microclimate

You might be in the slighter warmer sector of the snow band. We had snow that turned to rain earlier but it's been snowing steadily for 3 hours now.

Met office has snow all day for Dorchester yet the radar suggests it is petering out, can anyone give me a clue which is more likely?

Back to snow here again, if it wasn't for the odd periods of sleety rain we would of had a fairly substantial amount, Lots of roads now only just passable or closed.

Every time the precip is a bit light it turns to rain unfortunately so I'm not expecting much for the next few hours. Real shame as it's looks like we had a decent amount overnight. Traffic seems to be going by, I think the gritter went by earlier.

Good covering here, but just heard the sound of rain against the window, boo!

Been out 'skipping' all afternoon, anyone available to give me a quick heads up for Dorset?

The BBC forecast this morning shows the front moving right across the country on Friday rather than slowly encroaching from the West, if this happens it is bound to impact on whether, if we get snow initially, it turns to rain. It seems quite a big turn round in terms of the fronts progress, personally I hope it is too progressive, we need it to stall over us really. Still couple of days off, who knows, I'm keeping everything crossed and keep reminding myself they always under-forecast snow in this area rather than over-forecast...........i.e we often have surprise falls but seldom have snow forecast that is actually rain.

Yes as a youngster then I remember my parents being caught out the heavy snowfall. I don't recall it being a well forecast event but I could be wrong.

The forecast for Dorchester has upgraded on the BBC forecast, it was showing sleet on Sat but now showing snow, it is changing every few hours so there really is no point in wondering/worrying about what will happen on Friday........it's simply to far away to say with any accuracy...........so don't panic about rain rather than snow until you look out the window. After a surprise dusting here this morning the snow is still on the roofs out of the sun. I am very near the coast so just goes to show you can get snow on the south coast when rain is forecast. That said it has caused chaos on the roads around here, very dangerous due to earlier rain washing away the grit then turning to snow. Some roads are only just clearing now.

Woken up to a dusting here, looks like the flakes were quite large when it fell.

Looks like flooding is more of an issue around here, A35 is bad around the Kingston Maurward to Monkeys Jump roundabouts. I guess Winterbourne Abbas and Martinstown are going to vulnerable to flooding again.

Because historically in our location our biggest snowfall has come from battleground scenarios. We haven't the right synoptics for a long time down here so at least with the more unusual weather patterns as the moment we must be in with a shout this winter even if its not this time.................bought a sledge just in case!

Main BBC forecast shows a bit more promise for our area tomorrow night.

Yes, I remember the winters of the 70s/80s in a house with no heating.........frozen toothbrushes and flannels. I still live in a old house but with heating that I'm too tight to put on so I cover most of windows with the shrink film you can buy, works a treat for keeping out the draughts anyway sorry mods completely off topic, won't do it again, promise!

Yes, amazing we had snow from the back edge of the front that went through on 4th November (on coast of West Dorset), my sister who lives on the northern side of Weymouth got nothing so very localised.

I always think of the south west as Dorset Devon Somerset and Cornwall, definitely not Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. Even in Devon and Cornwall you can have marked differences of weather considering the moors and coast so I'm not sure about the east of Taunton bit. Where I live can be more like Cornwall than Dorset but you can't say the same about Wilts and Gloucs due to lack of coast.

Sorry guys, if this all goes t*ts up it's my fault, I just phoned my mum and told her to pop out for a bit of milk etc before the weekend (she lives at the top of steep hill)..............I should of known better.

Yeah think we've all been there!!

Traditionally some of our best SW snowfall have come from such set ups, lows coming up against cold blocks and getting pushed back/stalling. BUT so have some of our biggest disappointments. This just feels a bit more like the start of something akin to the 70s/80s............I still bulk buy candles!

Will someone put me out of my misery, I'm trying to remember the name of the BBC weather presenter who was a bit of a cold lover, he stopped a couple of years back? Ah, just remembered its Rob McElwee, how I miss him when there's potential snow afoot!

Much as I like the accuracy of David Braine, I do prefer presenters who show a bit more excitement, it is after all what keeps us lot poking around in here for hours on end, just waiting for the extremes to show.

No mention of anything exciting on David Braine's forecast just a while ago, mind you he's not exactly a ramper!

Re 1990, I was working in Sherborne at the time and if I remember rightly I had a horrendous drive back, my car actually conked out due to the driving snow. I limped to Charminster where it was bearly snowing and everyone wondered what I was going on about when they came to help me get home. I can't remember if the snow did fall to lower levels in Dorchester as I got back home over the hill closer to the coast where it needs a less marginal event to snow. Course my memory could be playing tricks!

No, I'd leave them to it for now. Usual suspects plus a few who seem to have a bit of a grump on today............it's only the weather!

Normally we have epic charts to look at that fail to deliver (Dec 12 springs to mind along with every other failed easterly!) but this time we are waiting for something that hasn't shown it's full hand yet. Lot more interesting in my view.