Cold Spell Discussion

[peterf]

i took the daughter to work at 1pm (slaley hall)and it was wall to wall sunshine.the trees on the way in were still covered in frost,it looked beautiful.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Thick fog here all day making temps not going above 2C, so a nice "wintry" feel to the day albeit it without the snow.

I would guess with a light breeze coming in off the North sea that the fog won't last all day unlike today but i expect another foggy and frosty night.

You will probably see the fog suddenly vanish and a huge jump in temperature as the breeze picks up off the sea.

I remember a spell of bright frosty weather in the middle of January 2001 at Cleadon when on one evening, the temperature fell to around -3C and there were patches of freezing fog that showed increasing signs of drifting from east to west as the evening progressed. Nonetheless, the temperature continued slowly falling- presumably the warming effects of the sea must have been confined to the extreme coastal fringe.

At around midnight, the temperature fell to a low of -4.2C, still with patches of freezing fog.

I woke up at 3am that morning and it was stratocumulus, +3.8C and rising rapidly.

[MAF]

Dense fog here in Leicester; was freezing fog earlier for sure, whilst now the sun is trying (but failing) to break through. Temp is hovering at 3/4c.

EDIT: Oh here we go... must be a slow news days if fog is the main headline.

http://www.dailymail...-sweeps-in.html

the caption reads

Cold start: London Bridge, like large swathes of Britain, was shrouded in fog this morning.

and they show a picture of TOWER Bridge

[i luv snow]

I suspect that I'm in one of the lucky locations that nearly every GFS run has looked good for...where as it has chopped/changed its mine further north and west...so Im certainly hoping (fingers crossed) for some of the white stuff next week. I also like cold foggy and crisp - much more seasonal - and with some more excitement expected later next week this is certianly getting me nicely in the mood for Xmas!! The negaitivity by some is a tad annoying though, and I try and ignore this as much as possible. We just need hte cold, the ppn and snow will sort itself out - we have never pinpointed detail with snow days in advance, it oftne comes out of the blue and surprises us all. So Chin-up guys, next week and thereafter is all to play for! and for the SE even the end of the weekend could be interesting...heres hoping

[JRMcLeod]

been clear allday here with a daytime max of 0oC at 1245, the frost hasnt shifted except in sunlit areas and the puddles are still frozed, the drops of melted frost off the roofs have started to freeze in little puddles on the ground already. Crisp winter weather. Oh yeah and metcheck had wind at 346mph with -28oC wind chill for grampian on thursday...hope so!!

[Eugene]

Wow there is alot of negativity around on the forums with people making threads up moaning before the event has even passed, the synoptics are terrific and surprises will pop up, it could be a lot lot worse like december 1988 for example.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1988/Rrea00119881211.gif

TWO wouldn't slow down to a crawl for the 12Z's with a month like that

[i luv snow]

Exactly Eugene my points exactly....the cold is coming, so I'm sure something exciting will pop up out of nowhere. Last winter there was a couple of occasions where events just happened and no one had a clue till just hours beforehand...happens every time! But people forget way too easily...

[glasgow-guy]

Exactly Eugene my points exactly....the cold is coming, so I'm sure something exciting will pop up out of nowhere. Last winter there was a couple of occasions where events just happened and no one had a clue till just hours beforehand...happens every time! But people forget way too easily...

sometimes too much information clouds the bigger picture

[Moomin]

You will probably see the fog suddenly vanish and a huge jump in temperature as the breeze picks up off the sea.

I remember a spell of bright frosty weather in the middle of January 2001 at Cleadon when on one evening, the temperature fell to around -3C and there were patches of freezing fog that showed increasing signs of drifting from east to west as the evening progressed. Nonetheless, the temperature continued slowly falling- presumably the warming effects of the sea must have been confined to the extreme coastal fringe.

At around midnight, the temperature fell to a low of -4.2C, still with patches of freezing fog.

I woke up at 3am that morning and it was stratocumulus, +3.8C and rising rapidly.

Very foggy over here on Welsh Marches, hasn't lifted all day and is getting worse now, also some patches of ice haven't melted all day.

I was a postgrad at UEA(ENV) in 96/97 and whilst not quite as foggy as it is now, the feel of today reminds me of the bitter grey still days we had during Jan/Feb of 97 there. Typical student house as well with no heating and gaps around the doors that let the outside in. I found wearing all my clothes at the same time worked quite well.

M

[Iceaxecrampon]

Latest from the BBC weather chaps.....

Monday 21 December 2009 to Sunday 3 January 2010

This bit covers Christmas Day!

And as usual there is no strong probability of either wet or white!

Indications are for below average temperatures, but for most at least an average amount of rain. So more often than not we will have high pressure giving us frost and sunshine, but with one or two incursions of frontal rain.

If a cold southeasterly wind met Atlantic rain over us then you have the pretty white scenario. Sadly, there is no reason to forecast this at the moment.

