I get that but by just saying each year nothing interesting is going to happen almost defeats the object of enjoying discussion - the same people were saying the same thing in 2009 & look what happened... 

I think the weather over the last decade but also now increasingly over the last 2-3 years has become so adverse to the norm with more & more focus on extremes then its only a matter of time that the UK hits the jackpot - of course it was only a matter of time anyway but those odds are greatly reduced based on the increased incidence of blocked flows..

I agree with this - the last 10 - 15  years weather wise have been phenomenal for weather fans in the UK. There have been so many records broken - admittedly not many cold ones - I  lots of areas. Wettest day,  month and (I think) year. Hottest day, umpteen warmest months, and of course years. Coldest December in 100 years, coldest March day on record. A summer to rival 1976 and much, much more. Imho we have lived / are living through a golden age of weather records. Sadly not many snowy ones though!

 

Funny place to go if you’re looking for snow Joe. 

Take Moomin with you and it will be a guaranteed cold snap in the UK.

hahaha! 

Seriously though - I guarantee, just you wait.

First 2 weeks of Feb. ;-)

From the point of view of my backyard in Taunton, Somerset, the last decade has seen three truly phenomenal episodes of prolonged snow and ice: January 2010, December 2010 and March 2018. Even the more transient event of 31 Jan/1 Feb 2019 was not one to be sneezed at: if you're sledging at 30 metres above sea level in this part of the country at some point during a winter, then it's by definition a good one.

Honestly, have there really been any better decades overall for snow lovers than the current one? Not in the West Country, I'd say.

To me, we seem to have entered  a period of weather similar to that described in reports of the Little Ice Age, featuring sporadic heatwaves and occasional record-breaking cold, as a result of high pressure cells becoming more prevalent and enduring.

Will the coming winter be another one where the high pressure sits in just the right place for us? Goodness knows, but at least it's likely to be there somewhere on current form. Particularly as we come out of solar minimum - that period of the next two or three years does seem to be the sweet spot for cold UK winters, rather than the period of solar minimum itself.

Nope, it all bypassed my location and it wasn't even an "ice day" with temps being above freezing by evening. We did end up with a rare coastal freezing rain event, but the snow itself on that morning was nothing more than a sugar coating dusting. In fact, I swore I've been seeing the local druggies being on all fours trying to snort it up thinking it was cocaine.

It's amazing how you completely missed out on the Feb / Mar 2018 freeze. Even here in the Chilterns we did reasonably well as can be seen on the photos I posted on TWO here: 

https://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twoother/twocontent.aspx?type=hpnews&id=4224&title=Late+February+freeze

Nope, it all bypassed my location and it wasn't even an "ice day" with temps being above freezing by evening. We did end up with a rare coastal freezing rain event, but the snow itself on that morning was nothing more than a sugar coating dusting. In fact, I swore I've been seeing the local druggies being on all fours trying to snort it up thinking it was cocaine.

The Feb/Mar snowy spell only clipped here as well. A bit further east (Joe B in south Manchester) got s decent fall but Manchester centre & west, along with most of Cheshire, Merseyside, SW Lancs got at best 1-2cm dustings that didn't last.

When the M62 was pretty much snow bound from Rochdale to Huddersfield, it was a big of a kick in the goolies. 

I'm hoping we get to be in a more favourable place this winter for any snow, like in Jan & Mar 2013 when we let getting decent falls.

 

"UK wise - The overall theme is a very high probability of a below average winter with the sub 3c breeched twice - ( maybe 3 times )

2018/19 Global extremes of weather & for the UK higher probabilities of exceptional weather which for once is more in favour of exceptional cold instead of warmth.."

CET wise we had

December 5.8c 

Jan 3.7c

Feb 6.0c

Winter mean 5.2c 1.4c above the 81 to 10 average

 

What figures are those?

CETs for last winter

Dec: 6.9

Jan: 4.0

Feb: 6.7

 

 

The Feb/Mar snowy spell only clipped here as well. A bit further east (Joe B in south Manchester) got s decent fall but Manchester centre & west, along with most of Cheshire, Merseyside, SW Lancs got at best 1-2cm dustings that didn't last.

When the M62 was pretty much snow bound from Rochdale to Huddersfield, it was a big of a kick in the goolies. 

I'm hoping we get to be in a more favourable place this winter for any snow, like in Jan & Mar 2013 when we let getting decent falls.

Snow accumulations here never got to more than a few cms. The standout event of the beast from the east was seeing moderate snow falling at a temperature of -5.9C. Now that really was something quite special.

 

 

I agree with this - the last 10 - 15  years weather wise have been phenomenal for weather fans in the UK. There have been so many records broken - admittedly not many cold ones - I  lots of areas. Wettest day,  month and (I think) year. Hottest day, umpteen warmest months, and of course years. Coldest December in 100 years, coldest March day on record. A summer to rival 1976 and much, much more. Imho we have lived / are living through a golden age of weather records. Sadly not many snowy ones though!

You could also add in the coldest March for 50 years in terms of CET (2013).

 

You could also add in the coldest March for 50 years in terms of CET (2013).

You could indeed - I'd be interested to see a definitive list as I think it would make for impressive reading.  Perhaps someone can compile a list of records broken in the TWO era! 

