Summer of 95

They must think they are thunderstorms! Travelling north, reaching the southern edge of Shropshire then changing direction to go to Birmingham, that's what thunderstorms do.... But we've still managed more snow this evening than all winter and all last winter, hopefully later tonight....

Still light but cover has stayed, 1-2cm so far Come on that band of heavier stuff, shift 15 miles north of there before it all clears away to the east

Covering the roads nicely, about 1cm, again "dry" snow that squeaks underfoot and sparkles in the lights. Most weve had all winter now....

Pretty much stopped about 4 but started again, Starting to stick on the pavement now, grass and roofs and cars are dusted nicely. Just main roads and some paths to go. Smaller flakes as some have said but plenty of them. Not above 1C here either today, and dewpoint I'm sure not above 0 (was always quite dry snow and never close to sleety). Really find it hard to understand why so little settling earlier in those conditions, been no sun today at all

Finally its having a go at sticking, it tried briefly about 10am but disappeared afterwards

Looking at the OS map if I've got the right place (Tank Clock Tower?) it's about 200-220m

How high is the (settling) snow line? Just looking again at the motorways and there is no lying snow by the M5 until nearly Bristol.

Just been checking the motorway cameras, there is nothing really sticking anywhere in the W Midlands. All along the M54, M6 to Birmingham and down the M5 to Worcester, just green even on the high bit around M5 J2-4

Flakes have got bigger but it's really struggling to stick, is dusting the grass and roofs and hedges but other things are just going damp even though it still looks like dry snow

Small powdery flakes drifting down, it is actually snowing

How is this not even half baked easterly with no cold uppers, light winds, a fetch from 20 miles off the east coast and 1030+ pressure producing precipitation all over England and into Wales, when the December cold longer fetch northerly/easterly, the Jan northerly and the Feb 2021 very cold easterly all produced next to nothing in huge areas of the country?

I always remember it as the month when Fair Isle had 300 hours of sunshine, Shawbury and Birmingham about 140.

September 2011. Totally against the grain, the summer's cool dull rubbish continued for most of the first 20 days, then we had the best hot spell since 2006 that lasted into October. May 2008. Great first half, atrocious second half that actually made it end up wetter and duller than average. July 2005, very topsy turvy. Pretty unsettled but not awful first week, then it was hot and sunny for 10 days or so, until the latter part had some of the coolest, cloudiest weather I can remember in high summer, up there with anything in 2007-12 although it was only 10-12 days or so and wasnt especially wet.

So here we haven't had more than 2cm on the ground in February since 2009.... even in 12/13 and 17/18 Feb avoided having more than 1cm. It's been such a snowless month in the 21st century even by our standards, and 2023 has not even had any falling snow with 10 hours of the month to go. After last summer finally broke the sunless August 21st century curse I had hopes this one might end too...

This has been done a few times over the years, I cant remember every one I chose before because most had several candidates. I'll consider the case now for months from the last 3-4 years..... May 2015, which failed to top 20C all month and had no thunder, I'm sure I picked before and I still would- 2021 had a warm last few days and those cracking thunderstorms with hail on the 12th. Februaries 2020 and 2022 would definitely be in with a shout. So many rubbish Febs in the last 35 years it's difficult to pick one. 2011 (which I think I have gone for before) I particularly hated for ruining a great winter, although it wasn't quite as wet as 2020 or 2022 or 2014 or 2002 or 1990. July 2020 (save the hot last day) and August 2021 weren't great, but not as bad as August 2008 or July 2009 (that was awful, it seems to be forgotten, 2012 or 1988, or the appallingly dull July 2010. Looking at stats I can understand why people in the SE might go for August 2021 though, it seems to have been worse than 2008 down there. They seem to hate June 2016 down there too, here it was definitely on the wet side but also thundery and quite warm, way superior to 2012 or 1997. Same for June 2019 (that was very wet but again thundery and had a warm end). The autumn of 2019 was almost as wet here as that of 2000 (Sep and Oct were both actually wetter than in 2000 even though the first 20 days of Sep were quite dry)- October in particular was horrible and is a strong candidate. And winter 2021-22 was up there with the very worst of them for snowlessness. The very cloudy December was especially grim.

