Cold Spell The Sum Up

[Nick L]

Best cold spell in my lifetime. Exceptionally low temperatures, first time I have ever recorded a -10c (got 2 in a row) and had 4 ice days in a row. Plenty of snow, reaching about 4 inches today. Had snow cover for the past 15 days.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Best cold spell in my lifetime. Exceptionally low temperatures, first time I have ever recorded a -10c (got 2 in a row) and had 4 ice days in a row. Plenty of snow, reaching about 4 inches today. Had snow cover for the past 15 days.

looking on that website in your sig, youve had ice day today, mine somehow reached 2.6C max, with a -0.1C min, surprised snow didnt turn to rain

[Snowyowl9]

5 foot of level snow on the Berwyn mountains that must be a record since the past.

I was there in november too with a covering. :lol:

Sum up too early because a mild few days won`t thaw it all

hope it does thaw to leave some big green patches on fields.

Because cold will come back.

Edited January 13, 2010 by Snowyowl9

[NorthantsSnow]

Overall, the most prolonged spell of cold weather for a long time in Northants, but not as snowy as Feb 2009.

There were several snow events over the course of the spell but nothing especially notable locally. Certainly nothing that could rival 5th/6th February 2009.

The 6th January event was particularly frustrating since we were right on the northern edge of a heavy band of snow and as a result missed the most substantial falls. On the 18th December the heaviest falls occurred to our east, and on the 13th January (today) the heaviest falls occurred to our west.

No single snow event provided more than 5cm / 2 in.

Edited January 13, 2010 by NorthantsSnow

[Guest]

26th consecutive Met-O snow day tomorrow (unless the snow melts overnight). In addition, we had snowfall on the 3 days before there was a proper Met-O covering. So that's 29 days and still counting....

And you want a "sum-up"?? :lol: Can we wait until the cold spell ends (on Friday) please

[Slinky]

26th consecutive Met-O snow day tomorrow (unless the snow melts overnight). In addition, we had snowfall on the 3 days before there was a proper Met-O covering. So that's 29 days and still counting....

And you want a "sum-up"?? Can we wait until the cold spell ends (on Friday) please

Well out of this cold spell I had 1 day (yes you read it right, 1 DAY) of snow which measured the grand total of just under 2cms.

So for me this cold spell has been absolute pants

[fordy]

On a personal note in terms of snowfall, this cold spell was better than feb 09 where my highest totals were 4 inches. I reckon ive just topped that at 5 inches at sometime during the last week, 1996 was better where we had 6-7 inches and 1990-91 was better still with 9 inches perhaps more. I can never remember the snow hanging around quite this long before though with 8 days of lying snow and counting, very impressive. My memory of 1990-91 is abit hazy only have photos to go by and hazy memories of playing in the snow as a kid but that snowfall easily eclipses anything ive had since with snow drifting up the cars and walls etc. In terms of tempertures and the length of the cold spell its been very impressive, but I still have'nt experienced that epic snowfall ive been waiting for on a personal level since 1990-91 even with the synoptics the uk has seen over the last few weeks, so in that regard im slightly disapointed. Still various areas up and down the country have been pushing the magical 12 inch mark and smashing it over the last few weeks so it has been a very impressive cold spell for the country on the whole.

Im actually taking my first snowboarding trip for a week in the south of france on saturday so im likely to see snowfall like ive never seen before in my lifetime, but it still wont be as good as seeing epic snowfall totals outside your backdoor.

[Thunder Snow]

Wow this cold spell is still producing snow, ive had about a cm of fresh snow. Completly unexpected.

[Thundery wintry showers]

26th consecutive Met-O snow day tomorrow (unless the snow melts overnight). In addition, we had snowfall on the 3 days before there was a proper Met-O covering. So that's 29 days and still counting....

And you want a "sum-up"?? Can we wait until the cold spell ends (on Friday) please

And if the colder projections come off, we could get just two or three days of near average temperatures before another cold blast comes in from the east, in which case the end of the cold spell will be whenever the resulting cold from that easterly breaks down. Alternatively it might end on Friday if we don't get that easterly.

So talk of a sum-up is still premature in my opinion, especially as Friday and the weekend look set to be less warm in the south than Boxing Day was.

