The cold spell

[Peter Henderson]

It wasn't exactly a cold spell... it got a bit chilly, but that's about it really.

I agree. As Meatloaf once said (or sang) "you took the words right out of my mouth" . We did have 2 more nights of frost to add to the 3 we've had so far this winter but that was about it. Cant see anything cold happening before late Feb. at the earliest.

In winters like this we often get the snow in March/April (1974/1975 was a prime example) due to the lower sea tempts. It's now turned much milder here with persistant spells of drizzle. Very depressing weather, in my opinion :

http://85.214.49.20/wz/pics/Rtavn3841.png

http://85.214.49.20/wz/pics/Rtavn3842.png

Edited January 27, 2007 by Peter Henderson

[Stratos Ferric]

I suppose this cold snap just highlights the differences between the north and the south.

I don't think it does actually Tom, because the heaviest snow last week was definitely in the southern half. What it illutrates far more clearly is changes over time.

[mackerel sky]

This has been the latest i've had to wait into winter to see some falling snow of some description, a wet snow shower or something, not necessarily lying. Let me give you the details of where i've lived on a general basis...

1976-1994 Yarm, N Yorks (or Cleveland, Tees Valley, whatever...)

1994-1997 Lancaster

1997-1998 Leeds

1998-2000 Bedford

2000-present Rushden, Northants

The Leeds winter was pretty weak when I lived there, in terms of a decent snowfall. But it did snow far in advance of late January. Lancaster was most notable for the 1995-1996 winter. The Bedford days weren't great, mostly because snow doesn't tend to settle there much, but it did snow far in advance of late January.

My original 1976-1994 years, seeing as my parents still live there is the benchmark.

On my that benchmark last weeks spell scores a poxy 1/10. On a weighted West Anglia/East Midlands basis, over the 8 years i've lived here, it still scores a measly 3/10.

That's poor in my book. I would have rated it higher if the 6/7cm of snow we had overnight on Tuesday hadn't disappeared so quickly and we had a few more showers. The end of December 2005 would gets a 5.5/10 on the same scale... it was better - that was despite it was just a blob of cold air getting detached off the continent. Much more frequent snow showers, and much colder. Thundersnow event in late January 2004 gets 6.5/10 on my East Mids/West Anglia weighting as we had snow the previous night, topping up the totals, giving about 10-14cm from that spell. I can go back to 2000 in this area, but nothing gets much above 6.

I can go on and on about significant snowfall in the NE pre 1994. Snowfall seemed to be norm in winter when I was a kid in the 1980s. But whats the point when this weeks snowfall, if anything else was rubbish in my hometown - they had two overnight snowfalls of about an inch, all gone by midday.

If Anglia News were running a story on whats happened to winters in the past 10 years in this region, what more can I say.