Arctic Hare

Apologies for the repeat post, but tonight's MetO update for the W Mids is very interesting, with "outbreaks of sleet and snow from the north" late on Thursday, and "[a]n increasing risk of seeing some significant snow on Friday, perhaps lasting into Saturday." No mention of rain at all -- which is odd, because the E Mids forecast for the same periods sounds much more uncertain, with mention of "rain and/or snow" on both occasions.

-5.6 °C here now.

I know what you mean, but that mention of 20 Jul 2007 might be a tiny bit pessimistic! Pershore had 145 mm of rain that day... As far as the here and now goes, we've just hit -4.0 °C. It's clear, the Moon looks lovely -- but I can't stand outside looking at it for long, because that ESE wind is perishing!

It'll be interesting to see what the min is tonight. Here, I still just about have full snow cover in the back garden (today's max of 2.2 °C and no sun helped there -- it's a north-facing garden) though in truth it's more like a crust of frozen slush. Not that cold yet, though, at -0.3 °C.

Interesting BBC1 weather tonight. -8 °C to -12 °C shown as possible across the Midlands as soon as tomorrow night, and a hint that Wed night could be even colder! Maybe only where there's still snow cover, though.

Fairly grotty weather here. Still (just about) full snow cover in the back garden, but the thaw has been quite heavy all day. It's now reached that tipping point where I'd rather it melted entirely than stick around with treacherous patches of half-frozen slush. Worth noting, perhaps, that the GFS is wildly wrong even at a few hours' notice as regards 2m temps. There's excellent agreement on the 06z that this afternoon's max would be somewhere around 3 °C (see pic). In fact, it's been above that for the whole of daylight hours, and the max has been 6.7 °C.

Trouble is, Eugene, there won't be "any remaining snow" if this rain keeps up. And I have zero interest in looking out at little patches of frozen slush for days on end; I'd rather have sunny weather like earlier last week.

Still snow lying here, though probably not for long as it's drizzling and up to 4.7 °C -- already higher than the 4 °C max predicted on the MetO regional forecast, and it's only just gone 10 am! Two days running that forecast's been significantly too low for here. That said, I didn't expect to have two mornings with full snow cover, so it's hard to complain too much. Almost certainly the best snow event we'll get this winter (especially looking at the model horror show this morning!) so I'm glad it was a good 'un.

I'd have thought no, unless you're up on a (high) hill. Birmingham Airport's TAF is this: TAF EGBB 051659Z 0518/0618 32004KT 6000 SCT008 BKN020 BECMG 0518/0521 4000 BR BKN006 PROB40 0520/0611 0800 -DZ FG BKN002 Basically, broken cloud, mist later, and a 40% chance of light drizzle and fog. Nothing wintry there at all.

Been out for a walk around Bewdley -- looking very slushy and rather dismal in the town centre, but much better a little way out of town and in the parks. Around 3 cm left now on shady pavements and untouched grass. There hasn't been much sun, but the temp got up to 7.5 °C (significantly higher than forecast) which didn't help. Still, away from the roads there's been full snow cover throughout daylight hours, which is better than I thought might happen 36 hours ago. Here's Bewdley at about 1.30 pm:

Still getting gradually milder here -- up to +0.9 °C now and still (slowly) rising. Steady thaw underway, though not a fast one now the rain's stopped, so I'd imagine there's a chance tomorrow will count as a "snow lying at 09.00" day! It's been a pretty decent event here. I was hoping for 5 cm and got 8 in the end. And although it wasn't heavy, I did experience hours on end of daylight snow, which itself isn't that common. Probably a total of around 8 hours of snow from the first tiny flakes at 11.30-ish to it turning to rain at 19.30-ish. Not bad! Goodnight, everyone. I wonder whether we'll be doing this all again in a few days!

Back to sleety rain (though light) now, but we finished up with 8 cm in Bewdley. Not bad at all; level with Feb 2007.

Good, as it's raining now -- and a little too hard for my taste!

We have sleet now in Bewdley. Fairly wet sleet, at that. Quite light, and it's not making a noticeable impression on the snow, but it's certainly sleet and not snow any more. I think this is the end of what has been, as Gord pointed out, a better single day than all of 2011 put together! Final depth 8 cm. For Bewdley, that's decent -- the same as Feb 2007.

Yep, the last snow event I can remember where the Midlands came out best was the Feb 2007 one. I'm pretty pleased, and I hope our more eastern members will have a good evening's snow too.

Still snowing here, rather to my surprise! 7-8 cm on grass, car roofs etc. Temp +0.3 °C.

Also around 5 cm here in Bewdley. Temp now up to +0.2 °C, and it's just starting to feel slightly wet, but it's still snowing.

And there it is. Zero degrees has been reached.

Up to -0.1 °C now. The end is starting to come in sight, I feel... but I'm satisfied with what I've had.

Not sure how significant this is, but the temp is definitely now rising here. We're up to -0.5 °C, which is almost a degree up from what it was a couple of hours ago and the warmest it's been all day.

And it's fallen in daylight. It's always more fun to get snow when you can actually see it falling without having to squint at a lamp-post! Mind you, the temperature is rising fast. Up from -1.0 °C to -0.9 °C in less than an hour.

Just been outside with the snow ruler! A nice 3 cm cover on the roads, still coming down nicely, still -1 °C. Already better than I expected 24 hours ago.

Ah, now that was an interesting event! I'm a little way up the hill out of Bewdley town centre (which is only about 20m asl) so that helps slightly, but I'm pleasantly surprised that it's still below freezing here. Looks odds on for a "daylight ice day" (max -0.6 °C) even assuming it warms up later in the evening. You're right, though, Bewdley in snow is a gorgeous sight. It was wonderful in Jan and Dec 2010 to be able to look over its rooftops every day.

Snow seems just a little heavier now, though flakes are still small. Temp shows no signs of budging upwards, which is good -- still -1.3 °C!

Temp holding steady at -1.1 °C here, and snow blowing around a bit in the wind.