[paul tall]

Probably not as cold as 1981/2 or 85/6, and not as much snow as we had in one or two dumpings in 1991, but for persistant and often deep snow cover stretching to 29 days now, this is the snowiest cold spell since 1979, simple as that.

[Tucco]

Probably not as cold as 1981/2 or 85/6, and not as much snow as we had in one or two dumpings in 1991, but for persistant and often deep snow cover stretching to 29 days now, this is the snowiest cold spell since 1979, simple as that.

For Teesdale 85/86 was a more prolonged cold spell with longer snow cover. Depths were greater in 95/96, 91,87 plus early 80's.

The 1979 cold/snow was a different league to this spell.

Low Etherly at a modest height of 155m asl had 62 days consective snow cover.

Mark

[Gord]

I'm going to just do my little bit of the West Midlands if thats ok.

Snowfall:

We all seem to judge cold spells on snowfall...there have been many that have been great for snowfall but not so great for low temperatures (February 2009 springs to mind for some areas).

We for this little end of the West Midlands, the snowfall took a long while to get going. Was becoming quite frustrating and by the evening of the 2nd Jan, I really thought that the cold spell would end up as a dry one here.

Once it got going though, it was great! 5 inches on the 5th/6th Jan, a couple more last Sunday night and again last Tues/Wed...(With some thawing last Sunday during the day though).

So this cold spell was good here for snowfall, if a slow starter. Could have been greater but i suppose you could say that about every cold spell!

Low Temperatures:

Now this is where I think this cold spell was really special. It was so good to see icicles everywhere again.

Sunshine:

A lot of beautiful sunshine during the cold spell. Before the snow fell, we were treated to crisp beautiful sunrises and sunsets....and then after the snow disguised the frost, we were treated to below zero and crystal blue afternoons with a good snowcover. It really doesn't get much better than that in my opinion.

Freezing Fog/Rime/Hoar Frost:

Not much of it around here really, December 2008/January 2009 really beat this one on that count. Most disappointing aspect of the cold spell was the lack of hoar frost and rime. New Years Eve 2008 really sticks in my mind and i would love to scenes like that again this winter.

So overall, I am very happy with the cold spell, once it got going we did very well around here. Almost a disaster at one point but we got there!

I think we can safely say that January 2010 will be used a reference point in model discussion threads in future winters!

[snowingman]

This has NOT been a country wide snow event

Facts

3 snow showers in 3 weeks

shower 1: Lasted 15 minutes, ground just turned white

Shower 2: lasted 20 minutes,1/2 inch

Shower 3: lasted 45 minutes, 1/2 inch

total snow 1 inch... complete rubbish! had more snow in october last year

Yes.. its was cold .... but for as for snow ..... complete trash

there you have it then........

[Thundery wintry showers]

Alright, now that this cold spell does look on its last legs, I think a sum up is fair.

For Cleadon, where my weather records are based, this has been the longest cold spell since February 1986 and the snow depth reached 25cm on the 9th- the deepest since before I started recording back in 1993 (I can't say "deepest since February 1991" any more as I'm not sure if February 1991 had that much snow near the coast or not). There have been 23 days with more than 50% snow cover at 9am- in comparison, the previous snowiest seasons were 1993/94 and 1995/96 with 18 days over the entire November-April season, and the snowiest winter quarter was 1995/96 with 15 days. So certainly a remarkable cold spell for snow cover, especially in the context of recent years.

Sleet or snow has occurred on 21 days, which already equals the previous highest in a winter quarter (again 1995/96)- again remarkable considering that it all happened from a single spell. Sleet or snow fell on 11 of the first 14 days of January and lay at more than 50% cover on 13 of them.

But my main abiding memory of it will be the actual weather that it produced, which was absolute bliss as far as I was concerned. Crisp, sunny weather on most days, and frequent convection over the North Sea leading to heavy convective snowfalls and some spectacular cumulonimbus cells. There were also a few dramatic hailstorms, and even some lightning on New Year's Eve. I did leave Cleadon for Norwich on the 5th, and therefore missed Cleadon's biggest fall, but Norwich also had similar bright showery weather through to the 9th and snow depths reached 10-12cm, the same as I saw at Cleadon during the first four days of January.

