Arctic Hare

Just to add to the reports: there was a dusting of snow here in the early morning -- a nice surprise, as Cheshire Gap stuff doesn't always get quite this far west. A tiny amount lay in the shadiest areas until early afternoon, but it's long gone now. Plenty of time left for snow, of course. Perhaps not long-lasting, but I'm sure many of us remember April 2008. In spite of only really hanging around for a few hours, around here that was one of the best snowfalls of the pre-2009 winters -- even though it wasn't actually in winter! And now comes the abrupt change... can we record the first 15 °C of the year by Thursday? At least it keeps a point of interest now that the snow's gone.

I take a slightly different view from many (perhaps most) on here, in that I don't really want loads of thunderstorms this summer. The odd one is interesting, but 20 in a month would be horrible. I'm hoping for a warm, dry summer this time around. I do appreciate that water levels are a concern, so I'd be quite happy to have plenty of night-time rain. But not storms -- I really hate hot and sticky nights, whereas hot days I rather like. All that said, summer 2011 was the world's most boring, and almost anything would be better than that! (Well, except maybe for a repeat of June-July 2007...)

As a last reminder of this rather wintry week (it's only just below freezing here, despite being much colder at Brum Airport!) here's a photo I took in Bewdley's Jubilee Gardens this afternoon. Sun and snow, in my view the best weather combination of them all.

I think that's an excellent summary. This last week really has saved us from a winter of utter dross. Mind you, from memory I think that at the end of Jan 2009, we weren't feeling too happy either! I've decided that this is a 5/10 event. It would have been higher if I'd been rating in 2008, had there been more sunshine, had there been any ice days or -- especially -- had I not had to sit through the utter misery (IMBY) of Thursday evening. It would have been lower had Saturday's snow not been so good, had there not been any decent minima, had today not been so sunny or had that unexpected dusting not partially saved Friday. Min last night was -5.7 °C; max today 1.0 °C; now back below zero. Incidentally, just the chance of one last (small) hurrah tonight, according to the latest MetO text forecasts: W Mids: "...cloud will spread southeastwards across the region overnight, perhaps giving the odd outbreak of rain, sleet or snow." E Mids: "...cloud and occasional light snow, freezing rain or drizzle probably spreading from the north later."

I can live with forecasts being wrong in a tricky situation like this (though it's still very disappointing). What I do object to is when forecasts are clearly wrong after an event has started and are nevertheless not updated. Back to the here and now: very light ice needles falling.

I think I'd also rate this 2/10, for much the same reasons. Good things * The dusting in the early hours, * Er... * That's it. Bad things The hopeless forecasts, including some during the event that were 50 miles out. Hours of cold rain last night. The cold drizzle this morning. The nasty grey murk. The icy slush underfoot. Hmmm... maybe my mark is a bit generous!

Unexpected light dusting of snow this morning. Back to drizzle now, though, so it may not last long. Not an exciting event, but I suppose it's better than I expected late last night!

Midlands Today is not a hotbed of in-depth meteorology. Ben Rich is probably the pick, but that isn't saying much. Shefali Oza has done it for years, but is still unable to pick out important details with consistency. And there are a couple more whose names I can't even remember, because they're just so vague and unhelpful. I'd give a lot to have an Ian Fergusson in our neck of the woods. (Or rather, "our patch", as Shefali irritatingly always puts it.)

Weirdly, it's sleeting! A very, very, very thin and slushy coating at the bottom of car windows. That's all, and it's dying away now anyway. Still more than expected, though!

All I can say is that I dread to think how I would have been feeling right now if this had happened on Saturday as well!

Well done, Stourbridge (he says through gritted teeth). Rain, rain and nothing but rain here. No snow, no sleet, no last-minute vaguely slushy deposits. Nothing but pure rain. At all. Throughout. Full stop. Not that I'm bitter. Oh no.

It's a mere 0.1 °C, there's increasingly heavy precip, it's the last chance saloon for here judging by the radar... ...and... ...it's... ...raining. Hard.

