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march snow


keithtod43

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Posted
  • Location: swansea
  • Location: swansea
Posted

Can anybody tell me why time and time again early march produces the most snow for the south of the uk,and when was the last time we have had no snow in march?

  • Replies 17
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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
Posted

Well in my mind, December now come in January and therefore February comes in March and as February is supposedly the snowiest month, it now falls in early March. It could also be that winter's been going for the last three-four months, but that's just a thought. :clap:

On a more professional note, the last time in snowed porperly in the south in March was March 12th 2006.

Posted
  • Location: Hampshire Snow Hoper
  • Location: Hampshire Snow Hoper
Posted

A good question however have to say that this part of Hampshire rarely has snow in March or any other time last snow here thundersnow 28 01 04,interesting to note though that a memorable date ie 14th march,last day of the fishing season ,around that time often cold often easterly but rarely snowy.

Posted
  • Location: Steeton, W Yorks, 270m ASL
  • Location: Steeton, W Yorks, 270m ASL
Posted
Can anybody tell me why time and time again early march produces the most snow for the south of the uk,and when was the last time we have had no snow in march?

Not sure that stacks up historically at all keith. I do agree that generally across the whole country the window from late Feb to early March has most consistently delivered some wintriness in recent years, but that's a phenomenon of the past 4-5 years I'd say.

Posted
  • Location: Liphook
  • Location: Liphook
Posted

I wonder SF if thats because this time of year has become more common to see the poler vortex break down slightly later and as a result a drop in the AO at this time of year...saying that it could be just as likely to one of those wierd stats.

Posted
  • Location: Berlin, Germany
  • Weather Preferences: Ample sunshine; Hot weather; Mixed winters with cold and mild spells
  • Location: Berlin, Germany
Posted

Perhaps because the oceans are at their coldest in March and the Sun is pretty strong thus giving less modified cold air (from those cold seas) and greater convective shower potential (from the strong Sun). As I remember on average easter is just as snowy as xmas for those reasons.

Posted
  • Location: Steeton, W Yorks, 270m ASL
  • Location: Steeton, W Yorks, 270m ASL
Posted
I wonder SF if thats because this time of year has become more common to see the poler vortex break down slightly later and as a result a drop in the AO at this time of year...saying that it could be just as likely to one of those wierd stats.

It may just be one of those cyclical things of course, and there's an extent to which this is relative. There always has been occasional snow in early March (and beyond), but in relatively snowless winters a pattern such as this can seem to take on more significance.

Cold weather used to occur either because we had cold airmasses making incursions, almost irrespective of the fact that we weren't yet at the low point for annual SST, or else at or around the low of the sea temperatures. My hunch is that the latter is now the more important factor simply because the former is less reliable. Cold weather in the UK requires a cold air source not too moderated. In recent years cold sources have increasinglky been too moderated: that has face validity because sea temperatures have risen. We're increasingly confined to a narrow window of the lowest SSTs for wintry weather, and that would be consistent with late Feb - early March.

Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam
Posted
Can anybody tell me why time and time again early march produces the most snow for the south of the uk,and when was the last time we have had no snow in march?

March 2002 and 2003 were pretty snowless. It is probably one of those cycles, like "the Christmas-New Year cold snap/spell" that happened a few times from 1993-2005 (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005) where snow fell at some time during the festive season.

Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
Posted

I'll think you'll find it's a myth.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/loc...gland/snow.html although I'm having trouble finding charts that show the number of days snow has fallen.

Metoffice seem to have dumped the figures!!!! Only found some unlinked files about the south west. I guess it shows how little snow we have these days.

Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
Posted
I'll think you'll find it's a myth.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/loc...gland/snow.html although I'm having trouble finding charts that show the number of days snow has fallen. I can go back 10years in memory and we have had heavy snow and had gritters out first 3 weeks in march on a regular basis.

Apart from light Snow last year in March it's been many a year since we had decent snow in March. I think I was in school so that's going back about 30 years.

I wonder what they've done with the figures.

Has Mr data got any figures??

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

Traditionally March is about as snowy as December- a greater frequency of snow falling (somewhere in between the mean for January/February and December) but slightly lower frequency of snow lying. That's averaged over a long time period though- in recent years January has tended to be less snowy than December.

Posted
  • Location: Dundee
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, thunderstorms, gales. All extremes except humidity.
  • Location: Dundee
Posted

Just two years ago the North East of Scotland had up to 30 cms of cumulative snow lying from a persistant Northerly. On the 11/12th there was more widespread snow further South with 39 cms level snow reported from Artalnaig in Perthshire. Parts of West Fife reported 30cms and the 25cms in the Glasgow area caused chaos overnight on the Saturday.

The 12th is my daughter's birthday and on that day in 2006 her party was cancelled as her friends could not make it in from the countryside. It also snowed on the morning she was born in 1998.

Posted
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District. 290 mts a.s.l.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything extreme
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District. 290 mts a.s.l.
Posted

There's been at least 2 mornings with lying snow here in March in each of the past 4 years but no great depth. The last significant snowfall in March was 16cm on the 21st in 2001. There was no lying snow at all in March 2002 and 2003 but in the last 30 years we've never had a March with no sleet or snow falling, the nearest to a totally snowless March was in 1997 when there was just 1 day with falling snow and none lying.

Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
Posted

Being brought up in the Lake District and now living in the NE england I very much expect to see at least one day of snow falling during March. I regard March as having much greater odds in terms of delivering a heavy snowfall than December.

It is quite true that in recent years March has delivered widespread snowfall at least to the northern half of the country (think 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006 and even last year i.e. 18-20th March saw a cold northerly period with snow showers).

As others have stated perhaps it is because we tend to see the Polar Vortex shifting further south during March and combined with low SST's especially in the first part of the month, and with the arctic being at its coldest in the first part of the month, and with the extra kick from the higher sun any shower activity from a 'northerly' will more likely produce a greater risk of snow than in the earlier part of the season.

Even if the short cold snap forecast for late sunday into tuesday doesn't deliver snow for me here in Newcastle, it isn't really until the middle of April when I begin to feel any odds on the potential for snow begin to diminish.

For northern hilly regions March is very much a true winter month - often much more savage than December.

Posted
  • Location: Powys Mid Wales borders.
  • Location: Powys Mid Wales borders.
Posted
There was no lying snow at all in March 2002 and 2003 but in the last 30 years we've never had a March with no sleet or snow falling, the nearest to a totally snowless March was in 1997 when there was just 1 day with falling snow and none lying.

March 1997 was the only month here that not gave a single flake.

Even the most snowless winter of 1991/92 gave a covering at the end of the month.

  • 4 months 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
Posted

I would agree with Stratos Ferric that because of substantial airmass modification in recent years, we must now rely on the late winter period to provide any kind of substantial cold/snow.

Incidently, sea surface temperature anomlies are currently around 2C below average, so if this keeps up for winter then our northerlies/easterlies could have more of a bite.

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