[Snowyowl9]

For Teesdale 85/86 was a more prolonged cold spell with longer snow cover. Depths were greater in 95/96, 91,87 plus early 80's.

The 1979 cold/snow was a different league to this spell.

Low Etherly at a modest height of 155m asl had 62 days consective snow cover.

Mark

Deepest snowcover here since January 1982 Wales was a magnet for all those undercutting lows.

If it wasn`t for the partial thaw just after christmas to melt more than half the snow it would`ve been the longest snowcover since feb 1986 but it wasn`t,looks like longest 18days since 95/96 and 96/97 3weeks.

19 tomorrow as I can`t see more than half thawing overnight.

[J10]

Today was the first day not to have Met Office Snow Day since the 1st Jan, and this was only because of torrential rain this morning.

However still some snow cover, and ex snowmen remain. Temps today aorund 8c, so much milder.

[damianslaw]

Taking the cold spell as a whole, it fell into 4 distinct parts here.

The snowiest and most exciting spell occuring betwen the 17th and 25th Dec. We saw two great snowfalls one on the 20th and one overnight 21st/22nd, total depths neared 1 foot, the deepest totals since Feb 1996, but along way off the 18 inches we recorded then.

The second spell occured between 26th Dec and 2nd Jan when we saw plenty of freeze thaw action and not much snow, in fact we saw some rain on the 27th, and by New Years Eve snow was dissapearing on lower ground and almost wiped away by the 2nd.

The third spell and by far the coldest spell occured between the 3rd - 9th Jan where we didn't get above freezing, but we didn't manage anything lower than -10 degrees. In terms of length of continuous cold it rivalled the last week in Dec 1995 but not quite in terms of depth of cold

The last spell between the 10th and 14th saw a sow thaw, though more snow on the 12th and early hours of the 13th, nothing exceptional.

So whilst in terms of depth of cold it never came close to late Dec 95 and snow depth anywhere near early Feb 96, in terms of persistance of cold its not been bettered since Feb 86, though late Jan-mid Feb 91 was only little shorter.

In terms of time of year it has not been bettered by Dec 81/82.

A noteworthy cold spell, up there nearly with the likes of 81/82, feb 86, and rivalling the best of jan 85 and feb 85 but better than Feb 91 though for this region it has not bettered the cold snowy episodes of 95/96. But I wouldn't compare it to 78/79 not by a long shot.

[Grimsby Snow Lover]

For us here on the east coast it was pretty impressive really. We had very heavy snow/grupel showers from December 18th through to 21st which gave a covering of about 2 inch of the most dry, powdery snow I have ever seen. We recorded our lowest temperature of the winter on the 20th of just below -5. The snow began to thaw on the 23rd, helped by freezing rain and then steady drizzle. We had a patchy covering on the big day itself which was a big relief. All was then pretty average up to the 31st of Decemebr when the snow showers returned. We had a dusting on the morning of Newyears day which was later washed away with heavy sleet on the 2nd. The snow returned properly on the morning of Tuesday 5th of Jan when we had heavy snow followed by light frequent showers which gave about a covering of 3 inch. We had snow showers every day until the 8th of January. Probably the most dissapointing thing during this time was that we never got that cold at night. I think -1 was our lowest but this was only achieved about twice - must of been the warming from the North sea. The snow then hung around until last sunday when it suddenly thawed rapidly leaving only patches where snowmen once were. Overall I was very pleased with the cold spell and am looking forward to the next one.

[Ben_Cambs]

For me it started on the night of the 17th of December, it was cold and clear, but just 30 mins later, snow began to fall then it became very heavy and there was blizzard conditions and drifting. It totalled to 6 inches in about 5 hours, very nice. Had a couple of light snowfalls before Xmas day, when a week milder spell came in.

I missed out on the 5th Jan event, but on the 6th a band of snow came off the North Sea and gave about 4cm. 3 more days with snow showers topped up the covering to about 3 and a half inches. It was a good spell but personally the first half of Feb last year was better for me, I had 3 frontal events in that period and a day and a half of continous heavy snow showers.

