South West England Cold Spell Discussion

[musician]

Heavy snow now falling in Stroud, even though the radar shows rain. Started off as rain, then sleet.

[kerensa]

hi, we have it all today, this morning we had snow, which turned to rain, which frooze straight away, then rain, now we have had a heavy hail shower where it turned the roads white, temp at mo 1.8c

[dogs32]

heavy lovely rain here..

James as been quiet,I think he's unplugged his comp in disgust

[Tommyyy]

almost got snowed in delivering presents and had a cup of tea.

It is rediculous! I was literally half a mile away and it was sticking/heavy/clumpy the whole shurbang!

But here.. sleet :L GREEEAT ONE (;

[kerensa]

another big black coming over whats that going to drop, cars slipping on our road, we need gritter out, as we on hill and its a hospital run!

[musician]

Still a steady moderate very wet snow here in Stroud but not a hope of it settling. I've just returned home from a visit to a school friend in Northants. Wow! what a winter wonderland! Four inches of frozen crunchy snow with freezing fog thrown in for good measure. I hurried home as I the forecast was for freezing rain but we have wet snow which I prefer.

[Nights King]

well our cold spell ended after one dusting of snow and most of somerset got barely that. I wouldnt call it the best cold spell i have seen in recent winters. Maybe just maybe we can get a new years eve bliz of sumin before the 2nd of jan because i leave for a week and sods law it would snow in that one week.

[Dartmoor_Matt]

More wet snow here, and cooling down quite a bit!

Interestingly, I hear Devon PCT (Primary Care Trust - NHS) have sent an email to staff suggesting if they can to go home as soon after 3pm as possible with widespread freezing conditions down to -5c and snow over high ground predicted, with freezing starting as early as 4pm.

I guess they get updates from the MO so that is quite interesting and somewhat lower than the MO said on there website with a minimum of 1C for Devon.

[SteveB]

We've been unlucky here, but it has been a very good spell of cold weather for the rest of the Country.

[Nights King]

More wet snow here, and cooling down quite a bit!

Interestingly, I hear Devon PCT (Primary Care Trust - NHS) have sent an email to staff suggesting if they can to go home as soon after 3pm as possible with widespread freezing conditions down to -5c and snow over high ground predicted, with freezing starting as early as 4pm.

I guess they get updates from the MO so that is quite interesting and somewhat lower than the MO said on there website with a minimum of 1C for Devon.

That really does not make sense when you look at every other forecast going?

[Defector]

Hi,

Started with sleet about 30 mins ago here in Northleach, now snowing steadily.

Phil.

[kerensa]

my black cloud was hail and sleet, now our road is bad! good job hus has 4x4 and i dont have to walk anywhere

[aspire27]

well our cold spell ended after one dusting of snow and most of somerset got barely that. I wouldnt call it the best cold spell i have seen in recent winters. Maybe just maybe we can get a new years eve bliz of sumin before the 2nd of jan because i leave for a week and sods law it would snow in that one week.

I agree.

I have listend to so much hype on here (especially in the model section) for the last two weeks about this cold spell. The models kept showing and showing AND showing very cold weather for the WHOLE of the uk....for us here in the south and south west it never arrived.

Ok a little bit of snow sunday night from convection in the Bristol Channel but without that all we would of seen was rain.

Last week it was all light rain and drizzle. Then a bright weekend. Without sunday nights showers of snow all we would of seen was drizzle and todays rain.

Yes the overnight temps have been cold, -7 last night, but -2 or -3 in winter is very common.

Some parts of the country did get snow, but not as the models predicted.

I have been reading now on the modle thread about another cold shot around new year. People getting all excited about models in FI, come on people these never happen...as we have seen.

Some people might slate for this but what the BBC forecasts have been telling us has been spot on. They never ever said about SEVERE cold which so many people kept saying would happen. Ok it showed in the models, but never in the reliable.

Come on people....these models are just teasing us. Better off looking at the lamp post, radar, and listening to the TV forecast, not what people say on here....

Rant over.

Weather here in Yatton - Rain.

[slinky1989]

Blimey this rain has settled everywhere! It's amazing!

[❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️]

Looks like the cold spell is over for this part of the world.

[dogs32]

slowly turning here to more snow....

looking at the lampost you can see that there are more flakes in the rain than earlier.

[Dartmoor_Matt]

That really does not make sense when you look at every other forecast going?

I caught the end of the local BBC forecast on the radio and he said frost and ice eventually clearing tomorrow. So I took that to mean he'd said there would be another one overnight.

He then went onto say 9 or 10c for Boxing Day, 9C for Sunday and 8C for Monday... is it trending downwards enough though?!

[musician]

Hi,

Started with sleet about 30 mins ago here in Northleach, now snowing steadily.

Phil.

The net weather xtra radar is now showing much more sleet and snow on it's northern edge than an hour ago but at present it's all across the South Midlands, thought he band of wintry mix is expanding.

[BenJamminJ]

Just spoken to my mate in the Duntisbourne/Daglingworth area and its heavy snow, settling..... heavy sleety rain in cirencester

[aspire27]

I agree.

I have listend to so much hype on here (especially in the model section) for the last two weeks about this cold spell. The models kept showing and showing AND showing very cold weather for the WHOLE of the uk....for us here in the south and south west it never arrived.

