North West England - Slightly Less Cold Spell Discussion Part 21

[damianslaw]

A raw day with a biting NE wind.

I travelled down to Manchester this morning and encountered a sleety shower or two, but no evidence of any snowflakes. On my return unusually it was milder here than in Manchester difference of 2 degrees, probably down to the lighter winds and brighter skies here.

The eastern fells caught a light dusting of snow yesterday evening and I note Ingleborough and the Howgills have a slight white coating - good to see a bit of snow, they have been devoid of snow for nearly 3 weeks now, which for January is a very poor show indeed, the mild wet weather from the 11th - 16th stripped them bare. Since then it has been predominantly dry.

The longer term outlook looks much more promising for snow on higher ground..

In the meantime 3-4 days of more fairly cloudy chilly weather ahead with some frost which could be moderate tomorrow night in particular. So another very good weekend weatherwise with lots of dry settled weather..

[fluffytrollop]

i know lots of us would have loved to see more snow - but this is more typical weather we're seeing now...personally I'm just delighted we had the amazing weather we had, and if it becomes a regular feature well - BONUS! - but it is a part of a pattern, which makes it all the lovelier when it arrives for us snow lovers. One more blast would be wonderful - and if we didn't have these little daydreams we'd be pretty impoverished of spirit I reckon, but these cold, clear winter days give us daybreaks and sunsets of such beauty, views from such places as Teg's Nose are stunning, and that'll do for me. Here's to a spring of rising temps, longer days, rainbows and unexpected showers, into a summer of warmth, long days, short nights, (and beer gardens) and into a dazzling autumn. For me, it's less about predicting the weather as being part of it.

Right, that 'fuelled-by-hippie-juice' moment has eased now. Thank you all for your input. Haven't had much to say, but it's been lovely reading your input and forecasts. This has to be one of the nicer places I come to on the web.

[Rainy]

Light covering of snow in Bowland came overnight. Not measurable and burning off in the sun already.

[itsnowjoke]

i see its packed on here again.

-1c this morning at 8.00pm

[itsnowjoke]

i see its packed on here again.

might aswel close this thread.

-1c here this morning at 8am.

current temp 0c.

[SummerNSnow]

i see its packed on here again.

might aswel close this thread.

-1c here this morning at 8am.

current temp 0c.

Don't say that Snowwhere!! Feb hasn't even started yet, although I know it's not looking good at all.

Very, very cold here, but great for walking with the dog. I'd be happy with this than mild and wet, which I detest!! (think I may have already mentioned that lol)

[Chris.R]

-5.3c here, very frosty and the coldest since Christmas night!

Looking forward to a lovely sunny late winters day

[SNOW GO]

Got down to -6c last night here in Crewe the coldest night so far this January brrr!! Currently -4c and frosty with the sun just beginning to peak through the cloud.

[Weather-history]

-8.4C

[AderynCoch]

A very hard frost this morning. I wonder if it can last the day.

[itsnowjoke]

very frosty morning here but starting to melt on the roof but the car is still thick with it.

[Spurry]

-7.4c here overnight

[Backtrack]

Clouded over here from the East melting the frost.

Should turn clear again from the North later.

A pathetic low of -3.7C

[Backtrack]

As expected. Cleared from the North. Crystal clear blue skies.

0.9C. Amazing from what was to be a 'slack' Easterly.

[Lancashire Lass]

A low of -5.3C this morning. Currently 6C with blue skies and sunshine. Dewpoint -4C

[Spurry]

Bitterly cold here again , already -1.2c under clear skies...hope to beat last nights -7.4c

[damianslaw]

A beautiful day here with wall to wall sunshine after lows I think of -6, it was still -4 degrees at 9am. Maximum temp of 2 degrees, and we are now at -1 degrees.

Cloud looks like encroaching from the north very soon so we won't see such low temps tonight. Someone on the far north england thread has said they have light snow cover near Durham - we could see some snowflakes in the coming hours due to the weak front moving down from the north.

[lukemc]

Clouded over here from the East melting the frost.

Should turn clear again from the North later.

