The Midlands Regional Discussion - Part 6

[A.J]

10/11 was poor? I thought it was very good, I had loads of snow between 26 Nov and 07 Jan, This Feb been good as well, 3 inches of snow last Sat, and still not all melted, loads around astonfields, even a bit of snow last night, a few grains today

no for me, 2010/11 was poor for snow as was 09/10

[I remember Atlantic 252]

no for me, 2010/11 was poor for snow as was 09/10

I thought they were fantastic, nothing like the great 90's and earlier, but very good for the modern er@, this winter not bad either, snow in feb

[BlueHedgehog074]

So what are your marks out of ten for this event?

I'll give it 2/10, one point for the light dusting we eventually received during the early hours, and an extra point for at least avoiding hours of cold rain.

Bish

About the same score for yesterday's event perhaps bordering 3/10 thanks to how cold it felt.

[matt_in_dudley]

Didn't have much snow here last night, just a sugar dusting, which had melted by midday. Very cold tonight though!

[mr benn]

Guys - whats the weatehr looking like for around 7 to 11pm tonight . Thinking of going to Birmingham from the Redditch are, but worried about any inclement weatehr or icey roads.

Cheers

To answer my own question ......nothing doing. Not a frost to be seen. Blinkin gutted i didnt go out now.

Guess it saved me a few pennies thats all

Blinking Met Office / BBC predicting icey roads .

Should know better than to trust them

[davehsug]

Terrible in Stoke this morning. Everywhere except main roads was a sheet of ice. Took me 8 minutes to get down the path & into the car! Lot's of falls & a bloke at work broke his hip. It was truly hideous!

[Cheshire Freeze]

Terrible in Stoke this morning. Everywhere except main roads was a sheet of ice. Took me 8 minutes to get down the path & into the car! Lot's of falls & a bloke at work broke his hip. It was truly hideous!

And just 15 miles down the road there was no such problem......shows the change in climate between S Cheshire and the hillier Staffs

[BlueHedgehog074]

Good morning all. Woke up to a nice icy surprise outside - frost. And looking at the latest local Met Office report it's at least around -7.4*C here. Not bad. :-O

[TEITS]

-13C here in Peterborough. The coldest in E Anglia was -15C near Holbeach!

[chelseagirl]

Local weather station shows a low of -13.8 !!!! Now showing -11.3. Brrrrrr

Have now been outside, and seen lots of diamond dust! It really is cold!

Edited February 11, 2012 by chelseagirl

[mountain shadow]

For a small group of Islands the temperature difference across a small areas is impressive.

Nearly 23 degress difference between parts of Eastern Northern Ireland and places only 250 miles away this morning.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

For a small group of Islands the temperature difference across a small areas is impressive.

Nearly 23 degress difference between parts of Eastern Northern Ireland and places only 250 miles away this morning.

Im sort of middle with a min of -6.1C, i still class it as a great cold spell, but more snow tomorrow for the easterners, but then even there should be milder with a quick thaw by monday

[Gord]

So the cold spell is just about at an end. It's been a good one although not a classic in this part of the Midlands. The snowfalls of Feb 2009, Jan 5th 2010 and particuarly Dec 18th 2010 were better here than Feb 4th 2012. I understand that's not the case in all of the Midlands though. Last Thursday night was obviously a massive let down, but every cold spell has come with one of them so I suppose we were due it!

What this cold spell has achieved is that it has stopped winter 2011/12 being a complete disaster. Things were looking really bleak last month. At least now this winter won't rank amongst the very worst. It's still been quite poor overall but certainly not at the depths of 89 or 98! Again, I understand that might not be the case for the whole of the Midlands. You lot at the end of the M54 really do deserve something very special in the last few weeks of winter.

There's still time for more this winter. I think we'll see another cold spell before February is done...and if not we'll see one in March. What I'm going to hope for now is not prolonged deep cold but one off, quick hitting but exceptional snow events! With convection starting to become more into play in the next few weeks, you never know!

Edited February 11, 2012 by Gord

[fizz511]

To answer my own question ......nothing doing. Not a frost to be seen. Blinkin gutted i didnt go out now.

Guess it saved me a few pennies thats all

Blinking Met Office / BBC predicting icey roads .

Should know better than to trust them

Ahem - did say so......

[TonyH]

Weather guide Sunday 12th to Saturday 18th February (west Wales and central Midlands specific)

Headline: Milder with plenty of dry weather

The cold spell is on it's way out now, having brought heavy snow to the East this week, and with last night temperatures as low as -18c over the snow fields of Eastern England. Although winds are coming from a generally North-westerly direction this coming week, the air is greatly modified and it will not be cold.

The cold hangs on tonight with another hard frost for the Midlands. Sunday sees high pressure moving west across the UK, but with weak frontal systems within this. It's a similar picture for Monday too, with the high ending up to the west of Ireland. Bands of cloud will be tracking south across England and Wales on these two days, and perhaps bringing a little light rain or drizzle in places, with some sunny intervals too, especially later on Monday. There may be a touch of frost by night if skies are clear enough. Feeling chilly in the NW breeze, but temperatures reaching close to the February average of 6 to 8c, so much milder than the past week! Tuesday should be a dry, bright day but with a chilly north wind.

During Wednesday and Thursday the high pressure is positioned well south- west of Ireland, and the feed of air, although still from the NW, has tracked all around the high from the mild Azores region of the Atlantic, so that in spite of the wind direction, it will be a fairly mild couple of days. Due to the lengthy sea track of the air, it will be a rather cloudy spell this, but with a few sunny intervals, and frost is unlikely mid week, with afternoons reaching 8 to 10c. Dry for most, bar a spot of drizzle at times for west Wales.

