iand61

down to -3.4'c here now, obviously good snow cover is having an effect.

.Your right Shadowfax, even though the day has been mainly sunny and hsn't felt that cold, very little of the snow which fell has melted today. I went to Rochdale this afternoon and the main road was atrocious for much of its length as are most of the side roads. I'm currently measuring -3.1'c which is our lowest so far this winter although it does seem to have bottomed out now and no doubt will start to rise as soon as the cloud rolls in. I didn't realise how much snow had fallen until I started to clear it off the cars and drive

Looks like it was taken just on the Salford side of the Irwell but not over familiar with Manchester so could be wrong. It is a good picture though and the Pennines look fantastic under snow. What i do know is that the start (LHS)of the picture is looking almost due north towards Bury and Ramsbottom with Scout Moor Windfarm just visible on the high ground in the distance.

With 4 inches of snow and a single track main road it looks like our annual trip down to Manchester and the Christmas Markets are off. Oh dear i might just have to take the oportunity to go for a nice long winter walk.

Broken cloud and sunshine here now and looking at the radar i think that's our lot with the activity veering slighly further south. But for the slushy mess on the ground it would be a lovely afternoon. It's not been a bad few days for most of the region but even for those with snow it's probably a far cry from the equivelant Saturday last winter when most of us were sub zero with many inches of snow on the ground and no sign of an end to the big freeze.

Altitude is certainly a major factor with lying snow today, at least in East Lancashire. The moorland section of the drive to Burnley at 10am ish was a difficult one with almost white out conditions and snow completely covering the road yet in Burnley centre there was nothing on the ground and rain was falling. Coming back, the snow line starts at about 1000ft with around 2 inches of snow on the sides of the road at the summit section about 1350ft ASL whilst in Bacup town centre at 850ft its just slushy. In the years i've been taking notice of the weather there does seem to be a tendancy in Rossendale, certainly under what i would call general winter conditions for the snow line to hug the 1000ft contour as does the hill fog line. Interestingly I did once read an article although i'm not sure whether is is based on fact which said that the building of the M62 over the Pennines was carried out in such a way as to keep the summit altitude to just below a point where the frequency of lying snow and hill fog become far greater.

It looks like the current batch of activity for this immediate area has passed through now with a bit of sun peeping through although the satelite is showing more activity just reaching the lancashire coast so maybe some more will fall in the next hour or so. Off to Burnley now to pick something up so hopefully the road over the top is clear although i would imagine that there is a good covering at that altitude.

A mixture of sleet and snow trying to fall at the moment in Bacup leaving a horrible wet mess outside. There is a little bit of lying snow on the ground but only enough to give nuisance value although it looks like the main snow line is only slightly higher up the hill at about 1100ft. The temperature has dropped back slighly and is now reading 0.6'c from 1'c at 7.15am. All in all, not a nice morning. edit - snowing really hard now with big flakes and sticking but can't see it lasting to long.

i don't think that the conditions of the last couple of days have allowed for sensible and accurate forecasting to take place and that the BBC are just edging their bets to cover the possible outcomes. Last nights forecast said rain to low levels but with substantial snow possible over the Pennines. In our locality the oposite happened. At 950 feet asl we did get the precipitation but it was virtually all rain whilst 400 feet lower and 10 miles SW it was mainly snow.

Martin not predicting the snow which fell is down to the Met O although i'm sure that they'd argue differently Ie "it was the intensity we got wrong not the chance of it" Having icy roads and pavements is down to the local authorities who seem to prefer to send gritters out with flashing lights giving the preception of aplying salt rather than actually doing it. The problem in areas such as yours where snow did fall and partly thaw yesterday and any where the same happens tonight is that roads and pavements are, for the third year running going to be treacherous on the busiest shopping weekend of the year. As a nation do we learn....do we hell and the same will probably happen next year. In fact next winter the local authorities won't even stockpile salt if they think that the world ends on 21st december 2012

mmmmmm could be another false dawn for the region then although would the Irish Sea not have the effect of pepping up the showers

Is it just me but the showers don't seem to be making much headway out of NI. Either that or the band is dying out as it crosses the sea but a couple of hours ago the position of the front edge seemed in about the same place. under clear sky's the temperature is dropping here but at a painfully slow rate......currently -0.7'c. Chances of snow for my location, low i'd say.....probably similar to today ie to far east and north again but if the band does reach the NW then i feel areas south of here and with altitude may do ok from it.

how can someone in Buxton, the snowiest town south of Scotland need more snow think your getting a bit greedy there JP

One of the advantages of getting next to no snow is that it doesn't turn to slush when it melts or at least thats what keeps my spirits up when everyone else seems to be getting plastered in the stuff. Never mind, aparantly we had 3 inches of snow last Friday. I wasn't here to see the traffic chaos it apparantly caused although the majority did lie on the drive all over weekend. Not feeling to downhearted as i'm sure our favourite source of snow, the beasterly will be along after New Year. Notable differences in temperatures this afternoon 0'c at 3pm, + 2'c at 5pm, back down to + 0.3'c now with hopefully a frost overnight as no early doors car scraping needed in the morning.

