Not speaking seriously, but one sometimes feels there is some form of
malevolent design present in the weather patterns that prevail in late
December and the first half of January, such is the regularity that the
weather patterns always seem to conspire to produce the dreariest
weather imaginable, with the modest joys of seasonal-average
temperatures (6-7c by day in southern England) and night frost
unattainable. In many ways, January seems to be the new October in
terms of never ending zonality, whilst October itself often produces
more interesting and pleasant weather - even though it tends to be wet,
warm sunny days are by no means infrequent in that month.

More hopefully though, there are plenty of years (indeed it happens
more often than not to some extent, albeit rarely with snow) when the
New Year curse disappears in mid or late January, so there's hope
yet....

Nick