East Anglia & South East Cold Spell Discussion

[ukmoose]

I think I get a sense of wishful thinking in your reply. Or do you have evidence of more snow to my area before Christmas?

Quite interesting - take a look at the Netweather forecast on the home page...

[nick sussex]

Quite a few showers developing in the Channel at the moment, wonder whether any of these might affect far southern coastal counties later as the flow looks to back more wsw. Question is though what would these bring, perhaps a further dusting over the South Downs, put perhaps a more wintry mix directly on the coast.

[Lowestoft]

Quite interesting - take a look at the Netweather forecast on the home page...

Would you seriously expect them to say anything different?

[ukmoose]

Would you seriously expect them to say anything different?

I wouldn't rule it out just yet. Chances are against but it's not that clear cut and you might just be far enough north to mean any precipitation might remain on the wintry side.

Less than 3 days to go and still not cut and dried, chances increase the further north you are.

Quite a few showers developing in the Channel at the moment, wonder whether any of these might affect far southern coastal counties later as the flow looks to back more wsw. Question is though what would these bring, perhaps a further dusting over the South Downs, put perhaps a more wintry mix directly on the coast.

What's the situation where you are Nick? Has it warmed up? What about snow in the Pyrenees?

[Rich44]

I think I get a sense of wishful thinking in your reply. Or do you have evidence of more snow to my area before Christmas?

Not at all I was referring to the fact that the models can't agree what is going to happen today/tomorrow let alone next week, it changes from run to run if you look at the snow risk for xmas day there's quite some risk for most of the UK, ok not as far as you but that can soon change. All I really meant was keep watching as it's changing from run to run at the moment

[nick sussex]

I wouldn't rule it out just yet. Chances are against but it's not that clear cut and you might just be far enough north to mean any precipitation might remain on the wintry side.

Less than 3 days to go and still not cut and dried, chances increase the further north you are.

What's the situation where you are Nick? Has it warmed up? What about snow in the Pyrenees?

Hi well it's warmed up here now, we had a week of freezing temps, snow last Friday which finally disappeared yesterday. Still very good conditions in the Pyrenees with it cooling down again and more snow forecast. For the uk it looks quite complicated regarding any Xmas snow with upper temps quite marginal but you never know if the gfs 06hrs run was to verify a possible white New Year!

[Coast]

Snow: minister raises questions over gritting of roads

Sadiq Khan, the transport minister, criticised the lack of gritting in some areas as roads covered in ice proved treacherous for drivers

Hampshire and Berkshire have proved particularly dangerous with motorists stuck in gridlock traffic and forced to leave their cars. In more rural parts of West Sussex, drivers similarly had to leave their vehicles as smaller roads did not appear to have been treated.

Mr Khan said he wanted answers as to why gritting did not appear to have taken place in some areas. "Basingstoke and Reading are two examples... of where there were extreme weather conditions and there appears not to have been the gritting done locally," he said. "We do know that, all round the country, local authorities have sufficient grit to make sure the roads become de-iced. "We do know that the Highways Agency have tried to clear the motorways but there are pockets of the country where things have come to a gridlock."

Mr Khan said he did not want to jump to conclusions, but added: "What I do know is that there is no issue about not being enough grit, there is no issue about not enough snow ploughs. "What the issue is, is why it wasn't applied.

"I do know this though... is that when there is a lot of snow quickly, what often happens is that the grit doesn't work." At the weekend, the North East Ambulance Service claimed they had been slowed down by the lack of grit on some main roads, particularly in County Durham and eastern Teesside. Control room manager Graham Robinson said: "Crews were telling us that the main roads had not been gritted, which was slowing down ambulances on emergency calls. "We expect side roads not to be treated, but some of the main routes appeared to be just as bad."

However, Redcar and Cleveland Council and Durham County Council insisted that the gritters had been out continuously, and they had not been alerted to any problems

www.telegraph.co.uk

[BarnetBlizzard]

Woo just built a 5 ft snowman and a very large snowball next to it. Just so i will have some snow left on christmas day

[Guest archiesmummy]

Woo just built a 5 ft snowman and a very large snowball next to it. Just so i will have some snow left on christmas day

ah thats lovely! has it got a carrot nose etc?

[i luv snow]

I think I get a sense of wishful thinking in your reply. Or do you have evidence of more snow to my area before Christmas?

Theres a chance! Regarding snow, anyone would be silly to rule anything out.

[BarnetBlizzard]

ah thats lovely! has it got a carrot nose etc?

Not at the moment but its got some buttons

[Guest archiesmummy]

Not at the moment but its got some buttons

fab! what do people use instead of coal now for eyes? you may get more snow to replace what you have just used! fingers crossed

[Iceni]

Total chaos as usual.

You spend the rest of the year listening to urban-dwelling friends tut-tutting over your choice of car (a Land Rover) but they still vote for idiot councillors who pay their chief executives £100–200k salaries, but refuse the guys at the sharp end paid overtime to grit the roads properly. They ruin town centers with hideous shopping malls, but don't look after the infrastructure/buses/parking which enable people to actually get there to use them at Christmas and get back home again.

