Met Office Snow Days

[J10]

You know the rule, more than 50% snow cover at 9am in the morning.

So far this year, we have had 12 here, the most in a single year since 1991, 8 of these were in February, and 4 in December.

I am sure that many people will have much more than this. Be honest how many Met Office Snow Days have you had in 2009,and also so far this winter.

[keithlucky]

Human nature thats all it is jackone we allways wont everbody else as got and when we got it we want more.

Edited December 23, 2009 by keithlucky

[Mondy]

What characterizes a Met Office "snow day"? There are rules?

[Barb]

I think we had about 10 days in February and 4 days this month. Total cumulative snowfall this year is about 13 inches - 10 inches in Feb (about 7 inches at its deepest) and 3 inches this December. Not a bad year at all.

[J10]

What characterizes a Met Office "snow day"? There are rules?

More than 50% snow cover at 9am in the morning.

[Guest]

More than 50% snow cover at 9am in the morning.

What constitutes "cover" though. Is that a complete covering on every surface (i.e. 2 inches plus, certainly on grass and especially on fields of grass or crops) or a complete cover of random dusting on every surface???

How about this:

This is from this cold spell and there is obviously a dusting of snow, but it is not a covering over the grass of the field. However, the dusting of snow does cover more than 50% of the field.

Help!!

[Mondy]

More than 50% snow cover at 9am in the morning.

50% of what? A field? A road? Runway?

I don't doubt you mean well J1, but I question the actual "rule" :-)

[Guest]

50% of what? A field? A road? Runway?

I don't doubt you mean well J1, but I question the actual "rule" :-)

Aye, exactly Mondy, see my post above, it is a grey area (or should that be "an off white" area?)

No offence to you J1, just clarify please :D :D

[Cymro]

So far this winter not including february i have had 5 including february then my number rises to 21.

[J10]

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climatechange/science/monitoring/ukcp09/available/monthly.html shows the definition as

More than 50% snow cover at 9am in the morning.

At official stations there is an usually a flat grass area, which is unshaded, which provides a easy reference point for this.

Of course, none of these records to be provided in this thread would require the same quality threshold, so preferably use a grass area, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, any covering from dusting, or 10 inches or higher counts.

[paul tall]

The depth is irrelevant. It is the 50% that matters. A dusting can count as a snow lying day, whereas one or two patches of 3cm frozen snow would not count as a snow lie day if you view them to cover less than 50% of the surface.

I've had 16 snow cover days in 2009.

What constitutes "cover" though. Is that a complete covering on every surface (i.e. 2 inches plus, certainly on grass and especially on fields of grass or crops) or a complete cover of random dusting on every surface???

How about this:

This is from this cold spell and there is obviously a dusting of snow, but it is not a covering over the grass of the field. However, the dusting of snow does cover more than 50% of the field.

Help!!

I don't really understand your confusion on that picture? Everything is covered in snow so it is a snow lying day.

[Guest]

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climatechange/science/monitoring/ukcp09/available/monthly.html shows the definition as

More than 50% snow cover at 9am in the morning.

At official stations there is an usually a flat grass area, which is unshaded, which provides a easy reference point for this.

Of course, none of these records to be provided in this thread would require the same quality threshold, so preferably use a grass area, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, any covering from dusting, or 10 inches or higher counts.

Thanks J1

If that is the definition then we have now had 6 consecutive days of snow cover, soon to be 7 days. And still just 2cm of snow

As for last winter season, you expect miracles if you think I can remember that far back

I don't really understand your confusion on that picture? Everything is covered in snow so it is a snow lying day.

That's a fair point, I'm obviously just being careful in how I describe snow cover, having been ridiculed on here in the past. That is why I have been so negative, and thankyou for your assessment of that pic

[paul tall]

One thing to bear in mind...If there is no snow at 9am it is not a snow lying day.

Even if you get 10cm of lovely snow in the afternoon, which is then washed away before the following morning, you cannot add that snow blanket to your figures to fluff them up.

It has to be 9am every day, for continuity and consistancy of records.

[Terminal Moraine]

Aye, exactly Mondy, see my post above, it is a grey area (or should that be "an off white" area?)

No offence to you J1, just clarify please :) :)

The rule is that the surrounding land representative of the station/site is at least 50% covered in snow.The land should be open and no account should be taken of areas under trees or of roads, paths and roofs or areas of water. Also the land under consideration should not differ from the station height by more than 30m.

The snow does not have to be deep enough to cover all grass stems etc, basically it's a case of does it look white or green/brown.

As for here, this morning is the 28th with snow cover this year.

[Essan]

You know the rule, more than 50% snow cover at 9am in the morning.

3

The 5th, 6th and 9th of February - though in each case it had largely gone by afternoon.

[Shiny_Bottom_1]

Probably similar to yourself Essan. The Feb snow event was the one, but can't remember if there was any others late winter/early spring.

Defo none this winter so far.

[Methuselah]

Six, I think. One, after some thundersleet in February, and the last five days...Guessing from the models this could possibly double!

[Dartmoor_Matt]

13 here,

9 in Feb and 4 so far this winter.

[Ben_Cambs]

I think about 9 or 10 here. There were 5 in February, and 5 over the past week.But if it were to count days with snow lying and/or falling (any amount), I would say around 15 days

Edited December 24, 2009 by Snowman0697

[LomondSnowstorm]

OK.. 5th January,2nd February, 5th February, 7th February, 9th February, 10th February, 12th February, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th december, so 14! Not too bad really!

[Thundery wintry showers]

There have been 12 Met Office snow days at Cleadon- 5 of them in February, and today is the 7th consecutive snow day for December- the longest-lasting snow cover since late November 1993. Whether it survives today's rain and gives us a snow day on Christmas Day is looking on a knife edge at the moment.

12 snow days in a year makes 2009 the snowiest year by that measure since 1996. Since 1993, both 1993 and 1996 had 14 snow days while 1995 had 13.

[reef]

Nine so far this year, six of those have been this month.

Winter 2008/09 was absolutely abysmal here, with December and January recording no days and just three in February.

[J10]

2007/08 was bad here with no settling at any time during the winter.

[Thundery wintry showers]

This is the 8th successive Met Office snow day, making it the longest spell of consecutive snow days in Cleadon since February 1991.

2009 so far has already equalled the 1995 total of 13 and only two more are needed to make it the snowiest year by this measure since I began recording.

[Optimus Prime]

1 January

7 February (with piles lasting into March

4 December most of which has now almost all gone

I make that 12