Days With Snow At Hadspen House

[Weather-history]

Here is a table of the number of days that snow was observed to fall at Hadspen House in Somerset from 1828 to 1854. The observations were made by the Rt Hon. Henry Hobhouse

[reef]

Very interesting, missing data aside heres the totals for each month:

JAN: 79

FEB: 58

MAR: 39

APR: 31

MAY: 4

OCT: 3

NOV: 10

DEC: 42

During the time period, March is almost as snowy as December, April is three times snowier than November, May is snowier than October and unsuprisingly January is the snowiest. Aside from January, Id agree it pretty much holds true at the moment aswell.

Theres several well below average Octobers in there too, which shows really how rare October snow is. Not to mention theres some exceptionally cold winter months in there that were as snowy as some of the exceptionally mild ones. January 1828 for example had 4 days of snow and a CET of 5.1C, yet 1838 also had 4 days of snow falling but a CET of -1.5C!

It just goes to show that mild doesnt equal snowless and cold doesnt equal snowy. However these days, its pretty snowless whatever happens!

[Terminal Moraine]

Certainly interesting but I assume from the relatively low numbers that it had to be a fairly significant amount of snow falling to count, not just a few flakes in the wind, and not sleet.

It would be interesting to take a similar place in Somerset and count the number of days in the last 20 years, when even a casual observer would say snow had fallen, and compare the two.

[Thundery wintry showers]

From the lists of months with insufficient observations, I'm guessing that it was probably via occasional and/or intermittent observations- perhaps the equivalent of a Met Office "D" station. That would explain the surprisingly low totals (when I look closely at the totals, they indicate a mean of 10 days per year with snow falling- which is similar to the 1971-2000 average for St Mawgan near the north Cornish coast!)

It's interesting that April was almost as snowy as March, and that November had much less snow than March or April. These days there is quite a large gulf in snowiness between March and April, while November tends to be slightly snowier on average than April. January being the snowiest month is representative of the long-term average- it seems to be only in recent years that January has fallen behind February, March and even December.

As always, fascinating stats from Mr_Data.

[jethro]

Certainly interesting but I assume from the relatively low numbers that it had to be a fairly significant amount of snow falling to count, not just a few flakes in the wind, and not sleet.

It would be interesting to take a similar place in Somerset and count the number of days in the last 20 years, when even a casual observer would say snow had fallen, and compare the two.

Can't give you twenty years worth but I can vouch for the last eleven....

I'm about half an hour away from Hadspen (amazing, wonderful garden now obliterated with a JCB, Nial Hobhouse should hang his head in shame) I digress, sorry.

In the last eleven years I've had snow lying on, at the very most 8 days. Nothing the last three winters other than a slight dusting which disappeared almost as soon as it settled. 5 years ago we had a decent fall (about 6 inches) which then froze solid and lasted for a couple of days, I think in February but I'm not sure. The year before that a similar fall but it melted quickly the next day (seem to remember that may have been December). Definitely April 4th 2000 (moved house that day), about 4 inches but again melted very quickly and was fairly marginal, I live on the Mendip Hills, lower ground had rain. 1997 - 2000 nothing at all.

If it does ever snow around these parts, I'll try and keep more reliable records; if nothing else my shrieking, surprised glee will be recorded here.

[Thundery wintry showers]

My suggestion for the December instance is 2000 or 2001. Both had potent northerly and north-westerly incursions late in the month. I don't think there was any snow around Somerset in Decembers 2002 or 2003, and while snow fell widely on Christmas Day 2004 I don't think it was six inches' worth.

For February, sounds like you're thinking of February 2004. Even Exeter near the Channel coast had a couple of coverings from that northerly. February 2005's easterly was probably a bit too marginal to be the one, while the NW'ly of 3-4 February 2003 was similar to Christmas 2004- not really six inches' worth.

[jethro]

My suggestion for the December instance is 2000 or 2001. Both had potent northerly and north-westerly incursions late in the month. I don't think there was any snow around Somerset in Decembers 2002 or 2003, and while snow fell widely on Christmas Day 2004 I don't think it was six inches' worth.

For February, sounds like you're thinking of February 2004. Even Exeter near the Channel coast had a couple of coverings from that northerly. February 2005's easterly was probably a bit too marginal to be the one, while the NW'ly of 3-4 February 2003 was similar to Christmas 2004- not really six inches' worth.

Thanks TWS, sounds about right date wise. Never had snow on Christmas day here apart from 2004 when I'm sure I counted 3 and a half flakes...grrrr

Sure has been a shock to the system moving from North Yorkshire down to Somerset; really miss winter, the only decent snow I've seen in eleven years has been a on a trip to New York, but that's a helluva way to go to get a snow fix.