March Blizzard

For my location, the worst of it wasn't actually in Winter proper; it was November. Honestly, I very rarely get down/annoyed by weather, but that month was truly atrocious. The rain was thoroughly relentless, and as I work outside it was actually starting to genuinely wind me up. On paper December was worse for rain, yet it didn't seem as relentless or persistent as November, to me at least. Nor did December seem as dull generally. January wasn't great, but an improvement on the preceding 2 months and was sufficiently cool enough, with a snow event, to stop it from being a true stinker in my book. February by far the best, started off wet and miserable but overall I've greatly appreciated the frosty mornings, sunny days and number of dry days. A poor Winter no doubt, though, and I'll be glad to never experience a November like that again.

Yeah. In a way Winter is like a relay race, with each month representing a runner. In a typical race (Winter) a bad leg by one can be overcome by a good leg from another. However, this year, December reacted late to the gun, stumbled out the blocks and fell flat on it's face as it fumbled the baton to January. We've been playing catch up since, and the race had already been won by the time February handed the baton to March. And the UK winter relay team aren't the fastest to begin with...

I'll go for 5.3C, please.

Agree with the first part of that completely. I love cold nights/frost at this time of year, and the potential for large diurnal temperature ranges, a common feature of late February and March. So much better than Atlantic driven cloud and rain, with almost static temperatures throughout. If we can't have a genuine cold spell, then I'll take cool, calm and clear gladly.

I get what you are saying in that February is probably more prone to winds from an Easterly/Northerly quadrant than December, so therefore has the more favourable conditions for colder weather than a Westerly/Southerly December. However, I'd still assert that the exact same set up in mid Dec and mid Feb would be colder in the latter for a variety of reasons. Mid February is in what I think of as the "core" of winter, the coldest 6 weeks, being January to mid Feb. December and second half of Feb, despite being winter and still capable of very low temperatures, fall outside of that period in which we historically have seen the coldest temperatures. As I said, the setup in December 2010 was as near perfect as you could get for cold, and it was of course very cold, but not colder than Feb 1986 and nowhere near as cold as Feb 1947. That late Nov/Dec 2010 setup, picked up and dropped into late Jan/February, would have probably returned a February CET around the -1.2C mark in my opinion, as opposed to the -0.7C of Dec 2010.

Of course. That sort of thing is more likely in February or first half of March than October or November, even December. Look at the met office average maps, more days snow falling and lying in February than December. Similar days of snow falling between March and December, for the 1981-2010 average, yet in the previous 2 averages March has slightly more. Last year I had snowcover that lasted for at least 4/5 days into Feb after a big fall in late Jan. it's been a long time since I've had lying snow in December. Not really a surprise, just closer to the climatic norm. Either way, in much of lowland England, snow tends to be marginal/transient regardless of what month it falls in. Bit of a moot point really.

Have you forgotten just how mild the December just gone was? It would take a record warm March to beat the CET value it recorded. In a typical year, February will be colder than December. Late February/early March, temperature wise, is on a par with early to mid December. It's also typically snowier than December. The coldest February is colder than the coldest December. Even with very favourable conditions, such as December 2010, it still wasn't colder than February 1986, for example. There is a lot more ice in the Arctic in Feb compared to December, the seas are colder, much of Eurasia is colder in February. Pretty much the whole northern Hemisphere, outside of Maybe the Western half of North America, is colder in February than December. Yes, it may be too warm in late Feb/early March to see snow/cold for most of us in the UK this year, but only because of how warm much of the northern hemisphere has been throughout Winter. Not at all helped by that ridiculously warm December. I just don't get people looking for snow as early as October, when it is incredibly unlikely, and then giving up in February or March when there's a decent chance of it falling. It happens every year, regardless of how the season pans out beforehand. I just find it a little odd, but each to their own, and to be fair I don't begrudge people looking for a bit of "warmth".

Scotland pretty much certain to break the record...from two years ago.

Absolutely horrendous conditions again. Starting to feel like that nightmarish November again, and this is in relatively dry February.

What a vile day. Literally hasn't stopped raining.

4.7C, the "coldest" month in an exceptionally mild Winter.

It has just started to settle in the last 5 minutes!

How is it settling in Salford but not in Stockport? I don't get it.

Very light snow just started here. Wasn't late Jan 2015 better in your location, WH? It was here anyway.

Nothing in Stockport, yet.

Looks like the "widespread hard frost" for Saturday night/Sunday morning has been dropped...

Yeah. Bitterly cold out there today in that wind. Only just thawed out now.

5.7C and -0.3C were the average CET maxima and minima for the month, respectively. The coldest mean Max and joint 5th coldest mean min for the month of March. I prefer the look of March 1883: 5.9C and -2.0C. ...or better yet. February 1895, average monthly CET minima of -5.1! My idea of winter heaven.

That's just it though, March isn't a warm month. 4th coldest of the year, colder than November. Far too much expectation of "warmth" every year, in my opinion. Reliable warmth should only reasonably be expected from around mid April onwards. A cold March would do me, make the most of the wintry window of opportunity. Unlike 2013, though, I'd rather the cold be there from the start, rather than beginning 10 days into the month.

Yep. The 11th (my birthday) was bitterly cold, an Ice day and minus double digits overnight. Extremely cold night on the 31st, too.

March 2013 had comparatively colder maxima than minima. Saying that, I think the minima averaged around -0.3C for the month. Cold, but not exceptionally so. Hard frosts with negative double digit minima was more typical of Jan and Dec 2010.

Anyone seen the NFL game between Minnesota and Seattle? -21C at kick off, the third coldest NFL game in history, apparently.

I'll go for 6.3C, please.

It is very weird to see temperatures in Svalbard similar to what we should normally be seeing in a UK winter, 5C max forecast for Longyearbyen tomorrow. At almost 80 degrees North, in late December. Crazy.

Wow, I can't believe the extent of the flooding in the south of the region today. I'm not too far down the road but there has been no flooding here, thankfully. Seen pictures of Rochdale underwater and the Irwell in Manchester city centre is raging. This is significant flooding in the second largest urban area in the country, was it on the BBC news at 10pm? I missed it...