East Anglia & South East Cold Spell Discussion

[Tn9]

Wheres that lot in the Channel, North of the Channel Isles going?

Circling into the low centre,little drift east of the low and bingo right under the circling band

[Luton Weather]

Met Office warns of 40cm of snow within hours in South East

The Met Office issued an emergency warning today that London and the Home Counties could be buried by more then 40cm (16in) of snow overnight.

As the Arctic cold snap was forecast to extend its grip across Britain, residents of Beds, Bucks, Herts including Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire were advised to take action to avoid the worst of the snowfall.

A Met Office meteorologist said the highest level of alert had triggered a warning for the emergency services advising them to prepare for the worst.

"This kind of warning is very rare," he said. "It's the level of alert we put out for the floods in the summer of 2007."

The forecast warned: "There is a high risk of an extreme weather event affecting parts of southern England this evening and overnight. A period of exceptionally heavy snowfall is expected with accumulations of 15-30cm and perhaps in excess of 40cm."

The snowfall in the South is expected to start in the evening and turn heavy overnight. The worst of the snow is forecast to begin in Wiltshire at around 9pm and reach London by 3am. The snowfall is expected to continue until tomorrow evening, with the heaviest falls west of London.

Every county in Britain was made the subject of a Met Office severe weather warning today as hundreds of schools were forced to close, airports cancelled flights and forecasters predicted that heavy snowfalls today would blanket the country.

Meteorologists predicted that the severe cold snap, dominated by icy winds blowing in from Scandinavia, would continue to blight Britain for the foreseeable future.

The threat of gas supplies running out as consumption rocketed in freezing conditions forced the National Grid to issue an alert for only the second time in its history yesterday but Gordon Brown insisted that the shortage would not lead to an energy crisis.

"I think Britain can deal with these problems," he said. "There are always difficulties when we have a long spell of bad weather. But we can cope."

A spokesman for the National Grid said the alert had been effective in prompting electricity companies to import more gas or switch to coal-fired power stations.

Grit supplies across Britain were also running low today with some councils admitting that they were struggling to cope with demand. The sand and salt mixture was so scarce in West Lothian that council officials reported theft from supply bins.

Edited January 5, 2010 by Luton-Weather

[rmc1987]

Dry at the moment, the smallest of flurries earlier this afternnon.

[Tn9]

Wheres that lot in the Channel, North of the Channel Isles going?

Circling into the low centre,little drift east of the low and bingo right under the circling band

[Snowydays]

Yea,i do,even if we miss the most today we would have to be b****d unlucky to miss everything:)

Actually I think west Kent might be one of the worse affected areas

[Polar Bear]

Official downgrade on snow from met office

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/se/se_forecast_warnings.html

where exactly I see no change?

[Jan_Bromley]

Kewl pretty close then - I plan on taking a stroll in the "Heavy Snow" (assuming we get it tomorrow) with the camera. Hope it's like last Feb...

DS

Would be nice if it is

[Ruislipredbee]

25 TO 40 cm is forcast for heathrow according to a internal baa doc who a good friend has seen this afternoon!

Happy days

[OldGreggsTundraBoy]

Dry at the moment, the smallest of flurries earlier this afternnon.

hhm missed me.. am i correct in saying its currently snowing in the Far south/ sw like just inland from portsmouth and that?

[Ben_Cambs]

Evening all, the forum is packed!

From what I can see, most of the region could easily see 10-20cm of snow, pushing more the further west and south you are!

[Thundery wintry showers]

Have returned to Norwich from Cleadon- I was very fortunate to get down here, my train made it through the main frontal zone of snow with just a 10 minute delay (which didn't affect my changeover at Peterborough) while subsequent trains saw significant disruption.

Just an inch of powder snow here, which when compared to Cleadon's 11cm or so, means a lot of catching up to do! However, for the foreseeable future Norwich looks like being a particularly prone location and more so than Cleadon with the winds switching to ENE and high pressure over the north.

Tonight's band doesn't look marginal for Norfolk temperature wise but the GFS does hint at the possibility of it stalling just to the west of Norwich, so as is often the case, a fair amount of nowcasting will be needed as we near the time.

