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Mean Snowiest Uk Date?


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Posted
  • Location: .
  • Location: .

A question that may be near impossible to answer, but anyone know the most snowy date in the UK (OK let's limit it to England to keep some order) say since 1900? In other words, the date on which snow most regularly has fallen in England. I'd love to know! My birthday is Feb 10th and I reckon that would be pretty close - it seemed to snow on it every day when I was a boy.

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Posted
  • Location: Steeton, W Yorks, 270m ASL
  • Location: Steeton, W Yorks, 270m ASL
A question that may be near impossible to answer, but anyone know the most snowy date in the UK (OK let's limit it to England to keep some order) say since 1900? In other words, the date on which snow most regularly has fallen in England. I'd love to know! My birthday is Feb 10th and I reckon that would be pretty close - it seemed to snow on it every day when I was a boy.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

WiB,

Presumably for "regularly" we should actually be reading "frequently"?

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Posted
  • Location: Steeton, W Yorks, 270m ASL
  • Location: Steeton, W Yorks, 270m ASL
Hi SF -  yes, absolutely. Thank you and apologies for a slightly confusing piece of terminology.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is an interesting question, however, probably very hard to find for three reasons.

1 - spatial variation. Not all places are equally snowy anyway (crude generalisation is Northerliness accounts for about 60% and altitiude 40% of variation in snow occurrence).

2 - temporal variation within events / seasons. We rarely have snowy days where every part of the country receives snow; in fact, nowadays, we never seem to get them. Snow events this year exemplify well. Therefore, the most frequent occurrences for one place may not occur on the same day as they do for another place.

3 - access to stats. You'd probably need to raid the archives at UKMO Exeter in order to see the raw data easily.

I too would be fascinated, though. My punt would probably be EITHER around 20-25 Jan or else 10-15 Feb.

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Posted
  • Location: Norton, Stockton-on-Tees
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and cold in winter, warm and sunny in summer
  • Location: Norton, Stockton-on-Tees

I too would be fascinated, though. My punt would probably be EITHER around 20-25 Jan or else 10-15 Feb.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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Posted
  • Location: .
  • Location: .
It is an interesting question, however, probably very hard to find for three reasons.

1 - spatial variation.  Not all places are equally snowy anyway (crude generalisation is Northerliness accounts for about 60% and altitiude 40% of variation in snow occurrence).

2 - temporal variation within events / seasons. We rarely have snowy days where every part of the country receives snow; in fact, nowadays, we never seem to get them.  Snow events this year exemplify well.  Therefore, the most frequent occurrences for one place may not occur on the same day as they do for another place.

3 - access to stats.  You'd probably need to raid the archives at UKMO Exeter in order to see the raw data easily.

I too would be fascinated, though. My punt would probably be EITHER around 20-25 Jan or else 10-15 Feb.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

HI SF - I agree with point 1. We could take the 'white Xmas' approach - a snowflake anywhere in England? Or at any 6 weather stations strategically positioned?

2. This would be covered by the above

3. Yes ... I don't have the time at the moment but it's the sort of thing that I might try and get round to 'ere long! Now that I've asked it I'm quite bugged to know the answer :D

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Posted
  • Location: Steeton, W Yorks, 270m ASL
  • Location: Steeton, W Yorks, 270m ASL
HI SF - I agree with point 1. We could take the 'white Xmas' approach - a snowflake anywhere in England? Or at any 6 weather stations strategically positioned?

2. This would be covered by the above

3. Yes ... I don't have the time at the moment but it's the sort of thing that I might try and get round to 'ere long! Now that I've asked it I'm quite bugged to know the answer  :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It might be worth shaking the tree on N-W. One or two people have longish records: Terminal Moraine (Peak District) has about thirteen years. Dave O'Hara (NE / Teesdale somewhere) also has a decent record. TWS can access the records at Lancaster. There must be one or two others on here who can provide series as well.

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

Unfortunately I don't think I have the time to compile a dataset of which were the snowiest days- it would be very time consuming and I'm currently doing other things with the dataset (e.g. looking for anomalous data that could be corrected)

However, I can give a couple of general trends that I spotted with a quick scan of the data. Surprisingly, there is no one time in January which is particularly favoured for snow in Lancaster, but February appears to have a strong bias towards snow around the 10th-15th. The New Year period also seems to have an above average incidence of snow, generally 27 December through to about 5 January.

