Are winters in the UK getting colder?
I'm only 20, and I know I'm living in an era where things are warmer everywhere, but I feel like in the last few years, especially since like 2021, winter is getting colder than I remember. Not necessarily snow, but take right now. It got down to like minus six where I'm from in essex last december and we had lots of snow. Maybe warmer than average winters is all I've ever known so when it does get cold it seems unusual, but seeing forecasts of like 1-2C forecasted...I feel like summers may be getting hotter, but winters and even late autumn to a lesser extent are getting colder. Not sure how the rest of europe is but I know there's been record cold in scandinavia, record snowfall in european russia, and in 2021 spain got ridiculously cold like -37C. Not a climate scientist but have heard how like the jet stream could be slowing down which means western europe could/will become a lot colder in winter but warmer in the summer, and drier too.
Reply 1
This isn't scientific by any means, but I've been noticing the same thing. The summers where I live in Kent are nice and warm, but a few years ago they were unbearably hot. Similarly, the other day we had snow for the first time in years where I live. Other than the snow, I don't know if the changing heat (well, perceived heat in my case) is down to how it feels to me or something external. I have lost some weight in the past few years, and that could be contributing to it.
Reply 2
In Reading it rarely snows in the winter - but it gets frosty in the mornings.
So far this winter has been pretty mild - most of the time I'm fine with a hoodie and no coat.
So far this winter has been pretty mild - most of the time I'm fine with a hoodie and no coat.
Reply 3
I think so well def compared to the least few yrs
Reply 4
21
i'd say it's the opposite...
Reply 5
There were long icicles hanging from the house that I thought would fall on me.....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_2009%E2%80%9310_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_2009%E2%80%9310_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland
This January is freezing so far. Also Happy New Year as it's now 2025!
Colder now? No. There has definitely been less snow over the years, and temperatures overall haven't been as low.
In the 90s I remember thigh high snow every winter.
Even when my kids were little, the snow was much deeper than it is now:
I give you exhibit A: December 2010 at my house
exhibit b: November 2024 at my house
No brainer. We don't get as much snow as we used to because it simply isn't as cold as it used to be.
Edit: However, I will say this - we've had more snow this year than we have had for a few years previously, in fact there were a couple of winters with no snow at all, but even this year we have still much less snow than we did 15-years+ ago
In the 90s I remember thigh high snow every winter.
Even when my kids were little, the snow was much deeper than it is now:
I give you exhibit A: December 2010 at my house
exhibit b: November 2024 at my house
No brainer. We don't get as much snow as we used to because it simply isn't as cold as it used to be.
Edit: However, I will say this - we've had more snow this year than we have had for a few years previously, in fact there were a couple of winters with no snow at all, but even this year we have still much less snow than we did 15-years+ ago
(edited 5 months ago)
Original post by PinkMobilePhone
Colder now? No. There has definitely been less snow over the years, and temperatures overall haven't been as low.
In the 90s I remember thigh high snow every winter.
Even when my kids were little, the snow was much deeper than it is now:
No brainer. We don't get as much snow as we used to because it simply isn't as cold as it used to be.
Edit: However, I will say this - we've had more snow this year than we have had for a few years previously, in fact there were a couple of winters with no snow at all, but even this year we have still much less snow than we did 15-years+ ago
In the 90s I remember thigh high snow every winter.
Even when my kids were little, the snow was much deeper than it is now:
No brainer. We don't get as much snow as we used to because it simply isn't as cold as it used to be.
Edit: However, I will say this - we've had more snow this year than we have had for a few years previously, in fact there were a couple of winters with no snow at all, but even this year we have still much less snow than we did 15-years+ ago
I agree with this. It's all anecdotal of course, but in the 90s I remember cold snaps like this being just how winter generally was for much longer stretches than one or two weeks. It's not unusual now for temperatures to get up towards, or sometimes above, ten degrees in December, and that was just absolutely unheard of in the 90s. I have a clear memory in 2016/2017 of Christmas Day here being about twelve degrees with light rain, which when I was younger would have been an autumn day, not a winter one and certainly not Christmas Day. So no, winters are not getting colder. There may obviously be some small variation upwards or downwards over the course of a few years. But over longer periods, and particularly stretching back to the 90s and before, winters are most certainly getting warmer, not colder. As, indeed, are all of the seasons.
Reply 9
To my knowledge it's never so much simply been that everywhere is getting warmer, it's that climates are becoming more unpredictable with greater and more frequent extremes of all types.
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