By that standard, we're having a tropical summer here in Spain.

Give it some time to pass through Bulgaria, but it's heading your way for sure. I'm expecting the cold front to come down all the way to the Mediterranean in a couple of days.

Nothing exceptional, when there's a snow storm here, my village goes in "ghost town" mode, it's actually quite enjoyable to wander through deserted streets covered in white with the forces of nature against you :o)

It is -4°C right now where I live, but it's pretty windy (the sea was awesome to look at during the day). Last night we had moderate rainfall plus some snowfall in the parts of the city that are near the forest, but the sky is clear right now.

Too cold, too windy, not even a hint of snow. This is a travesty I tell you.

Question for the Europeans:


When it's freezing and it's snowing do you ever get idiots like these showing up to your sporting events?

While I do enjoy a regular *ehm* winter snowfall, what we're getting these days is far from regular. Temperatures below -10 C with winds of up to 90km/h and wind-swept snow that feels as harsh as sandpaper when it hits your face will quickly take out any enjoyment out of a stroll in the snow. Luckily it's not that windy all the time. And I don't expect it will last more than a week.
Don't worry, it's coming right for you :P.

Never saw snow in real life.

Yes we do, it's a known world-wide phenomenon :P.

Ironically, I was watching the news today and heard that several handball matches at least (quite common in these parts) got canceled because the visiting teams could not get to the host cities on account of the blizzards. Yes, it's that bad.

This is a bit subjective. To me 8 degrees celsius is quite cold but I bet in northern countries like Finland or Norway that might be unusually hot.

True, but it's not only about the cold, it's about blizzards and being buried in snow. Have a look for yourself. This is what you'd be up against if you were crazy enough to want to drive outside a city.

Some places in Norway actually had about +15C during Christmas. That was weird.

The weather is a bit messed up at the moment, with the Arctic about 20 degrees hotter than normal, and now a cold wave over large parts of Europe. There is even talk of the Gulf stream collapsing. That would have pretty catastrophic consequences.

It's something like -3/-4°C and dropping, but the real feel is around -15°C thanks to the NNW wind howling, almost non-stop, at 40kph+ with gusts up to around 60kph. Expected to get worse over the next days, with temperatures staying well below 0°C until mid week.

No snow, and I doubt there will be any; last time it actually, really snowed was more than 14-15yrs ago, IIRC.

Winters used to be pretty cold in Europe, even in the southern parts of it, and current temperatures were more or less normal for this time of year. Winters became milder due to all the global climate changes, and the wide-spread effects of El Niño; we just got so used to the change, we now feel the conditions are extremely harsh(er). At least, that's how I see it.