bazookabob

Well what a drive home that was! Only 8 miles but managed to discover a whole new type of precipitation on the way. The best I can describe it is marble sized grauple or something. Also Lightning, thunder and a near miss on the M1 which was covered in ice despite it being bone dry only half a mile away! Finally got home to discover a nice covering of what looks like the big soft hail type stuff. Interestingly at one point I was literally right on the edge of the shower with heavy "grauple" on one side of the road, and nothing on the other- no kidding. bb

Raining here too methinks it will be icy in the morning. bb

What a bizarre day... at work in leeds centre apart from a heavy burst at 11am its just been flurries all day with no accumulation. Here, 7 miles east, I get home to heavy falling snow which has given about 1cm.. but on the already laying snow and ice there is a good 3cm extra fluffy stuff on top! Big suprise after paul hudson's forecast last night and it's still coming down so I'm happy! bb

Well thats annoying- can snow really melt totally to rain just by falling 64 metres? I mean how long does that take? 10 seconds? 20? I'm convinced I'm caught under some kind of weird warm air pocket or something... either that or I'm just damn unlucky. (Still heavy rain here in case you didn't guess!!)

Quick, post that in the Midlands thread FAO andyleicester haha!

Well heavy snow only a mile from my house now... what a shame its a vertical mile! On the other hand the yellows on the meto radar do seem to have made a surge north over the past few hours. Hopefully that will counteract these pesky rising temperatures... bb

Noooo! My beautiful snow cover is melting... MELLLLTING, oh what a world what a world. Why is it raining here when everywhere else in leeds is reporting snow? bb

Paul Hudson has surely been possessed by the malevolent spirit of Darren Bett right?

Ugh this is disgraceful! Sleet turned to rain and now its drizzling. DRIZZLING!! its time to pray i feel.. come north and be snow! Amen. bb

Seems to have just stopped here, and judging by the radar that's it for tonight. Still, i'm very happy with the inch that we've had tonight- the best part of it is that its covered up all the patched where it had melted, the roads and pavements are white over again (good to look at if not to drive on!) and all the tree branches are covered again which always looks good! Not too sure I like the new NW front page headline for tomorrow's snow... liverpool the northern extent!? Come on yeti post one of those awesome charts showing it covering our whole region tomorrow! BB

Still snowing moderately here, about a centimetre where the snow had melted, maybe 2cm on top of what was already there, which is about as much as I expected for tonight- any more from now is a bonus... although not as much of a bonus as any we get tomorrow which is looking ever more possible!

Ooh yay a flurry here in garforth, east leeds. I have to say i do prefer snow falling in the daylight- mainly because I'm too lazy to go to the front window where all the lamp posts are! bb

cheers for that post Yeti, it answered the question I hadn't actually managed to aask yet! I start a new job on Monday so I would be very happy the monday night snow to come up here- give me a day off on Tuesday! I look forward to reading all you experts' opinions on what's going to happen. I'm still a bit worried about the meto having the warnings out for the far south of england- surely that's not going to happen!?!?

Hi there everyone hope you don't mind me dropping in on your thread. I'm driving down from leeds to london later on this evening, probably be in london around 10-11pm and i was just wondering if i am likely to encounter any snow on my journey either there or coming back? Anyone got any ideas of when the precip is gonna hit the m1 and a1? cheers bb

Light shower of granules here at the moment which is a nice suprise. Also a dusting from an unexpected light shower over night. Will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow- it seems to be upgrading for our area but of course we'll have to wait and see what happens throughout today! BB

Well this is excellent- about 3 inches here already, though not impressed that my mum woke me up to drive her into work because she was scared! Looking forward to more more more! BB

Just something i noticed on the 7-30 metoffice radar... the showers in yorks seem to have organised into west-east orientated bands almost like lake effect snow from in canada. Don't know if this is just a one off or what but if its not I hope I dont end up in one of the gaps!! Oh, and we just had a very heavy shower for about 5 mins... covering here now about 1cm! BB

On and off graupel really here since about 11am. Some fairly heavy bursts though. I'm liking the way the radar is looking from half 2 to half 3! Could be the real snow is about to hit! BB Edit- Yeti, when you buying me that celebratory pint- you should come out in pontefract tonight... all them girls in their skimpy outfits freezing in the snow! Oh and cheap drinks too haha!

Yeti- I'm not sure I can afford Harrogate pint prices!! You're from there so presumably you're rich enough to get everyone's drinks in though right? Stelmer- that means I'll get the snow about 2 minutes before you! I'll let you know when it arrives lol... In the meantime, whats the verdict on this annoying warm sector... please someone tell me its going to vanish or something equally implausible! Either way, I'm looking forward to at least 36 hours of lovely snow showers. On the video I posted before, all that snow fell from showers over just 6 or 7 hours so I'm looking forward to more more more this time! BB

Evening all- exciting times for our area, especially given the updated metoffice warnings! I think we should have some kind of netweather get-together and all celebrate this easterly with a nice pint in a beer garden (maybe!). Just to get us in the mood for whats gonna happen tomorrow/monday (and beyond?) here's the video I made during the one-day easterly last January. Bring it on!!! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eGGg3Cgt-bk

You lucky bugger living in Cairns! I love it there... Although I imagine you're a bit wet today- for everyone who doesn't know, here are the 24hr rainfall totals for Cairns the past few days (24hr period upto 9am on date indicated); Jan 10th- 70.2mm Jan 11th- 49.2mm Jan 12th- 278.0mm Jan 12th (9am-11.59pm)- 127.4mm Incredible rainfall totals really and no suprise even this well-prepared part of the world is having flooding problems. Incidentally the total rainfall this year so far in Cairns is 551.2mm!

Indeed and just before I go to bed here are Cairns rainfall totals for the past few days- seriously wet even for the wet season! The figures are for the 24 hours upto 9am on the dates stated by the way (remember they're half a day ahead!) Jan 10th- 70.2mm Jan 11th- 49.2mm Jan 12th- 278.0mm Jan 12th 9am-11:10am- 47.8mm Incidentally, this month so far Cairns has had 471.6mm of rain, and this cyclone/ soon-to-be-depression hasn't even arrived there yet! Oh, and this morning the bi-annual "king-tide" is occurring so there'll be some wet socks around I reckon! Night!

Not only the Gulf coast it would seem- the rains on the east coast seem pretty impressive even though strictly speaking they're not part of the actual cyclone, I think its all related. So far, Cairns has had 276.2mm in 24hours and somewhere near Port Douglas had 250mm in 6 hours! Beats the 243mm we had when I was in Cairns a couple of years ago- and god only knows what would happen over here if we ever got those kind of totals!!

Right that's it, i'm taking my video camera to scotland- i'm bored! Anyone want to come?!

Hmm it does seem to be absolutely identical to last year's forecast, with perhaps some subtle differences in language. Which horrifically could mean this winter will be identical to last winter where temperatures are indeed above average but also turn out to be as mild as the previous winter, and rainfall is indeed above average, but by just as much as last year! Oh well on that basis I'll go for snow on January third and again in the first and last weekend of the easter holidays!