Mild winter?

[R_Fonseca]

This is my 4th winter in Ireland, so not 100 percent sure if this winter is normal. The first 3 we had a lot of cold, some snow and a lot frost over December into January.

This year has been very mild by comparison. Comparatively there have been maybe 3 mornings where we had frost so far and not very cold. The trees are confused and some are budding... one in the garden is flowering. Daphoodiles are popping up already, and I'm sure some birds are nesting in the hedge... to be confirmed.

Is this normal for the weather on this side of the world? I realise there's still time for winter to strike, but this year feels drastically different to me (or I'm just struggling to recognise a pattern). Not sure I'll ever get used to it.

 

[Toddy]

The climate of the Atlantic Islands is incredibly variable.....apart from always being wet

I am old enough to remember hard cold deep Winters, with snow three and four feet high, and Winter after Winter after Winter where we had no snow at all.

There seems to be something of a fifteen year cycle, but it's not hard and fast.
The cold however always seems to hit not at the darkest bit of the year, so, I'd say from now on is likely colder than it has been. Thing is though, the days are stretching out and the Sun is just a little higher every day, so as usual, it's in flux, and we just take what we get.

M

 

[crosslandkelly]

I can still remember as a boy the winter of '66 in London, if I recall the country came to a standstill.
My father lived in Cromane co Kerry until his death in 2003, he never saw snow there, and only a very light frost every now and then.
I think we are going to have to get used to warmer wetter winters now, due to climate change.

 

[Pattree]

I think that year on year winters are getting warmer here in the midlands. The sledge that my (now grown up) children used to use has woodworm and hasn’t been out for twenty years. I do not think that my grandchildren (1 - 18) will play in snow as I used to.

Toddy is right - in the past it has snowed in April but it’s usually a short duration sleety sort of snow. In my youth we sometimes had eight feet of snow in Jan and Feb. I think that is long gone.

Upside is that for the last four years we’ve only burned two thirds of the fuel that we did previously - not that it has cost us any less.

I enjoyed the frost nipping my ears and nose while up in Keswick. It hasn’t happened once down here.

So the answer to the OP is that me and the snowdrops, here in the Midlands, think this has been a mild winter (so far).

 

[Chris]

I’ve never experienced more than just a few inches of snow in the UK. My parents have photos even just a few years before I was born in the 80s of a big trench in several feet of snow that my Dad dug for the cat to go out for a wee.

Definitely seems like we get less over the past 20 years.

 

[Toddy]

And yet, I think we are getting more snow because we have snow every year recently.
I mind years when we had none at all.
We've already had snow here in the Scottish lowlands, and the high bits are still white.
Today the temperature struggled to get above freezing, and the thermal camera pointed at outside sheds read -7˚C.

Everything is very wet under that crisp cold layer though, everything outside was frosted hard this morning, though the woodland paths were a muddy mess.

I think the safest thing to say about our weather is that it's changeable

 

[crosslandkelly]

And yet, I think we are getting more snow because we have snow every year recently.
I mind years when we had none at all.
We've already had snow here in the Scottish lowlands, and the high bits are still white.
Today the temperature struggled to get above freezing, and the thermal camera pointed at outside sheds read -7˚C.

Everything is very wet under that crisp cold layer though, everything outside was frosted hard this morning, though the woodland paths were a muddy mess.

I think the safest thing to say about our weather is that it's changeable

Are they still using the snow machines at Avimore?

 

[Toddy]

I have no idea
I know that it's an expensive thing to do though.
I'm told that the slopes need a specific kind of snow, and that the wrong snow closes the runs, wears through to the soil/rock beneath.

Funny really; you'd think snow would just be snow, but no, it's all different. Wet snow, crunchy snow....

We average something between twenty and sixty inches of snow a year in the Cairngorms...that's a lot of difference year by year.

One of my friends works as a ski instructor on the runs at Ben Nevis; he's never certain if he'll get work or not.

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[Nice65]

It‘s very mild, I’m seeing a few daffs up. As Toddy says, our weather is very variable, but I‘m in my late 50’s now and never seeing winters as cold as we used to have. Even a hard frost is rarer.

