We’re going for Christmas Lunch at a local pub. Full 6-courser. We’ll be fat as pigs by 2pm. 🤣 Then back to my mams house to exchange presents. What are your plans?

There’s always a debate to be had on Social media about when Winter actually starts. The old way of defining the seasons is through the solstices. Winter begins at the Winter Solstice, around December 21st. It would then end at the Spring Solstice - March 21st. Meteorological winter is different. We pick the 3 winter months as December, January and February. These are the coldest months (in the UK). This means that Meteorological winter is a fixed length and comparisons can be made, year to year. It always spans Dec-Feb. So here, we’ll always use Meteorological Winter. 😎

I’m writing from a dark bedroom in Ryton. My partner has just looked out of the curtains and there’s no snow fallen here, but that is what was expected. Has anyone got any elsewhere? You can see the onshore component of the airstream down the East coast, particularly the North Yorkshire Moors. This is where i’d expect snow showers.

This is what we can get. This is the chart from 31st December 1978. A screaming easterly gale that buried the East coast of England under 8ft drifts. I remember going out for New Years Eve frivolities and nearly freezing to death. The air came from somewhere East of Moscow. The truest 'Beast from the East' we've ever had? Who remembers this one?

Just had an interaction on a well known Facebook weather group who stated that 12C is “twice as warm” as 6C. 😳 I questioned them, saying this is wrong, but they said it’s what most people understand. I said surely that’s not what you want to encourage? They would not be swayed. It’s their page, so I had to relent. How can we educate people when they encourage a myth?