A pathetic low of -3.7C

Not bad Backtrack - I thought it was pretty cold this morning it was certainly a hard frost.

The only think I seem to be cocerned about is how the synoptics which are conductive to cold and snow (as described in the model thread) just seem to suddenly disappear like they did at the beginning of this month - yes maybe we have had cold since then but not synoptics that favour widespread snowfall especially for our area.

Yes I like our "maritime" climate here in the UK due to the fact that snowfall is possible in the winter but it does not pesist all the time for weeks on end and thats why I thought December was amazing as far as our climate is concerned - in our climate snow and cold can be seen as something special that we can look forward too - unlike the situation in Canada or midwesten USA were you might just get used to the cold and snow and think it as a normal thing so when it does happen it does not seem as exciting (expect when you get a major blizzard).

But one of the things that does frustrate me about the climate in this country is how easily the synoptics that a favourable for cold and snow can just disappear without trace - like they seem to have done at the beginning of January (maybe not for cold but certainly as far as the white stuff is concerned) - even after an amazing spell like December - yes December was an exceptional month but even in quite mild winters we can get synoptics which are favourable for snow like the Februarys of 1999 and 2007. I also hear that La Nina normally favours a colder first half and a milder second half of winter and that does seem to be the case at the moment on this side of the Atlantic but it certainly does not seem to be the case on the other side of the Atlantic with New York likley to record one of it snowiest months on record this January so does anyone think there is still hope for cold and snow lovers in our part of the world. I do certainly have a feeling that the end of February - first half of March could be on the wintery and cold or very cold side so maybe a March like 2006 or 1995 coming up does anyone agree?

Anyway BT what is your temp at the moment - do you think cloud could ruin our chances of a good frost tonight?

Luke

[AderynCoch]

A very hard frost this morning. I wonder if it can last the day.

Indeed it did, though only away from the sun of course.

A very nice frosty day.

[Bartlett Low]

Not bad Backtrack - I thought it was pretty cold this morning it was certainly a hard frost....

Luke

Hi Luke, whilst late November and December was a truly exception spell of cold weather, for snow events it was dwarfed by last winters memorable events on Dec 21? and obviously Jan 5/6 which produced he most snow in 20 years in Manchester, probably longer but I've only been around these parts for that time.

I cant find the post I made (winter forecast) but I had a feeling this winter would follow the typical La Nina cold first then less cold. I didn't expect it to be as cold as it was though! Anyway, I know a few people have put this forward on the model thread but I'm going for nothing special temperature wise in February but a below or maybe well below average spell in March.

Without being a sycophant I've got to say I've noticed that some of your queries in the past haven't been answered or some good posts ignored a bit - I thought they were decent asks or good posts in general. Not really in this thread but the general model discussion. Anyway don't give up on the decent stuff.

[lukemc]

Do you think this upcoming zonal westerly spell could be a cold zonal variety in the style of January 1984 or March 1995? It would be nice to get a cold westerly zonal type rather than a mild zonal type and I think with the Eastern Seaboard of North America being cold in the last few weeks that must surely increase the chance of the zonality being of the cold variety. So does anyone think we could be in for some wintery surprises in the next week or so with the possibility of some snow similar to what we had in early January (i.e. settling snow but not on the ground for long). I would happily take that scenario considering that January since then has been devoid of snow. But does anyone think that after the zonal spell is over we could see quite a cold end to Winter - a cold late February/early March - a March similar to 2006 would be good - we must have had about 20cm of snow then! Regarding March 1995 was there any lying snow in Liverpool from that event?

Luke

[Backtrack]

Clouded over here. It was -1.2C at 18:00pm.

1.0C here now.

[itsnowjoke]

0c here at the moment.......feels colder.

[Rainy]

Temp creeping up, now 1.9C. Thin snow patches, mostly in shade, still lingering from the snow which came overnight 27th / 28th.

[itsnowjoke]

fed up with the non eventful weather, i keep reading the model thread hoping that they will say something positive but they havent as of yet....somebody posted that the atlantic is finally storming in, well thats wet weather for most then, going now to have a full english breaky. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm