Cold Spell The Sum Up

[mountain shadow]

7 days of lying snow with freezing fog and decent frosts every night until this morning. I'm guessing for this neck of the woods that is something unusual and for that I would have to class it as excellent.

Snowman on it's way out by Saturday I think.

[Radiating Dendrite]

Bit disappointing here in West London compared to you East Mids Guys.

We had 7-8 inchs on Feb 2nd, but that had all gone by the thursday/friday and since then we have been on the wrong side of marginal.

Hoping for some snow later on now though

[Interitus]

No exceptional or notable weather here in north Cheshire eg. extreme low temperatures or snowfall.

Just persistently cooler than average temperatures with sky high heating bills, bloody marvellous. That sums it up.

[Michael Fishermans Friend]

Been quite disappointing here on the east coast (which you wouldn't expect from an easterly). At it's deepest we had nearly an inch of the white stuff which was more than some coasterly areas in Essex and Suffolk etc. Still waiting for the post behind the reasoning for this. Infact even day time maxes have not been particularly cold - I think the coldest day recorded in this so called cold spell had a max of 2.5C now compare this to other cold spells in the nineties - just doesn't compare!

Also an annoying fact is how the local papers got on the bandwagon from the National papers on this so called biggest snowfall for 18 years - no such thing! an inch of snowfall is not the biggest for 18 years infact the biggest since February 2007. In this part of the world this cold spell will not be remembered for anything dramatic at all although in the midlands, parts of London, surrey, kent etc. it will be. From a model watching perspective the best since I joined in 2003!

[Radiating Dendrite]

Been quite disappointing here on the east coast (which you wouldn't expect from an easterly). At it's deepest we had nearly an inch of the white stuff which was more than some coasterly areas in Essex and Suffolk etc. Still waiting for the post behind the reasoning for this. Infact even day time maxes have not been particularly cold - I think the coldest day recorded in this so called cold spell had a max of 2.5C now compare this to other cold spells in the nineties - just doesn't compare!

Also an annoying fact is how the local papers got on the bandwagon from the National papers on this so called biggest snowfall for 18 years - no such thing! an inch of snowfall is not the biggest for 18 years infact the biggest since February 2007. In this part of the world this cold spell will not be remembered for anything dramatic at all although in the midlands, parts of London, surrey, kent etc. it will be. From a model watching perspective the best since I joined in 2003!

Paul Sherman did an excellent post on why the snow did not turn up for some eastern counties during the Easterly spell and it can be found in the winter discussion area.

[Michael Fishermans Friend]

Paul Sherman did an excellent post on why the snow did not turn up for some eastern counties during the Easterly spell and it can be found in the winter discussion area.

Sorry cannot find it - do you know where in the winter discussion area?

Cheers Timmy.

[cheeky_monkey]

its pinned under imporant topics

[Cheese Rice]

Sorta dissapointing here too

[Sugar79]

kinda off topic but i have still a lump of snow in my garden from my snowman lol that was the snow fall from the 2nd of feb!! lol proves it aint warmed up at all lol and at the moment its sleeting

[Snowyowl9]

It`s been very impressive so far for cold, I make the first 11 days colder than any other month I`ve recorded even february 1996,so coldest since 1991

[azores92]

It`s been very impressive so far for cold, I make the first 11 days colder than any other month I`ve recorded even february 1996,so coldest since 1991

perfect here. we got good depths of snowfall here; no more than about 6 or 7cm at any time, which is good as it isnt enough to cause mass disruption, but enough to enjoy yourself in. and we have had a whopping 11 days of lying snow this winter. very good.

[fine wine]

Plenty of snow here in Essex since late on the 1st. Even the patches of snow are now being topped up. Currently another inch has fallen.

[MP-R]

Well you could say the cold spell isn't over here, even in the west where it got to near 8C yesterday. The Mendips and Dundry Hills still have snow on them hehe.

