Winters back to normal?

[cordyman]

Morning guys,

If this winter continues the trend of mild, little in the way of frost or cold, will this be back on par with the hay day winters of the 90's when exotics flourished and little in the way of protection was needed?

Or is this winter currently above LTA as a whole in the UK?

Has anyone a summary of winters by year eg.

1970-1985 - mild
1986 - severe
1987-1996 - mild

[kata]

Too early to say Cordy,

We are not even out of January yet. We have had snow, abeit a lot of years ago in June. My husband recorded that.

[cordyman]

Too early to say Cordy,

We are not even out of January yet. We have had snow, abeit a lot of years ago in June. My husband recorded that.

Well were only 10 days from Feb kata and thus far majority of stuff is still growing, so i'm in a positive mood about this winter, it will need a really severe snap IMHO to knock any plants back now. Nights are getting lighter, sun has some hear in it, and the mild just keeps on delivering

[kata]

I know but be on the alert,

Its usually fully light by March. Soon the early Bees will be out looking for food.

I am just generally cleaning up the garden for about an hour a day now. I had a brown bird all winter looking for food...poor thing.

Its all positive just now Cordy.

Happy sun--day

[cordyman]

I know but be on the alert,

Its usually fully light by March. Soon the early Bees will be out looking for food.

I am just generally cleaning up the garden for about an hour a day now. I had a brown bird all winter looking for food...poor thing.

Its all positive just now Cordy.

Happy sun--day

My lawn and borders and looking pretty good as all the leaves have blown away

[kata]

My garden borders are a mess,

I hate this house, this garden. He is old next door, well lol I am no spring chicken but his grass strands come from his into my border, its the longest border which squares into another border thats shorter.

There is at least two extremely short chopped trunks from tree/shrubs so even fleece has bumps..

So I keep it tidy as I can the garden, my plants I want to keep is in pots. I keep looking at the council lists but nothing to move to as yet.

But Spring is on its way and it felt good being out if only for the hour.

[fern Rob]

I shall continue to protect my plants even if the weather goes back to how it was, it just means I don't have to worry about the plants as much . Caution should be my name

[flounder]

If you live in an area where you could get silly temperatures, it's best to err on the side of caution. You've paid a lot of money for your plants, why risk it? A 'normal' winter for me might involve a -2.5c a couple of nights so I get away with a lot more. Two years ago, I had one dry night at -8.2c, that caused less damage than the usual damp -2c

[GoggleboxUK]

Before 2010/11, the lowest temperature recorded in Preston was, according to Wikipedia, -6c.

As winter 2010/11 was deemed to be a 'once in a 100 year' event, I am of the opinion that having the means to protect against extreme or lengthy cold spells, having the knowledge as to how to protect and keeping a eye on the forecast is much more important than actually preparing for the worst.

In other words, I am generally treating winter as a normal winter rather than a period of extreme danger to the garden.

[Adam D]

The 90s weren't without their cold months - Feb 1991 and Dec 1995 were bone-chillingly cold.

[stephenprudence]

Spring would normally be pretty cool, in the 'mild years'. Indeed in those years previously, early Spring would have more frost than Winter, though it would never be severe. Last March was either close to, or was the coldest on record depending on where you live, the chance of that happening again, is as remote as the 'Great' Winter of 1740 happening again.

[greyhound]

Steve
Do you think that we will get away with a fairly mild Spring this year with maybe just a handful of very cold days
The Winter has certainly been very kind so far

[stephenprudence]

I think, in my opinion (from what experience I have), mid Feb will deliver some cold, with short cold snaps into March. I don't see a huge issue though.

[fern Rob]

I have seen the gritters out tonight .

[sanatic1234]

I know it a newspaper so most likely a bit wrong but you never know. There was an article today mentioning the weather, this is what it said.

Scientist say they have recorded a definite 10-15 per cent slowdown in the gulf stream that could have "big impacts" on the weather in Britain and elsewhere for decades.
Leader author Dr Jon Robson from the national center for Atmospheric science said: Our findings suggest a relative cooling of the North Atlantic sooner rather than later, perhaps over the next decade or so.
"In Britain we could see a return to drier summers, although it could also lead to more droughts in parts of Europe and Africa. However, there's quite a bit of uncertainty about how fast changes might happen"Research director Prof Rowan Sutton added: "Those of us that spend our summer holidays in Britain would welcome a move away from the a recent succession of soggy summers.
"But this research certainly isn't a forecast for summer 2014 or any other year. However, it could suggest a trend towards drier summers across the UK".

The actual words of the article.