cheeky_monkey

snow in may isnt unusual..just the amount that fell over nine inches fell between 7am and 2pm..plus it stuck around until yesterday...beginning to warm up nicely now though.

reduce the winter rainfall by 25% and reduce the humidity especially in summer...maybe lower the winter ave temperature a degree or two..otherwise no change.

3pm here still snowing...light had in excess of 6 inchs of snow today current temp -1c looks like an ice day here

Here are some pics i took of the snow we had today in Edmonton...roll on summer..lol

Today in Edmonton we are in the midst of a full blown blizzard in may! Current temp -2c wind chill -13c Lots of blowing snow.

i remember april 1986 as being a cold miserablly dull and damp month..possibly the worse april i can remember..not nice at all..followed by a pretty crap summer..1986 was a cold year all round if memory serves me right?

I saw more actual snow fall in the UK the month before i came to Edmonton in jan than i have seen since i arrived..apart from the last week of Jan it hasnt been anywhere near as cold as i was expecting..last week we reached 26c a record for April.

thanks but im not trying to disprove anything..is it not a discussion forum?..i am merely stating an opinion..and reading some of the post here i am not the only one who views the winter so far from a different stand point...but because im not throwing stats around like confetti then obviously my opinion and others who call it how they see it counts for nought.

except it was colder and snowier

as far as im aware you only get big beefy flakes with wet snow usually when temps are between 0-2c..when its colder flakes are smaller because the cold air holds less moisture the snow is more powdery so flakes dont tend to clump together to form big flakes. this type of snow tends to acumulate quicker as the air and ground is colder and will settle instantly..where wet snow has difficulty in producing big falls as it tends to melt on contact with surfaces..so needs to be in heavy amounts to get acumulations.

i think spring is the season when people get caught out with clothing and what to wear...with swings in temps it can warm and sunny one day and cold and sunny the next...hands up those who have gone out on a sunny spring day in a t shirt then realised 10 minutes later...damn that was a mistake?..i know i have.

not really..where were the sub zero days???..i dont remember seeing many days that had maxes below 0c..i can find examples in all those years of daytime maxes of well below zero -5c or better across huge swathes of the country..i think it has been the low night time min that have helped this year..often lowest daytime maxes have hovered between -1c and +2c...granted my deep cold may have been short lived in comparison to this winter but they definately surpassed this one every time

Where this winter only makes into the historic category is the lack of mild weather...it has not seen the depth of cold as other winters so it is the lack of any long lasting spell of mild weather that has been the feature and thus lowered the CET value. we have not seen any blizzards or those deep penetrating frost both day and night even under constant cloud cover...that were a notable feature of cold spells in the past..i cant think of a notable cold winter that did not have them..from my memory they happened in all the 70's 80's even 91 and 95-96 had them. as for snow we have had one country wide snow event..which effected some areas more than others and thats it...the rest have been regional events with some areas seeing very little..i mean the south west quarter of the country apart from the 6/7th Jan has had very little in the way of snow..and hasnt been that cold either..i dont think the midlands have faired to well for snow either in comparison with times gone by. it would be interesting to ask the same question in 15 years time how historic this winter is?...i mean this time last year plenty were talking about how cold 2008-9 had been but that seems to have faded and been forgotten some what already.

agreed i have been saying this for a while now..but obviously its just thee and me that think this.

its an interesting when people say number of days snow falling and snow lying..potentially you could have one decent snowfall and then be cold for a long period and dry and say we had 50 days of lying snow..or u could get a few flurries off and on and say we had 35 days of snow falling..here in Canada they measure a winter in terms of how much snow has fallen and classify winters on that basis.

To me the GFS has been very consistent in what it has been showing for days now..if anything it wants to keep pushing the cold further north and west slightly on each run..the high over the svalbard region never really moves south from there and hasnt looked like doing so either. I dont see how the cold pinned to the north is going to come south esp with the pressure building over north east canada and western greenland?

i had a good look at the latest charts and the uppers and temps etc..cus its a boring sat evening here right now..if anything it looks even more marginal for all areas even scotland on this run..with most of england seeing just rain me thinks...looks pretty cold and damp and throughly depressing

we can all see how this winter will stack up regards to cold just by looking at the figures but where does it stack up in terms of snowfall or major snow events?..i would guess it would come further down the table somewhere..i dont think it has been as snowy as you would expect when you look at the temperature.

i was living in Exeter in Feb 1996..what i do remember about that month was the fact the south west was forecast to have 2 major snowfalls the night before each but ended up with rain and sleet both times

the last 3-4 post seem very sensible to me..i havnt looked the models in the last few days..but they seem to be much they same as they were midweek..if anything the pressure is lower further west and north than previously shown a few days ago..but not massively so..so seems reading the post the models have been very consistent the last few days? yes it wont be mild but not massively cold either..i cant see where any great cold incursion is going to come from either looking at the charts..i would say cold and damp with a mix of rain/sleet and some snow to high ground esp early doors..this disapating in the southern half of the uk as time goes on.

too be honest im getting a bit fed up with snow..i see it every day thick on the ground..its snows from time time every week..mind you today it crept above freezing for the 1st time in 4 weeks for about an hour after lunch in beautiful sunshine..still it will be a good 6-8 weeks before i see the grass again

sorry do not remember it???

still the best shot of a decent snow event looks a good week away..things looking slightly better in terms of the easterly flow back end of this week..but again the main energy is too far south with this filling as time goes on..then look to the north as the flood gates open and then we see the best chance of some fun and games..before things switch back to mild far out in FI

any chance of narrowing that down a bit??..after all Asia is the biggest continent on earth

No real change on the GFS run this morning that i can see in the short term to medium term from the last few runs..if anything the high when it does retrogress away to the north west pull to far west into greenland and north east canada..with eventually lows pushing up from the south west. Very slack easterly flow later this week..but seems most of the energy being pushed away south into north and eastern france and switerland.