Also worth noting is that snow in April seems to be more common than snow in November here, and that snow is only marginally less frequent during March than it is during February outside of the 10th-15th Feb bracket.

In Lancaster, the snowiest day of the year looks likely to be sometime between the 12th and 15th February.

However following the 1988 step change, it seems that New Year has reverted to being the snowiest time of year, with 10-15 February snowfalls mostly having occurred between 1966 and 1987.

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  • 2 years later...
Posted
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet

That is an interesting point, because i have also noticed an unusually large occurance of snowfalls around new years, though i suppose it is because it is close to the winter solitace, also, the point about February snowfalls is juest a week or so after the thermal minima, it would be interesting to see if these periods are replecated in summer.

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Posted
  • Location: Shrewsbury
  • Location: Shrewsbury
That is an interesting point, because i have also noticed an unusually large occurance of snowfalls around new years, though i suppose it is because it is close to the winter solitace, also, the point about February snowfalls is juest a week or so after the thermal minima, it would be interesting to see if these periods are replecated in summer.

I posted a while back how in the last 20 years, the middle part of each winter month has been much less snowy than 1st-10th and 20th onwards; the last time there was snow lying here on a date between 11-19th in Dec, Jan or Feb was February 1994.

Since 1991 the following dates in winter (meteorologically speaking) have NEVER recorded snow lying here at 0900Z:

DECEMBER

1-5

11-19

23-25

JANUARY

9-23 (that's the one that stands out)

31

FEBRUARY

1-2

18-22

Edited by Summer of 95
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Posted
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District. 290 mts a.s.l.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything extreme
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District. 290 mts a.s.l.

I've had a look through my records, as far back as November 1977 when I began keeping records at the current site.

Bear in mind that, due to an altitude of 330m, the following statistics may not be representative of central Brtiain as a whole, certainly not with regard to the frequency figures, but it should provide a general indication of the likely snowiest periods on average.

All the following statistics cover the period November 1977- March 2007 for the months November to March

During the 30 years in question the only day not to have recorded sleet or snow at least once is November 2nd and the date with the most instances of sleet or snow falling is February 25th with 16; Dec' 20th, Jan 26th and Feb' 16th each managed 15 occurrences and Jan' 24th, Jan' 28th, Feb' 10th, 17th, 21st and March 1st all had 14.

With regard to the number of snowfalls, as opposed to sleet or snow falling but not lying. the top dates were;

Dec' 21st, and Feb' 7th and 8th each with 8 occurrences. Feb' 28th and March 17th each had 7.

It seems rather surprising that the best date in January for snowfalls could manage only 6 occurrences, on the 23rd and 27th.

I also totalled up the amount of snow falling on each day and generally, but not exclusively, the dates followed the dates for most frequent snowfalls quite closely. It should be borne in mind that these figures are prone to skewing by the inclusion of one heavy fall.

The snowiest dates by accumulated snowfall were; Feb' 23rd, 42.4cm, Dec' 8th with 38.9cm, Jan' 8th with 38.0cm, Jan' 26th with 36.0cm, Feb' 15th with 34.5cm, Feb' 24th with 34.2cm, Dec' 20th with 33.3cm, Jan' 27th with 32.5cm, Feb' 7th with 32.3cm and Feb' 8th with 31.1cm.

Dec' 8th is a case in point with regard to skewing of the figures. There were only 4 instances of sleet or snow falling on this date and only 2 with a 'snowfall', one of which happened to be in 1990 with 38.3cm.

The snowiest dates in November and March by accumulated total were Nov' 19th with 29.7cm ( also heavily skewed by one fall of 29.4cm ) and Nov' 24th with 20.3cm. March 17th with 29.0cm and March 21st with 26.5cm.

Taking an overview and ignoring the effect of a single large fall distorting the data the winter season unfolds as follows.

Early November is relatively snow free and it is not until the 12th-14th that a minor peak occurrs, this is followed by 4 days of little snow with another peak around the 20th and 21st. On average however the snowiest part of November is from the 24th-28th.