Still rain here, despite the temp being down to 0.2 °C. I just spent a full minute squinting at the local lamp-post and saw not so much as a single blob of sleet.

They'll have to be quick about it! I'm watching that line of precip on the radar too, but I suspect it'll be rain when it gets here. Blimey, how can any of us stand these events?

Just repeating the post I made the moment before the last thread closed... Apologies if this has already been posted, but a tweet from Chris Fawkes suggests it may be game over for us in the west -- though not for lucky easteners: "looks like the east midlands will get 5cm+, can't see much for the west midlands" http://twitter.com/_chrisfawkes

Apologies if this has already been posted, but a tweet from Chris Fawkes suggests it may be game over for us in the west -- though not for lucky easteners: "looks like the east midlands will get 5cm+, can't see much for the west midlands" http://twitter.com/_chrisfawkes

Hi Rodders; welcome. You join us right in the middle of one of the classic events of weather-watching -- the creeping feeling of doom and despondency most of us get when it looks as though a snow forecast isn't going to work out in our specific back yards. Not looking good for us in the west -- I know it's still only 7 pm, but it's going to need a heck of a shift to get the snow over here. So I'll just hope that some of you easterners who missed out last weekend will do better tonight. Oh, and still 0.5 °C here, still raining, still not even a touch of sleet to be seen.

Just been outside -- still 100% rain here, as far as I could tell. Temp now 0.5 °C. BBC1 weather just now looked very dicey indeed for anyone west of Brum -- the snow might just have reached here, but Shropshire, Herefordshire etc will be disappointed if the Beeb's map was right. Showed snow area going more or less due S once it reached Brum.

Freezing rain shown for here, I see... I wonder. Rain has stopped, and it's now dry. 0.8 °C.

Light rain here in Bewdley, and has been for an hour or so. Temp is falling -- down to 1.1 °C now -- but no sign of sleetiness. No idea what's going to happen tonight -- I just hope at least some people in our glorious region get some snow, even if I don't!

A lot of us saw several hours of daylight snow on Saturday. If you mean in your specific area, then I don't know.

For future reference (and in case it's all we get!) this is what the fields near me (c. 90m asl) looked like in late afternoon today. A fair bit of snow still around, but roads now clear for the most part except where dirty great ice piles remain.

Map from the MetO's Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/#!/metoffice/status/167280716609110017/photo/1 5-10 cm possible up the Severn Valley into Staffs and maybe Ches; 2-5 cm possible for our entire region! However, confidence "much lower than it was last weekend".

Sizeable upgrade on this afternoon's MetO text forecast for the W Mids -- no mention of rain anywhere now, and Thursday night into Friday potentially very snowy. E Mids update also concentrates on snow, but mostly light there. Here's the W Mids text: Thursday: Starting off dry but bitterly cold. Early brightness will be eroded by outbreaks of sleet and snow, with some significant accumulations possible later. Temperatures struggling to get much above freezing. Maximum temperature 1 °C. Outlook for Friday to Sunday: Snow continuing on Friday, with further accumulations possible. Outbreaks of rain and sleet likely on Saturday. Largely dry but rather cloudy on Sunday. Generally remaining cold. Updated: 1542 on Wed 8 Feb 2012

Managed -6.7C last night, which isn't bad going for February (though I think it was slightly colder in early Feb 2009). Another cold and grey day here, with the temp hovering at around 1C. My back-garden snow crust is still valiantly hanging on, but even an hour of rain would do for it now, I think. The prospect of freezing rain worries me a good deal, partly because I fear a lot of people who haven't experienced it before will think, "Oh, that's just like when they warn of icy roads" and set off in their cars. I experienced the real freezing rain event in Bristol in late December 1995, and believe me, comparing normal icy roads with that is like comparing the snow we've just had with 1947. Cars were driving at 5-10 mph and still couldn't stop at T-junctions. I hope I'm wrong, but I fear that if we do get a full-scale freezing rain event, there will be an awful lot of accidents on the roads.