The cold westerly February 12th 2018..

[Snowyowl9]

As everyone is talking about easterlies currently..

This was a very potent cold pool coming from the west..

Gave a cold snap lowest temp -2.4c and lowest max 3.7c with snow/soft hail a covering of snow and some drifting..

[Thundery wintry showers]

Yes, I had sleety showers in Exeter on the 11th and they turned to snow that evening, and a snow shower at about 3-4am on the 12th gave a dusting on the ground, although it didn't amount to much and fell short of the 50% snow cover threshold at 0900 on the 12th. Although it is quite common to get lying snow above 200m on Dartmoor from polar maritime west/north-westerlies, it is rare near sea level in Devon, so to get any lying snow from it in Exeter was notable.

Edited February 8 by Thundery wintry showers

[Weather-history]

The showers turned more and more wintry as Sunday progressed 

[LetItSnow]

I remember this day. In New Ash Green there was a rather intense hail shower on this day, a “dry” shower as I would call it when there is purely hail and no rain. What makes it stand out in the memory is that it occurred in a shower where the sun was shining, so I remember the novel sight of the sun illuminating millions of these little ice balls. There was a really black cloud as well so it just looked really cute. Like it was raining frozen peas but white.

February 2018 was a good month. I saw snow early in the month as well as later and there was seasonably cold weather throughout and nothing silly mild. Plus there was a lot of crisp winter sun in the run up to the BftE. 

I am slightly scared by 2018 being 7 years ago now. 

Edited February 8 by LetItSnow

[I remember Atlantic 252]

 LetItSnow and can't believe this was 15 years ago, a very snowy morning, with the snow actually falling off a SW'ly

[Metwatch]

I don't remember the cold Pm airmass of mid Feb 2018, but the one in mid January brought an evening dusting here, 17th / 19th Jan 2018. Really miss this winter a lot, feels like it was a lifetime away now, a much more sunnier pattern compared to recent years.

Edited February 9 by Metwatch

[Summer8906]

 I remember Atlantic 252 We were definitely hard done by down here in the south in Feb 2010.

The only example, to date, of a cold winter month I really didn't like. It was all cold rain here, but more significantly, it was often very very dark. I think I remember that specific Sunday and I remember it being like mid-December in mid-afternoon, such was the extent of the gloom.

When brighter conditions finally arrived on the weekend of the 27th/28th, it was like another world.

Edited February 10 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

 LetItSnow I remember the specific Sunday, it was very bright with isolated hail showers here too. More like a direct arctic northerly than a WNW-ly.

Can't remember the exact sequence of events but the previous weekend had been anticyclonic and dry, the previous day (10th) had been dull and wet, and we got another unusually cold Atlantic airmass a couple of days later.

I think the following weekend was mild and dry, and fairly sunny (a bit like the same weekend in 2013) before the pre-BFTE coldish spell with deep blue skies arrived for the final weekend of the month. Apparently not that cold for end of Feb at around 7C but the air was very dry and consequently it felt very cold.

 

Edited February 10 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

 Metwatch I remember the mid-Jan 2018 spell was forecast to be genuine cold zonality of the March 1995 kind but in the event temps were a little above the 61-90 average at around 8-9C, at least down here. It was bright, though.

The worst spell of Jan/Feb was by far the very dull and gloomy Tm period which set in around the 20th and persisted until the end of the month, during which IIRC the sun barely shone at all.

[LetItSnow]

 Summer8906 I remember the 19th being a mild and cloudy day around 11C and then sunshine prevailed on most days after then. We payed for the sunny spell though as there was extraordinarily little sunshine from about the 1st of March to about the 12th of April.

[Summer8906]

 LetItSnow Yes, I've got mixed feelings about March 2018. On the one hand the BFTE and mini-BFTE were exceptional. On the other, the weather was truly diabolical for the rest of the month. A month that's hard to rate so normally I go down the middle at 5/10, but take out the two snow events and it would probably be 1/10.

And April 2018 was extraordinarily dull and gloomy for the season.

There does seem to be a link between potent Feb cold, and unsettled weather in Mar/Apr, probably worth another thread. Note I say potent cold, so hopefully the current spell isn't potent enough to sentence us to an unsettled March/April !

My feeling is the manner by which this cold spell ends might give us some indications for spring. If the high topples and we get westerlies spreading down from the north, or in from due west, and a low track north of Scotland, I'd be hopeful of a potentially warm and dry spring. If low pressure arrives from the S or SW and leads to a low jetstream bringing depressions straight across the UK (as happened in March 2018, 2023 and 2024), I'd be much less so.

Edited February 10 by Summer8906