So I /we have the right to moan - Last Xmas into January many parts of continental Europe were plunged into a freezer for weeks on end except the UK & Ireland and maybe Scandinavia! Now this winter all the cold air and proper cold severe wintry weather is going to north America instead as well as Canada! When will it be our turn!? Stuff these rubbish one or two day cooler snaps - We need proper sustained cold lasting weeks - It can happen - Feb 09, Jan 2010, Dec 2010 and March 2013 etc etc, but it's never happened since! We are so unlucky!

We are in an easterly QBO, approaching solar minimum. On top of this we are having a La Nina albeit weak and yet we still struggle to get any sustained proper cold weather lasting for more than a day or two! Just pathetic really! Maybe those Midlands northwards did well and have done but for the south it's been dire!

We await a cold spell mid Jan 2018 and that it lasts for more than a day or two. Fingers crossed.

Happy New Year all.

Your prayers may well be answered next week

Easterly muck. That is all. 

Do you think it would be that terrible here Michael or just nearer the coast?  

I wouldn't be surprised if that upcoming easterly produced showers which just fell as rain here on the coast itself, as what happened last year (albeit a bit later on, in February), especially since that air isn't going to be coming all the way from Siberia and especially since the air to the east of us isn't even all that cold just now, anyway.

Anyway, my gripe for tonight comes from the fact that tonight was supposed to be a bit colder than of late with a better chance of an overnight frost. Yet, we have the same old story yet again where too much wind means that the temperature is once again, refusing to drop. In fact, it isn't even any colder here just now than what it was during the latter part of the afternoon which is absolutely pathetic for a night which was supposed to be that bit colder.

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I see the GFS has me down for 24 hours of strong south westerlies in the middle part of the week, 35 to 40 mph sustained with up to 66 mph gusts.

FFS, can't I go through at least a week without experiencing a wind event of sorts? I'm sure not only global warming does exist and is killing off my winters, but is also making it more windier than normal (like an extended version of Autumn).

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I see the GFS has me down for 24 hours of strong south westerlies in the middle part of the week, 35 to 40 mph sustained with up to 66 mph gusts.

FFS, can't I go through at least a week without experiencing a wind event of sorts? I'm sure not only global warming does exist and is killing off my winters, but is also making it more windier than normal (like an extended version of Autumn).

Ian, thank your lucky starts its not a southerly or the arch nemesis the SSEly!

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I see the GFS has me down for 24 hours of strong south westerlies in the middle part of the week, 35 to 40 mph sustained with up to 66 mph gusts.

MetO confirming this with a weather warning

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/warnings#?date=2018-01-03

Watch out for coastal flood alerts appearing here as the wind combines with high spring tides

https://www.floodalerts.com/

 

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Do you think it would be that terrible here Michael or just nearer the coast?  

If (and it is a big if) it was cold enough it would be good but if there is any moderation in the cold it will be chilling overcast greyness and little more. Real winter weather (dark and cold) but not a real winter wonderland. If it was cold enough though? That’s a different matter. 

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 [copied from the Model Output to avoid derailing the serious weather thread}

Far North? In the same way Manchester is the far south?  Northern parts perhaps but far north is perhaps 200miles north of here.

Anyway that misconception aside

In weather terms , the North does begin at the M4 because north of that is where it snows - see earlier posts in this moaning thread.

Or, to quote an infamous BR poster of the 1950s, "Excursions to Scotland and other towns in the North of England"

And in any case, any true Kentish Man (or Man of Kent) knows that the North begins at Watford, and Manchester is a town on the Scottish border. This perception may have arisen because before and often after the building of the M25 it took a good two hours to clear the north of London, and when you left there the roads were a lot more open. 

 

PS - only joking - and if it makes you feel any better, the name 'Kent' comes from the tribe of the Cantware, which translates as 'dwellers on the edge'

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In weather terms , the North does begin at the M4 because north of that is where it snows - see earlier posts in this moaning thread.

Or, to quote an infamous BR poster of the 1950s, "Excursions to Scotland and other towns in the North of England"

And in any case, any true Kentish Man (or Man of Kent) knows that the North begins at Watford, and Manchester is a town on the Scottish border. This perception may have arisen because before and often after the building of the M25 it took a good two hours to clear the north of London, and when you left there the roads were a lot more open. 