 

[slowworm]

This is my 4th winter in Ireland, so not 100 percent sure if this winter is normal. The first 3 we had a lot of cold, some snow and a lot frost over December into January.

What part of Ireland? I'm on the west of Devon, so a warm maritime climate. We've been here several years now and each winter has been different. A few winters back we had daffodils flowering at Christmas but last year it was cold and frosty in December and daffs waited until spring.

This winter has been strange as it's been very mild (and very wet!) but many plants are not early here. No sign of daffs and just the first few snow drops coming into bud.

 

[Toddy]

It's already below freezing here tonight though I don't think we're due snow this weekend.

I live in the warm bit of Lanarkshire our water comes from up on the moors though, and right now the tap water is perishing cold. I reckon it's nippy up at the Daer Reservoir. There's definitely snow on the hills around us though. Not a lot, but it's there.
Snow is expected on Wednesday and Thursday up around Tinto (nearest big hill, can be seen from right across Lanarkshire).

My cousin in Hampshire says that he had a daffodil bloom on Christmas day.....mine aren't even poking up through the soil. Even the snowdrops are keeping hidden this year.

 

[Broch]

Even the snowdrops are keeping hidden this year.

Yep, here too - I reckon they know something! Normally we'd have some just poking through by now but they're delayed - maybe we're in for a cold snap

 

[Robbi]

We have snow drops doing very well, pansys popping up, daffs sprouting and the palm tree in the garden is in good health.

 

[R_Fonseca]

@slowworm we're in Wexford now. Started out in Dublin, but been happier here the last year and a half.

This morning I woke up to everything frozen... black ice on the pavement and a white garden.

So nevermind the original post. I guess it's just been a bit later than the last few years. Haha

 

[Dogoak]

We've had some chilly days but I’d say it’s mild up here this winter, only had a couple of nights circa -10°, so far!
The merino long johns have only been on for 2 days, normally I’m not out of them December - March, I maybe wearing them in the next week though looking at the forecast
What snow we’ve had has been pretty wet, not the lovely dry powdery stuff we normally have.

 

[Toddy]

It's past midday and we haven't been above freezing at all.
It's just a hard crisp frost and even though the Sun has been out, it's low and there's no real heat in it.
The light is lovely though

 

[Chris]

Just out with the dog and saw snowdrops out and the green of emerging daffodils. A bit of a chill in the air but not too bad here. I think we’ll get a frost tonight though.

 

[Pattree]

@R_Fonseca One frost does not a Winter make.

 

[demented dale]

This is my 4th winter in Ireland, so not 100 percent sure if this winter is normal. The first 3 we had a lot of cold, some snow and a lot frost over December into January.

This year has been very mild by comparison. Comparatively there have been maybe 3 mornings where we had frost so far and not very cold. The trees are confused and some are budding... one in the garden is flowering. Daphoodiles are popping up already, and I'm sure some birds are nesting in the hedge... to be confirmed.

Is this normal for the weather on this side of the world? I realise there's still time for winter to strike, but this year feels drastically different to me (or I'm just struggling to recognise a pattern). Not sure I'll ever get used to it.

zero degrees here in carrick on shannon. ime in my tent wiyh the burner going. where in ireland are you ?

 

[demented dale]

This is my 4th winter in Ireland, so not 100 percent sure if this winter is normal. The first 3 we had a lot of cold, some snow and a lot frost over December into January.

This year has been very mild by comparison. Comparatively there have been maybe 3 mornings where we had frost so far and not very cold. The trees are confused and some are budding... one in the garden is flowering. Daphoodiles are popping up already, and I'm sure some birds are nesting in the hedge... to be confirmed.

Is this normal for the weather on this side of the world? I realise there's still time for winter to strike, but this year feels drastically different to me (or I'm just struggling to recognise a pattern). Not sure I'll ever get used to it.

ps in answer to your question, yeh its pretty normal. we are right on the gulf stream, very warm and mild but as you have figured by now it never stops raining.