iand61

A lot depends on the direction from which the cold ends up coming. A straight Northerly and your area stands a change of showers due to the wishbone effect but as Arran says, whether they will actually fall as snow is debatable due to your costal location. An E or NE direction and unless it's a strong flow it probably won't reach much beyond the Pennines if it even gets that far. TBH I don't hold out much hope IMBY from showers with our best chance being embedded troughs which could well crop up or from an attempted beakdown from the west although these seem to have been non events for many years. Either way it'll be cold and at least feel a little festive but if it's anything other than a dusting of white, i thing much of our region could be dissapointed, this time around at least.

Showing my age now but being a kid in the late 60's and early 70's most snowfalls were unexpected as hearing and certainly watching weather forecasts was quite unusual. One which does stick in my mind, probably because of the timing was Christmas Eve; can't be sure of the year but probably 1970. To this day I can remember sledging with mates down our street' snow coming down in bucket loads and carol singers going around the houses. TBH I still love snow but there is something far more magical about it falling on or around christmas. I even love christmas films which have snow in them. Obviously still a kid at heart Another unexpected fall was in early 1982 when a frosty but sunny morning changed into one of the heaviest falls of snow i've ever seen. Without a breath of wind blowing and huge flakes we measured 18 inches of snow in 12 hours and for all North Westerners who say we don't get snow from the East....we did that day.

Some sleet in heavy showers but nothing sticking. Don't know how low the snow line is in this part of the world but my view looks up tp moorland at 1500ft and that is green.

Just driven home in our first snow shower of the winter. Didn't really stick but was certainly edging more to snow than sleet as we climbed higher although with a current temperature of 3'c I think it's going to be bit marginal whether we wake up to white or just wet tomorrow.

3rd decent weekends weather in a row and probably the best of the lot IMBY. It felt quite warm in the sun and washed the cars in a teashirt which is something i wasn't doing much of in the summer. Came over Woodhead from Sheffield yesterday and the views and light were fantastic. One thing is certain though; this weather won't last and if next weekends forecast cold snap comes off it will certainly be a shock to the system.

similar charts do and possibly will exist this coming winter. the problem is that they don't seem to verify just to many factors need to fall into place to make something which the computer says may happen actually do so. that said, maybe this is our time again.

If my memory serves me right, the mid February blizzard was probably the worst we had in this region during the severe 1979 winter. All transpennine roads including the M62 were closed with two of our local A roads shut by 15 foot drifts for over a week.The snow reached above the hight of our downstarirs windows and did not finally disappear until late March. As a 17 year old they did seem good times even though my 10 minute walk to work was taking 30 minutes and the constant cold went straight through you. From an IMBY perspective i've seen nothing like it since although storms in 82 and 91 did try and make an attempt.

Welcome aboard MickP, always good to see another resident of snow starved East Lancashire on here. Whether we get our epic winter or not, only time will tell but there will be some nervous times ahead for all unless your lucky enough to live 2500 feet up a mountain.

I am more of a reader than a poster on threads such as this and have read with interest all of the posts regarding whether February is colder than November, March than October etc. On the whole, I agree with what has been said re. strength of the sun and length of daylight but my honest feeling is that; given the right conditions. any month from November through to April can deliver the heaviest snow of a particular winter and that doesn't necessarily mean a single snowy spell in an otherwise mild mucky season. Although in one of the worst parts of the country for severe snowy spells (North West England) I do have the advantage of altitude and this has probably helped in seeing lying snow in various years from mid October (1983) i believe through to late April (1981) Even the winter of 1978/79, the only one of the 20th century big three which I was able to witness did not get going until New Year and was at it's most severe in these parts from early February until mid March, something which I believe was the case throughout much of the country. The April 1981 fall was one of the heaviest I've ever witnessed and tales i've heard from parents and grandparents mention severe conditions and having to dig themselves of of front doors in March. Obviously this is not the historical thread and apologies for going on like it is but the point I am making is that we can't really say when snow will fall; yes it should be more likely in January than the other winter months but, as the last few winters have shown, mother nature does not follow given patterns. Now back to lurking again.

What a change from yesterday. Woke up to misty conditions with light rain on and off. Looking at the Met O yellow warning, it looks like the heaviest of the rain will be further north that ourselves, something which I'm certainly not complaining about.

thanks Karl never heard of a North West bias on Netweather before. wish I had a pound for every time i'd heard about a South East bias but never North West as regards true regional threads, couldn't agree more but I suspect we'll need a major threat of snow before that happens

It's amazing how straight the line forming the back edge of the rain is on the radar. looks to be east to west crossing the central area of Manchester. 20 miles north of that we haven't had any torrential downpours today, just steady moderate to occasionally heavy rain but we've already reached 40mm for the day and its still coming down.

