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Sydneysiders can blame cloud and rain for this winter being one of the coldest in 13 years, a meteorologist says.

"In a normal winter Sydney will have quite a few brisk mornings and sunny days but not this year," weatherzone.com.au meteorologist Brett Dutschke said.

"An excess of cloudy and rainy days has led to it being a dull, cold and gloomy one, at least in June and July.

"There has been so much cloud that Sydney has had fewer days warmer than 20 degrees than in any other winter since 1990," Mr Dutschke said.

With so many cloudy days, this winter has delivered 39 days of rain, eight more than in a normal winter.

"It finally brightened up a bit in August and we even managed a 25-degree day in the second half of the month.

"But it was too late to stop this winter being colder than recent winters. There hasn't been a colder winter since 1997."

It should have been the height of summer, but was notable only for its low temperatures.

The UK has just endured its coldest August for 17 years, which was marked, say forecasters, by a complete absence of 'hot days'.

The month also saw the lowest single-day August temperature for 23 years, with it falling to 55f (12.8c) in Edgbaston, Birmingham, last Thursday.

And several 'notably' cold nights were recorded last week

An exceptionally cloudy period in the South East of England put something of a dampener on the holiday period as heavy rain fell across large swathes of the country

The prolonged poor weather has been blamed on a band of low pressure being pushed across the country by the jet stream - the fast-flowing air currents in the upper atmosphere that move weather systems across the northern hemisphere - which was further north during the extended sunny spells of June and July.

It meant that by the end of August there had not been a single day when the mercury rose above 81f ( 27c), forecasters said.

NSW shivered through its coldest winter in 12 years, while daytime temperatures in August hit their lowest since 1990.

NSW experienced average daytime temperatures of 15.9C, making it the coldest winter since 1998 and the 16th nippiest winter on record.

Climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), Shannon Symons says widespread rainfall also resulted in the wettest winter since 2005.

"Northern inland regions received above, to very much above average rainfall and that was mainly in July and August, and that's pretty much the case (across) NSW as well," Ms Symons told AAP today.

Inland rainfall was attributed to a La Nina event, which creates cooler than average sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

"When we have La Nina events we, not always, but usually see enhanced rainfall across eastern Australia," Ms Symons said.

As most beach goers will tell you, this summer has seen numerous days of overcast and drizzly weather. Not only has the atmosphere been chilly, but the waters along the immediate coastline have remained downright cold, and the harbor seals and sea lions seem to want to spend more time on the rocks and beaches.

Stronger than normal northwesterly winds have produced a greater amount of upwelling along the coastline. Combined with a strengthening La Niña (colder than normal ocean water in the equatorial and eastern Pacific), that has produced below-normal sea water temperatures throughout this summer.

In fact, up to this August, the sea water temperature has averaged a record-breaking 53 degrees at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, the lowest since seawater temperature records started being kept in 1976. Normally, it averages about 57 degrees during August.

The name La Niña, meaning “the girl,” originates from Spanish; it’s analogous to El Niño, meaning “the boy” or “the Christ child,” which produces above-normal sea water temperatures.

For reasons we really don’t understand, pressure areas change places at irregular intervals over the equatorial Pacific. This is part of the broader El Niño-Southern Oscillation climate pattern.

Southern Hemisphere sea ice now approaching record high levels

25 Aug 10 - Although Northern Hemisphere LAND MASSES had their hottest May-July on record, says meteorologist Joe Bastardi, the globe as a whole did not.

The warmth ON LAND is a by-product of the years of warm Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and El Nino, says Bastardi. The land kept warming after the water began to cool. It's "sort of like high tide in back bay occurring after it had occurred on the beach (oceans) and the tide is about to go out."

"If one uses common sense, one would understand that land masses with warm water next to them for years would warm greatly," says Bastardi.

Southern Hemisphere sea ice now approaching record high levels

However, "the expansion of the Southern Hemisphere sea ice, now approaching record high levels, ought to tell you something about the oceans immediately around the sea ice," says Bastardi. This large mass of water is cooling and has cooled most dramatically in the area where it is warmest (the tropical pacific).

