Yep an absolutely rancid winter this is turning out to be...not seen a snowfall here yet and it looks like the next two weeks won't feature one either. Dreadful.

What's more concerning are these records being smashed across Europe- they are quite exceptional really. It doesn't fill me with joy as it means that unless there's a dramatic change, this coming summer has the potential to be deadly in terms of heat across Europe, should synoptics allow.

We seem to have seen a step change in terms of warming across Europe over the past few years. How long until the Mediterranean becomes scorched and virtually uninhabitable due to excessive summer temperatures? Not sure many people will want to endure 40-50C max temperatures most summers.

UK and Ireland was the first countries to see their warming from 1988 when snow suddenly stop appearing yearly while EU was always cold and snowy winters every single year until the last few years now they over took us with their temperatures far higher while here still stuck at 12-13C temps from 1988 onward.  I remember last year was some red hot over NW Africa to Spain in Feb then disappeared during cold spring only to return quickly in May with temps already 40Cs until August.  

The rise of Euro heights as a long term climatic trend is worrying.  As if we haven't got enough to contend with general warming but an additional spanner in the works.  I still can't really get over Xmas 21, where the models were showing a good cold spell but they underestimated the euro heights, possibly because their modelling wouldn't have bargained on the new climatic norm?

I understand some have seen their best snowfall in years this winter and yes we have had a cold spell with snow potential, but here it has been absolutely dreadful so far and much worse than the last few winters up to this point with only a brief dusting.  My five year old is desperate to go sledging (as he has done on a few occasions the last two winters) but there is absolutely nothing on the horizon.   Normally January has some cold zonality where there might be significant snowfall above 300m around here but looks like no chance at the moment. 
 

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Such a strange winter so far a great cold spell with a 10 day CET spell of -1.9c in December.  As good as anything in the last 30 years other than December 2010. Other than that very mild very wet dross.
 

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A good Dec cold spell in an otherwise very wet and drab period which shows no sign of ending in the Med term . I did wonder of this Jan would be different as we are now 10 years since anything notably cold in Jan . Jan 13 being the last time.  
At this rate even a frost looks unlikely.  Thoroughly depressing 

A good Dec cold spell in an otherwise very wet and drab period which shows no sign of ending in the Med term . I did wonder of this Jan would be different as we are now 10 years since anything notably cold in Jan . Jan 13 being the last time.  
At this rate even a frost looks unlikely.  Thoroughly depressing 

You're right of course and I think the recent rains have recharged the parts of aquifers that normal rains would have struggled with being able to reach.  For me excellent news, though I'm beginning to get a bit fed up with the way it now keeps on and on. I note the EA have Groundwater flooding amongst lots of places including Toller Whelme, Hooke, Higher Kingcombe, Lower Kingcombe and Toller Porcorum, Up Sydling and of course Sydling St Nicholas. There are some great place names in Dorset.

These groundwater floods don't occur every year but when they do if you live in a property prone to groundwater flooding it can be hard to deal with. There are places where you can see the water flowing out of peoples front doors, a case of course of buyer beware.

This was interesting to read though from, the EA. 
We are temporarily automating our messages due to industrial action.

The River Piddle is quite high as one might expect after all this rain. 
https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/station/3276 
Nick
 

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These groundwater floods don't occur every year but when they do if you live in a property prone to groundwater flooding it can be hard to deal with. There are places where you can see the water flowing out of peoples front doors, a case of course of buyer beware.

Nick
 

The last really serious groundwater flooding near here was in 2014. The photo is of the trunk road, the A32, in Lower Farringdon  near Alton, Hants, with a postman valiantly doing his round. The road was closed for about 6 weeks because the water kept coming out of the ground.

or https://imgur.com/QHg7iw2 

The latest for 2023 locally to Chichester is that the water table at the Chilgrove borehole has reached 73.4m aod with flood level once the water rises to the level of the valley floor at 75m. At another local borehole, at East Dean (the one near Chichester, not Eastbourne) the water table is within one metre of the surface. Not long now ...

