Tag Archives: Winter

One in 250-year event underway high in the atmosphere.

Posted on 6 March, 2024 by Met Office Press Office

For the first time since records began in the mid 20th century , this extended winter period (November to March) is the first in our observational records to see three Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) events. Met Office research suggests the likelihood … Continue reading →

Posted in Met Office News | Tagged climate, climate change, snow, weather, Winter | Leave a comment

Record low temperature for the UK this millennium

Posted on 11 February, 2021 by Met Office Press Office

Overnight the recorded minimum temperature at the weather station at Braemar dropped to -23.0°C, one of three stations in the UK to dip below minus 20.0°C. With the media reporting on the ‘extreme’ conditions, we have analysed our records since … Continue reading →

Posted in Met Office News | Tagged climate, climate change, climate science, cold, Met Office, record, Scotland, severe weather, snow, statistics, temperature, Winter | Comments Off

Coldest January since 2010, but not exceptional by historical standards

Posted on 1 February, 2021 by Met Office Press Office

January, with an average temperature of 2.2 °C, has been the coldest January across the UK since 2010. In that year the average UK January temperature was 0.9 °C; the coldest January on record was 1963 with a mean temperature … Continue reading →

Posted in Met Office News | Tagged Met Office, Met Office Hadley Centre, Met Office National Climate Information Centre, rainfall, snow, Winter | Comments Off

How will La Nina affect our winter weather?

Posted on 12 October, 2020 by Met Office Press Office

La Niña is now present in the tropical Pacific and forecasters are suggesting these conditions will continue throughout the winter months. La Niña is one of the three phases of the phenomenon known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, El Niño – the warm phase, La Niña – the cool phase and lastly the neutral phase. During La Niña … Continue reading →

Posted in Met Office News | Tagged climate science, El Niño-Southern Oscillation, El Nino, high pressure, Jet stream, La Niña, long range forecast, Met Office, Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, rainfall, solar cycle, storms, trade winds, weather, weather forecast, Winter | Comments Off

Is there another ‘Beast from the East’ on the way?

Posted on 3 January, 2019 by Met Office Press Office

There have been many headlines in recent days proclaiming a return of the ‘Beast from the East’ and ‘triple polar vortex to trigger heavy snow’ with bookies reportedly cutting the odds that this month will end as the coldest January … Continue reading →

Posted in Met Office News | Tagged Beast from the East, El Nino, heavy snow, Madden Julian Oscillation, polar vortex, snow, SSW, sudden stratospheric warming, Winter | 6 Comments

A review of our long-range outlook for the recent cold snap

Posted on 7 March, 2018 by Met Office Press Office

Various media reports have been commenting on our longer-range warnings in the run-up to the recent cold snap. This period of severe weather was very well predicted and the first signs appeared around one month before the start, when we … Continue reading →

Posted in Met Office News | Tagged Met Office, Met Office Hadley Centre, National Severe Weather Warning Service, severe weather, weather, weather forecast, weather forecasting, Winter | 6 Comments

Winter and February statistics for 2018

Posted on 5 March, 2018 by Met Office Press Office

Looking at the statistics you may be forgiven for thinking that the winter of 2017/18 was rather uneventful, as both temperatures and rainfall totals are quite close to average in most places. In fact the statistic of interest when taking … Continue reading →

Posted in Met Office News | Tagged climate, Met Office, statistics, weather, Winter | Comments Off

Mid-month February statistics on the 40th anniversary of blizzards

Posted on 16 February, 2018 by Met Office Press Office

It has been a cold and wet first half of February for many of us however there have been a few isolated milder days and plenty of sunshine between the bands of rain. It’s been rather unsettled, with most of … Continue reading →

Posted in Met Office News | Tagged cold, England, Environment Agency, forecast, heavy rain, Met Office, National Severe Weather Warning Service, rain, rainfall, severe weather, snow, weather, weather forecast, Winter | 12 Comments

How the freeze of 1947 gave Liverpool FC a warm glow

Posted on 1 March, 2017 by Met Office Press Office

The February of 1947 was the coldest on record in the UK since 1910. Between January and March 1947, there were 55 consecutive days with snow falling somewhere in the UK. The impacts on post-war Britain were enormous. Mark Platt … Continue reading →

Posted in Met Office News | Tagged Liverpool, Liverpool FC, snow, Soccer, Winter, winter 1947 | Comments Off

The weather has given us all a dry January

Posted on 2 February, 2017 by Met Office Press Office

The UK has had its own Dry January, as most parts have experienced lower than average rainfall during the month. Provisional January 2017 data Mean temp (°C) Sunshine (hours) Rainfall (mm) Actual Diff to avg Actual % of avg … Continue reading →

Posted in Met Office News | Tagged january, Met Office National Climate Information Centre, rainfall, statistics, sunshine, temperature, weather, Winter | 5 Comments