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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be completely freaked out that we've not had a winter

142 replies

LaurieFairyCake · 19/02/2014 20:59

Seriously, I'm weirded out.

2 very light frosts the whole winter. Not cold enough to put the heating on hardly.

I don't remember a winter like this in 40 years.

Yes, the news stories are all about the terrible floods but I've heard nothing to explain why there's been no wintry weather.

OP posts:

SamHamwidge · 20/02/2014 08:12

I think we must have had snow circa 1981 or 82 as I have old photos of me in sunglasses building a snowman in the back garden (I had had an eye operation that year). I don't remember it much though growing up.

juneau · 20/02/2014 08:17

Well, I'm not complaining. The last four winters have been bitter cold with loads of ice and snow and they were fecking awful! I was still scraping ice off my windscreen last April before I could take DS1 to school. So if this winter wants to be mild and wet, it's fine with me. A bit less rain, however, would be welcome.

MiniSoksMakeHardWork · 20/02/2014 08:21

Yanbu. It has bothered me too as it feels all wrong. I got the dc snow suits and everything! Although they're big enough to last a couple of years.

Our bulbs are popping up early and even the nearby farmers with sheep have early lambing on a massive scale.

The only thing that majorly concerns me is the frosts and cold weather hasn't been around to kill off any bugs and things which it might usually have done.

Badvoc · 20/02/2014 08:22

1990 was he last "bad" winter I remember.
I was wading through snow knee deep.
My snowdrops are already out - have been for 2 weeks - and my daffs are on the way.
I think it means a crappy summer tbh.
Although we could yet get snow end feb/beg march.

JennyOnAPlate · 20/02/2014 08:58

I've been daring to hope we won't get snowed in this year. We had loads of it at the end of march last year though, so I think it's probably too soon to judge.

NotTwit · 20/02/2014 09:08

I don't like the hot sun, and as we had a hot summer last year at some point, I can't help but feel I deserve a cold winter for a bit. We have had cold enough for hat and gloves days here though (Herefordshire)
The cold makes me feel healthy, alive and full of energy whilst heat makes me dull and sluggish, headachey and nauseous. And I get hay fever, in spring, through summer until end of autumn.
I don't complain about the weather like everyone else in RL likes to though, I like that we have a bit of everything.

SomethingkindaOod · 20/02/2014 09:10

We're going to be under 2 feet of snow at Easter. I can feel it...

Fleta · 20/02/2014 09:15

We had snow in 10 foot drifts in March last year. I could seriously live without it this year!

Pipbin · 20/02/2014 09:23

The mild winter has been a real problem for butterflies. The temperature hasn't dropped low enough for them to hibernate. They have been coming out far too early too. A couple of warm days is enough to wake them up. I saw one yesterday while I was gardening. I was in just jeans and a fleece and I was too hot!

WisneaMe · 20/02/2014 10:19

I'm expecting snow anytime up to April but I wonder what will happen to the flowers and plants that have bloomed will they just die til next year again.
Trees are budding here too and essentially they are wasting there valuable energy growing when snow and frost could come.

SooticaTheWitchesCat · 20/02/2014 10:25

It has been weird this winter but at least our heating bills have been really low as it has hardly been on.

I can remember snow at the end of April once, it was my birthday and I was in the garden, I have a horrid feeling winter may still catch us out...

SabrinaMulhollandJjones · 20/02/2014 11:13

I have pots of geraniums on my outside kitchen windowsills that have been flowering throughout winter. It's quite unnerving how mild it is.

bakeroony · 20/02/2014 11:34

OhYouBadBadKitten that link was fascinating, thank you! I love historical records of significant weather events.

ProfessorDent · 20/02/2014 11:37

It does make the whole Christmas feasting period seem out of place. It just doesn't seem warranted really, it was just pigging out for the sake of it. It would be better to move Christmas to the end of January in some ways, just for the temperature.

dingit · 20/02/2014 11:44

I'm in SE, and a bit of a gardener. I still have Geranuims in flower on the balcony. My first Daffodil opened yesterday, they never flower here until way into March.

I just wonder how it's effected the rest of nature. ( hibernating animals, insects, birds)

QueenStromba · 20/02/2014 11:57

If it makes people feel any better I do remember wandering around with my friends all evening on Valentines day and we were all just in T shirts - probably would have been 1996 or so. On St Patricks day 1999 it was about 22 degrees in Dublin (about as hot as it normally gets there in the middle of summer) - everyone was out in shorts and T shirts.

Hazelbrowneyes · 20/02/2014 12:29

I'm freaked by it too. We've had frost once this year and so much rain. It's felt like a never ending autumn.

I'm convinced this means no decent summer. Someone tell me that I'm wrong and it'll be a long, hot summer! Please!

TunipTheUnconquerable · 20/02/2014 12:31

The reason there has not been a winter is that I had a wooburner fitted last summer.

Sorry, OP.

TunipTheUnconquerable · 20/02/2014 12:31

Woodburner! Not wooburner, though I'm sure they exist.

BirdyBedtime · 20/02/2014 12:41

Although I don't miss the coldness at all (I have Reynauds) I have missed the 'wintery' feeling. I live in Scotland and have only had my frost cover on twice this winter (both back in November). It's been really unusually mild for us.

There has been loads of snow in the Highlands though. I read last week that it had snowed 60 /64 days recently. We were up there last weekend and took the sledges and the kids loved it . An hour and a half of pure wintery joy!! I do miss a bit of snow - as a PP said, it's felt more like an extended autumn here.

Don't mind the lower gas bills though! Our gas fire has only been on a few times (when my parents have visited) and central heating on much less.

Focusingkingqueen · 20/02/2014 12:59

I was pregnant in 2006 and managed the entire winter with a long cardigan and scarf and no coat. I love that we haven't had a winter, the last few years have been horrible but I do hope that it doesn't mean that we don't get a summer. Last summer was just wonderful from June till late September.

truelymadlysleepy · 20/02/2014 13:03

I'm delighted. No icy roads, no being stuck in or trying to get out, no stocking up on food just in case, no worrying about oil.
Rural SW here. Please remember the poor devils in Somerset though.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 20/02/2014 19:43

I've just done a very rough and ready analysis of the link I posted above. Each year that had a notable snowy event in England scored as a snowy year and if snow wasn't mentioned I recorded it as non snowy. Disadvantage of this is that if the snowy period crossed over new year it would count for both years Would have been better if I'd assigned it to seasons really (but I'm sat on the sofa being snuggled by cats and can't be arsed for a first pass at it)

Anyway.

Between 1900 and 2009 I noted 58 snowy years and 52 non snowy years as define as above. The snowiest decade was 1910-1919. The least snowiest decades were the 70s and 00s.
The 90s were split 50/50 as were the 80s. 1960s were split 60/40 pro snow.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 21/02/2014 09:15

I seem to have bored everyone off the thread!

HesterShaw · 21/02/2014 09:43

No way

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