Freezing-Point

Showers packed in and quite frequent this morning. Could be about 1/2 inch here. Although both these easterly blasts have bee great for blowing snow I will not remember them for heavy or prolonged showers. They just blow past too quickly. Temp -2.4

Would love to see some pics. You have hit lucky. Dusting here

Yep. Hit and miss these showers. Just like the last Easterly blast for my area. The showers form too late in the N.Sea and get blown past quickly. You need to be at least 10 miles inland. Bring on the NE or N winds any day for me. Slower moving showers with greater longer lasting intensity.

The south of the region looks to have had the pick of the showers over the last 2 hours, but showers now starting to intensify further North too......

Radar showing scattered moderate showers with the odd heavy burst. Nothing of significance as yet. Looking like the streamer that the BBC showed this morning is developing south of York

Blowing snow intensity 3/10. Light covering down. Temp -1.6 c. Beaver snow approaching.

On the turn here. 0.7c

Temp 0.9c here. Rain

I have to say that this winter has been exceptional for the amount of snowfalls here, spread out from November to now March. I have lost count. None of them have been much depth here, with the maximum being 4" depth from Monday night. The amount of snowfalls from westerly approaching fronts has to be a record here. Normally we get nothing this side of the pennines, but I have been surprised about 5 times this winter Also the amount of frosts must be up there with the most in the last 20 years. Not kept any of this data. Does anyone have any?

Light snow here. Intensity 3/10. Temp 0.2c

Covering here of fine hail. Temp -0.2. Come on convection........

I remember that happening many times in the past. Normally from a N'ly / NE'ly when the flow gets slack and there is high pressure close to the north. Unexpected slow moving heavy showers can develop when not forecast. I cant see it happening with the current set up though

I have been taking note of the radar today. Most times you will see ppn to the North ppn to the South of the area I have circled. Its strange, but is what has been happening since Tuesday. Keep an eye on it, its uncanny.

Some pics from Hepscott, just outside Morpeth. This is the worst this road has been since 1947. And thats saying something. The road is still blocked at one end. JCB has been working all day. When I left the showers started again and so did the drifting. Coming up from North Tyneside I noticed that once past Cramlington there was a marked change in the snow depth. Amazing the difference 7 miles can make The pic below of me standing on a drift. Its about 8ft high. That is the hedge you can see sticking up in the background

I am heading up to Morpeth now. Its where I grew up so want to see the size of the drifts they have. Many roads have been blocked. Will get pics

2010 was better in some ways for some but not for others i suspect. For my area of North Tyneside - In terms of amount of snow showers, intensity of snow showers, the amount of snow each one put down, the final snow depth, longevity, minimum temperatures 2010 is in a different league and we may not see that again in our lifetimes. In terms of blowing snow, drifting, upper air temperatures, then this short spell has been one of the best in the last 40 years. In fact, my Dad who has been ploughing in his tractor, trying to keep some of the farm roads open near Morpeth, says only 1979 tops it for drifting.

Temp just about to go above 0. So the thaw begins in lowland areas in the region. Improving conditions today. Any showers will be light and short-lived leading to minimal accumulations.

Just cant see where these "occasional heavy snow showers" are going to come from. The trend is for any shower activity to die away at the moment.

I noticed that yesterday. I think it is the cloud from the fronts as you say. Must be what destroying our convection

I know that there will be a lot of annoyed parents today. Many schools still closed in my area today that probably went of the MET Amber warning. As it turns out the roads are perfectly clear

A line of slightly intensified ppn over the region. Light snow with the odd moderate burst. Could this be a development?

Maybe they went off the precipitation charts from the models? The GFS for one was showing precipitation intensifying over the region overnight, but that did not happen. However even the level of precipitation that was shown still did not warrant an Amber warning. If they are doing it out of caution then it should be a yellow, otherwise successive Ambers without anything happening, will make people take them with a pinch of salt, leading people to travel and then be caught out when there was actually snow coming.

For some reason there is still and Amber warning for snow. This was the case yesterday and there were only a few flakes across most of the affected areas. For me, this is making the Amber warnings seem not worthy. Amber means be prepared and should only be given if the chances for snow are very high. This was the case on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Yellow warning would be more suitable for yesterday and It looks like today too. Maybe there some addition criteria to giving the warning other than snow actually falling?

Well thats me done. Bed. Cant keep hoping this blob is going to suddenly appear on the radar. Will be gutted if it does and I miss it all......