The early part of December is also relatively snow free, particularly during the first 3 days but there is a slight increase around the 7th-9th and again on the 12th and 13th. The snowiest part of December however is the 19th-21st and the 27th-31st, most of these dates have recorded at least 4 snowfalls in the past 30 years and some more than 6.

Only Dec' 4th and 14th have yet to record a measurable snowfall.

January is less clear cut, there has been at least one measurable snowfall on every day in January but the 9th has managed only 1, amounting to 0.3cm, and several other days have only 2. The snowiest part of January tends to be from the 21st-27th but even within this range the 24th has recorded only 2 snowfalls despite having 14 occurrences with sleet or snow falling.

The first 6 days of Feb' see a decline in snowfall followed by a short peak from the 7th-9th and a rapid decline to the 11th which is the only date in Feb' with no measurable snowfall in the last 30 years. The snowiest period in Feb' is from the 19th-28th and particularly from the 22nd-24th.

March shows two peaks in snowfall, the first on the 1st and 2nd and the second from the 16th-21st. After the 24th there is a rapid decline in both the frequency and amount of snowfall and the 25th, 26th, 29th and d31st of March have yet to record a measurable snowfall.

MOST FREQUENT SLEET OR SNOW FALLING IN LAST 30 YEARS

Feb' 25th................16

Dec' 20th...............15

Jan' 26th..............15

Feb' 26th...............15

Jan' 22nd...............14

Jan' 28th................14

Feb' 10th................14

Feb' 17th................14

Feb' 21st................14

March 1st...............14

Jan' 4th..................13

Jan' 5th..................13

Jan' 23rd................13

Jan' 27th................13

Feb' 7th..................13

Feb' 8th..................13

Feb' 22nd................13

Feb' 24th.................13

Feb' 28th.................13

MOST FREQUENT DAYS OF MEASURABLE SNOWFALL IN LAST 30 YEARS

Feb' 7th................8

Feb' 8th................8

Dec' 21st............. 8

Feb' 28th..............7

March 17th...........7

Dec' 20th.............6

Jan' 23rd.............6

Feb' 9th...............6

Feb' 22nd............6.

LARGEST ACCUMULATED SNOWFALL TOTALS CM

Feb' 23rd..............42.4

Dec' 8th...............38.9

Jan' 8th................38.0

Jan' 23rd..............36.0

Feb' 15th..............34.5

Feb' 24th..............34.2

Dec' 20th.............33.3

Jan 27th...............32.5

Feb' 8th................31.1

Dec' 12th..............31.0

Nov' 19th..............29.7

Dec' 21st..............29.2

March 17th...........29.0

Jan' 13th..............28.5

Jan' 29th..............27.9

Feb' 22nd.............27.9

Feb' 9th................27.7

Jan 19th...............26.8

March 21st............26.5

Dec' 21st..............25.4

March 6th..............25.2

T.M

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Posted
  • Location: Huddersfield, 145m ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Lots of snow, lots of hot sun
  • Location: Huddersfield, 145m ASL

Fascinating response T.M., and if anything, taking a more general view of your data, it illustrates quite well something which many people should bear in mind during the winter months i.e. just how infrequent snowfall really is for the vast majority of the UK, given that, by my reckoning, (and I admit my statistics isn't brilliant), even in your upland location, on average, a winter is only likely to produce 3-5 days of measurable snowfall in any given location. Spread over three months it does show just how thankless a task weather watching is likely to be for snow-lovers living (particularly) in lowland England !

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Posted
  • Location: Shrewsbury
  • Location: Shrewsbury

Looking at TM's statistics, even allowing for the altitude difference and longer timespan the snowless middle of the month phenomenon seems to show there as well: only one of his "most frequent snow" dates is between 11th-19th of a "winter" month, and none of the "measurable" dates.

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  • 1 month later...
Posted
  • Location: Cheddar Valley, 20mtrs asl
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and lots of it or warm and sunny, no mediocre dross
  • Location: Cheddar Valley, 20mtrs asl

Here's another question for all those with records and good memories; whereabouts are you most likely wake up and see a snow covered garden? I know there will be a bais for those more Northern areas so if you draw a line at say Birmingham, which is the snowiest area south of that point?

