Steve C

Early June 75. Stopped the cricket in (I think) Derbyshire. The summer that followed was then a good one, particularly in the first half of August.

I must admit, I posted a number of times during the cold spell of 2009/10, but then went quiet. I'll definitely stick around now though. My knowledge of weather is pretty good, in terms of knowing history, being aware of the consequence of weather patterns, I can 'read' the sky, instantly convert about -20C to 50C into Fahrenheit etc. Where it's pretty rubbish is in reading the new models, for instance when someone wrote about atmospheric thickness recently, I had no idea what it meant. I've since read up about this and it makes sense now, but there's still a large gap in my knowledge here. I seem to have fallen about 20 years behind the times!

Car wouldn't start this morning, meaning a 3 1/2 mile walk to work! I was surprised at how icy it was, in parts. One of the back roads I walked along had quite a covering of solid ice in places. I certainly wouldn't have fancied driving quickly on that and it made slightly more conscious of being a pedestrian.

More specifically 'Ice Storm Quebec 1998' - I was in Canada at that time, although thankfully in Alberta

Also Google / YouTube something like 'Ice Storm Ontario' to see freezing rain at its most dramatic.

After being out in the countryside round here today and seeing that we've had almost no thaw where the sun has difficulty getting to work ( deep snow, shade etc.) I'd have to further upgrade the depth of cold figure for this area. We had a decent fall last Saturday night, with effectively no further snow since, yet I'd still describe the snow condition today as compacted powder, with very little evidence of a daily freeze thaw cycle. I can't think that this has happened for many years in this coastal area. As a minimum this can't have happened since Feb 91 and I'm not sure even then we had a week with such a low maximum temperature ( undoubtedly we had more snow then though ) Given the very low minimum temperature last night (I think it was -9C or thereabouts round here) I'd have to upgrade my previous rating of 7 to 8, to 8 to 9. It was a good finish to this spell, so all I can say is so long, thanks for the memory! Now for the miserable thaw. Let it all be done soon and roll on Spring!

I'd give depth of cold more than 6/10 for where I live. I'd guess the temperature hasn't risen above 1C for more than a week now and the only thing that has stopped the temperatures at night going into freefall has been the amount and timing of cloud, so a 7 or 8 for me; otherwise agreed.

Just a trace in Hatfield Peverel. I think we'll be done with the really cold stuff, in this spell, by Sunday morning and then while I wouldn't rule out significant snow for the rest of the winter, I think the chances of a further prolonged freeze are going now. Just my opinion though.

Overall last night doesn't look to be a major snow event to me and not as bad as predicted, although a few might have got lucky.

If I'm reading correctly, it's just for icy roads though.

I've spoken to someone in an area, which shows precipitation on the radar, 5 minutes ago. Diddly squat apparently! I guess the air must still be very dry there.

Definitely puddles here too, where yesterday they were solid ice.

Yes, it could be interesting after Monday - looks like we'll have a two day thaw before that point.

That is warm ( relatively of course )

There's more stuff.

I just googled the freezing rain event of January 1940 in the UK and saw that Coast posted about it on this site a few years back! :lol:

It's interesting, but truly nasty stuff if it persists.

Very light snizzle in Hatfield Peverel, near Chelmsford. Started 10 minutes ago.

I’m wondering whether the cold spell will just slowly decline from here. While there seems to be no obvious Atlantic influence coming, I can’t see an obvious reload of cold weather either. To be honest, while I’d love to see another big dump of snow and still hope it happens, I’m not too concerned if it doesn’t, as then I’ll start to look forward to one of my favourite weather events; the first warmish ( mid to high teens Celsius ) weekend of Spring, which is probably not too many weekends away now. It always makes me over optimistic for a good summer!

A car drove through a puddle 7 or 8 minutes ago here at work. The surface ice was broken. It's already reformed! :o Puddle watching is pretty sad though!

Must be similar here, as I'm only 4 miles or so away

Puddles freezing over rapidly now. The temperature must be plunging here ( Hatfield Peverel, near Chelmsford )

Thanks. Makes sense now! I keep thinking of Forced Induction - from a sports car forum I used to belong to.

Quick question. When people talk about FI, what does this stand for? Cheers

I must admit, when I first saw the link I read it as 1981. I then thought that I couldn't remember 1981 being that special. Anyway, just remember that this winter is destined to be a long one ( it's a leap year )