. Greece is far better placed to receive cold shots from the NE. It is far more “unfair” if we get the cold rather than Greece, and it is far less likely here, being an island on the western edge of the colossal Atlantic, with its North Atlantic Drift and jet aloft.

That wouldn't alter the predominant west-east flow: you'd just get colder rain....