snow1975

Scotland Today was about as bad.....the storm wasn't in any of there headlines. I switched over.

Heavy sleet, temp slowly rising ....2.5C

Snow stopped at 6pm, 0.5cm on the ground. Sleet now.

Maybe there's a warm bias in the models in this sort of situation. You just have to look at the subzero dewpoints in the east today....-3C in Leuchars but zero to +1C south od the Forth.

Moderate snow, medium size flakes and everything has turned white. I watched the BBC forecast at noon, it had rain across Fife.

Quite big flakes starting to fall now. First flakes started an hour ago but it turned sleety with a sound of ice pellets? Dry-bulb, 1.2C and wet-bulb, 0.2C.

It could be a Polar Low....the strong PV, intense cold up north with a strong north-south temperature gradient leading to a strong baroclinic zone. It formed north of ther Polar front.....the 500hPa temperatures need to be below -42C....anyone confirm this?

Funny that, I was looking at the Jan 1984 charts last night and was surprised to find that the 850 temps weren't that cold over Scotland, typicallly -5C most of the time, but there was a tongue of -15C's upwind coming off the tip of Greenland. It was more a westerly month than a NNW one, a bit like Jan 1993. It all kicked off on Friday 13th overnight into 14th. Deep low to south, think it brought 90mph gusts to NE England. I woke up on Sunday morning (15th) to wow, over a foot. It looks like an active trough/cold front brought this snow from the west. I do remember further falls later in the month, but not as bad. All in all the westerlies across the North Atlantic, at our lat, were unsually cold due to the intense cold over the States a month earlier.

I was in east Fife in 1984, 9 at the time. Like you, I haven't seen snow like it since. We had 32cm last December, well 1984 was deeper than that! I have read that North America was brutal cold December 1983 and at times in early Jan 1984. Records were smashed from Alaska to Florida thanks to a massive Arctic high across Canada. I can only assume it had a knock on effect a month later.

When I was in Reading. I think it was Friday 2nd July 1999. It was a hot and sunny day in the London area. The storms developed in Cornwall and tracked NE later in the day. The storm came over about 2300 to 0100hr. There was constant lightning and torrential rain. 50mm of rain fell on the University field site rain gauge in about 1 hour. Observed a good electrical storm in the Ardeche, south France in early August 1999. It followed a hot and sunny day. Not much rain, but very strong winds blew the tent inside out. Here in Fife, best storm was on the 7th September 1988. After a hot day, the storm came in from the SW during the evening with plenty of lightning. Hardly any rain. Another one came from the south with frequent lightning near midnight on 29th June 1992. Edit: Another cracker came up from the south on 20th June 1990. Plenty of lightning and torrential rain caused a powercut. Scotland were playing Brazil in the World Cup that evening. Scotland beat them 5-0 lol. There was another on 19th May 1992. The storms moved NE during the evening. Frequent thunder and a couple of close C-G strikes followed by deafening thunder. Torrential rain for 5 minutes.

Batty is well qualified. Like me, he studied Meteorology at the UNiversity of Reading. UNlucky. We've got 6cm in the garden and 2.5cm on the open fields here. It snowed up until 1400hr then turned to sleet then drizzly rain by 1600hr. I was in Leven all morning. It was sleet to snow to sleet. THe snow didn't settle in Leven. A mile up the road, it was 2cm deep in Kennoway.

Fair point, although I still think it should be sub zero at least. Got a slight dusting here too, mainly of snow pellets. I can't give you my current dewpoint T for comparison because my screen with dry/wet bulb 'met office pattern' thermometers is 10 minutes walk from here.

The dewpoint temperatures of some of the Fife members are incorrect. The dewpoint has been a steady -2C at Leuchars all evening and -1C at Edinburgh airport. See the link http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/GB_cc.html and just enter the airport/station of your choice.

It was for Tuesday onwards.

It was about this time last week that the Meto was on its lonesome with an easterly for this past week, but GFS and ECM had already backed down and were going for a northerly instead. So the Meto was wrong then, is it wrong again? It seems to me, I hope, the MEto is wrong. The meto run goes against the teleconnections, such as predicted very negative AO and NAO.

Is it anything to do with the projected very cold February in the eastern US? I'm thinking there could be a deep trough off the eastern seaboard,, which might give WAA up western Greenland and create a GH?

I agree. The PV is developing over the POle. Is the AO going positive? There are hints of a SSW event soon, that could eventually disrupt the PV across the Pole and give us an easterly in February again???

El Nino winters can bring more frequent cold spells to northern Europe and the UK in late winter according to this http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2008/pr20081209.html?zoneid=79048

Little fresh snow here recently. Today, is the 21st consecutive day with lying snow at 0900hr! Average snow depth at 0900hr, 12cm in my garden and 6cm to 6.5cm in a nearby field. A fresh to strong northerly wind during the early hours caused lying snow in the fields to drift across the access road which runs east-west through Baintown, partially blocking the road this morning. Average depth of drifting snow, 57cm. Snowdrift max depth, 73cm- the deepest drifts since February 2001, which were much bigger!!

Have you witnessed thundersnow in the UK?

Everthing has turned white again. Quite a heavy shower of snow and hail- gusty winds too.

Starting to snow here.

Slight shower of hail (snow pellets) at 17.52hr, the biggest cones measured 5-6mm across.

I noticed it feeling quite bitter again at 1600hr. It's the lower dewpoints and dry air coming in. It felt 'warm' this morning when i stuck my head out the door for the first time The pavements have turned icy again.

Snow flurries in Kirkcaldy says my sister.