trickydicky

Compared to what the weather has been like lately today would probably rank as one of the better days, so far anyway. It’s currently not windy at all, it’s not raining and the sun is almost threatening to pop out. I almost feel a bit guilty.

A66 Brough - Barnard Castle is closed

BBC forecast says washout south of the central belt and west of the Pennines.

Oi ooiiii

I’m not sure I can take another 250m+ event.

The thing is, your name suggests you at least had an idea what was needed in extreme weather and how to use them. It’s half term this week, the Lake District is busy. How many of those are going to want to test themselves and the shiny new waterproof coat they’ve just spent £300 on in Keswick? Too many is my guess.

I’ve already got a nasty nagging feeling that this potential snow event on Friday is going to get nudged south little by little until it settles on it’s inevitable track through Stoke city centre.

I have no memories of 1986 given that I turned 2 that July. My mam does have photos of us sledging on Cold Fell, Ennerdale that February on what could at best be called a thin covering of snow. The fact that we’d gone up Cold Fell perhaps suggests there wasn’t any lower down, though it’s only 300 metres and we lived at 200. Either way, there wasn’t enough snow to be sledging and seen as the ground was probably frozen solid we probably got a fair few bruises.

Chilly frosty morning, got down to -6. Glorious sunshine now. Unfortunately the forecast for the weekend is a little different.

I don’t think any of us would complain if we had that run of February’s from 1853 to 1860 over the next few years!

I don’t know if I’ve noticed that much of a change in February, maybe I’m not quite old enough. I’ve always associated October, November and the run up to Christmas with dark, wet and windy weather. And entire days on end of rain. If anything I’ve noticed that being less of an issue. The biggest changes I’ve noticed, lack of snow and cold aside, is that April (though not last year) and September are essentially summer months now, and October isn’t far off joining them. I’m not sure I’ve noticed much change in July and August.

I went to school in Cleator Moor but grew up in a village called Kirkland on the edge of the fells near Ennerdale.

I can remember it must’ve started snowing pretty early morning out west so that by mid morning break time at my secondary school there was already a good bit of snow in the yard and teachers were muttering that we’d have to be sent home. The buses must’ve come for us around lunch time and got us up the main road but the driver took a look at the minor road up to the village where I and a few others lived and said ‘you lot will have to walk’. It kept on snowing into the night. Some teachers and a few kids had to spend a night in the school, and it took my dad a couple of days to walk home from Sellafield. We had the whole week off and I think more heavy snow was forecast for the Saturday but it was rain in the west, though I think the Pennines got another pasting.

Pretty much a blizzard now. Higher routes will be getting pretty dicey

Heavy sleet and wet snow showers piling through on a very strong wind here. Feels like winter.

You seem to have a better memory/statistical record than me, but I don’t recall a winter with less snow on the tops than this one thus far? Not only has it not snowed very often but what snow there has been hasn’t lasted long at all, being followed almost immediately by mild weather.

I hope you’re right. Threlkeld, where I assume you’re moving to, is often the dividing line between the largely snowless west of Cumbria and the sometimes snowy central Cumbria. The far east Alston area of Cumbria is where you should’ve looked if it’s regular snow you’re after though.

It has been strange that it’s been so average. I always used to think that we never actually get the whether that delivers our average temperatures, I.e. it’s usually mild or cold, and that delivers an average in the middle. But this winter has been… average. Unfortunately it hasn’t delivered average amounts of snow, yet.

This weather reminds me of summer. Cloudy dross drifting over the top of a high into Cumbria and Scotland while everyone else enjoys glorious sunshine. A brief break in the cloud earlier has dropped temperatures low enough for a slight frost on the grass and ice on cars. Slate grey now.

And that’s the optimistic angle! Bad times.

Definitely springlike. Birds are singing and you can feel the warmth of the sun on your face. It’d be great if it was the first week in March.

You are absolutely right about quite large variations over quite small distances. Where I live is a pretty good example. I’m only about 15 miles from Alston and about another 5 from Nenthead, both in the middle of the North Pennines as opposed to me on the western edge. But in terms of the weather we receive I might as well be in another country. They get hammered with snow from every direction. Helped obviously by their elevation but also distance from the sea, lack of anything urban anywhere near, exposure to any wind direction and the fact the topography of the Pennines makes precipitation of any kind heavier. Then you’ve also got places like Shap and Greystoke to the west of here which are again slightly higher and more towards the Lakeland Fells, and do very well from north westerlies. From a north westerly like the last couple of days I get a reasonable amount of falling snow but it loses all intensity after crossing the Lake District fells and barely has enough intensity to reach the ground, never mind accumulate. It feels like barring anything exceptional snow is a 150-200m and above thing these days. Being in a valley in the north a long way from the sea I at least get a lot of frost, by that’s pretty small beer.

Had the lightest possible fall of snow here, you can see the individual flakes quite well spaced out on the ground! I think this has timed itself all wrong today. The main front needed to have hit about 3 or 4 hours ago.

That’s the thing, fronts coming into cold air always seem to miss us (Cumbria) to the south now, which obviously benefits you!

Yes, this is one thing that I remember being quite common growing up in the 90s that barely seems to happen anymore. Frosty periods followed by a relatively hefty fall of snow, followed by rain. You could get some pretty rough blizzard like conditions for a few hours. Can’t remember the last time it happened. Rain to snow I had never seen i don’t think until a couple in our brief little 2009-2013 ‘mini mini ice age’.