 

PS - only joking - and if it makes you feel any better, the name 'Kent' comes from the tribe of the Cantware, which translates as 'dwellers on the edge'

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Another repulsive day to conclude yet another horrible festive holiday period. A waste of time being off work. You can't go out for long walks because every single day it's either raining, windy or icy. Currently it's 2.6C and raining and the next day I have off work looks like delivering the same. Utterly vile 

Every year now it seems to be the same - turning awful just as Christmas approaches. 16 hours sun and just three dry days out of the 11. Compare that to the 11 days up to the 22nd December when there were 38 hours sun and seven dry days.

What little good there is in this putrid climate seems to get eroded further and further with each year that passes 

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Another repulsive day to conclude yet another horrible festive holiday period. A waste of time being off work. You can't go out for long walks because every single day it's either raining, windy or icy. Currently it's 2.6C and raining and the next day I have off work looks like delivering the same. Utterly vile 

Every year now it seems to be the same - turning awful just as Christmas approaches. 16 hours sun and just three dry days out of the 11. Compare that to the 11 days up to the 22nd December when there were 38 hours sun and seven dry days.

What little good there is in this putrid climate seems to get eroded further and further with each year that passes 

Brilliant- classic Richard.

I have no illusions that this will come as any compensation to you, poetic one, but at the other end of the UK the weather is foul, has been foul and will be foul no doubt even under the cold conditions forecast for the weekend. It's the lack of sunshine that is making my bones ache.

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Another repulsive day to conclude yet another horrible festive holiday period. A waste of time being off work. You can't go out for long walks because every single day it's either raining, windy or icy. Currently it's 2.6C and raining and the next day I have off work looks like delivering the same. Utterly vile 

Every year now it seems to be the same - turning awful just as Christmas approaches. 16 hours sun and just three dry days out of the 11. Compare that to the 11 days up to the 22nd December when there were 38 hours sun and seven dry days.

What little good there is in this putrid climate seems to get eroded further and further with each year that passes 

Agreed, an absolute classic and a textbook example of  how to moan.  Richard, you are the King of Moaners, I salute you.

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By the way (and off topic) "Watford" as in "North of the Watford Gap" refers to the small village in Northants just South of the M1/M45 junction, where the roads, railway line and canal all squeeze through a narrow gap in the hills. It doesn't refer to Watford the suburb of NW London.

There is some logic in this - it's a sensual as well as a real geographical dividing line between the true Midlands and the extended South East. From the Watford gap onwards business, commuters, culture etc. are angled towards Birmingham rather than London. My family live just North of the gap.

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For some of you the charts look promising and you may get frosts and more snow but the reality is that here on the east coast for a NE High to bring real cold it needs to be orientated from W to E extending from mid UK all the way across to Russias Baltic coast, then you cut off the mild airflow from the south wrapping around the high, and start to pull in a proper easterly originating from the north east of Russia...as in the 70/80s...add to that the fact that Scandinavia isn't that cold at the moment and the north sea is several degrees warmer than it used to be, due to mild winters during the past decade or so...with the odd exception, any precipitation, especially on the coast will be wet rather than white, and we won't get frosts either, the Midlands and southern counties may get more snow...again...due to fronts pushing in to the cold air, but I'm not holding my breath, I hope I'm proved wrong, however watching the weather patterns change over the past 20-30yrs has diminished the probability of a real period of winter to virtually nil in my part of the UK.

Spring on the way? 

First sighting! pic.twitter.com/Nu1P3qcWsL

— TheWeatherOutlook (@TWOweather) January 4, 2018

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😂😂😂😂😂 Not from me Joe, I’m bitterly ( pun intended ) disappointed to see another ECM failure, since its last update it’s performance post +144 really has taken a nosedive IMO. Although it could just be a case of only noticing it when it’s forecasting cold spells.🤭

Winter has yet to arrive down here!! Fungi are still growing that should have been killed off by December. Daffodils continue to push up in new locations by the day.

Only got around 5 weeks of winter to go..

😂😂😂😂😂 Not from me Joe, I’m bitterly ( pun intended ) disappointed to see another ECM failure, since its last update it’s performance post +144 really has taken a nosedive IMO. Although it could just be a case of only noticing it when it’s forecasting cold spells.🤭

ha! Yes it has most definitely led us up the garden path.

Golden rule (which to be fair we all followed), if ONE of the big three isn’t on board (including ECM), take note. The one not forecasting cold is usually the most accurate. 

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ha! Yes it has most definitely led us up the garden path.

Golden rule (which to be fair we all followed), if ONE of the big three isn’t on board (including ECM), take note. The one not forecasting cold is usually the most accurate. 

Except in this case they all seem to have been equally wrong (although that could still change). It makes me wonder why we bother! 

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