Weather-history

Snow falling in west Manchester

Interesting Phil, it says to me that there has been a lack of tropical airmasses flooding the UK since the middle of November, which has been the problem of recent winters. Those who believe that the Mother Nature likes to balance the books may argue that we are paying for the Autumn, when tropical airmasses was a frequent visitor but I'm not convinced by these counter-balances.

And we've still only had 7 double digit maxima since the 16th of November. The lack of snow has been notable but we've had fairly snowless winters in the recent past such as 1988-90, 1992-93, 1997-98, 1999-2000. However the lack of really mild days since the 16th of November has been notable, we have to go back at least to 1978-79 for Manchester to find a period as low as this. Winter 1990-91 also had a lack of really mild days from 16th of November-8th of February with just 8 double digit maxima. For instance the period 16th November 1984- 8th February 1985 had 22 double digit maxima.

Winter 1995-96 was a cold winter, it was a degree below the 1961-90 average. Winter 1995-96 was colder than every winter of the 1960s barring winter 1962-63. :blink:

Odd because the the Beeb forecast that night said Glasgow recorded 18cm of snow and a news item showed Glasgow with snow cover and it snowing

Already done so. http://www.net-weather.co.uk/forum/index.p...=0entry598810

The daffodils are later than they have been recently here. Our neighbour has quite a number of daffs in his garden which faces south but they are barely poking their heads above the soil. It flies in the face of the Sun story that was published a couple of weeks ago http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006020714,00.html The mild conditions mean daffs are blooming around the UK. Some are even starting to wilt as if they are finding temperatures too high. Lucy Croft, 24, posed with a crop of daffs at the National Trust’s Cothele House in Cornwall. Head gardener David Bouch said: “It means winter is over and spring is here. I think we’re in for a fantastic spring and summer.” What a load of diahorrea!

The Countryfile forecast by Richard Edgar for the first week of Feb '96 was memorable with the comment "snow coming at us on a number of occasions this week" The cold weather from late January 1996 continued into February as high pressure sat over the UK. On the 6th, an occlusion system approached the west of the UK threatening a change to much milder weather across the UK. However, pressure began to increase to the east of the UK and this prevented the occlusion advancing and the system became stalled over the west of the UK on the evening of the 6th. Heavy snowfalls fell right across western and central parts of the mainland but conditions were particularly severe in SW Scotland and parts of Cumbria, where depths of snow were approaching 50cm. A state of emergency was declared in SW Scotland and many drivers stranded on the A74 had to be rescued. Whitehaven in Cumbria was virtually cut off and workers at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant had to spent the night there as they were stranded. Conditions elsewhere were less severe but the inenvitable travel chaos ensued. By the evening of the 7th, the snow finally died out and it remained cold and snowbound until the 9th with further snowfalls at times before a vigorous depression finally brought a thaw and milder temperatures. The snowfalls turned out to be some of the heaviest in the west since the winter of 1947, whilst the far east largely missed out. The driveway being dug out

Well its a bad start to that forecast already. 4-6C for tonight for NW England? Its not even going to get above freezing by the looks of it.

Could be coldest 1st of February for Manchester since at least 1979 and probably before that even. -2C currently.

The one thing I've noted about this mid November- January period is the lack of really mild days for Manchester. We've only had 7 days with a double digit maximum since the 16th of November. Which is fairly notable

I fail to see the significance of Vesta being at opposition? I can't see how a body of about a diameter of 530km and million miles away from Earth would warrant mention or have any effect on Earth?

Its going to be a really cold one tonight for some places. Temp at 8Pm Tulloch Bridge -6° Loch Glascanoch -5° Aboyne -5° Shap -5° Saughall -5° Altnaharra -4° Topcliffe -4° West Freugh -4° St Angelo -3° Tain Range -3° Glasgow AP -3° Inverness/Dalcross -3° Lossiemouth -3° Lough Fea -3° Spadeadam II -3° Redesdale Camp -3° Belfast/Harbour -3° Capel Curig -3° Spadeadam -3° Hawarden -3° Eskdalemuir -3° Keswick -3° Aviemore -2° Dishforth -2° Eglinton AP -2° Linton-On-Ouse -2° Ballypatrick Fst -2° Warcop Range -2° Shawbury -2° Church Fenton -2° Belfast/Aldergrove Airport -2° Rhyl -2° Manchester -2° Tees-Side -2° Drumalbin -2° Edinburgh AP -2° Edinburgh AP -2° Glen Ogle -2° Bingley -2° Newcastle Airport -1° Walney Island -1° Blackpool Airport -1° Carlisle -1° Prestwick -1° Lake Vyrnwy -1° Dundrennan -1° Sennybridge -1° Machrihanish -1° Kinloss -1° Castlederg -1° Charterhall -1° Ballykelly -1° IoM / Ronaldsway AP 0° Skye/Lusa 0° Larkhill 0° Liscombe 0° Leuchars 0° Leeds and Bradford AP 0° Dunkeswell Aerodr. 0° Liverpool AP 0°

Already 0C in Manchester.

This snowfall is remembered in the south as the covering disappeared from a number of areas overnight.