[Snowyowl9]

perfect here. we got good depths of snowfall here; no more than about 6 or 7cm at any time, which is good as it isnt enough to cause mass disruption, but enough to enjoy yourself in. and we have had a whopping 11 days of lying snow this winter. very good.

I should of said 12 days

This cold spell isn`t over yet still got snowcover here yet longest since I`ll have to check on that again.

The east are having more snowfall today and the cold temps/hard frosts will be hanging on there yet.

[Spurry]

Terrible here , plenty of cold temps and frosts but NO snow to speak of, very disappointing can't wait for some warm sunny weather now

Edited February 12, 2009 by Spurry

[swfc]

Terrible here , plenty of cold temps and frosts but NO snow to speak of, very disappointing can't wait for some warm sunny weather now

Agree mate, onions at moment and becoming boring.Lets get that summer here.

[ribster]

Sum up, don't think anything is finished yet, currently -1.6 and snowing heavily!

Agree mate, onions at moment and becoming boring.Lets get that summer here.

Let's not!

[Snowyowl9]

Just an added thought what really makes this winter for me is that there is hardly any greeness left in the countryside the grass has been burnt brown by the continuing and sometimes hard frosts and we have been feeding the sheep since mid January which has not been done for 20 years or so as in recent years the grass has continued to grow all winter and there has always been a fresh bite to put them onto and they would not look at hay or turnips. In the garden some snowdrops are flowering but the daffodils have only broken the surface when latterly some would have been flowering by now This winter has definitely been a reminder of the winters I knew in the sixties and seventies.

Yes indeed last March and April was short on grass,but this winter really is,the snowdrops are the slowest I`ve seen growing since the 1980`s yet!!!!!

Continuous snow cover here since 1st Feb, Looks like we're easily going to surpass 2 weeks of continuous snow cover, and I'm pretty sure this is a record here in the last 20 years (longer even than in Feb 91).

How much snow did you get on the 1st,only had a sprinkling here,12 days including that with snowcover so far. :blink:

Edited February 12, 2009 by Snowyowl9

[damianslaw]

Continuous snow cover here since 1st Feb, snowfall practically every day, and still a level 5 inches of snow in the garden. So it doesn't feel like it's "over" here at all: there's loads of snow whether on the grass, bushes, driveways, pavements or even the sides of the roads in places. And we had a 1cm top-up at about 6pm which, along with a hard frost tonight, has set us up for yet another fully wintry scene tomorrow morning. Looks like we're easily going to surpass 2 weeks of continuous snow cover, and I'm pretty sure this is a record here in the last 20 years (longer even than in Feb 91).

South Mildlands/Cotswolds area certainly has done very well out of the cold spell and for these areas probably the snowiest period of weather sinceFeb 1991, however, SW Eng and SE Eng/E MIdlands also a notably snowy spell. But away from these areas, I can think of much better cold and snowier periods in the last few years, in fact for Cumbria the first week of dec 08 was better for snowcover.

[Nick L]

My sum up:

01/02: Snowed all afternoon, got a good dusting.

02/02: Snowed heavily overnight and continued to do so in the morning. My trip to Somerset went ahead, snowed most of the journey towards Bristol and then it cleared up. A dusting on Exmoor where I was staying.

03/02: Woke up to find a slight dusting, melted quickly though.

04/02: No snow.

05/02: A dusting overnight, started to snow heavily in the evening.

06/02: Deep snow, 8 inches + in places. Nearly had to stay another night. Trees brought down, roads blocked and power cut off.

07/02: Back in Cannock. Snow on the ground, nothing falling.

08/02: Had some snow during the day, but took ages to settle.

09/02: Overhyped snow event didn't materialise, a few hours of wet snow that didn't settle.

10/02: Nothing.

11/02: Surprise snowfall, unfortunately missed most of the heavier stuff.

