The cold spell

[Wynn D Woo]

Pretty poor cold spell, night time minima has not been impressive at all, and not even a single snowflake, yes still time to go yet before the end of winter but as a UK event generally disapointing.

[snowingtequila]

Oh dear I see now that the feb severe spell is beginning to become a certainty by some lol!

You might be interested in this - the weather in Harrogate for March last year - you can see how much colder and snowier it was and compare the months!

I am not suggesting this has been a worse cold spell than last March I had deep snow then but this cold spell was very important because without it then I feel winter would have very little to offer afterwards because the next cold spell would be the first and not very potent! INstead we have seen the first of the increasing cold snaps as promised from the met office in their seasonal forecast which appears to be on track.

[Yeti]

I am not suggesting this has been a worse cold spell than last March I had deep snow then but this cold spell was very important because without it then I feel winter would have very little to offer afterwards because the next cold spell would be the first and not very potent! INstead we have seen the first of the increasing cold snaps as promised from the met office in their seasonal forecast which appears to be on track.

Misunderstanding - I added that later for everyone to see with the "you" referring to all rather than you in particular - don't worry no one could say that this was better than last March

And yes at least it has broken the bad pattern, if that only.

[Paul Sherman]

Or Maybe we are just Ramping a little bit too much, someone earlier said this would not have even been noted in the 80's, and that is right, they must have had marginal set ups then as well, it's just we got proper winters then with Scandi & Arctic Highs and none of this over the Toppler Atlantic Modified Air North Easterlies we get now days, I am pretty happy with 2 days of snow, Heavy snow for about 10 minutes this morning at 8am and 10am left a covering decent enough for some pictures and about 1cm yesterday morning, other North Easterlies over the past few years have delivered nothing, but its a sad state we are in with these marginal affairs.

Paul Sherman

[Thundery wintry showers]

Relative to the rest of the North East I didn't do too badly from it; a light dusting of snow on Tuesday morning following a min of -0.3C, wet snow on Tuesday night, and when the NE'lys blew they were so warm that the usual issue of hail/sleet on the coast, snow inland just didn't apply. I was getting maxima of 6-7C on the coast when the wind was off the sea!

I'm more concerned with what the future holds. The cold snap was moderated by high SSTs in the North Sea, probably making about 1-2C difference, and from late Tuesday onwards by less cold air that was toppling around the high from the high 850 hPa anomalies east of Iceland/Greenland. This helped provide snow in the south, but further north it probably moderated the temperatures further by another 1-2C, this moderated air also spread to most of the rest of the country.

Had the airmass been unmodified, we'd probably have been getting wet snow in the North East as early as Sunday night, though Monday would generally have been too warm (we'd still have been talking 5-6C max on the coast, and 4C inland). Tuesday would certainly have been a "snow day" with minima of -2C and maxima of 2C. Of course, we wouldn't have had the frontal event overnight Tuesday/Wednesday then (as this was associated with the modification), but with NE winds on Wednesday, I reckon maxes in the North East would have ranged from 3-4C on the coast to around 2C inland, thus giving snow away from the coast.

Snow lovers just have to hope that the sea surface temperatures don't keep on rising; if they do, cold snaps will become ever more marginal.

[Shunter]

Just driven to the viewing point at the top of Wrotham Hill in Kent. Couldn't see across Maidstone because of heavy falling snow. Theres about 8-10cms lying at the moment. Beautiful

[Great Plum]

well, as I have noted in previous threads - the 1 inch of snow yesterday morning was the most I have seen since I moved to Reigate in 2004 - so I can't be disappointed with that.

It was also more than I expected.

However, I think the temp seems to recover throughout the day to quite a high maxima...

[snowray]

Just driven to the viewing point at the top of Wrotham Hill in Kent. Couldn't see across Maidstone because of heavy falling snow. Theres about 8-10cms lying at the moment. Beautiful

8-10cms!!! Please confirm ....Wheres Andy gone?

[Rollo]

I am about 12 miles from the North East coast and often the problem is that the showers do not get this far inland,my altitude of 75 metres puts me these days in the dubious position in that if precipitation falls I can see snow on the foothills of the Cheviots but nothing lies here. I have lived here for 31 years and in the last 10 years there has been a noticable reduction in snow laying and even days with snow falling. In my formative years living within 3 miles of the coast ,I distinctly remember taking the tram to the beach and finding that while even snowing there it was a sleety mixture whereas only 200 yards away the snow was laying properly. In my mind we can no longer consider this warming as cyclical and we have to face the facts that only major synoptic events viz,Jan 87' or Feb 91' will produce cold spells of old,how I hope that time will prove me incorrect.

[nick sussex]

Overall I'm quite happy with this cold snap, had 6cms of snow on tuesday night and its snowing as I speak, still have some snow cover from the other night. Temperature wise nothing special, I've had much colder weather here but without the snow, in fact the snowfall the other night was the best since I moved down here from london 5 years ago.

Unfortunately yet again in the uk any snow is never widespread and because of the warmer than average ssts moderated the cold. Additionally the problem was the cut off of the proper arctic flow before it had even a chance to really settle in and much of our sourcing of air was therefore not as cold as it could have been, I think we're paying the price for the very mild winter so far and we're lagging behind in terms of getting those ssts down and so it might be yet again that we see the best conditions at the turn of winter into spring.

Edited January 25, 2007 by nick sussex

[SussexCoast]

Something that was different for me was that here on the coast we had a surprise snow for Wednesday morning, nothing spectacular, but it hung around for most of the day and my boys could go sledging !!

