South Central England Cold Spell Discussion:

[Methuselah]

Here goes...

Old thread:

[SP1986]

I might be the only post in this today, judging by the fact no one replied since 7pm yesterday.

Maybe its the shock of recording -5C on the coast that is taking its toll.

[lettice]

Yes very cold and my station reported -5.9c at 8-13am, highest last night was -2.5c at midnight.

No chance of a thaw here in Gosport yet but temp is creeping up, -3.9c now

[jy]

Yes Stephen this thread of ours puts in about as many appearances as Lord Lucan minus 7 here earlier with good snow cover still in South Hampshire.

[Altostratus]

-5C isn't exceptional for the south coast. I remember a few years ago Bournemouth recorded -9C. That was without any snow cover too. I expect -10C would have been recorded quite widely last night in rurual areas.

[SP1986]

-5C isn't exceptional for the south coast. I remember a few years ago Bournemouth recorded -9C. That was without any snow cover too. I expect -10C would have been recorded quite widely last night in rurual areas.

Depends on what you define as coast I suppose, but south coast is widely known for it's mild weather, however it's only the very seabound areas of the coast (maybe 200-300 metres from the coast) that have this famous mild reputation. It is indeed these areas I was referring to, although I have seen how low temperatures can go just a mile inland or so

[slb97]

Phoned the job centre re an appointment in Portsmouth tomorrow (currently stuck in Horndean) - he said "everyone should try to come in and wait and see what the weather is like tomorrow, the snow may have thawed and melted by then - after all no one knows what the weather will be like in the morning!!!" - absolutely priceless!!!

[Matt Taylor]

I'm currently reporting -3 and I'm exactly a mile from the Clarence Pier in Southsea which is exceptionally low for us. I known lower of course but not at this location.

[*AL*]

Took my wife and daughter to work this morning around Swindon Wiltshire at 0815 and temp was around -10C, this was confirmed on the local radio.Parts of Oxfordshire recorded -17c

[SunnySouthCoast]

I'm currently reporting -3 and I'm exactly a mile from the Clarence Pier in Southsea which is exceptionally low for us. I known lower of course but not at this location.

It is very cold for here. Went down to -2.5C here in central Southsea & it's still hovering around -2C now, if it doesn't rise above freezing today it will be the first time it hasn't done so here for some years!

-5C isn't exceptional for the south coast. I remember a few years ago Bournemouth recorded -9C. That was without any snow cover too. I expect -10C would have been recorded quite widely last night in rurual areas.

The temp thing with Bournemouth is quite misleading as temps are taken from Bournemouth airport (Hurn) which is quite some way inland from the coast & out in the sticks in a frost hollow. I very much doubt if Bournemouth itself dropped any lower than around -4C/-5C last night.

[coldfingers]

I might be the only post in this today, judging by the fact no one replied since 7pm yesterday.

Maybe its the shock of recording -5C on the coast that is taking its toll.

Shock it was! Even here half a mile from the sea I recorded -4.7C. Just loving it though and all the snow even if all the buses where off the road by 7:00pm last night.

Useless company Stagecoach! The main roads through Bognor were OK from lunchtime but still my son-in-law couldn't even get a bus home from Chichester after midday!! Mind you even the trains from Horsham to Bognor were cancelled so obviously a lot of places had a lot more snow than the 2 inches we had here, even Chichester had 4 inches. The latest precipitation charts are looking good, if it came off like that is showing it would be the most snowy and cold event here since 1963.

Current temp -0.8C

Edited January 7, 2010 by coldfingers

[Stargazer]

Finally dug the car out this morning (parked on street on the level to Caversham Road so it could have been worse) and made it into work in Basingstoke in an hour at a leisurely pace. The roads in Basingstoke actually seem slightly less icy than in Reading, particularly south of black Dam.

Last night we had a minimum of -6.8, the coldest I've recorded since moving to Reading in 2002. Before that I lived in Southampton for many years - a classic 'not quite coastal' location that experiences some very high summer temperatures and fairly cold winter nights. We did once touch -10 (possibly -11) in the city in January 1987, and I think that night was the coldest there of the 20th century.

