Well said Richard.  I feel your pain.

---

It has been a beautiful day here today!

---

If you want to see a real stormy month look at January 1974 and even it managed more light calm winds than the utter filth that passes for winter these days.

I remember that one.  In the Bristol area, within the last week of that month, there was a spectacular thunderstorm with frequent lightning around 11pm one evening.  It went on for sometime and would have given some of our more recent summer storms a fair run for their money!
​​​

It has been a beautiful day here today!

Beautiful if you love being blasted with wind. It was dreadful. I went out on a bike ride in the morning and it was the worst conditions I've ever cycled in. An endurance test that was so bad I was reduced to barely better than walking speed at times. The sun never came out until I was almost finished as it was stuck behind an ugly bank of horrible grey cloud to the south that reappeared at sunset to prevent a good one 😩

Today is even worse so won't be going out on the bike at all. Wind is just horrendous again. Seems worse than it did on the days with the named non-storms. At least on Wednesday it was sunny but now being the weekend we have the double whammy of horrific wind and the thick ugly grey overcast that seems to have been present every Sunday for over a year 🤮

Truly awful temperatures again with a min of 6.7C. Hasn't dropped below 5C since Friday evening yet can't reach double figures and hasn't all month bar a brief 10.0C at 10:40pm 🤢 last Sunday. Saw 12C forecast for today but unlikely to be achieved unless the wind can back from the horrible damp southerly to a drier and less unbearable south westerly.

It's so bad I'm praying for anticyclonic gloom. That would be far more usable than this winter's relentless wind and rain and no less interesting 🤢

---

Yes it will be windier when you’re cycling, I had a lovely walk in the sunshine. The winds were fresh but not unpleasant and it was really nice to be out and about in relatively mild, dry and sunny conditions. Thoroughly enjoyable. That aside you had written off the day early in the morning yesterday.

Today is much windier. 

---

Little mention on TWO in general of the lack of winter sunshine these days. I think we've had about half a dozen this winter and three of those were in the recent chilly spell. I used to love those clear blue winter skies or if we couldn't get that then the white nicely defined cumulus bubbling up in the blue sky and darkening to give snow shows. All cloud these days seems to be of the none defined whitish grey stratus stuff irrespective of the synoptics. Today being one such typical day (well and the last two days at least).

---

Meanwhile in Cyprus .....

https://www.kitasweather.com/troodos-jubilee-hotel-cam/ 
 

---

Meanwhile in Cyprus .....

https://www.kitasweather.com/troodos-jubilee-hotel-cam/ 
 

To be fair, that's around 1750m, so it's not a great leap for it to be snowing over a mile up in the air, even that far south.

For comparison, Ben Nevis is "only" 1345m high!

---

Little mention on TWO in general of the lack of winter sunshine these days. I think we've had about half a dozen this winter and three of those were in the recent chilly spell. I used to love those clear blue winter skies or if we couldn't get that then the white nicely defined cumulus bubbling up in the blue sky and darkening to give snow shows. All cloud these days seems to be of the none defined whitish grey stratus stuff irrespective of the synoptics. Today being one such typical day (well and the last two days at least).

No lack of winter sunshine here at the moment though.

At Edinburgh Gogarbank, December was a much duller than average month with a total of just 24.65 hours of sunshine which was only 65.3% of the 1991-2020 December average.

However, January ended up being a much sunnier than average month here with a total of 59.35 hours of sunshine, which was 125.1% of the 1991-2020 January average.

Overall during this winter so far, there has been a total of 84.0 hours of sunshine which is only 51.6% of the 1991-2020 winter average. We are now into the final month of the winter but it's also getting a lot lighter at nights which will therefore increase the available amount of sunshine which we can get.

Because of that, I haven't given up hope just yet of our winter sunshine deficit being made up in the end.
 

---

I've had enough of winter now. I'm pretty indifferent to cold and snow as is, but I find once we move into February and then March especially, my interest in it just nosedives completely. By this time, I notice the days getting longer again and I just want to get out and start gardening and feel a bit of warmth in the sun again.

I just hope the nuisance cold later this week passes quickly.

---

I know there's an element of hyperbole, but I continue to think this is turning into one of the most disappointing winters of all time. Background signals and the disruption to the stratosphere led a number of people to think this was going to be the biggie. In reality we had a few crisp days in January (nothing of note to people of my age) and February is looking increasingly iffy. I know that in parts (definitely not all) of the north there has been some snow, but for the majority of the UK winter 2023-24 remains green. Is recent climatology now overriding the background signals so decisively?

---

I've actually enjoyed the last week or so . It's been 13c/ 14c most days with decent amount of sunshine. The garden is beginning to burst into life. Can't be bothered with a half hearted cold spell which is what it looks like being. 
Cold March's are a complete waste of time let's hope for a warm one.
 