12/02: A few flakes fell

After witnessing one of the best snowfalls in the South West for many years (according to locals), I say this has been a very good cold spell

Edited February 12, 2009 by nick2702

[johnholmes]

interesting so far

3 cold spells

1-16 December giving a mean of 3.1C

27 December-10 January giving a mean of 1.2C

and currently this cold spell

1February to 12th the mean is 1.0C

the mean through those 43 days is 1.8C with the long term mean 1942-2008 showing 3.9C for December, January, February, so for here with those figures, snow on more days than the past 12 years possibly much longer, 28 air frosts, it is certainly, already, a notable winter.

[SP1986]

In a local sense this winter was not that special, more rain than snow, though it was below average by quite a mark, but not as low here as JH figures above. On a fair few days we reached average daytime maximum temperatures for January/February (6-7C). It was the most frequent bouts of sub zero temperatures I've seen for a while, possibly since 2001, at about 10 airfrosts this winter, but there were many ground frosts, over 25 so far.

Only 1 day of snow lying and 2 days falling.

An average winter in terms of snow and a minimum temperature in this cold spell of -2.5C

Nothing special in my opinion (locally of course)

I would indeed like Spring now

[high ground birmingham]

Sum up: A snowy spell but not an exceptionally cold one. Feb 2009 cold spell = Feb 1991 minus the deep cold and sub zero maxes.

A great spell for snow. Most notable events:

1. Feb 1st and 2nd: London event and some other parts of the SE getting a lot of snow. 6-8 inches being recorded in Central London is not an easy thing to achieve.

2. Night of 4th Feb and 5th Feb: Especially so for the SW, Central Southern England and the SE Midlands. 2ft of level snow being recorded in parts of the SW is nothing to be sniffed at.

3. -18.4C being recorded in Aviemore.

A few disappointments to be chucked in too:

1. Feb 2nd- sleet/snow band moving up from the SE didn't really amount to much in the end especially with all the predictions that the North would get 40cm-50cm of snow.

2. 'Winter Storm' Feb 9th: Whilst delivering 2-3 inches across the Midlands....It really didn't live up to expectations and had the potential to be something more.

3. Lack of very cold night time temps recorded over England and Wales.

BUT all in all a very snowy spell and certainly very memorable for the years to come.

Regards, hgb

[Thundery wintry showers]

This cold spell has been a notable one by recent standards, mainly because of duration rather than intensity, and the fact that cold weather coincided generally with high precipitation amounts. It hasn't been one characterised by deep easterlies or northerlies and high pressure situated somewhere between Greenland and Scandinavia, except briefly around 2 February, and thus it's quite heartening from a cold/snow perspective that despite the synoptics not being as cold as they could have been, many places still saw a lot of the white stuff.

Throughout this spell there has been unfulfilled potential for cold showery north-easterlies with high pressure to the north and low pressure to the SE, but what we invariably got was cyclonic regimes and modified northerlies. This has resulted in precipitation being rather more widespread than would be the case in a showery regime, but also more marginal. What has worked in favour of snow lovers here is that many of the main areas of precipitation have featured warm vs cold air battlegrounds, so although the airmasses have not been that cold, the combination of heavy precipitation and airmass contrast has helped drag temperatures down low enough for falling/lying snow. All too often in recent years, precipitation has instead coincided with warm pools of air- not so this time.

I have to admit a preference for those "sunshine and snow showers" setups (like we had briefly on 2 February) as I find them more exciting to watch, and when the snow melts, it usually melts in the sun rather than due to sleet/rain falling on top of it, reducing the likelihood of a slushy mess resulting. But at least most of us had a fair bit of the white stuff, and to have two helpings of it in Exeter was a huge surprise.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

Not bad at all up here

Up to and including today we have had 9 days of continuous snow cover with varying amounts of snow, the most being over the last couple of days and we have approx 8 inches of level snow which has now frozen! Thaw is not expected to set in until tomorrow and the local forecast is for a return to more snow by next weekend. Lovely jubly