Altostratus

Have had some heavy snow here in the last 20 mins or so. A good couple of cm on the ground already.

Another shower lasting approximately 10mins hit here - snow settled instantly and has given nice covering.

Quite agree TWS. The BBC forecasters should remain as objective as possible and refrain from putting a personal bias into the forecast. As you say, their job is to inform the public of the upcoming weather - not to educate the public what weather is good and what weather is bad! It seems to be the 'new breed' forecasters that are particularly prone to adding personal slants – this could be due to a shift in forecaster training, or perhaps the level of education of new forecasters – many of them aren’t even from a scientific background these days. I seem to remember reading somewhere that Mr Bett was a town planner lol.

Just had a moderate snow shower here - gave a slight dusting in less than 5 mins.

As long as level depth snow in London exceeds 4 inches at some point this week I stand to win a bet with a friend. I just hope mondays snow remains all snow and doesn't turn back to sleet or rain.

Interesting research Steve. It certainly seems to fit with what I have noticed from model watching over the past six or so years – everything seems to get forced back to the East! This would certainly suggest an increase in the zonal wind. As a consequence establishing an E’ly flow across the country would be harder than it once was, when the opposing zonal flow was not so strong. A nice analogy is trying to swim upstream against a strong current. In terms of the cold air reaching Greece, with it being more sheltered, the current is less strong, consequently cold air gets directed into the region with less resistance. Personally I still believe that it is not impossible to get a deep cold E’ly blast, however, statistically, the chances of getting an E’ly flow may be lower than it once was, due to potentially greater resistance. Feb 2005 is good example that Siberian winds can still reach these shores. IMHO, it was bad luck that year that there wasn’t a significant cold pool that could be advected westwards. Easterly blasts with deep cold air have always been rare though and there is only a handful of examples where the 850hPa -15C isotherm reached the BI, as highlighted in an earlier thread. The interesting question IMHO is what has caused the increase in zonal flow? A net increase in global temperatures would certainly support the theory.

Yep – looking good here isn’t it – with more to come judging by the radar.

Nice thin covering here. Things looked good when I went to bed at 1.30am so I decided to set my alarm for 4am – glad I did now! May upload a few pics later.

Absolutely, I’m not saying otherwise. Accidents will always happen and there will be no way of eradicating these. Unfortunately, any accidents/incidences that do occur at nuclear plants, have a tendency to get blown out of proportion. However, getting back to the point, looking at the broader picture, nuclear power plants are relatively safe. I suspect that the mean number of deaths as a result of accidents at gas/coal plants would be greater than at nuclear plants.

I like the idea of using wind power, geothermal and hydroelectricity etc, but the main problem with most of the renewable energy sources, is that they simply don’t produce enough power to sustain the power needs of a country like this. I don’t have the figures to hand, but I seem to recall that one nuclear power plant would produce more power than all the renewable sources combined. In an era with increasing power needs, nuclear power is probably the only viable short term solution. Nuclear power plants are extremely safe these days – they were also pretty safe 20yrs ago, despite what happened in Chernobyl. Take France as an example – something like 50% of the power is supplied by nuclear power plants. As of yet, there haven’t been any disasters – nor is there any reason to suggest there ever will be. Carbon emissions need to be reduced, and decommissioning the hydrocarbon based power stations and reinstating nuclear power seems the way forward IMHO. Perhaps potentially the most interesting renewable energy source at present, would be tidal power. This has the capacity to produce substantial amounts of power. It seems the govt agree too, as I seem to remember reading somewhere that some plans had been drawn up for a development across the Severn Estuary. It’s nice to know the govt are at least thinking more long term – whether or not this gets implemented or not remains to be seen.

When, the breakdown arrives, I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see a return to anticyclonic conditions, bringing back coolish continental air. This would help maintain a low CET, thus enhancing the chance of a sub 4C CET. You are probably right though Kold, a CET in the range of 4-5C is probably the more likely outcome at present. It would be so special if we could get that sub 4C CET though.

It really wouldn’t surprise me to see March this year with a CET below 4C. It almost happened in 1987, and looking at the archives, that month didn’t look particularly special. The synoptics shown now are far more impressive.

Light snow shower just started.

Looks like light snow here – you need a microscope to see the flakes, and there may be some drizzle mixed in with the snow. It’s had to tell from looking out the window. Temp has dropped though – now at the lowest temp so far, 1.8C.

Had a light/moderate hail shower about 10mins ago.

Had a light hail shower about 20mins ago. It is very sunny here now with a temp around 9C.

Had a few snow flurries here in London over the last 20 mins or so.

I have no idea what the temp is at the moment, but a nearby pond is still frozen over. I recorded a low of -8.2C in the early hours of this morning. Been sunny all day so far and it looks like this is set to continue throughout the rest of today.

Had moderate wet snow here for a couple of hours now. It's only in the last few minutes the snow has got heavier and is almost settling. The temp has been hovering around 1.5C.