Out of all of the seasonal moaning threads on this forum, the winter moaning thread is normally always the one which is started on the earliest date prior to the start of the season which it actually covers. I am therefore surprised to see that this hasn't actually happened year and so because we have now just moved into the start of the winter, I think that it is now time to finally get this thread under way.

Out of all of the seasonal moaning threads on this forum, the winter moaning thread is normally always the one which is started on the earliest date prior to the start of the season which it actually covers. I am therefore surprised to see that this hasn't actually happened year and so because we have now just moved into the start of the winter, I think that it is now time to finally get this thread under way.

 

Exeter has only seen two frosts so far this Autumn - SW has been so mild and so wet in contrast to the north (Scotland) when -8c was recorded somewhere during early hours!! When many parts of the south west held up at +10c.

Let's hope we start seeing some proper night time frosts this week to start winter - we really need to dry out!!

The only comfort I can see is that we should get at least 3-4 days where it doesn't rain and then after a mild blip it looks like it will be seasonably cold and instead of mild wet it will be more in the way of cold and showery according to models - with frosts - and just frequent noth westerlies and northerlies followed back by westerly and north westerly then northerly - so cold zonality! Good for highland Scotland but poor for many parts of the south re snowfall - as we could just see plenty of cold rain. But looks like it will be a cracking start to the ski season for Scotland if models come about.

If it stays as bright & sunny as it has so far this week I'll be happy!  Autumn wasn't a terribly dark & dismal affair here either, sure we had a few grey, wet days but the bright days certainly outnumbered those. Cold, bright days are awesome though & better in the abscence of snow! 

If it stays as bright & sunny as it has so far this week I'll be happy!  Autumn wasn't a terribly dark & dismal affair here either, sure we had a few grey, wet days but the bright days certainly outnumbered those. Cold, bright days are awesome though & better in the abscence of snow! 

A nice spell of weather we've just had and the fading into wet crap was mitigated by the promise of a colder switch from the 2nd-ish week of December and the Strat warming dangling the carrot of something perhaps even better.

Now cruelly snatched away and replaced by more sh*tty wet crap - and from the west, too, so even worse

We haven’t even had a nice spell here just a couple of days of frost after mid-November and again last weekend. These have been the only respite from the ongoing torturously boring and unpleasant vile dross that is putting this on a par with the worst ever late Autumns/early winters. Certainly the worst since 2002 which is really saying something.

It is breathtaking how awful the past month has been. It hasn’t reached 10C for over a month which has never happened this early during the past 60 years at least. The closest was in 1966 when it only just touched 10C in mid-November. Yet we have had absolutely zero in the way of proper cold with no snow and only slight to moderate frosts. Yet again we can’t get the extremes we used to at both ends of the spectrum. The variety of weather we get these days can be compared with what’s on offer at next week’s General Election – various degrees of insufferable crap.

December has got off to an awful start with mild frost-free crud while parts of the country that are climatologically less frosty get night after night of it. That has happened so much this decade, and with snow as well. I’m utterly sick to death of it. Seeing model output with the heaviest snow focussed on the west of Scotland instead of the North East makes me apoplectic with rage. Used to be they got all the rain and we got all the snow now it seems like it’s the other way round. The ongoing near 7-year snow drought is unprecedented and every winter that passes without a decent fall makes it more and more ridiculous and intolerable.

The month of December has been a complete disaster since 2010. Only the first half of 2012 (and that was more than cancelled out by the phenomenally bad second half), 2014 and 2017 have delivered anything vaguely acceptable. What’s more it is frequently the case that the Festive Period is the mildest part of the month instead of the coldest.

Can’t get out with the camera to capture any interesting photogenic weather because there is none. Was hoping to make a trip to Edinburgh to see an outdoor light show at the castle but no chance of that this weekend as yet again the forecast is disgusting with rain yet again on Saturday afternoon/evening. Looking like more of the same on the 14^th so probably won’t get at all. Sums up perfectly the shocking quality of life in this filthy rancid country when you are constantly prevented from doing the things you enjoy by its repulsive suicide inducing climate.

This outlook is on another level of depression-inducing hideousness to even 2013, 2015 and 2016:

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2657832

Toxic doesn’t even begin to describe it. Right out to the 18^th and not a single frost is forecast just endless days of cloud, rain, sleet and below average daytime highs. Revolting GARBAGE. Very unpleasant and very uninteresting. It’s like something you would expect in a horror climate like Prince Rupert or Sitka.

All we get is these near non-existent diurnal ranges no matter what. Absolutely loath the season of winter now. Despise every single day of it

God, the late afternoon dullness at this time of year is so damn depressing. If it wasn't for Christmas brightening everything up, I couldn't imagine how miserable December would be!