I notice it's all gone very quiet at the BBC on the the climate change conference — if this had been a normal week, we wouldn't have heard about anything else. We have News24, why weren't they putting out proper public information or devoting one of their red button channels for it? Stuff like: the M3/M25 is jammed because there's a blizzard.

We had another 3 cms last night. It started a 3:40 and finished at 5:20 am and the temperature's -1.6 ° C at noon. BBC's out by another couple of degrees again as usual.

[Lowestoft]

Total chaos as usual.

You spend the rest of the year listening to urban-dwelling friends tut-tutting over your choice of car (a Land Rover) but they still vote for idiot councillors who pay their chief executives £100–200k salaries, but refuse the guys at the sharp end paid overtime to grit the roads properly. They ruin town centers with hideous shopping malls, but don't look after the infrastructure/buses/parking which enable people to actually get there to use them at Christmas and get back home again.

I notice it's all gone very quiet at the BBC on the the climate change conference — if this had been a normal week, we wouldn't have heard about anything else. We have News24, why weren't they putting out proper public information or devoting one of their red button channels for it? Stuff like: the M3/M25 is jammed because there's a blizzard.

We had another 3 cms last night. It started a 3:40 and finished at 5:20 am and the temperature's -1.6 ° C at noon. BBC's out by another couple of degrees again as usual.

You could moan for England.

[Ben_Cambs]

The snow cover will last to Christmas day, thereafter a thaw is probable as somewhat milder temperatures set in. Wont be for to long though before colder conditions return

[Tom D]

I thought it would get warmer today, but it's 0.3c now so won't get much higher. Looking like a cold and icy night.

[nick sussex]

Some hints from the media of possibly a little more snow for southern areas, probably tied in with this trough in the Channel edging slowly ne'wards, probably rain or sleet directly on the coast but a chance of a dusting further inland.

http://www.wzkarten.de/pics/brack0.gif

Something to keep an eye on, it might develop further or be downgraded in later output.

Edited December 22, 2009 by nick sussex

[Ben_Cambs]

Some hints from the media of possibly a little more snow for southern areas, probably tied in with this trough in the Channel edging slowly ne'wards, probably rain or sleet directly on the coast but a chance of a dusting further inland.

http://www.wzkarten.de/pics/brack0.gif

Something to keep an eye on, it might develop further or be downgraded in later output.

Ive been looking at that, the timing and confidence of this is very low at the moment. The band of showers will push further north and may turn to snow inlamd

[nick sussex]

Ive been looking at that, the timing and confidence of this is very low at the moment. The band of showers will push further north and may turn to snow inlamd

Yes it's hard to say how much this could bring,the upper air temps are marginal and we're slowly seeing some of the cold pooling mixed out but the best case scenario is a clear frosty night with the precipitation arriving at dawn. This trough appeared on the ukmo 48hrs model and these are difficult to accurately forecast. It's at the moment not looking like a very active feature but a little uplift caused by the South Downs could help this pep up a bit, it's likely to weaken as it travels northwards so for this reason areas to the south of London are likely to do best here.

Edited December 22, 2009 by nick sussex

[Methuselah]

You could moan for England.

I think it's the British Condition, L...We moan when we're snow-free for years - and, then we moan again when it does actually snow - and the Council's are unprepared...We also moan if said Councils bump-up taxes to pay for all the salt!!

It's quite funny really??

[Coast]

Some hints from the media of possibly a little more snow for southern areas, probably tied in with this trough in the Channel edging slowly ne'wards, probably rain or sleet directly on the coast but a chance of a dusting further inland.

I'll take that Nick, as long as it means I can miss the last day of work before the Christmas break!

[Iceni]

:rofl:

I think it's the British Condition, L...We moan when we're snow-free for years - and, then we moan again when it does actually snow - and the Council's are unprepared...We also moan if said Councils bump-up taxes to pay for all the salt!!

It's quite funny really??

Councils spend most of their budget on salt??? Not sure what planet you live on. Perhaps they should get the 5-a-day coordinators or diversity outreach officers on the case clearing the roads instead of cluttering them up.

My council taxes have gone up 30% and we still don't get the lane outside gritted. I love this weather — Nature's in charge for a change.

[danm]

there's been a fairly rapid thaw today. Still a fair bit of snow around, particularly in the shade, but i'd say half of what was there last night has gone.

[Methuselah]

Councils spend most of their budget on salt??? Not sure what planet you live on. Perhaps they should get the 5-a-day coordinators or diversity outreach officers on the case clearing the roads instead of cluttering them up.

My council taxes have gone up 30% and we still don't get the lane outside gritted. I love this weather — Nature's in charge for a change.

A planet on-which it snows quite a bit, Iceni ; but, my first 31-years were spent in East Anglia...

But, it's not a question of, how-much (as a percentage) Councils are prepared to spend on salt. It's more down to the fact, that the last 20 or so winters have tended to be mild...What would you do? Folk memory is very short???

And yes, it's great to see that Nature's in control. It let's us all know where we stand??

Happy Xmas to you and yours!!!

[nick sussex]

I'll take that Nick, as long as it means I can miss the last day of work before the Christmas break!

Don't get too excited just yet! at the moment it's not looking like anything major and it could be sleet or rain in coastal regions, the trough as it heads north is likely to bring in some slightly less cold upper air. Again i think it's going to be a case of nowcasting.