[Snowyowl9]

Temps are certainly on the downward slide yesterday 6.9c today 4.1c max and sunny again,until now thick fog has come in from the east at 1.6c hoping it would`ve held off until 6pm.

[glasgow-guy]

to be honest in the short term I would be very happy with a straight northerly of course most on this forum don't favour this for obvious reasons

[Dartmoor_Matt]

to be honest in the short term I would be very happy with a straight northerly of course most on this forum don't favour this for obvious reasons

A northerly does provide snow down here, but for the real deal we need a nice battleground with cold air over us first... best from the east as history proves.

[steve1971]

verry frosty morning here -2 at 8am with thick fog geting cold again tonight as i said in my earler poast people geting excited over nothing 0% of snow for the next 3-4 days but gona be cold frosty nights .a bit of a change from wet but exspect the mild to return by next week i base this on the last 5 years weather for winter down here just wish i was wrong ...

[Dartmoor_Matt]

I can't see it becoming 'mild' all that quickly, everything points to a decent cold spell, whether we get any snow is whole different ball game

[MAF]

Latest from the BBC weather chaps.....

Monday 21 December 2009 to Sunday 3 January 2010

This bit covers Christmas Day!

And as usual there is no strong probability of either wet or white!

Indications are for below average temperatures, but for most at least an average amount of rain. So more often than not we will have high pressure giving us frost and sunshine, but with one or two incursions of frontal rain.

If a cold southeasterly wind met Atlantic rain over us then you have the pretty white scenario. Sadly, there is no reason to forecast this at the moment.

well it was the latest from the BBC on ...

Published at 09:00 on 7th December

All times are GMT (Europe/London, GMT+0000)

(Next update at 09:00 on 14th December)

which is 4 days ago, and in weather terms that makes it very old.

[glasgow-guy]

wow look at Scotland next Thursday could be blizzards

[mountain shadow]

wow look at Scotland next Thursday could be blizzards

Potential blizzard in NI, England and Wales if that verified.

[glasgow-guy]

Potential blizzard in NI, England and Wales if that verified.

later half of next week has been showing the north east potential for extreme cold for the last few runs so but this run gives us a direct hit where even folk out west would get hit also

another belting run north looks to get hammered all day and the rest of the country joins in as well

[LomondSnowstorm]

The contrast between places that have fog and those that don't is quite impressive I have to say, big range of temperatures at the moment.

Generally temps anything between 2-6C though the SE seems a little milder, getting upto 6-8C generally it seems.

Still seems to be a pretty cold day overall in quite a few locations, I'd imagine tonight will be just as cold as last night if not a little colder given the lower base point from which some places are starting from.

Maximum here was 0.8C

[glasgow-guy]

An excellent 12z run from the GFS! Though as always, I remain cautious and open to the possibility that the setup could change for the worse, but for now, I'm happy! What would obviously be good now, is if the ECM would agree with this but I suppose even then, nothing is certain...but would certainly make for bigger smiles on many faces if it did.

Alot of talk as to what would happen if the easterly blast for next week pulled off, well, alot of the country would get their fair share of decent snowfall though I think the eastern side of Scotland, the north east and EA would fair best. For here, I think it would be similar to February of this year, with a few inches of snow though it would be very cold.

these latest outputs should get most people excited but its not in the bag its looking more of a northerly now

[dogs32]

An excellent 12z run from the GFS! Though as always, I remain cautious and open to the possibility that the setup could change for the worse, but for now, I'm happy! What would obviously be good now, is if the ECM would agree with this but I suppose even then, nothing is certain...but would certainly make for bigger smiles on many faces if it did.

Alot of talk as to what would happen if the easterly blast for next week pulled off, well, alot of the country would get their fair share of decent snowfall though I think the eastern side of Scotland, the north east and EA would fair best. For here, I think it would be similar to February of this year, with a few inches of snow though it would be very cold.

thats good enough for me...

this Feb was exciting....

Roll on....

Edited December 11, 2009 by dogs32

[JRMcLeod]

later half of next week has been showing the north east potential for extreme cold for the last few runs so but this run gives us a direct hit where even folk out west would get hit also

another belting run north looks to get hammered all day and the rest of the country joins in as well

Absolutely loving this...praying continually for this run to come off...i cant remember seeing something so spectacular in december...EVER!!!

[dogs32]

there is a possabilty this could slowly materilse into a major snow event..

plz tell me this is way out and can not happen in the next 7 days.

sorry im getting excited

Edited December 11, 2009 by dogs32

[kold weather]

The 12z utterly rakes the NE of England, wouldn't be all that shcoking to see some big accumulations up there. The run has backed off from the SE's chances BUT I'm willing to bet its rather underdoing any showers, if you get a blast like that I'm willing to bet the SE and EA would be hammered, as would the NE and obviously eastern Scotland.

Would also be very cold, temps would really struggle to reach 0-1C by Friday on that run.