By the end of the week, it looks like a low pressure passing close to Iceland and then into Scandinavia will influence us, the high edging further south-west into the Atlantic and away from the UK. A more unsettled theme for Friday and the weekend then, with bands of rain and some showers affecting the UK, most of the showers over west Wales. Although turning colder, temperatures are not far from average, reaching 5 to 8c, so any sleet or snow will be confined to the higher ground of Wales. Slight frosts will occur by night given clearances.

For supportive charts see here:

http://forum.netweather.tv/topic/72509-wales-cymru-weather-discussion-part-5/page__st__460__gopid__2268963#entry2268963

Edited February 11, 2012 by TonyH

[quest4peace]

All the very attractive ice laiden trees have only just melted here today Sure sign it's finally above freezing what an awesome site it has been though

Edited February 11, 2012 by quest4peace

[Bishop Brennan]

So the cold spell is just about at an end. It's been a good one although not a classic in this part of the Midlands. The snowfalls of Feb 2009, Jan 5th 2010 and particuarly Dec 18th 2010 were better here than Feb 4th 2012. I understand that's not the case in all of the Midlands though. Last Thursday night was obviously a massive let down, but every cold spell has come with one of them so I suppose we were due it!

What this cold spell has achieved is that it has stopped winter 2011/12 being a complete disaster. Things were looking really bleak last month. At least now this winter won't rank amongst the very worst. It's still been quite poor overall but certainly not at the depths of 89 or 98! Again, I understand that might not be the case for the whole of the Midlands. You lot at the end of the M54 really do deserve something very special in the last few weeks of winter.

There's still time for more this winter. I think we'll see another cold spell before February is done...and if not we'll see one in March. What I'm going to hope for now is not prolonged deep cold but one off, quick hitting but exceptional snow events! With convection starting to become more into play in the next few weeks, you never know!

An excellent summary Gord, my sentiments entirely. The cold since the start of the month plus the snow event last weekend (plenty of which is still on the ground here) has effectively "saved" this winter from being consigned to the dustbin, the rest of February/early March notwithstanding.

I guess I subconsciously rate a winter depending on whether it delivers at least one reasonable snow event. For example, I tend to regard the winter of 2006/07 as a good one, due to the snow in early Feb 2007, when in reality the winter as a whole was actually a pretty nondescript affair for these parts.

Bish

[jimben]

My local weather station, Pitsford in Northants recorded a minimum temp last night of -12.4c at 07:30

[Bishop Brennan]

My local weather station, Pitsford in Northants recorded a minimum temp last night of -12.4c at 07:30

WOW, amazing! We got down to -8.4 last night, which is just about the coldest so far this winter here, but we can't compete with -12.4

Bish

[conor123]

Most of the ice from the freezing rain has melted now though as you can see still some trees covered in it.

Been on the edge of the cloud here so never got below -3c last night.

[snow freak]

well we still have a few inches of lying snow in northampton and even some impressive icicles this morning. temp last night got down to -12c. The downside of this is we now have frozen water pipes and no running water...arghhh!

[Arctic Hare]

So the cold spell is just about at an end. It's been a good one although not a classic in this part of the Midlands. The snowfalls of Feb 2009, Jan 5th 2010 and particuarly Dec 18th 2010 were better here than Feb 4th 2012. I understand that's not the case in all of the Midlands though. Last Thursday night was obviously a massive let down, but every cold spell has come with one of them so I suppose we were due it!

What this cold spell has achieved is that it has stopped winter 2011/12 being a complete disaster. Things were looking really bleak last month. At least now this winter won't rank amongst the very worst. It's still been quite poor overall but certainly not at the depths of 89 or 98! Again, I understand that might not be the case for the whole of the Midlands. You lot at the end of the M54 really do deserve something very special in the last few weeks of winter.

There's still time for more this winter. I think we'll see another cold spell before February is done...and if not we'll see one in March. What I'm going to hope for now is not prolonged deep cold but one off, quick hitting but exceptional snow events! With convection starting to become more into play in the next few weeks, you never know!

I think that's an excellent summary. This last week really has saved us from a winter of utter dross. Mind you, from memory I think that at the end of Jan 2009, we weren't feeling too happy either! I've decided that this is a 5/10 event. It would have been higher if I'd been rating in 2008, had there been more sunshine, had there been any ice days or -- especially -- had I not had to sit through the utter misery (IMBY) of Thursday evening. It would have been lower had Saturday's snow not been so good, had there not been any decent minima, had today not been so sunny or had that unexpected dusting not partially saved Friday.

Min last night was -5.7 °C; max today 1.0 °C; now back below zero.

Incidentally, just the chance of one last (small) hurrah tonight, according to the latest MetO text forecasts:

W Mids: "...cloud will spread southeastwards across the region overnight, perhaps giving the odd outbreak of rain, sleet or snow."

E Mids: "...cloud and occasional light snow, freezing rain or drizzle probably spreading from the north later."

Edited February 11, 2012 by Arctic Hare

[jimben]

Maximum temp of 0.4c today and temp now back below freezing at -2.4c. With sun just setting and cloudless skies, expect temp to fall rapidly.

[locneverstop]

Incidentally, just the chance of one last (small) hurrah tonight, according to the latest MetO text forecasts:

W Mids: "...cloud will spread southeastwards across the region overnight, perhaps giving the odd outbreak of rain, sleet or snow."

E Mids: "...cloud and occasional light snow, freezing rain or drizzle probably spreading from the north later."

Possible Cheshire Gap event??

[picog]

Possible Cheshire Gap event??

Not sure, although it doesn't appear to be that line of precipitations that's been hanging around in the Irish Sea all day, getting weaker an weaker. Maybe it'll pep up once it hits Wales and goes over the mountains?