January 1995

[Thundery wintry showers]

January 1995 had a CET of 4.8C (4.7 on Philip Eden's attempted Hadley emulation), and it was milder than average in the south, but had a near average temperature in the north. The month featured a couple of notable snow events, and was remarkably unsettled after midmonth.

The month began with a cold northerly flow which brought surprisingly widespread snow showers, with a pronounced Cheshire Gap feed on New Year's Day, together with severe snowstorms for northern and eastern Scotland that penetrated southwards in association with troughs. I remember that much wintry precipitation fell during the preceding night in Tyne & Wear, with heavy prolonged snow showers that afternoon, though by the coast none of it settled.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119950101.gif

Showers became restricted to north-facing coasts by the 2nd, and it became cold and bright for a time before Atlantic systems introduced rain, preceded by snow in places, followed by mild and mostly cloudy south-westerlies in an anticyclonic regime.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119950105.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119950109.gif

There was a brief northerly on the 11th/12th, but with snow only in the usual areas for transitionary northerlies, then a very unsettled spell commenced around midmonth.

Westerly and south-westerly winds prevailed between the 15th and 23rd, with many deep depressions moving from south-west to north-east, sweeping in bands of heavy and prolonged rain, with brighter showery weather in between. It was generally mild in the south, but the polar maritime incursions in the north pulled in cold polar air at times; accumulations of snow were mostly limited to high ground but sleet and snow showers sometimes fell at low levels. It was also very windy at times.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119950118.gif

Some moderately cold polar air fed into northern areas on the 24th/25th, while it stayed mild in the south. A front stalled over central areas on the 25th, producing sleet and wet snow for many lowland areas, but the Leeds/Bradford/Sheffield area was hit by an exceptional snowstorm, with 40cm at Leeds in just three hours. The snow largely disappeared during the next day, although wintry showers developed in eastern areas from a northerly airstream.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119950125.gif

The 27th saw the cold polar air swept away by another deep low pressure system, but the rain was preceded by snow in some areas- again, I remember it quite well in Tyne & Wear, with temporary accumulations of snow that evening, though it had all gone by the next day. After a mild wet day on the 28th, cold northerly winds with wintry showers near the east coast returned on the 29th, then wet and windy weather returned from the south-west on the 30th and 31st.

The month as a whole was exceptionally wet in many areas, especially the southeast. Sunshine was generally close to normal but with exceptions, e.g. it was dull in many southern parts, while Glasgow was exceptionally sunny.

[reef]

January 1995 was indeed quite a snowy month masked by a mild average temperature. Just today in another thread I mentioned how several inches of snow settled around the new year as heavy showers and trough activity moved southwards. Im surpised snow didnt settle by the coast further north as there were no such problems here.

The month is a classic example of how a positive NAO doesnt always necessarily mean less snowy. Obviously further south where areas were often stuck in the mild sector it wasnt particularly impressive, but further north frequent polar incursions on the back end of depressions meant it was quite a good month for snowfall.

Unfortunately it seems such months are a rare occurance now, with the jet taking an ever northerly path each decade it seems the only zonality we ever see is the mild kind.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Ironically enough, my idea for this thread was inspired by the aforementioned post!

Earlier this year, Zerouali lives (from Aberdeen) started a thread on New Year's Day 1995 and asked if I remembered anything about it; I replied that I couldn't remember, but suggested that it might have been one of those where snow showers drifted uselessly out at sea due to the NNW flow.

Then I remembered my vivid recollection of a snowy Sunday during mid-winter 1994/95, and realised from scrutiny of the historic archives that that must have been it. Still, I'm surprised myself that the snow didn't settle by the coast; it was a potent northerly and the wind wasn't even off the sea!

[Weather-history]

http://youtu.be/rB-V6M9V1mM

[iand61]

Not sure if i'm on the right one here but if my memory serves me right the snow on the forecast by John Kettley resulted in it taking me 4 hours to travel the 6 miles from work to home, a journey which normally i can do in 20 minutes.

In over 1 hour of that time i travelled 20 feet and only then after about a dozen of us had pushed a bus far enough to free it from completely blocking the road.

[damianslaw]

The event on the youtube video failed to deliver much in the way of longlasting snow cover here - from memory, I think we had about 4-5 hours of very heavy snow during the afternoon with about 5 inches by early evening, but then the snow turned to rain and due to milder uppers moving in and the very wet nature of the snow, it quickly began to thaw, by the next morning it was a slushy mess and by the following day it was all gone. - however this recollection of events doesn't correlate with the conditions and synoptics described in the forecast - so I might be completely wrong with my memory of events.. but I do remember this chain of events as I describe and can't think when else it could have been..

Whatever, it was a rare heavy snowfall in a barren winter for snowfall, indeed winter 94/95 was an exceptionally wet one.

Edited January 22, 2012 by damianslaw

[Thundery wintry showers]

The month began with a cold northerly flow which brought surprisingly widespread snow showers, with a pronounced Cheshire Gap feed on New Year's Day, together with severe snowstorms for northern and eastern Scotland that penetrated southwards in association with troughs. I remember that much wintry precipitation fell during the preceding night in Tyne & Wear, with heavy prolonged snow showers that afternoon, though by the coast none of it settled.

I have to correct myself on that recollection- I was recalling Tyne and Wear's weather on the 31st December 1994. During New Year's Day 1995, snow showers stayed mostly out at sea, but a couple came onshore around mid-morning giving a thin covering at Cleadon. The maximum temperature was only around 1C- so Reef was right to be surprised by there supposedly being an issue with the snow settling near the coast further north, as there wasn't one!

As for 25th January 1995, many parts of northern England had a lot of wet snow which struggled to settle, so I don't think Damianslaw's recollections are necessarily inaccurate. Neither was the forecast, as it did mention heavy snow and accumulations especially on high ground, hinting that some low-lying parts could see just wet sleety snow.

[Weather-history]

2nd January 1995

3rd January 1995

4th January 1995: frontal snow in the SE

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6th January 1995

7th January 1995

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8th January 1995

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9th January 1995: a threat of snow for NE England

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10th January 1995

11th January 1995

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12th January 1995

13th January 1995

[Thundery wintry showers]

Thanks for these again- the New Year's Day forecast supported my earlier comments about recollections of Cleadon's weather that day, with the finger of snow showers at 10-11am over Tyne and Wear showing up clearly on the radar. They appeared to be associated with a trough heading NNW-SSE rather than heading inland off the North Sea though, another instance of where memory played some tricks.

The northerly outbreak on the 11th January 1995, in contrast, was one of those useless (for snow lovers) 24-36 hour topplers.

Will be interesting to see what the forecasters say about that spell around the 18th-24th January 1995- a good spell of weather for those who like a good "blow" from the Atlantic. I remember watching the BBC forecasts a lot around that period checking whether the gales and blustery showers would be likely to make it over the Pennines, but I don't specifically remember any of the forecasts.

[Weather-history]

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15th January 1995

16th January 1995: windy

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17th January 1995

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18th January 1995

19th January 1995

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20th January 1995

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21st January 1995

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22nd January 1995

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23rd January 1995

24th January 1995

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26th January 1995: Threat of frontal snow in the north

27th January 1995: mild weather coming in

28th January 1995: cold weather returning

[jdc]

Here's an Excel sheet of weather for Jan 95 at Berwick, if anyone is interested. My memory of the year is not as clear as those above! I've only noted snow on one day - 27th. Excuse 'old' units!

WXJan1995.xls

[Weather-history]

30th January 1995