... minor groundwater flood impacts are expected by Friday 06/01/2023, with springs appearing, water flowing on roads and water appearing in basements, potentially in each community (East Dean, Charlton, Singleton and West Dean). It is possible that groundwater could impact the ability of the sewage network to operate. Groundwater levels are expected to remain high until at least mid-January 2023 [Southern Water website]

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It's just another absolutely grotesque atrocity of a winter. Just like 2020/21, one good week of snowy conditions and the rest a poisonous mix of filthy cold wet rubbish and soul destroying mild wet rubbish in which the mildness is only evident at night.

In the latter category of 🐕💩  currently with the temperature rising to a ludicrous 8.6C overnight but dropped back to 7.3C now under a dank, damp and gloomy drizzlefest horror with the wind coming from the SE quarter yet again 🤢

At least in 2020/21 there was sun between the rain. This past 15 days have been beyond horrendous with only three managing 2 hours of sun. Just endless grey damp depressing filth that constitutes the most unhealthy and unpleasant winter conditions possible.

If this persists then this winter could end up close to the worst I can remember even with the good week which came at totally the wrong time only to be replaced with the same old toxic rot for Christmas that we've now endured for over a decade 🤬

W/SW winds are boring and uninteresting for the most part but at least tolerable. This is certainly boring and uninteresting but not remotely tolerable. Wish I could hibernate till Spring. The NW European winter is a truly awful experience that no-one should have to endure ☹

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Will these long, dark evenings just hurry up and bugger off? I really have felt irritable and tired this week.

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Will these long, dark evenings just hurry up and bugger off? I really have felt irritable and tired this week.

Certainly makes a difference when it's a nice clear evening, but today was grim.

At least by the end of Jan, down here, dusk will be 5:30 so not long to go.

Strange to think the earliest sunset/dusk time was nearly a month ago now on the 12th Dec, for me it's the mornings which are dark, given they only switched on the 1st Jan

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Spells of rain, coupled with mild temps... absolutely relentless.

It's depressing in the extreme.

I'd even take a few weeks of a UK high right now - no snow prospects, but at least cool and settled with some frost and fog.

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Loads of surface water flooding round here, especially run-off from fields (that are obviously devoid of water-absorbing crops this time of year)

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Going to be a winter of two halves here, or with a bit of luck 2/3 and 1/3 with us being in the awful third right now. My second least favourite weather right now, dull, windy, mild and wet to be followed next week by the worst, cold, wet, cloudy, windy. Still, I'm one of the lucky ones with a pleasant enough December and a genuine cold spell with a week of decent depth lying snow. let's hope for something similar or at least drier and brighter in February.

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One bonus of the winter so far is that we haven't really had any damaging winds yet. 
Quite windy right now at 40mph but can't remember it being worse than that this autumn or winter which is unusual. Friday may hit 50mph though.

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One of the reasons we moved to France in 2014 was to escape the horrendous UK weather. We lived in North Wales which is stunningly beautiful but with so much wet weather and increasingly mild and disgusting winters that we needed a change.

We are in the Massif Central now in central France. Our property is 810 metres above sea level. This winter has been abysmal, despite our altitude. 

We had the cold snap before Christmas that the UK had , but here there was no snow only -12 overnight for a few nights.

Since Christmas the weather has turned much milder and extremely wet and grey. Barely seen the sun for about 17 days now. Relentless rain and greyness. Barely any wind either. When it's not properly raining we have fog and light drizzle...it's relentless.

I honestly never expected such awful winters here at this altitude and so far from the sea. I expected snow; frost; blue skies and winter. To be fair last winter was mainly sunny and cold (but that was a rarity). This one is abysmal like most since we have lived here. Just make it stop.

Very worried for the summer. 40 degrees is no longer rare here and drought is a yearly occurance.

We are paying big time for that frosty sunny spell in December. I think we’ve only had two fully dry days since that settled spell broke. 

I see that NW England and hilly parts of Wales have been the wettest in the country in around the monthly Jan Avg rain already falling.

The lack of sun has also been noticeable. Seems to be the pattern of recent winters in my locality. We haven’t had more than a 2 inch snowfall since BFTE part 2 in 2018. Very very poor for here. 

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One of the reasons we moved to France in 2014 was to escape the horrendous UK weather. We lived in North Wales which is stunningly beautiful but with so much wet weather and increasingly mild and disgusting winters that we needed a change.