[SussexmarkyMark]

Depends on how heavy the precip is, it is going to be somewhat marginal though because you've got a hefty onshore flow which is going to make everything that bit more marginal from the looks of things.

Thanks. I have a feeling it may well be rain to the South of the Downs. Temperature has risen to almost 3c now !

[Mrsf16]

Well this morning I had a feeling the 06Z GFS was onto something. Looking at the sat/radar and im 100% convinced the heavy band of snow will hit Sussex into London. This will then move N (uncertain how much) during the night and affect Herts, Beds, Bucks then into parts of the E Midlands i,e Northants.

Now whilst all of this is going on a another band of snow will be moving S from the N Sea and will affect Cambs, Norfolk during the night. These two bands of snow are likely to merge before moving S to affect the rest of the region. I can see snow being persistant for much of this region for tomorrow.

Thanks Looks like I better get to Tesco tonight then!! lol Was the plan of action for today until my Mum decided to slip on the ice and break her wrist....

Kids will be pleased if they get a snow day from school tomorrow!! lol

Will keep my eye out for any further updates from you

Mrs F x

[Neilsouth]

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/se/se_forecast_warnings.html

where exactly I see no change?

It was anounced via the MET OFFICE on the TV

[sco77harris]

:lol:

i thought hed reitred?

Edited January 5, 2010 by Coast
Sorry guys, can't do BBC screen grabs for copywrite reasons

[Hammer]

May look a bit of an overstatement now given the recent downgrades on amounts...I suppose at time of print they were going with what they had.

Met Office Update at 16:33 still mentioned a possible 40cm somewhere in Berks, Bucks sort of way.

[OldGreggsTundraBoy]

25 TO 40 cm is forcast for heathrow according to a internal baa doc who a good friend has seen this afternoon!

Happy days

OMG i lives well close to heathrow and staines massive yeyy!!!

if this is right i will be soo happy!

[Ben_Cambs]

The Met cleary will issue flash warnings for big snowfall, two bands will converge in our region causing most of the region to have persistant snowfall for most of the day

[Guest FireStorm]

http://www.raintoday.co.uk/ - Anyone seen the dark echos over portsmouth?

[Tn9]

Have returned to Norwich from Cleadon- I was very fortunate to get down here, my train made it through the main frontal zone of snow with just a 10 minute delay (which didn't affect my changeover at Peterborough) while subsequent trains saw significant disruption.

Just an inch of powder snow here, which when compared to Cleadon's 11cm or so, means a lot of catching up to do! However, for the foreseeable future Norwich looks like being a particularly prone location and more so than Cleadon with the winds switching to ENE and high pressure over the north.

Tonight's band doesn't look marginal for Norfolk temperature wise but the GFS does hint at the possibility of it stalling just to the west of Norwich, so as is often the case, a fair amount of nowcasting will be needed as we near the time.

Perhaps you are the snow god and its following you,fancy coming down for a couple of beers the weekend

Edited January 5, 2010 by TN9

[Reading FC]

Chucking it down with rain here

[liltbrockie]

Chucking it down with rain here

Rain ? Are you sure?

[Thundery wintry showers]

Perhaps you are the snow god and its following you,fancy coming down for a couple of beers the weekend

Aye, it has had a habit of following me around recently- makes up for those years spent at Lancaster when it always avoided me!

However as above I'm not confident that the heaviest snow will reach Norwich overnight- it might, it might not, but areas to the S and W of Norwich should get a sizeable amount.

[saint]

Snow being reported by local BBC 3 Counties Radio 4 miles SW of Buckingham, settling on raods.

Edited January 5, 2010 by saint

[john w]

BAA are wrried as are NATS...but the skies mus go on. alternate airports will be interesting tomorrow.

As for the latst N24 forecst people in c south have to be disappointed at the moment.

Home countis will receive an absolute copious amount with snow likely all evening night and most of tomorrow.

The downgrades appear to be for Southampton region at the moment...though id still expect more than 1cm snow. Certainly the expected as i departed was 20cm!

Very interesting model outputs to come but as 18z approaches this is a nowcast. SE couldnt have wished for such a late last minute upgrade actually.