General Cold Spell Discussion

[Eugene]

So glad i had a coat on yesterday when going for a walk, once in openness of the countryside it felt very chilly indeed in that very strong and gusty wind.

[Derp Patrol]

Quite the opposite here untill about an hour ago when the sun went in. Before that it was 16C with relatively sunny weather..

[Cheese Rice]

Leeds Snowfall 2009/2010, February snow pics now on! http://forum.netweather.tv/topic/62183-leeds-snowfall-of-winter-0910/page__gopid__1802377

[BlueHedgehog074]

Seriously, the standard of the photos people take on NetWeather are incredible. Some really good falls of snow in your pictures, 10123, and certainly make your mouth drool with appetite. It looks like you have had a great Winter and I really enjoyed looking at the the snowy scenes during January, in particular. Very good photo log. Well Done.

23rd- 24th Dec

A band of snow gave around 5-6cm of snow which at the time I wasn't overly impressed with, although this did add to the 5cm base I expected more. On the morning of the 24th an un-expected snow shower arrived form the south and intensified greatly as it passed over Leeds, resulting in 5cm of snow form a 1 hour shower with very heavy snowfall. I was very happy as this wasn't forecast and I really didn't expect it. This resulted in 15cm of lying snow, temps remained below freezing all day and dense fog made it look like Narnia. Due to the snowfall Harrogate train station didn't open, because there was only one person with the key and he was snowed in (you would think they would have more than one key!)

(lol) Poor guy, hope he was alright after.

[Cheese Rice]

Seriously, the standard of the photos people take on NetWeather are incredible. Some really good falls of snow in your pictures, 10123, and certainly make your mouth drool with appetite. It looks like you have had a great Winter and I really enjoyed looking at the the snowy scenes during January, in particular. Very good photo log. Well Done.

(lol) Poor guy, hope he was alright after.

Thanks , yeah we certainly did well, I would go as far as saying we did the best in the UK compared to any other city. Leeds is in a very snow prone location and usually does the best compared to nearly all citys every winter.

[damianslaw]

Thanks , yeah we certainly did well, I would go as far as saying we did the best in the UK compared to any other city. Leeds is in a very snow prone location and usually does the best compared to nearly all citys every winter.

Yes Leeds did seem to do quite well on the snowstakes this winter. It did very well from the north easterly and then north westerly in december, normally a north westerly wouldn't produce the goods to this part of the country, however, it had a slight westerly component and I remember alot of the snow we got on the 20th and 21st heading straight for the Leeds and Bradford area.

It did very well in early January, the developing low pressure on the 5th was in a perfect position for the Leeds area, though Manchester saw more snow than Leeds on that day.

Thereafter, its central position and its altitude generally between 100-150m certainly put it in a good position to catch frontal snow from the south west and easterlies/north westerlies.

As for it being the snowiest major city in the UK on average, I think the accolade goes to Aberdeen with Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle bettering Leeds on average.

Smaller scottish cities such as Inverness and Dundee I suspect get more snow on average, alongside Durham, York, Ripon and possibly its neighbour Bradford.

[Cheese Rice]

As for it being the snowiest major city in the UK on average, I think the accolade goes to Aberdeen with Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle bettering Leeds on average.

Smaller scottish cities such as Inverness and Dundee I suspect get more snow on average, alongside Durham, York, Ripon and possibly its neighbour Bradford.

Yep statistically speaking there are other snowier cities, but if we take this winter and last winter I think we had more snow that Durham, York, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and possibly Ripon. Although I'm not 100% on the Scottish city's but I think we did better if only by a small margin. Leeds is best suited from every setup, where as city's such as Manchester are best for NW's and terrible for Easterlies.

Certainly winter 2008/9 we did better than Scotland, as cities such as Edinburgh were too marginal for Dec 3rd snow event which brought 15cm of snow here, and Feb 2nd/3rd which brought rain to most of NE England gave 20cm here.

[Thundery wintry showers]

If you average over a long period, you'll probably find that Leeds gets rather more snow than most parts of Glasgow and Edinburgh, because those two cities are mostly situated at sea level whereas Leeds is a bit higher up. For the same reason, Sheffield and Bradford are traditionally snowier than Leeds.

The Tyne & Wear/Durham area is interesting because until the last decade, Newcastle and Durham were both snowier locations than Sunderland, but in the last decade there's been little to choose between them because of the high incidence of northerlies with snow showers confined to the east coast. Leeds has probably stayed on a par with Sunderland in terms of snowiness over the period.

Leeds will have been favoured for snow during Februarys 2009 and 2010 because of a large number of marginal events where the slightest bit of altitude makes all the difference- hence only rain or sleet at sea-level cities and snow at Leeds. However in a winter with frequent northerlies and snow showers penetrating a modest distance inland, Leeds may see very little snow while the Tyne and Wear/Durham area gets lots of it.

One thing Damienslaw got right is Aberdeen being the snowiest of the major cities- indeed it holds that accolade by quite a large margin. But indeed there may be smaller Scottish cities that are comparably snowy.

[Guest]

If you average over a long period, you'll probably find that Leeds gets rather more snow than most parts of Glasgow and Edinburgh, because those two cities are mostly situated at sea level whereas Leeds is a bit higher up. For the same reason, Sheffield and Bradford are traditionally snowier than Leeds.

Glasgow is notorious for being a snow free zone and the recent winter confirmed this view. The maps available from the Met-O show this up, although you do need to squint a bit to work out exactly where the cities are

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/averages/ukmapavge.html#

[Optimus Prime]

Sapporo in Japan is the snowiest city in the world (with a population above 1 million) many of it's streets are heated. An average of 250 inches of snow a year.

I doubt any Scottish city or ski resort comes close to that.

[LomondSnowstorm]

Sapporo in Japan is the snowiest city in the world (with a population above 1 million) many of it's streets are heated. An average of 250 inches of snow a year.

I doubt any Scottish city or ski resort comes close to that.

I believe Cairngorm is closing in on that after circa 400cm of snow fell since January 1st, but on average I doubt any built up area has an average of >25 inches, never mind 250 inches!

[Tom D]

An interesting article on BBC News this morning.

The UK and continental Europe could be gripped by more frequent cold winters in the future as a result of low solar activity, say researchers.

They identified a link between fewer sunspots and atmospheric conditions that "block" warm, westerly winds reaching Europe during winter months.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8615789.stm