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Posted
  • Location: Up Hill Down Dale
  • Weather Preferences: Long hot summers and Deepest darkest snows of Winter
  • Location: Up Hill Down Dale

I'll tell you where you're least likely to wake up to snow: Swanage in Dorset. I grew up there and have never woken up to snow. We've had at most a cm, but it only lasts half a day. Last sprinkling was back in 1988. We always longed for it to snow, but on the upside we had early and long summers.

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

The most snowy of Britain's cities is probably Aberdeen, although if you come further inland you get rather more. In general there is a gradient on low ground from south-west to north-east.

South of Birmingham, the snowiest area is probably the mountains of South Wales due to altitude. From what I recall from the MetO snow graphs, the north of East Anglia is relatively snowy (about the same frequency as coastal NE England) because the area is exposed to the north and east.

Lowland parts of south-west England, especially near the south coast, appear to be the most snowless, although it's worth noting that Exeter contrived to have a bit more snow than Abingdon during the few winters up to (but not including) 2006/07. I reckon Penzanze probably warrants the title "most snowless place in Britain".

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Here's another question for all those with records and good memories; whereabouts are you most likely wake up and see a snow covered garden? I know there will be a bais for those more Northern areas so if you draw a line at say Birmingham, which is the snowiest area south of that point?

Perhaps Snowdonia? Capel Curig or something. Or the south wales valleys and Brecon Beacons - Wales does to seem to have done very well in recent winters, at least I have. I've had about 20 inches of combined snow in the last 2 winters, about 10 inches last winter (all in 2 days) and about the same in 2005-2006, but more spread out.

Edited by Magpie
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Posted
  • Location: Heswall, Wirral
  • Weather Preferences: Summer: warm, humid, thundery. Winter: mild, stormy, some snow.
  • Location: Heswall, Wirral

I has always imagined that December the 26th was one of the snowiest days of the winter on average, because when i was younger, snow always used to occur just after Christmas day, so around the 26-29th December and last til about January the 1st.

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Fascinating response T.M., and if anything, taking a more general view of your data, it illustrates quite well something which many people should bear in mind during the winter months i.e. just how infrequent snowfall really is for the vast majority of the UK, given that, by my reckoning, (and I admit my statistics isn't brilliant), even in your upland location, on average, a winter is only likely to produce 3-5 days of measurable snowfall in any given location. Spread over three months it does show just how thankless a task weather watching is likely to be for snow-lovers living (particularly) in lowland England !

Just picking up on this point, as I don't think it's quite as grim as that for snow lovers. My reading of the stats is that for a given day of a winter month, there will have been, on average, 3-5 occurrences of measurable snowfall on that day in the past 30 years.

Since a winter is 90 days long, that would equate to in the region of 9-15 days per winter, with some more to add from November and March.

Still, the original point is valid- 9-15 days in a winter is still pretty low considering we're talking an upland location.

As for the Aberdeen point, yes, last winter was particularly unusual in that Aberdeen didn't get much snow, yet we had a few northerly outbreaks- the very synoptic setup that normally favours Aberdeen. I recall the SST modification was a large factor, such that the northerlies often weren't cold enough around Aberdeen, but were cold enough further south- which doesn't usually happen.

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Posted
  • Location: Cheddar Valley, 20mtrs asl
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and lots of it or warm and sunny, no mediocre dross
  • Location: Cheddar Valley, 20mtrs asl

Thanks for all the replies folks. I personally think this must be one of the most snowless spots in the UK, lived here for ten years now and we've had a couple of inches, twice; nothing at all last year. It's also home village of Scott (he of antarctica fame) I reckon he was driven sooooooooo mad at the lack of snow he was prepared to go all that way just to get a fix.

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Posted
  • Location: Heswall, Wirral
  • Weather Preferences: Summer: warm, humid, thundery. Winter: mild, stormy, some snow.
  • Location: Heswall, Wirral
I've just realised that I began this thread ... in January 2005 :o In two and half years, 19 replies by others have been posted.

Is this a record?! :D

I thought it has been posted today? :doh: :lol:

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