snow1975
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Posts posted by snow1975
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4 minutes ago, Sceptical said:
And you just know there will be some lunatics needing rescued from the Scottish hills over the next few days.
Anyone on Cairngorm summit?
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Steady 26 knots outside from the SSE
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25 minutes ago, CatchMyDrift said:
The wind direction on Tuesday was SWly:
The section of the A1 which was closed runs almost directly west to east, so it was more likely an effect off the Lammermuirs than any "funnel". I remain to be convinced that any real funnel exists, for example the M8 is at sea level in Glasgow then takes the lowest route west-east which tops out at 260m near Harthill. Hills to the north and south are 300m+. There's plenty of friction to disrupt/affect the wind.
I've never seen wind readings which would back up any claims of a "Forth-Clyde valley funnel" effect but happy to be proved wrong.
Indeed and the Met Office did not issue a wind warning on Tuesday for the Central Belt of the Scotland. The A1 must have been affected by the SW wind bouncing over the Lammermuirs under certain (stable?) atmospheric conditions.
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17 minutes ago, hillbilly said:
That may actually sound incredible even to me but at a second glance you have to look on a map and see exactly where that is.It is very close to the coast in the very far north west just a stones throw from Cape Wrath which holds 3 of the daily December maximums for the UK.You have to compare it with places like the outer Hebrides and the West of Ireland which have a climate way different to inland where temps are much more consistant for much of the year.Some places in West Ireland havnt had snow or frost for 50 years am guessing it wont be too different in North west Scotland on the coast.Shetlands temp today is 8 deg and when London is basking in temps in the high 20s Shetland is often in the low teens and sometimes single figures,not a great difference all year around.
A stiff southerly wind producing the Foehn effect in the Achfary area. The temperature over the open Sea is nearer to 10C.
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On 27/12/2015 at 16:04, Rabbit said:
Hi guys, new member here so please be gentle.
I'm looking for a wind instrument much like the old USAF "windbirds". (Technically, they were nomenclatured GMQ-20s, see attached pic, and they were on every airfield before digital sensors replaced them in the 1990s.) I know that the Davis Vantage line is everybody's go-to system nowadays (and Davis IS a good line!) but I'm not looking for an all-in-one station with a lot of features that I don't need. I just want wind speed and direction. One requirement is that since it will be mounted atop a 40ft tower, I need something that doesn’t require regular fiddling.
I'm retired so money IS a consideration but I'm not against spending a little extra for a quality instrument. Unfortunately, when GMQ-20s show up on internet auctions, they command a ridiculous selling price so they're out of my league.
TIA,
Rab
Hi there,
You have several options.
https://munroinstruments.com/product/im147-in-line-cup-anemometer-wind-direction-vane/
I love the analogue dials. They are £390 each and the IM 147 will cost you £6000. Manufactured in the UK.
http://www.youngusa.com/products/7/5.html
http://www.youngusa.com/products/4/28.html
https://novalynx.com/store/pc/200-2201-200-2206-NovaVane-Wind-Sensor-19p323.htm
https://novalynx.com/store/pc/200-2218-Analog-Indicating-Wind-System-19p324.htm
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I'll class myself as an 'amateur'. The latest GFS 00z/06z hints at westerly mobility from about Xmas Eve onwards.
According to BigJoeBastardi SST anomalies in the Pacific are similar to Dec 1983. The so-called 'Polar Vortex' will make an appearance across the Midwest this week, similar to Dec 1983, but not quite as extreme.
Going forward, I'll take a punt that early January will be unsettled; mild in the south but colder at times in the North, with snow falling to increasingly lower levels. I hope it will turn out like Jan 1984 (nearly 2 feet of snow in my back garden).
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Agree that there is potential for 3-5 cm snowfalls along eastern flank of this rapid moving low.
Southwest Wales should be placed under a red alert for very strong winds overnight, pressure gradient on western flank of low looks extreme on meso-scale models. WNW to NNW 70 mph gusting to 110 is quite possible with this once it gets over the Irish Sea and moves inland in central Wales. For parts of Cornwall, Devon and western Somerset, 60 mph gusting to 100 by about 0300-0600h. These may be the greatest impacts of the system.
A PL weakens rapidly once it makes landfall.