10 years ago since this easterly http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00219960127.gif http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960127.gif For the Manchester area, the snow showers made it across the Pennines just before rush hour on the Friday morning and it caught out the gritters as the local Met Office didn't expect too much snow to make it across the Pennines. The local Met Office seems to nearly always underestimate the amount of snow we get in a notable easterly, here. Snow showers fell from time to time but it was during the evening that some really beefy snow showers started hitting the area. Suzanne Charlton did the main weather broadcasts that night and severe weather warnings were issued for NE England and the greater Manchester area for heavy snow. Heavy snow showers fell throughout the night and the frequency increased as the night went on that it was effectively continuous snow by dawnbreak. Snow fell during the morning before clearing during the early afternoon leaving a very good covering of snow. It was that long ago I added a sepia touch :blink:

Thats how I did it.

Number of below average winter months since 1987-88 1987-88: 0 1988-89: 0 1989-90: 0 1990-91: 3 1991-92: 1 1992-93: 1 1993-94: 1 1994-95: 0 1995-96: 2 1996-97: 2 1997-98: 0 1998-99: 0 1999-00: 0 2000-01: 1 2001-02: 1 2002-03: 1 2003-04: 1 2004-05: 0 2005-06: 1 so far We had a run of 5 winters with no below average winter month. 1971-72: 0 1972-73: 0 1973-74: 0 1974-75: 0 1975-76: 0

Here's another one. There have been only 8 Februaries with a sub zero CET Interestingly someone who is 60+ (John Holmes, Peter Tattum perhaps... ) would have lived through 4 of them 1947, 1956, 1963, 1986 The others are 1684, 1740, 1855 and 1895.

Often called the Burn's Day Storm (its actually Burn's Night), this was one of the worst gales to hit the UK in the last 50 years. The area that was affected by this storm was much greater than the October 1987 gale with many parts of England and Wales badly affected and unlike the October 1987 storm it was reasonably forecasted by the Met Office. The weather for January 1990 had been very mild and changeable but the weather was to take a turn for the worst during the last week of January 1990 and was to herald a very stormy spell of weather with spells of severe gales, flooding and loss of life. On the 24th of January, a rapidly deepening depression was approaching the UK and warnings was issued for the threat of severe gales. These gales duly arrived in the southwest during dawn and spread to the rest of England and Wales during the day, the severe gales reached the southeast during the afternoon. Wind gusts were reaching over 100mph in exposed parts and gusts of 80mph were recorded at inland weather stations, 108mph was recorded at Aberporth in Wales. The track of the low took it through southern Scotland, where its central pressure reached a low of 959mb. Scotland and Northern Ireland missed out on the worst of the gales. Conditions were very severe in the south and this was compounded by the fact the gales occurred during daylight hours, when many people are out and about and as a result there were scores of injuries due to flying and broken glass, roof tiles, fallen branches and other debris. Sadly, 47 people lost their lives making it the worst weather related disaster in the UK since the Great Storm surge of January 1953. One lucky survivor was the actor Gorden Kaye from the TV Series 'Allo 'Allo who survived an advertising board crashing onto his car, which resulted in him having serious head injuries and putting him into a coma. The damage done by the gales was enormous. Millions of trees were either damaged or uprooted blocking roads, scores of buildings suffered structural damage and the insurance costs were massive. The Great Storm of January 25th 1990 is probably in the top 10 list of the severest gales ever to hit the UK.

As I've said before, a below average winter does not necessarily mean a snowier one, as TWS has mentioned, the examples I always use to show this is the winters of 1963-64 and 1993-94. Other examples include the winters of 1902-03, 1903-04, 1904-05 and 1905-06. They were not especially snowy but only 1902-03 was particularly mild , the others were close to the average.

Hazy sun and cold in Manchester: 2C

Another one to add to the list 23rd December 2005 http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/20...00120051223.gif 28th December 2005 http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/20...00120051228.gif

1676 has the second warmest June on record. 1896 has joint 15th warmest June on record. 1786 has joint 18th warmest June on record.

Lol I did this last year! June 1976 was not the hottest June on record. June 1846 was the hottest June on record with a CET of 18.2 Funny enough 4 of the 5 hottest Junes on record have occurred in a year ending in 6. Also the summers 1676, 1826 and 1976 all held the title of hottest summer on record and all three summers are 150 years apart. Very rough analysis 1996: Dullest January on record, May, one of the coldest on record. 1986: Last sub zero CET month (Feb), very cold April, cold August and September. 1976: Hottest summer on record, very wet September and October, cold December colder than December 1995 1966: Some notable cold spells January-April, wet April, June: the warmest month of the year. 1956: Sub zero Feb, very cold wet August, September warmer than August. 1946: wet August, highest maximum ever recorded during November (21.7C) 1936: very wet July 1926: cold December, colder than December 1995 1916: mildest January on record, cold snowy March, very cool June, cold December. 1906: wet August, cold December, famous Christmas snowstorm. 1896: warm June, very wet september 1886: Cold Jan-Mar period, cold December 1876: warm July, very wet December 1866: mild January, March colder than January, very wet September 1856: wet August 1846: very mild January-February period, wet April, hottest June on record, wet July-August, very cold December 1836: cold September-October 1826: cold January, very mild February, hottest summer on record until 1976, 1816: very cool year, very wet July 1806: wet July, very mild December 1796: 2nd mildest January on record, very warm April, one of only 6 sub zero December 1786: very cold March, very warm June, cold September-December period. 1776: driest January on record, very cold January, wet May-July period, 1766: cold January-February period. 1756:- 1746: Cold January-March period, warm May, cold October-November period 1736: warm year 1726: very warm May-June period, cold December 1716: an exceptionally cold January 1706:- 1696: - 1686: Mild first 3 months of the year, warm May, warmest summer until 1781. 1676: exceptionally hot June, increasingly cold October-December period culminating in a sub zero december 1666: very warm July-August