Favourite Snow Event

[Mammatus]

It has to be the January '04 event. :blush: Enjoyed the 3 hour blizzard with thunder and lightning. A good 5 inches fell that evening and I nearly didn't make it home.

The '08 Easter snowfall comes a very close second with 4 inches falling that morning. I remember observing the radar and watching the precipitation rotate around my location with the prolonged snowfall over me. Areas to my south, east, north and west (beyond 15 miles) accumulated no more than 2 inches.

Here's a picture from that morning

[Rob]

its got to be the March 05 event, heavy snow from 8am, by 12pm we were sent home from school. We had three days off and the army was called into kent as some villages were entirely cut off.

[Mammatus]

its got to be the March 05 event, heavy snow from 8am, by 12pm we were sent home from school. We had three days off and the army was called into kent as some villages were entirely cut off.

Yes Rob, I remember that event quite well. Remarkably here in southwest Suffolk we only accumulated a dusting of snow, yet 65 miles to my south, southeast you guys were getting pasted with prolonged heavy snowfall. The precipitation bearly moved that morning, certainly was a great fall there in Kent.

:blush:

[I remember Atlantic 252]

this time last year was damn good sun 6th april 2008, but soon thawed

Edited April 5, 2009 by mark forster 630

[Nick L]

this time last year was damn good sun 6th april 2008, but soon thawed

Agreed, got a few inches from that. Probably one of the best post-winter snows I have seen. I think it completely melted by the end of the day though!

I enjoyed the White Xmas of 2004 (It was 2004 wasn't it?), although it wasn't a great deal of snow it was still magical to see a good covering of snow on the day itself. My first and so far only proper White Xmas that I can remember.

[Don]

For me it has to be February 2nd this year. The only other snow event I have witnessed to rival it was January 1982. However, I don't think we had quite as much snow then, plus I was quite young so my memories are a bit vague.

I drove back from Kent on the Sunday evening and it took over 3 hours when it normally takes about an hour and 15. When I got to the Surrey and Kent borders on the M25, the traffic slowed to crawling pace and remained that way for the rest of the journey with heavy snow falls. There was already accumalations of about 4-5 inches. When I finally got home to Woking, there was less lying snow of about 2-3 inches. However, it was snowing heavily and by the time I went to bed, the kerbs had disappeared. I awoke at 6.30 Monday morning to it still snowing heavily with about 9 inches of lying snow. I never thought I would ever see that much lying snow in Woking after living in the area for almost 30 years and very rarely seeing significant amounts of snow. I wasn't going to get to work so had to declare a snow day. I spent the whole day going for walks and got some good photos. By mid morning, the snow had died out and I measured 9.5 inches of snow. The only slightly disappointing part of that day was that the heavy snow forecast from the front moving up from France only delivered about an hour's worth of light to moderate snow which didn't really add to the accumalations.

All in all a very memorable day weatherwise and one that I feel will be a very long time if ever that I will experience again in this country.

[John Cox]

Jan 1982 . Snow drifts of 6 feet, with 36 hours of continuous blissards.

[Nick L]

Here are some snaps from the Feb event in Somerset...

The last one is of us finally being able to get out to the minibus to go home after several hours of waiting with no power or heating...

[Cheese Rice]

That is an awfull lot of snow, i think feb 3rd 09 produced similar scenes round here as well.

[Cheese Rice]

Feb 2nd/3rd was also notable i suppose, as it did produce some decent snowfall, with 29cm of lying snow at Leeds and Bradford airport. Although it was a huge let down as 50cm+ was forecast and i had around 20cm in my backgarden, it was notable because of its sheer persistance, with snow staring at about 3:30pm and not stopping till 4am so nearly 12hours of continous snowfall but the snow was moderate throughout but the flakes were very thin and small making it very hard for snow to pile up.

The table shows the depth quite nicely, i would imagine there would be a higher depth if the snow wasnt horizontal.

