Xmas Weather In The UK
By Paul Homewood
The annual Boxing Day dip at Overstrand, Norfolk
Hope you’ve all had a good Xmas.
Weather wise, it’s been dry and mild here, good for the dogs!
Some people of course prefer a white Christmas and complain that they are now a thing of the past.
But were cold Christmas’ s as common as we think?
Apparently not, according to the CET at least:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/data/download.html
It is true that the warmest Christmas occurred in both 2015 and 2016, when daytime temperatures reached 13.1C. But the weather then was in reality little different to 1900, when Christmas Day hit 12.9C.
Really cold days, when temperatures were below 2C, have been very rare since records began in 1878, only occurring on 12 occasions.
Temperatures only stayed below freezing on 4 occasions, 1878, 1944, 1962 and 2010, the latter being the coldest day of all.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Paul, it does look as if the lows have gone up a bit over the last 40 years and then you get 2010, it obviously saved it up.
Overstrand! Am going there tomorrow, but not for a swim! One of my favourite places, peaceful and part of a lovely county.
Paul, thanks for all you do, and may 2019 be a good year for NALOPKT.
I lived just north of Glasgow for 22 years (1966 – 1988). I have lived in Kent for the remainder of my life and I have yet to see a white Christmas.
I believe I missed one in Scotland in 2009/2010 but as a friend in Aberdeen spent almost 6 months under snow which, when it did thaw, flooded his cottage.
I think I’ll accept a non white Christmas thanks.
Signed,
The Grinch.
Have I told you I spent the first 22 years of my life in Kent and the rest of it in Wales?
I have been here almost 50 years now.
I think we may have had snow at Christmas in Kent, I am sure that the year I was born 1947 may have been one.
In the winter of 1969/1970 we certainly had snow in December & January.
Reblogged this on WeatherAction News and commented:
Christmas is almost always grey and insipid occasionally offering some interest. This year was the former as the early frost on Christmas Eve melted with the approach of the cloud cover before midnight (can we blame Santa for his CO2 emissions?). This video from 2011 also shows how rare a white Christmas is but also how they seem to cluster together:
Running into the ocean to celebrate, a sense of wildness I believe, seems like a wonderful pagan tradition! A celebration is really a release of pent up joy. I guess the British seem to have a lot of pent of joy!
Looks fun crazy and I would go watch, but never join in the run into the water.
For the past few days, the synoptic pressure charts implied very little wind over uk, france spain , w.germany, n. italy & denmark. Bad news for wind generators!
I enjoy open water swimming but usually use a wetsuit. In the lakes around my way, swimming season starts at the beginning of May. Open water swimmers and triathletes are champing at the bit by this time but, even with a wet suit it is effing cold. A mild winter means that it is just slightly less bad. I swam without a wet suit a couple of times at the end of last summer, gained much respect from the rubber clad hourds.
A grey overcast, warm, muggy Christmas Day, starting from 5 or 6 degs C was forecast by the Met Office for my few square feet of south-east England. It was with some surprise that I watched a cloud free, glorious sunrise from the kitchen window while puzzling over the fact that there appeared to be ice in the bird bath.
Things then got worse for any Met Office scientists and Warmistas, as over a period of a couple of hours it was possible to watch an increasing frost – long after dawn – actually creep down the garden, increasing in both intensity and depth. A magical sight, not seen very often in the daytime even during the hardest of winters.
Helped to make my day. 🙂
Happy Christmas and New Year everyone.
Are there no long-term snow records for 25th December, I’d have thought that this would have been reliably recorded over centuries, as it does not need an instrument. This record should demonstrate the LIA and lack of snow ever since??? Samuel Pepys recorded ice and snow.
Dang it, Paul. I would have believed you. You didn’t have to show the picture.