Just for the sake of it, as winter is fast approaching, here are the number of days of more than half cover of snow at 0900 in Cleadon (South Tyneside) during the winters since I started taking weather records:1993/94: 191994/95: 41995/96: 181996/97: 101997/98: 41998/99: 91999/00: 12000/01: 122001/02: 82002/03: 52003/04: 112004/05: 3And here are the figures for Lancaster:1993/94: 41994/95: 61995/96: 171996/97: 61997/98: 21998/99: 41999/00: 02000/01: 82001/02: 62002/03: 22003/04: 22004/05: 2One surprising quirk is that while Lancaster is consistently the less snowy of the two locations with only occasional exceptions, Lancaster also seems more prone to out-of-season snowfalls. The earliest snow cover I reported in Cleadon was on 8 November 2001 and the latest was 14 April 1999; for Lancaster the respective dates were 30 October 2000 and 7 May 1997.