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"A favoured position for the formation of polar lows is on the western flank of an occluded low" Met O forecasting notes
Can't argue with that. This 'Polar Low' has warmer uppers than the ones that struck the Shetland Isles in Feb 2001 and Dec 1995. The latter dumped 1ft of snow on Xmas Eve.
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This used to be the case.. not anymore, Polar Lows can be adequately forecast by models, though like todays they will be most likely to shown as a wave, or a general disturbance. I believe -35C is the absolute least to have technical Polar Low capable of delivering snow.
However, a Polar Low could technically occur in summer given the right set up.. what then? This will lose Baroclinic elements as it moves south, and will become something akin to a polar low.
Do all Polar Lows initiate by baroclinic means?
In the summer it would be rain, not snow. What are the wind speeds around this so-called Polar Low?
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I don't think it is a true Polar Low. A polar Low is a sub-synoptic feature which will not show up on a synoptic chart. I remember reading an article in Weather magazine about the Shetland Polar Low in February 2001. 500Hpa temperatures need to be below -52C. Forms in a strong baroclinic flow. Warm cored like it's tropical cousin. Centre filled with Nimbostratus producing heavy snow with gale force 8+ force winds at the surface.
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Moderate to heavy driving, horizontal sleet.
Edit: can see wet flakes at times.
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We have 2cm snow cover here now. Started about 4pm, just light snowpellets. Heavy snow/snowpellets since then. Thundersnow at 4.49pm....loud thunder accom;panied by snowflakes and pellets about 5-7mm across.....hail.
Can see next Cb coming in from WNW.
Friend in Kennoway reporting thunder snow.
I can confirm thundersnow at 4.49pm. Remarkable, especially when showers are coming from the west.
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Light rain in Leven at 10am. Light showers of snowpellets here and up hill at 200masl, 11am-12pm. 1-2mm size, conical, falling fae Stratocumulus. Wind 130deg, 2 metre speed, 10mph. Dry-bulb 3C, wet-bulb 1.3C, dewpoint -2C.
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It's pretty rough I guess, folks like yourself and Hawesy in Crail need some proper deep cold (or one of the few wind direction which avoids any coastal modification) to get decent snow. If we can get that slight southward correction -8C could easily turn into -12C, and those charts look quite similar to that February 2001 easterly which was particularly snowy for some parts of the northeast (not sure on the specifics other than I think we were too far south/close to the coast in that instance), but it's liable to end up correcting, ideally a bit further southwest, in the next 5 days.
Ls, where were you living in Feb 2001?
I was working in London at the time and missed that event. It started as rain on Saturday and turned to settling snow Saturday evening and it continued to snow for the next day or so then turned back to sleet. However, my folks tell me the snow was fairly deep in Baintown. Levenmouth and the coastal strip was snowless, as usual. When I returned home for a few days about 1 week later, there was still snowdrifts lying around the edges of the fiields. On the higher ground at 200masl, just to the north, there was still a full, deep cover with huge snowdrifts.
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If anyone is interested in getting there own 'standard' manual instruments/equipment, here is a list of suppliers.
Stevenson screen
liquid-in-glass thermometers, including grass/concrete min
http://www.russell-scientific.co.uk/meteorological-thermometers-43-c.asp
soil thermometers
http://www.russell-scientific.co.uk/soil-thermometers-25-c.asp
5'' rain gauge
http://www.russell-scientific.co.uk/1252-splay-based-rain-gauge-86-p.asp
http://www.fairmountweather.com/product.php?shopprodid=15
CoCoRAHS 4'' plastic gauge
http://www.weatheryourway.com/cocorahs/store.html
http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/cocorahs.htm
Hand held anemometer
http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/inspeedHH.htm
http://www.r-p-r.co.uk/kestrel/k1000.htm
barometer
http://www.russell-scientific.co.uk/k60-kew-type-station-barometer-36-p.asp
You could send your data to the following;
Climatological Observers Link
http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~brugge/
Met Office WOW
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What are the two horizontal thermometers for?
The top one is the maximum, mercury-in-glass thermometer and the bottom one is the minimum, alcohol-in-glass.
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Speaking of wet-bulb temperatures, here is a photo showing my set-up in a Stevenson screen. The wet-bulb on the right is covered in tubular cotton lab wick which dips into a container of distilled water.