But it was the 2nd phase which was 'nearly' different.

There was a chance that we would of had more snow Wednesday night Thursday morning as well.

Which as I can remember is unusual in recent years.

The 2nd phase never really materialised with only a 'sugar coating' but how long since we have experienced a decent snowfall without a major thaw only to experience a phase 2 event ??

I can remember it happening in the late 70's here in Sussex with some real snow only to be topped up with more snow........great times !!

Regards

[Optimus Prime]

Best snowfall since January 2003 but it still wasn't much.

[Mr Sleet]

Best snowfall for about 7 years ( 3 inches) still a little bit left. Pretty good for a northerly that didn't originate very far north, I think about the latitude of Iceland.

Delivered more than I expected.

[Andy Bown]

I didn't realise it was over.

Still frosty here and a perfectly sunny blue sky. Another frost tpnight will be the 4th in a row. Sleet fell on 2 days, wasn't expecting anything more for here.

[Bobby]

Well, we had only a light dusting of snow but nothing more was expected so I'm not too dissapointed. It's been rather chilly with some light frosts at night. Wouldn't call it a cold spell though, more of a cool spell. Better than anything we've had this winter though, even though it wasn't much.

[*Stormforce~beka*]

Good thread this because im curious to read who complains at the lack of snow when they weren't even forecasted any by either the models or forecasts.

Im not having a dig at anyone but it's more of a general observation of reading posts before the cold spell arrives.

Ah ha! Am I valid for a moan? Hampshire right in firing line and got ziltchy. Except the slightest dusting. *Huge tears and disappointment here*

[Bottesford]

Best snowfall in ages here the other night which melted mostly by morning. Yesterday was pretty grim with sleety rain & a lot of cloud. Today is lovely- clear skies & an ever warming Sun - it does have some power at around noon now! It's noticably higher in the sky too. Min temp has only been -0.3c so not exactly a harsh cold spell, but good in the context of a mild winter. The addition of sunshine & snow in an otherwise very grey winter has been very welcomed. I only hope the upcoming high pressure spell doesn't mean weeks of AC gloom - can't stand it anymore!

Now hoping we see one more snow/cold event in Feb before a warm spring arrives and into the glory of summer!

[HighPressure]

North Downs Sevenoaks only about 2cms going fast now, a bit dissapointed really, anymore on the way?

[Long haul to mild]

It's all been a bit disappointing here in Suffolk, considering that we were allegedly in the firing line for loads of showers. All the ppn charts pointed to this last week and earlier this week but the showers never really got inland at all and just drifted out to sea.

We were just too far East for the Tuesday night event and just too far North for last night's (although we did manage a dusting here overnight so at least we got a little).

I think the cold spell was a letdown here mainly because of the Northerly component of the flow; we really need an E'ly or a ENE'ly here.

However, it was good to see some areas of the Midlands and Central Southern England getting some snow because they are not usually favoured for it.

I think that hopes were raised last week by some stellar GFS runs which never quite came to fruition. The ECM generally performed better but even that model toppled the High too quickly, so the answer turned out to be somewhere inbetween the two.

Back to model watching then as I still have high hopes for February!

[Polar Bear]

Something that was different for me was that here on the coast we had a surprise snow for Wednesday morning, nothing spectacular, but it hung around for most of the day and my boys could go sledging !!

But it was the 2nd phase which was 'nearly' different.

There was a chance that we would of had more snow Wednesday night Thursday morning as well.

Which as I can remember is unusual in recent years.

The 2nd phase never really materialised with only a 'sugar coating' but how long since we have experienced a decent snowfall without a major thaw only to experience a phase 2 event ??

I can remember it happening in the late 70's here in Sussex with some real snow only to be topped up with more snow........great times !!

Regards

Matt

just quickly...I would concur with you every step of the way....I am a sussex borne and bred girl...Mum Dad said exactly that the other morning..tis been thirty years when it last snowed to such a simialr quantity. I do remember goign to Goodwood Hill - I must have been about 6 or 7 or earlier..........

[Arnie22]

anything coming out of the sky in the Humber region

[snowray]

Got an Inch of snow on weds night and a sprinkling this morning, thats ot folks. Beter then nothing and I feel I should be grateful considering what we had up until now, but it felt more like a late March snowfall not a late January one, (this being traditionally the coldest phase of the Winter). Having said this I cant help but think that such events 20 or 30 years ago would have been considered very small fry indeed!

[Yeti]

Just looking at all the ppl who say best cold spell for several years snow-wise e.g. SE London areas and I am astonished! Have we not seen better ones in the past 5 years eg Jan 04, Dec 05, Feb/March 06?

Or is 5cm of snow really that rare down south these days?

[Just Before Dawn]

Afternoon all

Nothing at the moment Arnie22, but there are signs of Cb to the north of me.

And nothing much for the last few days either. Dusting of snow on roofs on Tuesday morning, some heavy hail/sleet/snow showers yesterday, but nothing setteld.

The effect of SST's has been mentioned elsewhere. Perhaps it is time to re-write the text books in the light of this increasing trend in modification of air masses?

I'm 15 miles south of you Nimbus, and a few of us up and down the east coast did suspect, even before this thing started, that the wind direction and SSTs would result in a pretty marginal few days for snow, and so it proved for us. Indeed, it looked very much like a re-run of Feb 2005 - we did a little better than that, but not much.

[Rich_Clements]

The cold spell for me was a couple of frosts a bit of dandruff at midnight only to wake to rain!! and another lovely cold sunny day! nothing really spectacular to be honest.