An early wintry season blast: 7th-9th November 1921

[Weather-history]

This would have been a shock to the system after the very warm October and indeed the warmth that had dominated 1921. Interestingly, something similar happened in 2001 when they was a short wintry blast after the warmest October on record.

 

  

 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

only bit of sleet here inland, assume snow was close to coasts

 

[SqueakheartLW]

I'd also consider autumn 2005 in a similar sort of way although the cold came a bit later in November. Autumn 2005 had been on the mild or very mild side right from September through to about mid November 2005. Then it suddenly flipped and we got a cold sunny spell with frosts and freezing fog then a snowy blast for some near the end of the month.

[Thundery wintry showers]

The northerly blast of 8-9 November 2001 was the primary inspiration for my long-standing name "Thundery wintry showers", I first attached myself to it way back in autumn 2002 on the old BBC message boards.

At Cleadon in Tyne and Wear, the weather was particularly dramatic, starting with a very gusty NNE wind before dawn on 8 November, then a thunderstorm with large hail at 7:30am, then the wind backed NNW'ly, the temperature fell and showers after that were mostly snow. There was a dusting of snow/hail for much of the morning. Overnight 8th/9th, the wind again backed NNE'ly raising the temperature to 5-6C and firing in squally hail and sleet showers. By 8am on the 9th we were back to a NNW'ly and had a dusting of snow.

Looking at the newspaper articles and the synoptic charts based on the NOAA reanalysis, it looks like the November 1921 northerly was accompanied by a trough which moved eastwards across the southern half of Britain, meaning that the Arctic air took longer to reach the south, but this would also have resulted in some areas seeing a spell of persistent/frontal snow on the northern flank. In terms of cold it looks like it was colder than the November 2001 northerly with the -10C 850hPa line making it through the northern half of Scotland, and this is also consistent with the six inch snowfall in Scarborough, presumably from the east coast snow showers that followed behind - that's pretty remarkable for early November.

Edited November 9 by Thundery wintry showers

[Don]

 SqueakheartLW Yes, 2005 almost went from summer to winter, with little in the way of autumn.  October and the first half of November were particularly mild/warm!

Edited November 9 by Don