Ok a little bit of snow sunday night from convection in the Bristol Channel but without that all we would of seen was rain.

Last week it was all light rain and drizzle. Then a bright weekend. Without sunday nights showers of snow all we would of seen was drizzle and todays rain.

Yes the overnight temps have been cold, -7 last night, but -2 or -3 in winter is very common.

Some parts of the country did get snow, but not as the models predicted.

I have been reading now on the modle thread about another cold shot around new year. People getting all excited about models in FI, come on people these never happen...as we have seen.

Some people might slate for this but what the BBC forecasts have been telling us has been spot on. They never ever said about SEVERE cold which so many people kept saying would happen. Ok it showed in the models, but never in the reliable.

Come on people....these models are just teasing us. Better off looking at the lamp post, radar, and listening to the TV forecast, not what people say on here....

Rant over.

Weather here in Yatton - Rain.

Nobody want to comment?

[musician]

Ok I'll have a go. I well understand your frustration but I've long given up any hope of a return to the sort of winters we had 20 or 30 years ago as there does seem to have been a general warming winter trend so I'm happy to accept what comes now, and we do sometimes get a surprise fall of snow which was not predicted until the last minute.

I'm lucky to have been at school in the north cotswolds in 1963 and I've never seen anything to match that winter since. We had lying snow for three months, drifts up to the bedroom windows and telegraph wires and for weeks on end I was able to walk down the main road over the roofs of buried cars, which I would scrape the snow away from to see if anyonwe was trapped inside. The hot water bottles froze in our beds and one morning I awoke with a snowdrift in the room and onto the bed. We had no heating in the bedrooms of course and each time another blizzard arrived we put blankets up against the windows to stop the fine snow blowing in.

Fine snow accumulated in the loft space, which came throught the ceiling when it melted and of course the pipes burst.

We had drifts of snow still under the hedgerows in May and I remember writing in my diary that even I was getting a bit fed up with the cold and snow.

I'm sorry if this makes you even more unhappy but I feel myself lucky to have experienced this and I feel we should perhaps accept that the winter climate has changed somewhat, especially in the south west, though we can still expect a few extremes.

I'm hoping that the next cold spell will bring a battleground to the south west with a major blizzard - we are long overdue one - though with the warming climate we shouldn't hold our breath!

I hope you get something you like in the near future!

Pete

[Nights King]

Nobody want to comment?

Nothing to say really i agree.

Even up here with my elevation i have managed sleety wet snow this morning (I didn't see) turning to rain and now a slushy inch left.

current temperature is hardly mild though 1.0c

Edited December 23, 2009 by mullender83

[aspire27]

Ok I'll have a go. I well understand your frustration but I've long given up any hope of a return to the sort of winters we had 20 or 30 years ago as there does seem to have been a general warming winter trend so I'm happy to accept what comes now, and we do sometimes get a surprise fall of snow which was not predicted until the last minute.

I'm lucky to have been at school in the north cotswolds in 1963 and I've never seen anything to match that winter since. We had lying snow for three months, drifts up to the bedroom windows and telegraph wires and for weeks on end I was able to walk down the main road over the roofs of buried cars, which I would scrape the snow away from to see if anyonwe was trapped inside. The hot water bottles froze in our beds and one morning I awoke with a snowdrift in the room and onto the bed. We had no heating in the bedrooms of course and each time another blizzard arrived we put blankets up against the windows to stop the fine snow blowing in.

Fine snow accumulated in the loft space, which came throught the ceiling when it melted and of course the pipes burst.

We had drifts of snow still under the hedgerows in May and I remember writing in my diary that even I was getting a bit fed up with the cold and snow.

I'm sorry if this makes you even more unhappy but I feel myself lucky to have experienced this and I feel we should perhaps accept that the winter climate has changed somewhat, especially in the south west, though we can still expect a few extremes.

I'm hoping that the next cold spell will bring a battleground to the south west with a major blizzard - we are long overdue one - though with the warming climate we shouldn't hold our breath!

I hope you get something you like in the near future!

Pete

Thank you Pete! Great to hear such a story!

Problem is Pete, im no expert but people in the model thread kept relating to 63' when talking about this cold spell.

If you go in the modle output thread, you will find its started again with regards for the Fantasy Island charts for new year!

Happy Christmas Pete.

[Dartmoor_Matt]

I believe the comments relate to the synoptics being similar, not the outcomes.

Besides, this cold spell was picked up by the GFS exactly 2 weeks from when it started, almost down to the hour, it never predicted snow in this region, so that we got any is a bonus. They also said it would last 10-12 days, which it may well in the North as its never going to get 'mild' anywhere other than extreme South/SW. So all in all, good call and hardly bad compared to most Decembers!

[Nights King]

I believe the comments relate to the synoptics being similar, not the outcomes.

Besides, this cold spell was picked up by the GFS exactly 2 weeks from when it started, almost down to the hour, it never predicted snow in this region, so that we got any is a bonus. They also said it would last 10-12 days, which it may well in the North as its never going to get 'mild' anywhere other than extreme South/SW. So all in all, good call and hardly bad compared to most Decembers!

I do remember the met office putting out a severe weather warning for heavy snow though from that channel low...... Guess what it evaporated like all the other warnings we have had over last 12 days...

Edited December 23, 2009 by mullender83