Finally seen it in my binoculars tonight! Moon has been too near it the last few days since the sky cleared but got it just now. Easily seen but in binoculars beware of the three bright clusters in Auriga (M36/37/38) which could easily be mistaken for it- I made sure I'd identified them all before confirming which one was the comet. Tonight It's down from Capella, towards Mars, below and slightly right of the kids (the three stars in a triangle). Theres a 5th magnitude star (Omega Aurigae) very close to it.

This winter round here is starting to remind me of 2005-6; one which definitely seemed to have more in the way of cold setups than we had seen in most of the winters leading up to it, had a notable lack of really mild weather, had a cold snap in December and a couple more in Jan and Feb, wasn't short on frosts- yet it had hardly any snow until March (which then produced the biggest snowfall here for 10 years). A cm or so in Jan on 7-8th, similar to 18-19th this year- but that was about it for the winter months. The rainfall was more evenly distributed through the season in 05-06 though. Hopefully March this year will do the same as it did that year! Unless we finally get a decent snowfall in February the way we finally got a sunny August in 2022...

Was it Jan 2019 or 2020 it got into the high 1040s and hit 1050 in Wales? 1038 today hasn't stopped it drizzling in Shropshire though...

From memory (that's going back a while, I was only 11) about 10cm. Certainly I remember it being somewhat less than in Feb 1991, Dec 1995 or Dec 2010 (15cm each) and much less than Dec 2017. Definitely nowhere near near the 30cm+ they had around Birmingham, but I think from what I've read and heard that places not far north of here almost totally missed out on anything. So near the edge of it I think. The biggest fail of all was winter 2009-10; it was torture. Constantly snowing heavily everywhere but about a 20-30 mile radius of Shrewsbury. Greatest snow depth was 6cm (built up over a week), and never more than 3cm fell in one go. December especially was a massive fail, just 1cm on one day- even had one of those Shropshire rain/others snow events. February also had several days of cold rain and sleet when other places, some lower down had snow.

Not quite that bad, it was 24-25 Jan 2021 when I measured 9cm here (5 miles N of Shrewsbury) though places to the E and SE of town seemed to have a bit less, 5-6cm or so. Not sure about the west on that occasion. Last winter was almost totally snowless, never saw snow settle even for a short while, there was a horrible Sunday in late November when pretty much all of Shropshire had hours of cold rain even at 200m+ while Staffs, Cheshire, Birmingham, the east Midlands, south Midlands and even coastal areas around Merseyside had it falling as snow. Same airmass, no frontal boundary, precip just as intense here, temps the same before it arrived. That sort of thing has happened several times round here but this particular event was one of the most spectacular examples. I could write a lowdown of all snow successes and fails in the last 35 years but it would be long..... before Jan 2021 the last time I had more than 2cm was indeed March 2018, but Dec 2017 was the biggie, the one and only in my time here when Shrewsbury area actually did seriously well.... especially after we hadn't had more than 1cm for over 4 years.

Whatever that last brief shower was has just left everything wet, even though bits of yesterday's snow and last nights small sprinkling are still lying in some select areas. This spell has been better than December's for snow but then so were 6-7 April 2021 and 14th Jan 2015. Apparently parts of west Shropshire have had nothing in either spell, although the northeast fringe has had more this time and the southern fringe did in Dec. Why is this county so awful for snow, even sometimes in places 200m asl? Over 30 years and I still struggle to find an explanation for the anomalies- not just missing the showers or getting less than other places but also the rain and sleet when other places get snow (Nov 2021 among many others), the higher snow lines and the quicker melting, the often higher dewpoints and both temps and dps seeming to need to be lower than everywhere else.... It defies explanation. It so often needs either brutal cold like Dec 2010 and Mar 2018 or everything just perfectly aligned like Dec 2017 to produce round here. And so often it changes at the border of Shropshire, give or take 5 miles....

Heads up, snow shower here now

My just about 1cm, as I posted it seemed a bit slushy as it was stopping but it has actually frozen since.

~1cm on the ground now but it seems rather wet and slushy? Dripping sounds audible and it's still over 2 hours till sunrise. Not the Shropshire mystery warming effect again surely- note the colours changing to green at the border! Nice to finally see some snow settled but hmmm....

It is actually snowing at last! That band has finally moved far enough west.