Yes i noticed going to work this morning that most of Lodge lane was piled up on Newchurch Road as was debris from steep hillside roads all the way to Rawtenstall. It certainly was pretty bad.

Our total for this afternoons storms stands at 41.4mm;not bad for something which came pretty well out of the blue. It has certainly been an impressive summer for exeptional rain in Rossendale with a 30 minute storm on August 5th which gave 35mm and the June 22nd event where it stopped at an total of 85mm which I understand is one of the highest daily total ever recorded here. Looking outside now, it's a lovely evening for a walk although maybe a little wet under foot.

currently having some of the heaviest rain i've ever seen. first of all a hour long deluge with thunder and lightening then a dry spell until 5 oclock when it started on a biblical scale again. roads flooded, fire brigade busy pumping out and and rivers as high as i've seen them since the floods of 22nd June. appears to be very localised though unless others no different.

Although i'm not well up on hurricanes and much of the technical information given on previous posts; may i please thank all of you for the input which was of great help while we were on holiday on the Yucatan. After hearing on a dodgy local channel that a Cat 1 was due to make landfall virtually over our heads we really struggled to get a proper tale from either our holiday rep or the hotel staff, both who took a "you must be mistaken" type of approach. Then with the help of Netweather, wifi and my Iphone I was suddenly the local weather expert and, whilst I cannot say that I influenced any decision making with regard of setting up the hotel storm plan I did get quite a few comments on my sudden found knowledge and i'm sure a number of converts to Netweather. As regards the storm itself; somewhat of a damp squib although the site of horizontal palm trees and sunbeds blowing about does give the impression that you have witnessed something special. The rain was nothing major with the majority of it falling overnight Tuesday/Wednesday. What was most impressive IMO was the storm surge which, although only a couple of metres in height was sufficient to deposit debris almost into the hotel grounds and changed the contours of the beach considerably from before. All in all, an experience worth seeing and although i've seen worse storms at home it certainly makes you understand why higher category hurricanes can cause havoc. Again thanks NW.

It's certainly going to be interesting tomorrow if the threatened deluge comes off. There are already many northern rivers on flood warnings and with the ground so wet, it won't take much for more flood misery. I didn't think i'd see the "worst for 50 year floods" of 2 weeks ago repreated so soon but it's looking likely now. It was interesting and rather worrying that even a 15 minute downpour earlier this evening lifted a large chunk out of the pavement across from our house. It's now another water feature to add to the several on the same 20 metre stretch.

Agreed Liam, unfortuntely the way this year is panning out our lovely sunrise will probably be in the middle of winter when we want southerly tracking low pressure but end up with the mother of all Azores Highs instead. It's a poor misty damp sort of morning in our part of the world as well, something I really hate on a Sunday but no doubt it will do the usual and clear up about 6pm when its too late to benefit.

does look a bit dark to our south, possibly Rochdale's getting hammered from that. the showers have been a bit hit and miss today but they certainly packed a punch. we even had a few rumbles of thunder at one stage late afternoon but suprisingly, no rain came from it

We've just had a really heavy shower as well although I didn't hear any thunder. Your right about the amazing scenes from earlier in the week but although i'd love to have witnessed such an event I'm glad we missed it really as our rain from last Friday was bad enough. we've still got barriers up along road edges and pavements where they have collapsed into overwhelmed drains.

still raining here although not as heavy as over recent hours but it has certainly been an exceptional day of rain. as previous posters have mentioned, there is an awful lot of water to run off the Penninies and onto low lying ground so, although the worst of the rain may have passed, certainly for this part of the North West, i think it could be a worrying night for many.

maybe an hour ago but now we've a flooded conservatory, a road completely underwater and at least one neighbour with a river coming through their house. haven't seen it first hand but i would immagine that Bacup town centre and the lower parts of the Rossendale Valley are quite bad now and its still torrential. good luck out Bury, Manchester and Salford...its all heading your way

We've had constant torrential rain now since 5.30pm and its still coming down and looking at the raging torrent that the normally tiny stream just beyond the bottom of our garden has become i'll be amazed if there isn't some major flooding from the River irwell lower down stream.

Wettest day i've seen for a long while and one of the wettest summer days i can ever remember. It's rained all day, at least since 5am and at the moment its absolutely hammering it down, or rather horizontally taking the wind into account. Unbelievably bad day.

Met O are going for 100mm of rain over much of the populated NW region which, if it came even close I would have thought would be one of the wettest days for many years. 100mm may occur during most years over parts of Cumbria but for Lancs, Greater Manchester etc. I would Imagine it would be a "one to tell the kids about" event.