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Ice pellets/sleet mixed with rain for the past 30 minutes. Wind dirn 130deg, 2 metre avg speed, 12.8mph. Tdry=4.5C, Twet=3.3C.
The paths/roads started to dry up overnight. A nip in the air today with a SSE wind bringing in drier continental air.
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The thing is though all we need once the jet does power up is a bit of amplification upstream - with the models picking up on an Arctic high for the first time it wouldn't take much for our Azores high to ridge northwards into Greenland with the troughing shifting from Canada to Scandinavia and bringing in some sustained cold. The PV is so disrupted at this point that I seriously doubt we could see a return to full on zonality, whether or not we get lucky with the remnant vortex positioning is a different issue though:
We also have the advantage of having a euro trough in place - this will draw the jet SE and encourage the undercut so if/when the jet does power up our block is less likely to be a 'sinker'
Some fine potential tonight, fraught with risk as ever but it does look as though the bigger picture might be about to fall into place for really the first time this winter.
I'm only looking at the charts that are in front of me tonight. Of course, they probably will have something different tomorrow. If the up and coming cold shot across the US can dig as far south as possible if could amplify things for us downstream. Plus there's talk about a Strat warming event, as there is every winter these days.
Everyone is looking east for cold and snow. It can come from the west. I would like to see deep, fast moving Atlantic lows barrel toward us, preferably on a southerly track, so we stay north of them. If they draw in the brutal cold across the States, we could have a Jan 1984 esque type scenario. There is potential for big snow events down the line, not nessecarily from an easterly set-up.
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Sorry, you beat me to it Snow 1975!
beat you to what?
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I suppose it's somewhat comforting to see that the latest situation (chartwise) still cannot identify a winner between mild or cold? It makes me so jealous that the USA forecasters have stated for what seems like days now that another, probably worse cold spell, is due to begin there sometime next week and will probably last for between 12-20 days. They appear to be so confident in the forecast that they are already preparing. Spot the difference!
I know that, like Europe, it's a large landmass without the sea interference, but wouldn't it be great to know with some certainty what was coming. Anyway, I was hoping for an answer to something that is in the back of my mind.......We all, more so westerners and southerners, remember the seemingly endless storminess that invaded our shores a few weeks back, indeed many are still suffering. If, as has been stated, that it was due to the extreme cold in the USA firing up the jet over the warmth of the Atlantic carrying these storms, then are we due for a repeat performance because of more extreme cold in the USA?The short answer is yes. The last ECM12z chart shows the Altantic breaking through. The GFS12z becomes zonal with deep lows and stormy weather before the Azores high moves north in FI and it becomes very mild and yuk!
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I measured 0.00cms, stalled 5 miles to my west, bet Gnosall and places got a pasting, you not mean south side of house? wind from S
No, most of the snowdrifts were on the leeward side, the north side. The wind/snow was blown through gaps in the houses and deposited in drifts to the north of the houses.
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bit like the one on 12th March 2006, for my location
yes, another 'powder' snow event with a southerly breeze. I measured average 13cm with 50+cm drifts on the north side of the house.
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One of the biggest snow events for many years came of this set up:
February 06th 1996
And the 850's
There was colder weather in mainland Europe at that time however over the UK you'll see the 850's weren't that cold, this event was the infamous one where the main snow ground to a halt to the west of London, about 5 flakes fell on me! I was living in Wimbledon at the time.
Correct, 33cm in my back garden. It snowed for nearly 2 days non stop, air temp -1 to -2C with just a light S to SE breeze so there wasn't any modification by the North Sea in my coastal area. The cold was deep and embedded back then, its a different beast this winter.
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I know that, like Europe, it's a large landmass without the sea interference, but wouldn't it be great to know with some certainty what was coming. Anyway, I was hoping for an answer to something that is in the back of my mind.......We all, more so westerners and southerners, remember the seemingly endless storminess that invaded our shores a few weeks back, indeed many are still suffering. If, as has been stated, that it was due to the extreme cold in the USA firing up the jet over the warmth of the Atlantic carrying these storms, then are we due for a repeat performance because of more extreme cold in the USA?
Scotland/Alba weather discussion - Jan 2021 onwards
in Regional
Posted
Have you reported the dead buzzard to the SSPCA?