South West England Cold Spell Discussion

[Bristawl Si]

Ah - sorry. It's Wet Bulb Freezing Level. Important for snowfall potential - see by scrolling down the handy glossary here - - http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/node/64

Sizeable snowflakes now falling in Bradley Stoke, S Glos, with mixed sleet. A key change.

Same here in Stoke Gifford; a few minutes from Ian's patch

[Jace]

Heavy sleet/rain with the odd flake in Clifton Bristol.

[Dartmoor_Matt]

Ah - sorry. It's Wet Bulb Freezing Level. Important for snowfall potential - see by scrolling down the handy glossary here - - http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/node/64

Sizeable snowflakes now falling in Bradley Stoke, S Glos, with mixed sleet. A key change.

Thanks for that Ian.

Key change here to. It's finally stopped raining!

Now, where did I put my Neilson brochure...

[BristolBlizzard]

heavy sleet south bristol ashton ,trying its best to snow here .

[Nights King]

steady sleet here still. 2.9c

Think we will have to wait another couple of days for some real snow. If that fails well i am going to Austria on 2nd which is kinda cheating i know.

[Gas Ed]

Here in Brentry, North Bristol, I can only describe it as a wintry mix of soft hail and blobs of wet snow. Temp dropped from 2.7 to 2.2. Blobs, however, becoming more frequent and larger by the minute.

Now 2.0 and almost all snow, although the wettest snow I think I've ever seen yet still settling on cars

Edited December 29, 2009 by Gas Ed

[Devon-Nelly]

Yes the temperature here too has dropped slightly throughout the day, its now 5.7c it was 6.8c at 11.00am this morning and it was around 8c in the early hours. Too early to say but i think maybe the surface cold is not being pushed away so quickly.

[musician]

You said in an earlier post that you used to live in Chippy - I'm an ex-chippy too, small world eh.

Before I get my wrists slapped (yup, MODS get told off too) it's currently drizzling here and up to 2.7 Oh joy.

Thanks for the posts Ian, very informative as always. Can I ask, from a meteorological viewpoint, why is the transition to snow so often on a line with the M4? Topography?

Thanks Jethro, I don't think it's off topic to say that I left Chippy School in 1963 - the year of the great snow which lasted several months. Roads blocked for weeks on end, cars buried - I remember looking to see if anybody was trapped in them - don't think we'll ever get anything like that again! All this fuss today about a flake or two. Most people on this forum have never lived!

...and the temperature has now fallen here to 2.8 with continued light sleet.

Peter

[Ian Fergusson]

Folks in Glos - keep eyes on this stuff - see attached; I've muted the PPN rate shading so the mapping is a tad clearer. Note the leading edge just crossing where we've had sleet (almost total snow) down to low level in Bradley Stoke / Stoke Gifford (all near M4/M5 interchange) and environs. I'd wager it will be readily falling as full snow as this advances up onto higher ground to our north (Cotswolds etc). Eyes to the skies....

Edited December 29, 2009 by Ian Fergusson

[Bolton67]

Folks in Glos - keep eyes on this stuff - see attached; I've muted the PPN rate shading so the mapping is a tad clearer. Note the leading edge just crossing where we've had sleet (almost total snow) down to low level in Bradley Stoke / Stoke Gifford (all near M4/M5 interchange) and environs. I'd wager it will be readily falling as full snow as this advances up onto higher ground to our north (Cotswolds etc). Eyes to the skies....

Any chance you could blow that further east into Northamptonshire

Edited December 29, 2009 by Lancs_Northants

[aspire27]

Looking at the radar wont be long till the main band has gone past north somerset.

Showers behind.

Must admit ive even seen any heavy rain from this event yet.

[dogs32]

Well, the UKMO's high-res short-range modelling is still keen to offer snow into the upland Glos areas - see attached (PPN type discrimination, NOT actual PPN rate) for 16Z prognosis, obviously it's modelling - not a nowcast! But a reasonable punt. Hopefully you can make out the bits of Glos - I've zoomed in somewhat.

cheers Ian,

according to the high-res James is going to be more lucky than me as he is heading for Cleave Hill.

Though will be interesting up toward's Birdlip,even if I see wet snow I will have some nice shot's..

Like the sound of beefy shower's down South..

catch you all later,,and good luck

edit....just seen your above post.

Edited December 29, 2009 by dogs32

[Lynxus]

Thanks Ian,

Maybe my "game over man game over" attitude will change.

Temp still holding at 3.1c ( since 9am ) there is some small flakes mixed in with the light drizzle here.

So who knows.

the next few hours will show.

Im sure if it does snow it will pass by just as fast as it comes lol

[aspire27]

Getting more sleet as the day goes on.

Worried about how quickly the PPN is moving north. Not much left to cross N.Somerset now.

Thought it was to sink back south again?

Lets be honest..the rain has reached Nottingham now....as rain.

No hope down here now.

[Lynxus]

LOL, temp has just risen

3.2c now.

Getting more sleet as the day goes on.

Worried about how quickly the PPN is moving north. Not much left to cross N.Somerset now.

Thought it was to sink back south again?

Lets be honest..the rain has reached Nottingham now....as rain.

No hope down here now.

thought so too.

Only time will tell.

[Ian Fergusson]

Well, I still have faith in the forecast modelling of snowfall this afternoon for upland Glos and especially Forest of Dean. It's almost full snow now here in Bradley Stoke albeit still a sleety mix, but some chunky wet snow within it - - it would settle instantly if full snow at this PPN rate. It's surely going to offer full snow at 100m upwards from my position, as it travel a few miles towards more northern higher ground. Looks much worse other side of the Severn, as expected.

[03jtrickey]

Right well I've donned my full winter lycra + waterproof trousers and jacket, and I'm just off up Cleeve Hill on my bike now! Bringing the camera, and I'll let you know what I find up there. I don't feel like trudging 5 miles through town so I'll skip the boring bit on the bike and if the weather is bad, then I can always push it

[Rich_Clements]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/content/webcams/klb_school_webcam.shtml

Snow just north of Bristol

[Ian Fergusson]

Getting more sleet as the day goes on.

Worried about how quickly the PPN is moving north. Not much left to cross N.Somerset now.

Thought it was to sink back south again?

Lets be honest..the rain has reached Nottingham now....as rain.

No hope down here now.

It was only ever going to be rain in Notts. This was always a central-western/Wales snow event primarily. But they could see some snow now develop south of Notts from around Cambs/Beds westwards into Chilterns and Oxon.

[Lynxus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/content/webcams/klb_school_webcam.shtml

Snow just north of Bristol

Check the date on the cam.

I dont think thats today

[Ian Fergusson]

http://www.bbc.co.uk...ol_webcam.shtml

Snow just north of Bristol

That's a jammed image from 21 December.....

[Rich_Clements]

ooopppss

[SilverWolf]

Well, I still have faith in the forecast modelling of snowfall this afternoon for upland Glos and especially Forest of Dean. It's almost full snow now here in Bradley Stoke albeit still a sleety mix, but some chunky wet snow within it - - it would settle instantly if full snow at this PPN rate. It's surely going to offer full snow at 100m upwards from my position, as it travel a few miles towards more northern higher ground. Looks much worse other side of the Severn, as expected.

If this ppn fell as snow and settled quickly in Stroud, would that help lower temps further, for more snow falls later as well, say from showers following?

[Lynxus]

Looks like its just rain over parts of wales as well at the moment ( going from what highways cams i can find )

Maybe this will produce more snow later.

Temp still rising.

Stopped raining here also.

[twister2005]

hi all still very light rain here in cheltenham, are we going to see snow here or is it just going to be on higher ground