That's exactly where the tradition comes from - Pagan times and practices.

I actually love the dull days that never get fully light. I just hate the rain and everywhere being wet.

That's exactly where the tradition comes from - Pagan times and practices

 

And back on subject, what is the point in a winter moaning thread?    When we all know that winter doesn't start until the end of autumn, just before the first day of spring ......

 

 

That's exactly where the tradition comes from - Pagan times and practices.

I actually love the dull days that never get fully light. I just hate the rain and everywhere being wet.

 

I suppose, the one good thing about it being dark for most of the time at this time of the year is that this reduces to an absolute minimum, the dull and extremely boring sight of constant grey skies which are seen quite a lot in this part of the world, and which just looks even more depressing to me.

Yes, people often forget the true, pre-religious - origins and meaning of Christmas

And back on subject, what is the point in a winter moaning thread?    When we all know that winter doesn't start until the end of autumn, just before the first day of spring ......

Agreed - winter in his part of the world is nothing more than a slice of pagan mythology dreamt up by ex-pat Norsemen pining for the ancestral snowy fjords.

 

 

That's exactly where the tradition comes from - Pagan times and practices.

I actually love the dull days that never get fully light. I just hate the rain and everywhere being wet.

 

Wasn't it the Pagans who celebrated Yule around the winter solstice, to mark the beginning of the sun's return to the sky? Then of course when Christmas came along the two more or less merged together.

Wasn't it the Pagans who celebrated Yule around the winter solstice, to mark the beginning of the sun's return to the sky? Then of course when Christmas came along the two more or less merged together.

This is a fascinating topic and you may like to consider starting a thread in the Forum Arms.

Post carried over to new topic in Forum Arms: Surviving pre-Christian seasonal customs and celebrations...

Roger

Nothing really to say other than *here we go again!*
It's looking like another December where by an easterly or northerly fails to materialise and we don't get any cold spells or signs of HLB! So it's a 'deja vu' really!? Furthermore the AO and NAO went positive on 1st December - exactly same time as December 2018.

Looks like many of us will be moaning and ranting this December - if it's not the political situation then it will be the weather?! Look forward to hearing your moans and growns Richard.

When was the last time we saw a true northerly or north easterly in December lasting over 4 days? Dec 2010? Crazy! Hate our climate! it's rubbish!

Although heard from some of my friends in eastern Europe that they have had hardly any snow and friends in Yaroslavl near Moscow it's been milder than average for a while now and any snow had only lasted a day or so with temps hovering at or above freezing most days which is rare for Moscow as the December average should be -6c.

Talk about the solar activity, if you look at the sub 2C CET winters of the 20th century, about 4 occured in and around a solar maximum and none with a year of a solar minimum.

1916-17, 1928-29, 1946-47 1978-79

And if you go back to the last deep solar minimum before the space era and that was around 1911-14, none of those winters were outstanding, the next one that was, was 1916-17 which was close to solar maximum.

 

 

That's exactly where the tradition comes from - Pagan times and practices.

I actually love the dull days that never get fully light. I just hate the rain and everywhere being wet.

 

Absolutely!  I love this time of year: it’s part of the cycle and the price we pay for 15-16 hours of daylight in summer.  

Another 14 days and the cycle turns and we start the gentle run towards the summer solstice, with the acceleration of day lengths towards the equinox and the gradual slow down towards the solstice.

The weather will be what it will be. We don’t have a climate that favours extensive cold winters and if we did the flora and fauna would be a little different.  For me part of chasing cold weather is just a way of getting through towards spring; whatever we want, weatherwise we’ll get what we get.

More ridiculously stupid and vile mild temperatures on a par with 2015. Reached 10.7C at 1:30am meaning that two out of the last three nights have seen double digits reached. This is just an absolute joke. Something that used to be exceptionally rare and unusual is now becoming a regular occurrence

It's got to the stage where double digits are more likely during the night than the day. 10C hasn't been reached during the day since 3rd November which is just totally dire given the entire absence of proper cold during that period.

Horrible again today even though the sun is shining. Wind is just so unpleasant along with a temp of 5.4C which is significantly colder than during the middle of the night. The winters of the 90s and 2000s were so much better than this. Mostly mild but with decent cold spells and snowfalls at times. Nowadays this season just seems to be relentlessly cold, windy and unpleasant without anything in the way of decent frosts and snow to provide relief. Hopeless and worthless.

I see that the weather in Edinburgh was so bad yesterday evening that the had to cancel the Castle of Light Show. Thank goodness I didn't waste my time going down. Trying to do anything in this godforsaken country is just a waste of time 

 

I can definately vouch the weather was bad Saturday evening. Rain started mid afternoon and got heavier till around midnight!!

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Location: Yaxley, Suffolk