This Cold spell (from 17th Dec) Cumulative snowfall: About 8 inches

Feb 09 Cumulative snowfall: 14 inches

Edited January 15, 2010 by Snowman0697

[Grimsby Snow Lover]

For me it started on the night of the 17th of December, it was cold and clear, but just 30 mins later, snow began to fall then it became very heavy and there was blizzard conditions and drifting. It totalled to 6 inches in about 5 hours, very nice. Had a couple of light snowfalls before Xmas day, when a week milder spell came in.

I missed out on the 5th Jan event, but on the 6th a band of snow came off the North Sea and gave about 4cm. 3 more days with snow showers topped up the covering to about 3 and a half inches. It was a good spell but personally the first half of Feb last year was better for me, I had 3 frontal events in that period and a day and a half of continous heavy snow showers.

This Cold spell (from 17th Dec) Cumulative snowfall: About 8 inches

Feb 09 Cumulative snowfall: 14 inches

trange that, the Feb event here was a real disappointment as the proper snow only arrived the day before the thaw! We was stuck in one of theose huge gaps on the radar for nearly a week!

[Cheese Rice]

It was good, but not great, the easterly didn't deliver for Yorkshire as much as predicted which was a shame. Snow depth wise, we got around 30cm which isn't that un-common, have achieved that a few times over the last 10 years. The snow lasted for around 5 weeks, which was excellent compared to other winters, achieved 4 weeks in total last winter. Hopefully the next snowy spell will bring a deeper snow cover.

Edited January 15, 2010 by 10123

[The PIT]

A cold spell that hinted of winters past although it never quite achieved the snow depths or the extreme cold but very notable considering what we had for the last few years. Now whether this indicates a swing back to winter types of the 60's and 70's is another matter. Time will decide that.

[Bottesford]

Consistently cold with temps struggling to make it to freezing over several weeks - something I've not experienced in many many years.

Plenty of 'Arctic' sunshine which was fantastic over the snow as it really really boosted light levels right at the time of year you most need it. Felt positive during the first week back at work which I'm sure was down the decent light levels (and the excitement of snow!).

Unfortunately last week changed all that - not seen any sunshine at all since last Saturday now so no surprise I've been much less positive this week.

Snowfall wise it hasn't been anything too special - all the big falls missed this area and we got a max of only a few cm. Feb 09 was much better for snowfall here (in terms of depth) but with the length of the cold spell this time everything did hang around longer.

Ice has been horrendous at times and having injured myself once over xmas on black ice I've been extra careful since. Has doubled my journey to/from work and at times made it quite scary. I won't miss that part of the cold spell!

All in all, memorable but I'm glad it has ended now. Just need some normality!

[charlton north-downs]

Very good cold spell for Biggin Hill Kent. About 18 days snow cover this winter so far and almost a week of freezing temps.

The good thing about being high up is that the snow is deeper the temps are colder and we are not that far from Central London.

Before Christmas a max snow depth was about 5 ins after Christmas max about 8ins the difference this winter the snow did not disappear after 36 hours .

Today is awful with heavy rain temps at 3.6c snow all washed away. :lol:

[Bristawl Si]

A cold spell that hinted of winters past although it never quite achieved the snow depths or the extreme cold but very notable considering what we had for the last few years. Now whether this indicates a swing back to winter types of the 60's and 70's is another matter. Time will decide that.

A notable spell when compared to the last 20 years. Three snowfalls in BTL - Sunday night/monday morning Dec 20th/21st, early hours wednesday morning Jan 6th and tues night/wednesday morning 12th/13th Jan; delivered 3 inches, 5 to 6 inches and 3 to 4 inches respectively. The very cold temps, esp. between 7th and 10th were something that was absent in 1st week of Feb 2009, when we had 4 snowfalls.

However, not as good for snow as compared to 78/79 and the fierce blizzards we had dumping a foot of snow at times back then or the great blizzard in mid-Jan 87. 81/82 was another heavy snow winter, but ended here by end of Jan i think.

As for the reference to the 70s, PIT, in Bristol the 70s were pretty mild affairs i think, except towards the end - i think we had about 5 snowless winters in the 70s- although i was born in '61 i can't remember much about the 60s winters.

So far a v.good winter in terms of cold and snow, but not yet in the mould of 78/79 IMO.

Still it's only 16th Jan, so a little way to go yet.