Winter weather?

[Smithysteve]

Winter weather?
A fellow astronomer new to astronomy asked me if I thought that this winter had been worse for observing than normal, I thought it had been... It's certainly been generally disappointing for me!

But to be sure of the facts, I did a bit of digging through the Met office stats, (There's not much else to do at the moment! ?).

'They' predicted the coldest winter ever back in November 2015, 'they' were wrong...

We could have stood the cold, it's clouds we don't like! ?

What do you think to the winter we've had?

Below are some stats and graphs taken and tweaked from the Met office, for Feb, Jan and Dec.

The averaging period used for the following assessments were 1981-2010.

 

UK overview for February,
At the start of February, the UK was in an unsettled west to south-westerly regime with frequent rain, especially for western areas. Storm Henry brought widespread gale-force winds on the 1st and 2nd, especially in the north, and then Storm Imogen brought further strong winds mainly to the south on the 7th and 8th. It turned colder around the 15th with some scattered wintry showers and sharp night frosts. After some further rain, there was a mild interlude over England and Wales on the 20th and 21st, but the remainder of the month was generally dry, sunny and cold.

 

The provisional UK mean temperature was 3.9 °C, which is 0.2 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average. Rainfall was 129% of average, and it was generally wetter than average in the west, but rainfall was close to or below normal in most eastern areas. Sunshine was below average in parts of the south, particularly the south-west and west Wales, but it was sunnier than average elsewhere, and parts of the Midlands and north-east England had more than 150% of average sunshine. The UK as a whole had 122% of average sunshine.

 

UK overview for January
January began mild and unsettled with low pressure in charge, and some prolonged and heavy rain, particularly in the north-east. It turned colder around the middle of the month, with widespread frosts, and some of the precipitation fell as snow, particularly over higher ground. The month ended very mild and changeable, with frequent rain and strong winds.

 

The mean temperature for the month was provisionally 1.1 °C above the long-term average. Rainfall was 156% of average, and much of Northumberland and Tyne & Wear had well over twice the normal rainfall. Sunshine was near or slightly above average in most southern counties, but it was a dull month in the north, and England had 89% of average sunshine overall.

 

UK overview for December 2015
December was an exceptional and record-breaking month. The UK was in a warm and moist tropical air mass for most of the month, bringing unseasonably mild conditions to England and Wales. It was also exceptionally wet and often windy, with frequent deep depressions and frontal systems - including storms Desmond, Eva and Frank - bringing record-breaking rainfall over much of Scotland, Wales and northern England. Severe flooding affected Cumbria for much of December, and became widespread across North Wales, northern England and Scotland after Christmas.

 

The provisional UK mean temperature was 7.9 °C, which is 4.1 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average, making it the warmest December in a series from 1910. This was 1.0 °C warmer than the previous warmest December. It was also easily the warmest December in the Central England temperature (CET) series from 1659. Mean temperatures were 5 to 6 °C above average in southern England, and remarkably, no stations in Wales or central southern England recorded any air frosts; temperatures were often comparable with those that might be expected in October, April, or even May. With 191% of average rainfall, it was provisionally the wettest December, and calendar month, in the UK series. Rainfall reached 2 to 4 times the average in the west and north, and the severe flooding was exacerbated by saturated ground conditions following very wet weather in November in these areas. Fortunately rainfall totals were close to average over much of central and southern England. There were only 73% of average hours of bright sunshine, and it was provisionally the dullest December since 1989

 

A graph that show the midlands did not have it too bad...

 

[Tweedledee]

You have way too much time on your hands Steve 

 

But what an interesting bit of research, something I'd often thought if digging into, but never did, cheers. 

[Stephen]

It has been the worst period that I can remember,  Our solar panels have shown  the worst period since we have had them, There  out put is a about a third  down  

[Tweedledee]

Never mind astronomy. The daytime has seemed so dull and depressing for a long while now. I'm looking forward to warmer and brighter weather. It is a nice bonus when we get a little bit of blue sky and sunshine.

[+Ibbo]

Our solar panels were way down on last years "winter" period as well

[+Bino-viewer]

Thanks for sharing this Steve.

Fascinating really, particularly reading into December (zero frosts, 191% rainfall)

 

Has the El Nino factor played a part i wonder ?

Damian Peach has stated the planetary seeing he so relies on has been the worst he's known it in over 20years of serious imaging.

 

I'm still waiting for my first decent view of Jupiter this season. 

Every session i've had on it so far has been poor, disappointing. 

At least i'll be prepared for Mars & Saturn in a month or two 

[Smithysteve]

Well it's Spring now , things can only get better! (Optimistic still, even though it's  ⛄️?⛈outside!)

 

Last summer, waiting with relish for dark evenings, we all got ready for the Autumn/Winter sessions.

Equipment was overhauled, new purchases were made, observing sessions were formulated and on standby...

Enthusiasm was building, but overall, we were left, all dressed up, but with nowhere to go! ?

 

Good sessions have been thin on the ground, even worse in the sky! ?

 

Heres hoping Spring is going to be great!

cheers!