Mass of polar air also hangs over Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil

Dionisia was waiting her turn in the crowded medical centre, her baby bundled up on her back with a manta, the traditional multicoloured Andean cloth. "My son has got a problem with his lungs," explained the young mother, who believes that it is due to the cold spell that has hit Lima.

Dionisia lives in Manchay to the east of the Peruvian capital, a sprawl of plywood houses with makeshift roofs of corrugated iron, plastic or cardboard that offer little protection from the winds that sweep over the hills.

For the first time in 40 years, temperatures in Lima fell to 8.8C at the end of July. Since then they have hovered around 13-15C. Houses are poorly insulated in Lima, and according to Percy Mosca of the Peruvian department of meteorology and hydrology, "the cold is made worse by the unusually strong winds in the region, as well as high humidity of more than 80% and sometimes even 95%".

Snow Forecast Chart

Much of The UK and Ireland are expecting cold weather during the next week, as is Moscow. Temperatures on the Greenland ice sheet will be dipping down to near -25C. Nice August weather!

Click source to read FULL report from Steven Goddard at WUWT

Switzerland’s two open glacier ski areas have seen remarkable August snowfalls with Saas Fee reporting 45cm of new snow on Sunday, with more falling since, including another 5cm yesterday. Neighbouring Zermatt, the only area open 365 days and home to Europe’s highest lifts, reported healthy snowfalls too. Saas Fee describes current conditions as “packed powder” and has a 1.6m base with Terrain Park and half pipe open. Both resorts set off Powder Alarms on Skiinfo.com, triggered for snowfall of 20cm or more, obviously a rare event in August. Zermatt triggered another powder alarm on Tuesday with another 28cm of snow reported.

The heavy snowfall spilled over in to Italy where Zermatt’s Italian neighbour, Cervinia, received a 20cm fall. Val Senales has also been receiving more snow, with another 5cm on Tuesday, the latest of about 10 days of regular snowfalls there. It currently has a one metre base with Passo Stelvio also open.

In France, the glacier ski areas at Tignes and Les 2 Alpes are both entering their last fortnight of summer operations. Les 2 Alpes has the better snow cover with a metre depth while Tignes has 30cm. Both areas received a little new snow at the weekend. The picture is a little less good in Austria where the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier remains closed for a second week due to warm temperatures and a diminished snowpack – down to 10cm on the glacier with temperatures above freezing still and rain falling. It’s a similar picture on the Dachstein glacier where the lifts are running but the downhill slopes and Terrain Park are closed – they report a 30cm base but that the snow is “wet”.

It continues to be the summer that never came for many of the coastal areas of California.

AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said that the closer you get to the ocean, the more likely you are to see below-average temperatures for much of Southern California.

Rayno said an excellent example of this phenomena is Santa Ana, Calif. Less than 20 miles from the beach, Santa Ana typically sees high temperatures of about 84 degrees in the month of August. So far this month, Santa Ana has only had two days crack the 80-degree mark: Aug. 3 and Aug. 17.

Overall, the average overall temperature for Santa Ana is typically in the mid 70s in August. So far this month, temperatures have been almost 4 degrees below that average.

The trend of cooler-than-normal temperatures continues in downtown Los Angeles. Here the average daily temperatures typically hit 75 or 76 F. So far this August, the average temperature has been about 4 degrees lower.

Highs for Los Angeles in August can typically be found in the mid-80s. Only about half of the high temperatures recorded so far this month have climbed into the 80s.

The Pacific Northwest had a less-than-stellar winter in terms of skiing last year as seen in the Vancouver Olympics.

A La Nina weather pattern this year, however, could mean stormier weather for the 2010-2011 season.

It can be difficult to forecast just how much more moisture a wetter-than-normal winter will bring, AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist and West Coast resident Clark said. For the Pacific Northwest, though, Clark is predicting that precipitation will be "normal to well-above normal." He described above-normal precipitation as 20 percent or more that is typically received in the region.