In some ways this spell is starting to remind me of the sense I had during July 2006. Until that month, I'd thought that I had a limited tolerance of prolonged heat and sunshine- but I soon found that if it's generally on the low side of 30C, and interspersed with the odd showery/thundery outbreak for variety, I can easily "tolerate" it for upwards of an entire month (more like "find it very enjoyable").

The same is happening here with the cold snowy spell. Having had a fair dumping up in Tyneside (12cm on New Year's Day) I am now finding myself willing Norwich to catch up with the Tyneside snow depths. It's a tall order, but with a dumping likely tomorrow, not out of the question.

It hasn't changed my stance on what I would like to see for February and the spring either- a February of alternating cold snowy and milder spells, and then a spring with frequent warm sunny weather but interspersed with switch-arounds and northerly outbreaks. As far as January is concerned, we're locked into this cold spell and Norwich only has about 3-4cm so far, so it may as well continue through to at least the middle of the month, as I don't see myself tiring of it before then.