HP is a complete pest and horrible to enter UK, many times this year 2024 bring clouds, rain and dull weather.  After the recent pathetic storm the sun was trying to come out but blocked by this HP that brought further rain and dull weather.  Quite a serious issue with HP bringing full on clouds from the start to the end.  We had gloom before but usually at the end of the HP spell when it get dirty but not direct from start to end.

Oh, I've long since given up on ever getting a proper white Christmas, and I've also given up on ever seeing a proper easterly again. Like an old man saying "I remember when this was all fields", I still have my memory of those wonderful easterlies in the past. Of course, those older than me will remember the winters of the 60s and 70s, even the last proper white Christmas in Kent - which was in 1970.

It's much easier watching the ever-shorter winters go by once you realise you're chasing the impossible.

All I hope for is a week of winter each year - frosts, perhaps even a snow flurry. Last year autumn ended in January, when we had 5 days of winter, then it was straight into spring. Hopefully winter this year will be a little longer!

1) Interesting synoptics at times in the autumn 

2) December arrives and the pattern gradually flattens out

3) Before you know it Christmas has come and gone and the days are growing longer

4) The core of winter produces nothing but dullness and rain

5) The vortex starts to discombobulate in late winter and something more interesting appears (though even spring months have mostly been warmer than average in recent years)

The above summarises many recent winters. Of course this one could buck the trend, but the current signs are not good.

This was in the early 80s when we had a few decent winters and we lived in the Derbyshire Peak District.

I'm a similar age to you and my dad said similar things. However, the evidence suggests that whilst nostalgia plays a role, there is no getting away from the fact that we talk about the possibility of maximum temperature records being challenged rather than minimum ones.

Of course, it's a regional thing - for that sight was very common here in the 80s, thanks to the (sighs wistfully) easterlies we used to get. The last time I saw it was for a couple of days in 2018, when the Beast from the East brought proper powder snow, ice days and drifts in the hedgerows - they lasted for weeks afterwards, something I'd forgotten from my childhood!

One of the other winter phenomena I miss is the period of several days with high pressure, inversion or otherwise, where everything freezes - and stays frozen during the day. You end up with a later of thick, crunchy frost everywhere and it's all very nice to look at. It came close to it during the cold few days in November this year, but it was just a bit too warm to persist all day long. The story of our times, I guess, that 1.5C warming in the past 30 years really has a lot to answer for!

As I've said before to those up north, or in more prone areas, make the most of what you get... for our climate is shifting ever northwards and there's bugger-all we can do about it.

App show full sun on Xmas day with temperatures at 15C now they revised down to 13C but full sun.  Now that take a piss take that we can't get sunny warm weather in the summer months.  Imagine if 15C come off with full sun on Xmas day it would be the warmest Xmas day and sane time my conservatory will see low 20's as highest this month was 21C other day when outside was around 11C.

Wife want to do barbacue on Xmas day with her friends from work coming over here. we don't eat the traditional Xmas dinner in here due to our culture for Xmas we eat more variety of  food and barbacuing if weather good like we did in Cyprus before.  Seem possible with very mild and sunny day on 25th if not changed.  As long it not HP gloom set up.

Exactly my thoughts at the moment, this progression happens time and time again.  Very 'groundhog day'.  Just like it's Premiership managerial sacking season,  it's the time for 'winters over' posts.  I would not say winters over, it's more like winter never seems to get started down here in Somerset!

Now, just in time for the run up to Christmas we have round the clock filth-ridden horror every rotten day which will likely persist to give yet another write-off festive period devoid of seasonal cheer.

I can't put into words how much I despise this country and it's unspeakably vile, good-for-nothing climate.

Went down to Edinburgh on Sunday for a light show at the castle, which would have been about the only opportunity to engage in photography this month, given the utterly woeful, ugly and depressingly unphotogenic weather conditions, but it was cancelled at the last minute due to wind. The one condition I despise more than anything at this time of year.

It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, and no worse than when I went last time, but that was in 2019 so before the decade in which all semblance of rationality and sense departed.

Yesterday was disgusting down there as well with unpleasant wind and drizzle and today I'm back home being subjected to an even worse level of dark, dank soul destroying grim grot. It hasn't dropped below 8C since Saturday evening.

Beyond awful and reminiscent of 2013 and 2015. How can anyone get anything positive out of this? It's the worst winter weather anywhere in the planet. Wish I was in Stockholm instead where snow is forecast on Christmas Eve followed by sunshine.

Need to visit in winter at some point in my life. 

Yup, best powder country in the world, a skiing mecca to beat even the US or Canada

I have Santa Claus live on my TV for in the evening so we can feel proper Xmas with snow and cold.   Currently -15C and also powdery snow cover and despite lot of tourists there no muck on the snow when someone walk on it.  In summer is Namibia Desert Lodge live cam to remember what blue skies look like and warm to hot temperatures same time.

Surely you do realise by now that Santa isn't actually real 🙂

There's room for a debate on whether Santa Claus or Donald Trump is more real

Yes just want to see snow and cold temps on live and I know there no real Santa since I was a kid.  

Never mind Santa, I am going for the snow and hopefully Aurora. 

-30C this morning which is a bit cold.  Slightly under freezing will be perfect (as it was earlier this month). 

There has been a lack of snow in parts of Lappland in early December, but that is really in the southern part, Saariselka is so far North it has been fine and hopefully will be next year too.  The chances of no snow on the ground on 1st Dec, are hopefully very very low. 

I think we had our "winter" in November with that Storm Bert snow event which brought our bus services to a standstill here in Edinburgh. However, November is technically a part of the autumn and so far, this actual winter has been completely snowless here.

So far this winter, we have had our first official ice day for two years but that was a single isolated event which came from faux cold under high pressure and not from any bitterly cold northerlies or easterlies from either the Arctic or Siberia.

Sadly, that particular event has ended up just being a mere outlier as regards to how this winter has gone so far as we have had virtually nothing in the way of any cold weather apart from that.

When you add all of that together, we really couldn't have had a worse start to this so-called "winter" than what we've had so far.

I know that there were two separate yellow warnings for wind here in Scotland. This particular storm wasn't actually officially named by any of the agencies responsible for doing so even though the conditions were actually worse this time than what we've seen from a number of the most recent named storm, so you have to ask the question of why this storm wasn't officially named on this occasion (is it perhaps because the worst impacts of that were in the north of Scotland, rather than the south of England which would no doubt have resulted in that being a completely different story altogether?).

Given how bad the conditions actually well, I would have thought that one of those warnings (particularly the one in the north of Scotland) possibly should have been an amber warning rather than there being two different yellow warnings for exactly the same thing which therefore both serve exactly the same purpose. Had one of those warnings been amber, I'm sure that this would probably have then been enough for that storm to be officially named as Storm Eowyn as that is the next name on that list after Storm Darragh.

Can't imagine Castle of Light in Edinburgh could be making it a profit this year with all these vile weekends leading to cancellations. It's just depressing to think of the effort that must go into producing it then it has to be repeatedly cancelled due to foul write-off conditions which always coincide with the weekend. I wonder if they will even bother next year.

Not that the weekdays were any better. Hideous in fact with relentless wind and no frost since the 13th. Historically the first half of December was always much milder than the second yet over the past 12 years we are repeatedly seeing the opposite with utterly awful festive periods on an annual basis in which it has become almost impossible to even get a frost.

I said in September, when we had the coldest final third since 1974, that we would end up with a similar December and that is exactly what we are having. We also had the most prolonged snow lying spell in mid November since 1971 and that was also followed by a stinking awful December in which parts of NE Scotland failed to record a frost all month.