 

Snow accumulations here never got to more than a few cms. The standout event of the beast from the east was seeing moderate snow falling at a temperature of -5.9C. Now that really was something quite special.

Did we not have snow falling at similar temps in Dec 2010?

I also liked the fact that the temperature did not exceed -3C during daylight hours on 1st. My youngest 3 love the snow but I had to take them for hot sausage rolls about 9.30am (yes, they'd had breakfast) just to warm their hands, in that keen, dry breeze and dust snow blowing along in near-ground fogs.

 

 

Did we not have snow falling at similar temps in Dec 2010?

 

We could well have done. I did record a max of -6.3C on Dec 20th but have no memory of snow falling at a particularly low temp.

 

Snow accumulations here never got to more than a few cms. The standout event of the beast from the east was seeing moderate snow falling at a temperature of -5.9C. Now that really was something quite special.

Didn't even get anywhere near that cold here never mind snow at such a temperature. The 'Beast From the East' was a monumental flop and I cringe everytime I hear it mentioned.

The Marches of 2013 and 2018 were hideous months of bland grey nothingness. I recorded a colder temperature under a high pressure during the very mild March of 2009 than I did in either of those atrociously grey and tedious months.

The Beast from the East was an exceptional event for many.

Remember this satellite image showing our sorry plight here on the corner though ? 

Here in SE Kent we missed out. The lack of snow cover prevented the coldest nights.

Indeed, locally we have to go back to March 2013 to have seen anything over 3cm.

We could well have done. I did record a max of -6.3C on Dec 20th but have no memory of snow falling at a particularly low temp.

It was so cold for almost all that month. I remember diamond dust shimmering in the beam from the security light on our house.

It snowed here in the evening of Friday 17th Dec. I'd begun to despair we'd ever get snow out of this epic spell, with 2 or 3 modelled snowfalls dissipating from the model output a day or two before they were due to hit. This one was a frontal moving in from the west late afternoon. I remember driving home from Manchester, west on the M62 - and the sky I was driving towards looked laden. The M62 is unlit for most of the J12-J11 stretch and it was only as I approached J11 that I spied the first few flakes (that moment when you think to yourself "was that just a snowflake...?"). And by the return of the streetlights at Birchwood, they were starting to become more frequent. This would have been around 5.30pm. Just a couple of miles on and the snow was coming down thick - seen brilliantly in the cone of light from each streetlight and the beam of each car. Because the ground was so frozen already, it began to stick straight away. I was silently imploring it to carry on for another half hour/hour to at least give us a couple of cm's. It continued falling heavily until gone 9pm and the final depth was 15cm. I don't know how cold the temp was when it was falling, but I'm sure it was comfortably sub-zero beforehand.

 

 

It was so cold for almost all that month. I remember diamond dust shimmering in the beam from the security light on our house.

It snowed here in the evening of Friday 17th Dec. I'd begun to despair we'd ever get snow out of this epic spell, with 2 or 3 modelled snowfalls dissipating from the model output a day or two before they were due to hit. This one was a frontal moving in from the west late afternoon. I remember driving home from Manchester, west on the M62 - and the sky I was driving towards looked laden. The M62 is unlit for most of the J12-J11 stretch and it was only as I approached J11 that I spied the first few flakes (that moment when you think to yourself "was that just a snowflake...?"). And by the return of the streetlights at Birchwood, they were starting to become more frequent. This would have been around 5.30pm. Just a couple of miles on and the snow was coming down thick - seen brilliantly in the cone of light from each streetlight and the beam of each car. Because the ground was so frozen already, it began to stick straight away. I was silently imploring it to carry on for another half hour/hour to at least give us a couple of cm's. It continued falling heavily until gone 9pm and the final depth was 15cm. I don't know how cold the temp was when it was falling, but I'm sure it was comfortably sub-zero beforehand.

 

 

That..... is a Christmas movie in words.

 

Funny place to go if you’re looking for snow Joe. 

Take Moomin with you and it will be a guaranteed cold snap in the UK.

I am due for my once every four years trip to Australia this year so that in itself should guarantee a snow fest.

Thanks 

 

 

It was so cold for almost all that month. I remember diamond dust shimmering in the beam from the security light on our house.

It snowed here in the evening of Friday 17th Dec. I'd begun to despair we'd ever get snow out of this epic spell, with 2 or 3 modelled snowfalls dissipating from the model output a day or two before they were due to hit. This one was a frontal moving in from the west late afternoon. I remember driving home from Manchester, west on the M62 - and the sky I was driving towards looked laden. The M62 is unlit for most of the J12-J11 stretch and it was only as I approached J11 that I spied the first few flakes (that moment when you think to yourself "was that just a snowflake...?"). And by the return of the streetlights at Birchwood, they were starting to become more frequent. This would have been around 5.30pm. Just a couple of miles on and the snow was coming down thick - seen brilliantly in the cone of light from each streetlight and the beam of each car. Because the ground was so frozen already, it began to stick straight away. I was silently imploring it to carry on for another half hour/hour to at least give us a couple of cm's. It continued falling heavily until gone 9pm and the final depth was 15cm. I don't know how cold the temp was when it was falling, but I'm sure it was comfortably sub-zero beforehand.

 

 

What an absolutely magical description.