I've learned that when it comes to North West snow, expect nothing and you won't be disapointed and that's from someone who lives half way up a mountain.

quite true but our snow as you said was convective showers of the Irish Sea rather than a weather system. showers are more difficult to predict both in location and intesity and the December 17&18 event was a good example of that. we had about 6 inches of snow by day break on Saturday yet at work only 7 miles away it was almost double.

just a question for any of our more experienced posters. The Met Office are confident of the outcome being one of Scenario's 1 and 2. looking at the projected paths, they both take the same track into the SW approaches but then 2 turns North Easterly bringing the stronger winds further into Southern England. Considering the projected paths forecast earlier in the week, Is it not still possible that the storm could set a more northerly course whilst still in the Atlantic with even more widespread gales occuring. Before anyone asks this is not an IMBY question as i've no wish for storm damage on my house but just an observation that the current track over the Atlantic seems as if it's running on tram lines.

I think that we're all guilty of it at some stage although with me it's more when a forecast hot summers day turns out be a cooler damp one. Snow is always a difficult one to forecast in a specific area as, in our locality the last couple of days have shown but people constantly taking frustrations out on the Met Office is not fair. TBH if i lived down south i'd be wishing that storm into Europe as high winds are my least favourite type of extreme weather and on our islands are the only real threat to life.

now now Mandi theres a place for Met Office knocking and it's not the North West Regional Thread...........it's called the Atlantic Storm Thread and it's full of folk who are reaching for the Prozac because the threat of Armagedon is now heading for Europe and even the forecast of falling snow is nowhere near set in stone.

Agreed that the majority of our region is probably too far north to be in with a shout of much more than a flurry or at best a slight covering although personally i'd sooner have that outcome than a promise of a white out which ends up as nothing more than icy rain. That said though, the earlier BBC weather forecast showed white as far north as Southern Cumbria and they are normally very reluctant to over cook the chances of snow.

best piece of advice i've seen all evening and one which but for a Garden Shed missing half a roof and last ditch Christmas shopping i would be very tempted to take up. that said though iffffffffffffffffffffff we get any snow in our neck of the woods it may be a good day for a South Pennine outing

Well if location and altitude both play a part then East Lancashire and particularly the higher parts of Rossendale could have a decent covering by dusk tomorrow. I still have my doubts though as to whether enough things will fall into place to turn a more likely scenario of wet cold sleet into something more interesting although when the lovely Diane (At least it will be mild) Oxberry even mutters the word snow then, i for one certainly sit up and listen.

We went on holiday to Playacar on the Yucatan in August. One night we were talking about hurricanes in that area of the Carribean and the hotel staff i spoke to said that they had not had a direct hit for about 10 years. Looks like that run maybe just about to end.

It is just possible to see Blackpool Tower from Deerplay Moor above Bacup. There is a war memorial just off the main A671 Bacup - Burnley road near to the summit and the source of the River Irwell and on a clear day Blackpool tower can be seen WNW. It's not easily identified as such because of the number of pylons etc in that general direction but even with a cheap pair of binoculars it becomes much clearer with other landmarks such as the Big One on the Pleasure Beach and the airport buildings also visible. Distance between Blackpool and Deerplay i'm not sure but i would imagine about 40 miles. As regards seeing the illumintaions; i remember back in the 1980's when they put lazers on the top of the tower. These led the eye towards the direction of the tower and we could see the faint glow of the lights down the full length of the Golden Mile.

Don't know whether it's my memory playing up but I seem to recall at least two or three occasions when i was growing up, late 60's/early 70's when we had snow on the ground up to and over Bonfire Night.I certainly remember one occasion when the stacked bonfire was thick with snow when lit after which it just gave of lots of steam. I certainly can't recall a Bonfire Night in recent years with snow on the ground though. As regards October snow, we had around 3-4 inches of wet snow in late October 2000 and I remember snow on the ground earlier in the month around both 1983 and 1992 although can't be sure exactly. It amazes me how far we've come in recent winters that we're talking about October Snow when not many years ago we'd have been comparing memories from the occasional White Christmas we remember as a child. Now these are as common as in a Dickens film.