We are in the Massif Central now in central France. Our property is 810 metres above sea level. This winter has been abysmal, despite our altitude. 

We had the cold snap before Christmas that the UK had , but here there was no snow only -12 overnight for a few nights.

Since Christmas the weather has turned much milder and extremely wet and grey. Barely seen the sun for about 17 days now. Relentless rain and greyness. Barely any wind either. When it's not properly raining we have fog and light drizzle...it's relentless.

I honestly never expected such awful winters here at this altitude and so far from the sea. I expected snow; frost; blue skies and winter. To be fair last winter was mainly sunny and cold (but that was a rarity). This one is abysmal like most since we have lived here. Just make it stop.

Very worried for the summer. 40 degrees is no longer rare here and drought is a yearly occurance.

You should see lot of snow next week?  Regarding summer last summer was rubbish here but hope this summer sunshine amount between 9am to 3pm to be far much higher useable amount than early and late sun nonsense.  Was around 200 hours mark but 95% was outside the good timing zone.

Not a massive fan of cold, but I'll happily take it next week if it means a few days of drier and brighter weather. Since Christmas, the rain and dreariness has felt relentless around here...

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Yet another diabolical, depressing grotfest of a Saturday following yet another absolutely repulsive week of write-off coma-inducing crud 😡

This month is absolutely feeling like January 2014, the worst January of my lifetime. Entirely devoid of anything remotely desirable. Just a rank demoralising horror show that combines uninteresting and unpleasant like almost nowhere else on Earth 🤮

Revolting wet rubbish with revolting temperatures - hideous mild nights and average day temperatures. Nothing mild feeling at all. Where else on Earth has such a dire climate that it's a struggle to get both double digits and sub-zero in winter? An absolutely dire lack of temperature range and variation that is just excruitiating.

Hasn't dropped below freezing for 9 days now while the monthly maximum has been a truly pitiful 8.7C coincidentally exactly the same as the highest temperature of January 2014. Even most of the very cold Januaries of the 50s and 60s reached double figures.

In stark contrast to last winter, when January produced brilliant sunsets on an almost daily basis, this unspeakably vile winter couldn't be any worse when it comes to sunrises/sunsets. Barely even anything half decent amongst the near unceassingly grim, ugly and unphotogenic skies.

Into the 5th month of 50% above rainfall. It's beyond ridiculous. We need a prolonged properly dry spell like 2003 after this horror but there is just no end in sight as it gets worse and worse. Not had two consecutive dry days since 22nd/23rd December 🤢Even January 2014 managed a five day dry spell.

So much for a quick return to proper winter. Four weeks this utter filth has gone on for and I can't think of anything worse. 1988/89 would be something to welcome compared to this 🐕💩

 

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Just a few hours ago, we were very close to getting an air frost here in Edinburgh as the temperature dropped as low as 0.1°C at Edinburgh Gogarbank, around 0°C at Edinburgh Airport and 0.26°C at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh (the botanic gardens in Edinburgh along with the other 99 series stations are now back online at weatherobs.com, although the data for these stations only goes back to 12 January 2023 which means that there is more than a whole month's data which I haven't been able to get for there).

However, it then clouded over with very light drizzly rain (yes, this is just plain old rain rather than snow) which has barely been enough to dampen the ground as that came in, the temperature then went back up again at all of these three stations, thus robbing us of a possible air frost once again.

What an absolute bummer!!

EDIT

I should really react that because after a while, the rain turned to snow before clearing away. After that, it then got colder again with an air frost at all three of my local stations here in Edinburgh. The only thing left which is actually worth moaning about is that there is only the slightest of coverings of snow on the grass after all of that with some slushy stuff elsewhere which appears to have frozen over and turned to ice as it has got colder.
 

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Snow to the west of us, snow to the east of us, snow to the north of us - what does Sussex get? So much water that it runs off fields, washes any salt away and creates unglamorous and dangerous black ice. 

Not just a moan for me - two of the most important roads in Sussex are closed for this reason; the A27, the only significant E-W artery south of the M25, and the A26, principal access to the port of Newhaven.

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