John its 7*C here and been cloudy for a few days.  Weve measured 1mm of rain today, an even though it rained early morning, the ground is still damp and never dried off. 

My house lamps are on all day now.

 

Indeed, its boring and means you cant get anything done.  But its not just you - this is just standard Autumn winter weather, no need to get down about it.

 

We managed -2 the other day, making it the 4th or 5th coldest day of 2019.  but that still pales in comparison with your -5 or 6.  Be happy with that :)

I love this time of year when it doesn't get properly light, and it's grey and cold.

 

 

I love this time of year when it doesn't get properly light, and it's grey and cold.

Yes indeed. far better than those hot summer days with clear blue skies and sparking sunshine and it's cracking the flags outside. I have to close the curtains then hide under the bed and pretend that it's cold & miserable.

 

That would be fine of course, if we got those colder temperatures during the actual winter which is the very time of the year when I am looking for them, and the fact that your 4th or 5th coldest day of the year (as you put it; for here, I think that this was about our second coldest day of the year although I would need to check on that) hasn't even occurred during the actual winter itself, just shows how poor last winter actually was in that regard.

Indeed, this has been a colder than average autumn overall. However, this could easily end up being just the opposite scenario as what commonly occurs with our summers where we get a lot of summer-like weather during the spring (around April/May) only for the summer itself to be cool and unsettled. If that ends up being the case, then this coming winter will be mild as usual whereas I would much rather be getting our cold weather then, even if this meant that it wasn't quite as cold just now.

In any case, no cold spell is ever quite complete as far as I'm concerned, unless we also get at least a little bit of snow with that. Once again, that still hasn't happened on this occasion and it is absolutely ridiculous that we are still having to go all the way back to 2010 to find the last such occasion when we last actually had any snow during November, especially since I have a number of childhood memories of that happening in a fairly regular basis during my earlier years on this planet.

 

Youre taking an arbitrary measurement (calendar) and getting frustrated it doesnt match your expectations.  We are 1 month from the shortest day. Technically speaking these should be our coldest 2 months (we know theres some environmental influences that prevent that)  But on balance why shouldnt you get a decent frost in a radiation sense when you are approaching your longest nights.  Likewise in the summer - May June and July should be your warmest months.  Mid August is the same as Mid April astrologically speaking.  So for it to be wet and cool is no surprise in my mind ( I have this argument with my brother pretty much yearly)  THough this year has been wetter than normal - the stats back this up.

Equally I cant really remember many days in my life of seeing snowfall in November. Even hearing about it on the news is about a 1 in 3 or 4 yr event.  With that in mind, whistfully thinking your childhood had it better - is never normally that accurate.  Its been proven on many occasions that humans only remember what they chose to.  Selective memory etc.  I used to be guilty of that until i started using this site and people started to present some facts of previous weather days.  What i thought was heavy snowfalls of over feet was in fact no more than a few inches... like wise hot days, werent that hot.  It always rains, its always cold, its always dry, its always hot (depending on what you really wanted to see instead) 

As for you - you live near the north sea, off the gulf stream on a latitude that invites cold grey weather.  I think the type of weather you seem to want (cold in the winter, and warm in the summer) you need to live in the south east.  near to the continent.

This picture popped up in the 'On This Day' Feature in Amazon Photos from 23rd November 2008 bringing back memories of the days when we still got weather:

It's just depressing in the extreme to compare that with todays weather which is the same as I've endured every Saturday of this vile month bar some early morning brightness on the 9th:

It's just the crappiest, most soul destroying, unphotogenic, mind-numbing rot imagineable and only E/SE winds produce skies as grim and featureless as this 

What is most depressing of all is I haven't seen scenes like the first picture since 2013 here even in mid-winter. It's awful without parallel. While I wouldn't expect it to be like that in November we should be seeing snowfalls that good approx one winter in two and all we get is garbage year in year out. 

The North Sea influence is just worse than ever meaning temperatures won't go as high as they used to in summer and we don't get the hard frosts we used to get in winter. Hasn't reached -5C once in November since I started recording in 2005. The last time would have been the year before during the northerly of 19th-21st November 2004. Prior to that it wouldn't have been that uncommon with November 1985 even getting below -10C.

The November of 2008 was one of the best whereas this current horror show is one of the worst. It is not standard November weather. That's just utter nonsense. Rainfall records are being broken in places for goodness sake. We have already long surpassed the full monthly average and have a warning out for more rain which is supposed to last the rest of the weekend 

I have recorded just three dry days in the godforsaken abomination of a month and may not get any more which would beat my current record of 26 rain days in April 2012. Even the ultimate horror show of December 2002 had five dry days so probably have to go back as far as November 1997 for something as comparatively bad 

It's just the most disgusting temperatures as well with the vilest combination of mild nights and cold days. Hasn't dropped below 5C since Tuesday night which is just abhorrent so close to winter especially since it hasn't even reached 10C since the start of the month with a pitiful high max of 11.3C

I'm not that bothered about seeing snow yet as it is early and snow never was common before mid-December. I just want this crap to end and a normal westerly pattern to return. Can't bear the prospect of this filth continuing throughout December and ruining another Festive Period 

Wettest autumns on record for England and Wales (mm)

502.7 2000

455.8 1852

438.6 1960

424.1 1935

~407mm 2019

Looks like the 5th wettest on record