If the ground temperature is zero or below, snow will settle readily even on damp surfaces. If th snow is heavy enough, it can even settle on surfaces which are slightly above freezing.
There does seem to be growing interest in a pressure rise to the NE for the last third of December. Those drawing parallels with December 1962 may be onto something. I’ve often heard it said that the best winters have a couple of hors d’oeuvres before the main course.
I think the reality going forward is that there just isn’t enough blocking to sustain anything cold for any length of time. The models aren’t showing any clear signals for establishing blocking.
Surely you need a much better cold feed with these sliders? Extremely marginal at best on the ECM. The best sliders in the past have cone up against strong blocking with a cold feed.
Interesting that people were saying the other day that the Atlantic looks dead and the one thing that won’t happen is a return to zonality!
Very poor output now if you are looking for cold.
Don't trust the EC ensembles. Remember when they were almost unanimously behind the Easterly earlier in the winter? And it didn't happen. I'd rather trust a piece of seaweed to be honest!
There were lots of comments such as "that block will take some shifting." Yes it seems to be sunk very easily, if the models are to be believed. Am still not buying it yet though.
Models have been woeful this winter. Met Office updates have also been woeful.
However, this Easterly was never modelled to show deep cold in the reliable. The high always looked like the wring shape.