Let's not forget that Caesars camp and nearby hills are not far 200m above sea level, and with the exception to the highlands of Hampshire/ Surrey borders where some of the hills approach 300m most places are well below 200m. I expect that most of Hampshire away from the hills to the north are probably below 100m.

The extension of the South Downs from Buster (270m) to Cheesfoot near Winchester (171m) are plenty high enough to collect snow. There are plenty of 150m+ hills too such as Hannington and the area around Alice Holt. 

The 12Z GEFS continue the trend of a big push of heights up to our N and E. More than enough to keep up interest.

I think the mean chart at T+384 says it all.

Quite remarkable.

At the very least it does look like we're going to get higher pressure close by as we move into February - it'll be nice to see the sun again, as well as have some frost potential! Of course, with even a sniff of a continental feed the air will dry out and with lower dewpoints the prospect of frost lingering in the shade all day comes along... the next best thing to snow, IMO.

(Edit: I also notice the sun's quietened down, coninciding with an increased switch to blocking in the ensembles. I wonder if sunspots really do have the effect of energising the jet... can't see how, but it's amazing how often a sudden surge in sunspots coincides with the models ramping up the jet!)

People talk of the "modern winter" and the good old days and I'm more than old enough to have lived through and forgotten more than 60 of them!

Without fueling the debate I can say that this winter has shown some aspects of older winters that we've not had for a while. This has been a bit like an "old" winter in that we have had now a number of transient snow falls whilst not in the grip of any particular severe cold spell. This would be like an "old" mild winter where this was quite normal and barely worthy of recording. In the last 20 years these sort of spells have been lacking. Having said that the lack of January frost (barely one here so far) is becoming the norm.

 

The extension of the South Downs from Buster (270m) to Cheesfoot near Winchester (171m) are plenty high enough to collect snow. There are plenty of 150m+ hills too such as Hannington and the area around Alice Holt. 

The 12Z GEFS continue the trend of a big push of heights up to our N and E. More than enough to keep up interest.

Indeed.  I can see Hannington   from my house.   In marginal situations it often turns white  while the village just get rain or sleet.  Then again, we sometimes gets a  covering when the Kennet valley (Newbury, Thatcham etc) gets none.