AderynCoch

Well that was one lame winter in my neck of the woods: - both the snow shield and rain magnet were in full operation. Snow forecasts were often downgraded into nothingness (including one terrible bust right when it was supposed to occur - that really ruined the pre-Christmas period) . Cold rain events on the other hand were modelled to perfection a week out. - cold air did its best to avoid me whereas warm air from Africa had no problem rushing in and sticking around for a full month (including Christmas and New Year). I had to stay in Slovakia over Christmas but for the first time I was given a great opportunity to go somewhere snowy. Cue the most snowless festive period in living memory where even ski resorts ran dry. In summary, one decent snow event and lots of mud.

May 2008 for me.

It's supposed to be 15C here tomorrow. Yet another feeble winter in this locale. Expect a full rant as the month nears its end.

In the UK (mainly Liverpool): January 2007 February 2011 March 2014 April 2012 May 2015 June 2012 July 2012 August 2014 September 2012 October 2009 November 2015 December 2015 For some of these months (March, April, September, October) I don't feel very strongly one way or the other because I don't usually expect much of them. The winter and summer months however should hang their heads in shame.

That looks like Capracotta, a well-known snow magnet up in the mountains. You won't see that in Rome. Bratislava has been a place of contrasts this past week owing to the city's variable topography. There's only patches of snow in the lower suburbs but decent cover higher up and quite a lot in the forest.

New national record. Mohe is basically the Braemar of China and its northernmost town. I'm guessing this is the same cold pool which saw -62C in neighbouring Siberia a few days ago.

Finally some decent snow this weekend after what has been an absolute stinker of a winter.

Yesterday was horrible here. Black ice everywhere. Even in winter boots it was treacherous and I saw a couple of people end up on their behinds. This afternoon was better (I managed to do a big Christmas shop) but I daren't venture out tonight.

Yep, I've had a lot of fog too this autumn. It's been a decent one overall but this current setup is pants.

10-day forecast here is for frequent rain with temperatures hovering around 4C. The meteorological equivalent of a Westlife album.

Not exactly Buffalo but it's a start:

It's hard to find daily data from this far back but here's Zwanenburg in the Netherlands (Gregorian calendar): Winter 1740 WWW.METEOLINK.NL Het jaar 1740 is het koudste jaar van de afgelopen 300 jaar, de gemiddelde temperatuur kwam uit op 6.5 graden en dat betekent dat het jaar 3 graden te koud Link is in Dutch, but the charts and tables should be clear enough. It didn't get above freezing from the 5th to the 30th of January. Check out the huge drop in temperature on the 9th, with the 11th and 12th staying below -14C during the day. There was another significant drop later in the month, plus one in the last week of February. It might give some idea as to how the winter panned out across the North Sea on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis.

Pretty cold weekend coming up here. Might get my first dusting of snow.

Crazy inversions in Central Europe. Warm sunshine in the mountains, foggy gloom down below. Yesterday Hungary's highest temperature was recorded atop its highest mountain (Kékes, 1014m): In Slovakia, the last couple of days have been colder in Bratislava than on Chopok (a 2000m-high mountain).

Rinse and repeat. Bratislava-Koliba weather station has recorded 100% humidity for nearly four days straight now. Only about 20 hours in the past week haven't been at or near 100%. This was the view today when I went for a walk: This is what a bright day looks like at the same place:

Meanwhile, no higher than 12C here stuck under fog. It's still been a very warm October overall.

Most amazing of all, a MINIMUM (yes, minimum) of 26C in San Sebastian/Donostia. Also no lower than 25C in Santander and 23C in Bilbao.

Weird weather here at the moment. It's either gloriously sunny (as it was here a couple of hours ago) or lugubriously foggy (as it is now). I travelled a couple of miles into town this afternoon and it turned instantly from blue skies to pea soup. Hope it stays like this for Halloween.

22C and sunny here today. Felt like bliss after the suppressed temperatures of the last few weeks.

Tropical storm force winds extend up to 415 miles from the centre! South Carolina is already experiencing such conditions.

I mean, it was bad in Punta Gorda before and they recorded a 124mph (I think) gust, but now it looks a hundred times worse. Mesovortices in the rear eyewall apparently. Never seen a storm like this.

Insane winds in Punta Gorda right now, following the calm of the eye. Much worse than the forward eyewall.

The eye will be passing over soon.

EDIT - down

5pm Florida time, so 10pm in the UK. There could be special advisories and updates before then though. Englewood and Punta Gorda getting battered right now.