Nick.F

Nope nothing here - no precip at all, and temps and dew points way too high for snow, even if anything fell.

Although the language, attitude and approach of some of the recent posters is questionable, I think a little space for their opinions are warranted. Few posters on the forum remember the cold spells in the late 70s and early 80s. Let alone the extreme winters of 47 and 63, so in fairness they have no reason to really believe that it could happen or will happen, especially with the last 20 years (ish) of "modern winters" being all that most remember. There is just no frame of reference for them; generally these days, only personal experience counts and not the "anecdotal" evidence of others. Modern media output, nay, hysterical hype, and terrible "media" forecasts and presentation does not help. Unfulfilled expectation is a terrible thing. Maybe with a little more knowledge they may see that the events being discussed are actually possible, some are within the reliable timeframe. However, as always, the proof will be in the pudding. Maybe, just maybe, they will have the excitement about this winter in their memories some day.

showers in North Sea losing energy at the moment.

been snowing moderately for about 25 minutes now, settling on all surfaces except for wet road and pavements. A little more cold and that will let it settle everywhere. Dew point still at 0.3c, not changed for about 2 hours now.

Only a brief but heavy shower. More to come I think.

now it's snowing heavily

temp and dewpoint have risen in last hour, weird

oh the times i have staggered out of the Billy.

30 year, for each day

I see the Look East forecast bears little relation to anything in particular.

Dew point and temp risen in the last 3 hours - not expected, no idea what it means or why. The vagaries of weather.

Yes Nick - some of us are listening, but we are already believers. Those that are seeing what they want to see, aren't listening to the facts. Also it is forgotten that the models are only possibilities, and the closer that they get to Oz do they become probabilities. No model contains every one of the billions of pieces of data, no model has the correct weighting and programming, the only thing that can really give one a clue as to the model that has outputs closest to reality is to look at the verification stats. It's easy to look at the little squares of model maps and to think that what you see develops in isolation from other things, whereas in fact the developments are a consequence of changes all over the globe, from the very largest scale of general fluid dynamics, to the micro scale of mountain torques and if chaos theory is to be believed butterfly wings. The stats on verification are the only true clue to the model that maps most accurately to reality in the recent time frame. Faith, desire, belief have nothing to with it. Of course the main models are only a small set of probable outcomes. Everything is subject to change.

That particular storm was unbelievable, in some exposed lanes close to the village where I grew up, the snow blew through hedges and some drifts were well above adult head height. I remember standing with some friends inside a hollowed out snow drift. Sorry way off topic, some amazing reminiscences popping into my head. I will shut up now.

no thaw in NE Essex since the very early hours, it's been below 0c ever since. Local forecasts (happened to see another one tonight at friends, do not normally watch them) saying getting down to -2c here tonight - they should look at actual readings around the area. Here it is already just a smidgeon above -2c, guessing maybe -4 or lower here tonight. Don't know why they bother, when simple checks seem to be beyond them.

Er... Saturday? Whut? LOL!

temp still falling in Ipswich, down to 0.7c - that's a 0.5 degree drop in under an hour - more snowflakes

temp dropping in east Ipswich, now below 1C. Rain now with big wet flakes in it

snow slowing north of Colchester for now. Getting close to another inch in the last 40 mins or so,

Moderate continuous snow north of Colchester

I don't believe it is a forecast run, the time indicated is European time, one hour ahead of us.

ugh, just caught local tv weather forecast by accident, remember why I don't watch them. in the opening lines "...temperatures are plummeting" accompanied by the "women and children first" look, then "..it may get down to -4". Not much of a plummet is it? I know I am a child of the 70s and early 80s, but, really? -4? That's like every November/December night between my ages 6 and 12.... Ok I am exaggerating for effect, but you get the picture. Why can't we have decent factual weather reports, without all the "mock sensationlism". The "News of the World" style TV weather reporting does no one any favours. No wonder a lot of the younger/more impressionable posters on here think in terms of "The Day After Tomorrow" scenarios and then get disappointed. (No offence meant to our younger members, honestly) Needless to say I turned it off at that point. As much use as a chocolate teapot. Ugh Rant over, sorry

The dutch radar fades before the UK coastline, only useful for looking at the north sea to our NNE/NE/E etc.

there is a definite "kink" in the northerly flow. I think you can just see it in the IR loop.

I guess we will have to see. All good fun ain't it?

no not mad. But the precip on the radar in itself isn't interesting, it's the manner of the development and also the general drift. My assumption is that some precip way off to the NNE, beyond the radar, is what may have sparked METOs interest