[*Stormforce~beka*]

Well we made it to Heathrow and back! Although not in enough time for me to get back for work. Left here about 5pm - got to heathrow about 6:30pm I think it was.

The only night mare was making it to the M3. Getting out of Stoney lane was fun. It goes down hill a wee bit to the bottom of the road and we slid quite a way to the bottom! Daniel said some very naughty words and and whippe the stearing wheel to the left and we just about banged into the curb which made us come to a stop before we reached the car waiting to come out the bottom of the road. So that was a bit hairy. Other to that the rest of the journey was slow but progressive. Our friend who were picking up had just flown back from Peru via Madrid!The plane he was on was the only one to leave to Madrid that day. Luckily enough he flew out on it and landed in london. If but landing at 7:15pm after apparently taxi-ing around heathrow for an hour! Once they got the gate apparently police flew on the plane and took 2 men off. Then as they were all coming off they were contained at the end of the gangway due to a suspect package between them and the only way out. It ended up that this was a bomb that the sniffer dogs had been around. So they took them to the far end of the terminal, they were briefed by police and then were told up to an hours wait for the bomb disposal people to come. 30 mins later we recieved a text to say they had been released and he was off to pick up his baggage. And finally we left heathrow around 10:15-10:30 pm and got home at 11:30pm!So many many boring hours waiting at heathrow!

Any ways he here safe with us if but snowed in aswell with us lol. No buses and no postman are coming out here. His parents couldnt pick him up as they would have to come from Birmingham and that's just more silly than we were lol.He texted me from Madrid to ask if there were trains running from london to birmingham but I thought it would be a nightmare to try and its a good job we didnt leave him to it. He would never have got there.

Any ways I digress. Dropped to -6.5 only here last but it is now -3.1 at midday. Amazing i've never seen it so come before at this time of day!

[slb97]

Glad you got back safely Stormforce!

[JamieUK]

Took my wife and daughter to work this morning around Swindon Wiltshire at 0815 and temp was around -10C, this was confirmed on the local radio.Parts of Oxfordshire recorded -17c

Yes, I recorded -16C here, just East/NE of Oxford, amazing stuff!

[SunnySouthCoast]

Up to 0C (32F) here now & with the sun still shining I expect we will get above freezing here at least, if only just!

[PompeyFC]

-0.9 in gosport out of the sun - not much thawing on

[SunnySouthCoast]

1C (34F) in Southsea now slight melt of snow on roofs.

[Stargazer]

The first proper ice day I've recorded here, with a maximum of -0.9 after an overnight minimum of -6.8. Could turn out even colder tonight

[CaptainRob]

-3 here and dropping fairly quickly. Saw -7 last night and still have much snow lying. In fact it has barely melted all day. The sun has done a bit of work on it but nothing much. Hoping for a top up over the weekend, but seems a bit uncertain atm. Any thoughts from people at this early stage?

[SunnySouthCoast]

Dropped to 0C (32F) now, could see -5C (23F) here tonight

[katemart]

-3 here and dropping fairly quickly. Saw -7 last night and still have much snow lying. In fact it has barely melted all day. The sun has done a bit of work on it but nothing much. Hoping for a top up over the weekend, but seems a bit uncertain atm. Any thoughts from people at this early stage?

WOW! Have you seen the forecast snow charts for Sunday and Monday?! The risk at this early stage is only given as >50% but the whole country is covered and with its direction it must bring more!

Been working from home for 2 days (not as much fun as it sounds, especially with teens underfoot) but feel I have to show my face tomorrow in case I don't get in Mon :unsure:

[katemart]

Temperature must hace dropped suddenly - thought someone had opened a door. The dog and I keep giving each other electric shocks!

[snowflakey]

Maybe wrong, but I reckon we've had our first ice day here on the IOW for a long time. The up and coming weekend looking very interesting with maybe another snow-fest for us islanders, but looking a little marginal at the moment. What is of concern to me however is the windchill here in the south, today felt bitter with temps just below freezing in a light NE, but come the weekend with similar temps, but with a lot stronger Easterly it will feel a lot colder. Windchill -12ish ?

[thunder123]

:aggressive:hopefully this weekend will be as severe as it was earlier this week?