Drifting snow over 50cm

[Thundery wintry showers]

A huge letdown with that much snow?! What?!

[Guest North Sea Snow Convection]

Blizzard New Year 78/79, Snowstorms Dec 81 and Blizzard Jan 82, Jan 87, Feb 91

[Shiny_Bottom_1]

I think it was the 87 or 91 event as indicated by Tamara above that was the most memorable for me. I remember snow drifts in my parents back garden. Was great

[Costa Del Fal]

A huge letdown with that much snow?! What?!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exactly, ive never seen that much here, infact if anyone down here ever gets that amount in the future then they have basically 'won the lottery'.

[Cheese Rice]

A huge letdown with that much snow?! What?!

I know what you mean, but it was very poorly forecast, there was meant to be "half a meter" of lying snow, and when you expect that amount and all I got was 20cm it was in a sense a let down, also anywhere Leeds eastwards saw rain with Leeds center seeing sleet for a couple of hours sleet.

[Nick L]

I know what you mean, but it was very poorly forecast, there was meant to be "half a meter" of lying snow, and when you expect that amount and all I got was 20cm it was in a sense a let down, also anywhere Leeds eastwards saw rain with Leeds center seeing sleet for a couple of hours sleet.

If you got something like 2cm I would agree with you, but thats 8 inches of snow! You may not see that amount again for a good long while.

[Geordiesnow]

Feb 2nd/3rd was also notable i suppose, as it did produce some decent snowfall, with 29cm of lying snow at Leeds and Bradford airport. Although it was a huge let down as 50cm+ was forecast and i had around 20cm in my backgarden,

I would love too have 29CM of snow in my back garden and i would certainly not of branded it as a huge let down even if 50CM was forecast. What i would brand a huge let down is that if you were forecast snow in a marginal set up and all you get is rain then that is really dissapointing. Which what happened too me in that snow event where you got 29CM. The other annoying thing was that the rain melt all the snow that did lie from the day's showers off the North sea.

My fav snow event would probably be the last week of Feb 2005, i do recall frequent snow showers for quite a few days and looking at the charts, in terms of set up, you could see why. I think imo that is the closest set up we had without getting any real bitter cold. If only the continent had a pool of cold air then perhaps we would of seen the ''Beast from the East'' during that set up.

[Yeti]

I know what you mean, but it was very poorly forecast, there was meant to be "half a meter" of lying snow, and when you expect that amount and all I got was 20cm it was in a sense a let down, also anywhere Leeds eastwards saw rain with Leeds center seeing sleet for a couple of hours sleet.

lol, I believe the forecast said 50cm over the Pennine Hills. Whilst it was still a gross exaggeration, I don't think you or I count as living on Pennine Hills, even though we're at 200m. Effectively we are on the very edge of the Pennines, and about 10/15cm fell that night, which wasn't bad at all... especially since it gave us nearly 30cm - almost a foot of snow! It wasn't really a let down, and it was obvious that forecast was OTT anyway.

My favourite snow event was the great blizzard of 1995 which I vaguely remember, living in Leeds at the time, brought 40-50cm to Leeds city centre. Now that was a snow event!

The other of course was February 2001, which brought over a foot, and a similar event that unfortunately turned to rain on the previous New Year, having dumped nearly a foot.

Edited April 6, 2009 by Yeti

[reef]

My favourite event by far was February 1991. We had around a foot of level snow and it was the only time I ever got time off school due to the weather. Ill always remember my father getting stuck in a 10 meter high drift on the way to Bridlington as he attempted to get to work, only to return some 6 hours later.

A more recent event which was rather good was January 2004, which gave some 6-8 inches of level snow here. It took me three hours to get to university that day, but it was great to see significant snow again.

Unfortunately, over 5 years on, we've yet to have more than a few cm of snow since and every fall has been gone within 12-24 hours aside from Dec 2005. The last 2/3 years have been particularly poor, especially this winter just gone, with letdown after letdown.

