Late Nov - Dec 10 causes?

[damianslaw]

Remembering back to the infamously bitterly cold spell that arrived 24 Nov 10 and lasted until Boxing Day by and large.

What were the likely causes? 

The year had been very blocked and colder than normal, similiar to 1996. It was a la nina year as well. 

[Metwatch]

Some say the Atlantic SST's played a role with a tripole and also the AMOC or gulf stream weakened but I'm not that clued up on the ocean and its impact on the troposphere as much, just what I've seen some say around. Perhaps an SSW as well but I think that was for one of the previous winters?

Edited November 14 by Metwatch

[richie3846]

UK Snow 2010

WWW.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

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This case study looks at the significant UK snow events from 28th November to 2nd December 2010, exploring meteorological conditions and their impacts.

I can't see the charts mentioned in the write up which is a bit annoying. The text description provides us with good information even without the graphics. 

 

[joggs]

Ssw wasn't it?.

Brilliantly forecast by the metoffice I remember 

[damianslaw]

 joggs Don't think so, the SSW would have to had occured early Nov... 

 

[Don]

 joggs The Met Office were as close to perfect as possible in the run up to late November/December 2010, when it comes to weather forecasting!!  However, (if I remember correctly) they also forecasted the cold to continue well into January, which didn't quite happen unfortunately.  Glacier Point IMO made the best seasonal outlook call, in that he correctly forecasted the deep cold to be done by the end of December, with January close to average and February mild, so he was pretty much spot on.  

There was no early SSW in 2010.

Edited November 15 by Don

[Bradley in Kent]

People may be mixing up with late January to early February 2009, which had a textbook SSW event and was forecasted almost to script. It was one of the rare cold spells which appeared in day 10 charts and came down to day 0 without any dramas from what Iremember. West Kent, London and Surrey had the most snow for years at the time, before being superseded by December 2009 and of course December 2010. 

By the way, what a run of winters they were!

Regarding 2010, I understand that a Scandi high had been trying to form throughout the autumn. Then, in November a high pressure which had been sitting over the UK retrogressed before slipping up into Greenland. Because the Atlantic was weak, the Greenland high and Scandi high linked with no shortwave dramas. Then the rest is history!

[cheeky_monkey]

wasn't the big Icelandic eruption that happened in April - May 2010 an added factor ??..remember the ash cloud halted all transatlantic flights for a while during the spring