---

I know there's an element of hyperbole, but I continue to think this is turning into one of the most disappointing winters of all time. Background signals and the disruption to the stratosphere led a number of people to think this was going to be the biggie. In reality we had a few crisp days in January (nothing of note to people of my age) and February is looking increasingly iffy. I know that in parts (definitely not all) of the north there has been some snow, but for the majority of the UK winter 2023-24 remains green. Is recent climatology now overriding the background signals so decisively?

Perhaps , but I don't doubt that there were winters in the 90's that would have looked favourable in the same way and turned out garbage.  The signals only increase the probability  of severe weather from very low to low anyway.

But there is an increasing trend to have large periods of a winter with no ice , frost or even wintry showers and snow topped moors.   Increasing need a cold spell to deliver these now rather than standard cool zonality. 
 

---

I know there's an element of hyperbole, but I continue to think this is turning into one of the most disappointing winters of all time. Background signals and the disruption to the stratosphere led a number of people to think this was going to be the biggie. In reality we had a few crisp days in January (nothing of note to people of my age) and February is looking increasingly iffy. I know that in parts (definitely not all) of the north there has been some snow, but for the majority of the UK winter 2023-24 remains green. Is recent climatology now overriding the background signals so decisively?

To be honest, I never even had any hope for this winter in the first place, especially given the exceptionally hot September which we had last year (that was actually the hottest part of last year here as we didn't really get a very good summer), along with El Nino and the positive Indian Ocean Dipole. All of that is despite the fact that this has been an easterly QBO winter (normally, an easterly QBO would be a factor in favour of us getting a cold winter).

Once again though, that easterly QBO has been of very little help to us on this occasion as was the case in the winter of 2021/22 whereas last winter was actually the coldest of the last three winters despite us being in a westerly QBO then (which is something which would normally favour a milder winter and thus act against us getting a cold winter).

As you have said, it's been a very disappointing winter overall but because I wasn't even expecting a cold winter in the first place, we have actually had more cold weather during this winter than what I was expecting (I was expecting it to be a bit like 2013/14, 2015/16 or even 2019/20 although from the relatively large number of officially named storms which we have had during the course of this season, you could say it has actually been a bit like those winters to a certain extent).

EDIT

I almost forgot to add as well that since you are the only YouTuber to have actually forecast a milder than average winter overall, I'm sure that you will at least be pleased with that aspect of it.

 

---

To be honest, I never even had any hope for this winter in the first place, especially given the exceptionally hot September which we had last year (that was actually the hottest part of last year here as we didn't really get a very good summer), along with El Nino and the positive Indian Ocean Dipole. All of that is despite the fact that this has been an easterly QBO winter (normally, an easterly QBO would be a factor in favour of us getting a cold winter).

Once again though, that easterly QBO has been of very little help to us on this occasion as was the case in the winter of 2021/22 whereas last winter was actually the coldest of the last three winters despite us being in a westerly QBO then (which is something which would normally favour a milder winter and thus act against us getting a cold winter).

As you have said, it's been a very disappointing winter overall but because I wasn't even expecting a cold winter in the first place, we have actually had more cold weather during this winter than what I was expecting (I was expecting it to be a bit like 2013/14, 2015/16 or even 2019/20 although from the relatively large number of officially named storms which we have had during the course of this season, you could say it has actually been a bit like those winters to a certain extent).

EDIT

I almost forgot to add as well that since you are the only YouTuber to have actually forecast a milder than average winter overall, I'm sure that you will at least be pleased with that aspect of it.

 

The QBO is provabley a useless indicator of the winter ahead, as is pretty much every other 'indice'. 

---

I know snow was always likely to be the outsider for here today, but the optimist in you always thinks "well it could be snow"

And that optimist gets repeatedly let down. There were some sleety blobs on my windscreen on the drive in, but it's 99% rain. Even north of here in the Lakes, where the radar is showing 100% snow, the traffic cams show a dismal picture - a light covering away from the motorway at the Shap summit; a few patches around Keswick, nothing lying at Windermere.

Although we must have had 15-20 incidences of settling snow IMBY since that 2013 winter, all have been between 'dusting' and 2cm. We've not had a good fall (at least 10cm) since 2013.

That's ten winters.

I don't think we've ever before gone that long in my lifetime. 

---

Well Wautumn (Not a typo) is nearly over and spring is around the corner.

---

Although we must have had 15-20 incidences of settling snow IMBY since that 2013 winter, all have been between 'dusting' and 2cm. We've not had a good fall (at least 10cm) since 2013.

That's ten winters.

I don't think we've ever before gone that long in my lifetime. 

To be fair, that state of affairs was predicted back in 2000 ....

"According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event"."

https://web.archive.org/web/20100209052939/http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html 

---

All very well getting excited about snow and floods, but where's the sun?

---

Frankly I will be glad when this worst of winters is over. I don't have a sunshine measuring gauge but in cricket terms I don't think it would have troubled the scorer! It has been relentless cloud here most of the time. And yet another year with zero lying snow. As Henry Ford said "you can have any colour you like so long as it's black!". We do at least get a choice - you can have  either cool grey and wet or mild grey and wet!

---