[Cheese Rice]

If you got something like 2cm I would agree with you, but thats 8 inches of snow! You may not see that amount again for a good long while.

Yeah i suppose, but i still expected more . Fortuantley Leeds does very well for snow compared to other citys in the UK, i would even go as far as saying Leeds is the best city for snow. So 20cm of snow isnt that special tbh, last year we had two sperate ocassions where there was around 10-20cm of snow, im waiting for a big event where even the center of Leeds is cut off.

[Yeti]

Yeah i suppose, but i still expected more . Fortuantley Leeds does very well for snow compared to other citys in the UK, i would even go as far as saying Leeds is the best city for snow. So 20cm of snow isnt that special tbh, last year we had two sperate ocassions where there was around 10-20cm of snow, im waiting for a big event where even the center of Leeds is cut off.

It certainly does well by English standards amongst large cities, but there are many smaller cities that would do better in England - York, Durham and perhaps Norwich to mention just three. As for the UK as a whole, it doesn't compare to Aberdeen, nor Edinburgh, Dundee etc.

Edited April 6, 2009 by Yeti

[Thundery wintry showers]

I think Leeds is about level with Sunderland and Norwich, with a 1971-2000 mean of about 10 days per year with lying snow. Newcastle, Durham and Sheffield averaged nearer 15 days. I experienced two significant snowfalls in March 2006 while I was there- a good 5cm or so on the 12th. Leeds tends to miss most snow events from northerlies (due to shelter from the North York moors) but tends to pick up a lot of snow from easterlies.

The central part of Edinburgh actually gets surprisingly little snow with a 71-00 mean below 10 days per year near the Firth of Forth, though the hillier suburbs in the south get rather more. A similar assessment applies to Glasgow where the low-lying areas around the Clyde get less than 10 per year. But Aberdeen certainly gets a lot more- a mean of around 20 days per year.

In contrast, to take two other cities I've previously lived in or near, Lancaster averaged just 6 days per year, and Exeter only 3.

The Leeds snowstorm of 1995 is quite well documented- it occurred on the 25th January, from a frontal system that initially brought rain that soon turned to snow in many parts of northern England, and there were reports of 40cm in three hours.

[Cheese Rice]

I think Leeds is about level with Sunderland and Norwich, with a 1971-2000 mean of about 10 days per year with lying snow. Newcastle, Durham and Sheffield averaged nearer 15 days. I experienced two significant snowfalls in March 2006 while I was there- a good 5cm or so on the 12th. Leeds tends to miss most snow events from northerlies (due to shelter from the North York moors) but tends to pick up a lot of snow from easterlies.

The central part of Edinburgh actually gets surprisingly little snow with a 71-00 mean below 10 days per year near the Firth of Forth, though the hillier suburbs in the south get rather more. A similar assessment applies to Glasgow where the low-lying areas around the Clyde get less than 10 per year. But Aberdeen certainly gets a lot more- a mean of around 20 days per year.

In contrast, to take two other cities I've previously lived in or near, Lancaster averaged just 6 days per year, and Exeter only 3.

The Leeds snowstorm of 1995 is quite well documented- it occurred on the 25th January, from a frontal system that initially brought rain that soon turned to snow in many parts of northern England, and there were reports of 40cm in three hours.

I would have though the figures for Leeds are leeds center and the surrounding suburbs, which are onyy around 80m asl, while north Leeds is well over 150m in many areas so that number will be higher, as round here we have seen far more lying snow than those in Leeds center

[dogs32]

1982 for me.......or was 81?

1 ft of snow......great event

[johnholmes]

lol, I believe the forecast said 50cm over the Pennine Hills. ... I don't think you or I count as living on Pennine Hills, even though we're at 200m. Effectively we are on the very edge of the Pennines, and about 10/15cm fell that night, which wasn't bad at all... especially since it gave us nearly 30cm - almost a foot of snow! It wasn't really a let down, and it was obvious that forecast was OTT anyway.

a very valid point, one overlooked by some