What Do You Prefer - Northerly Cold Spells Or Prolonged Easterly Spells ?

[TomS]

Northerlies for me for a lot of the reasons Botty mentioned above but also with the benefit of lots of snow for up here usually!

I remember the winter of 1947 when easterlies blew almost without remission from third week in January until mid-March. I lost count of the number of times the BBC radio forecast said 'becoming milder' in the further outlook! Probably because the Met.Office figured that it had to end sometime!

Even in N.W. England we had continuous snow cover, the heaviest fall from a polar low which moved north-east across the country on Feb 25/26.

[PersianPaladin]

A good old fashioned easterly is pure heaven for where I live. Constant streamers of beefy snow showers and graupel from the north sea deliver the goods if the synoptics and high pressure orientation is just right.

Its very tough to get a good easterly these days however. The last one that delivered 10cm of snow here was back in 2005.

[J10]

NNW winds sourced from the Arctic, can guarantee a lot of snow showers, with a heavy covering of snow on many occasions in the past decade.

[donna-m]

I'll have a Easterly please

Usually i only see snow if it has some easterly direction

[Sawel]

Definitely an easterly. We're a bit too sheltered here from a northerly. What PersianPaladin said rings true for here too- if the orientation of the high pressure is just right easterlies usually deliver. Due to the long fetch across the sea we can get heavy snow showers here, but easterlies seem a rarity these days. The Feb 2005 easterly brought some heavy falls of snow at night time, that's the last easterly we had.

Edited November 30, 2008 by Sawel

[Thundery wintry showers]

Taking the country as a whole, I prefer northerlies, simply because if it isn't snowy it will probably be sunny and dry with a crisp feel, whereas with an easterly, it tends to be dull and boring with never-ending stratocumulus. There are local exceptions, e.g. inland northern England, Scottish Lowlands, SW England, where easterlies might just shave it as they are far more likely to bring snow events, offsetting the lack of sunshine factor.

I agree with the posts about the ENE wind vector though- in fact I'd take that over a northerly, with just local exceptions. An ENE vector implies air taking quite a long sea track and originating at high latitudes, which tips the balance of probability in favour of bright snowy weather rather than dull dry weather.

Edited November 30, 2008 by Thundery wintry showers

[ribster]

Easterlys for me, ala Jan 87 (think it was an easterly anyway), biggest dumping I've ever seen!

[Thundery wintry showers]

Taking the country as a whole, I prefer northerlies, simply because if it isn't snowy it will probably be sunny and dry with a crisp feel, whereas with an easterly, it tends to be dull and boring with never-ending stratocumulus. There are local exceptions, e.g. inland northern England, Scottish Lowlands, SW England, where easterlies might just shave it as they are far more likely to bring snow events, offsetting the lack of sunshine factor.

Perhaps I should extend that generalisation to southern England as a whole, thinking of how sheltered S/SE England are from the north.

Jan '87 was indeed an easterly- and as it happens the wind came from the ENE during the peak of the spell.

[paul tall]

A North Easterly is the only thing that reliably delivers around here, and then its in shower form.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Actually, looking over those "local exceptions" they cover about half of the country, so perhaps it would be fairer to say that my preference for northerlies or easterlies varies depending on what area of the country it is! But an ENE, or NE for that matter, would beat straight N or straight E for all regions bar Wales and Ireland.

[PersianPaladin]

Actually, looking over those "local exceptions" they cover about half of the country, so perhaps it would be fairer to say that my preference for northerlies or easterlies varies depending on what area of the country it is! But an ENE, or NE for that matter, would beat straight N or straight E for all regions bar Wales and Ireland.

Agreed.

[❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️]

Prolonged Easterly, as long as it produced some decent snowfall.

[chionomaniac]

I would have an easterly every time here in Brighton with low pressure close by to the south. And for those that say the continent may be too warm in December for a snow producing easterly I would say that the air mass source to the East is equally important and can cool very rapidly. Tonight's GFS 18Z from T+192 to T+312 is a case in point. In those 5 days the continent cools down sufficiently so that if an easterly was unleashed, we needn't worry about it not being cold enough.

[Guest zebra danio]

Simple - arctic/polar continental north easterlies with heavy convective snow showers punctuated with lows tracking over northern france bringing severe easterly gales and blizzards....

Edited November 30, 2008 by zebra danio

[Cookie]

Northerlies all the way for me.

just more interesting when it comes that way I find