February 2005/March 2005 snowfalls across England

[Aaron]

Anyone remember this snowfall event? Was rather bad especially for the eastern side of the country - my memories of this snowfall are only vague but the images taken back then show it to be significant, especially for the time. The snowfall continued into March and caused school cancellations.

Taken in Leeds:

[I remember Atlantic 252]

I had a lot of snow, but due to the time of year there were daytime thaws, the best snow was on the tue and wed, 22-23rd

the 24th thursday, if I remember was frontal snow, which here was very light and sleety, Sat 26th turned less cold

[Tom Montalbano]

Hi Aaron,

Yes, its a spell I remember very well. It came at the end of a winter where we'd had a near-miss easterly in January, as well as a long spell of winters with very limited northern blocking,

I'd forgotten what a Greenland/Scandinavian high looked like synoptically!

So scarce were any height rises in the Greenland area it prompted me to started a thread titled "The demise of the Geenland High in winter", some of our members may remember it!

It was a very basic look at how infrequent greens/yellows,(indicating decent height rises), on the 500hpa charts, in the Greenland area in the winter months, had become. The lack of decent height rises in the Greenland area had been especially lacking during the late nineties early noughties.

Here are a few charts from that noticeable late Feb/early March spell. A cold northerly began to set in on the 19th Feb., I think most members including myself thought we were in for a 48 hour toppler, that pessimism brought about by a string of benign winters, lacking any really decent cold spells of any note and featuring mainly a roaring northerly jet, with a very organised PV around the Greenland area.

http://www.wetterzen...00120050219.gif

But for a change pressure remained high to our NW and a trough slipped down the N.Sea and the flow eventually turned into the East.

http://www.wetterzen...00120050221.gif

The following chart is a real beauty, just a couple weeks too late for a classic easterly with heavy snow and sub-zero temps. But it did result in the first of 2 Thames streamers that affected my area in this spell. This one gave around 2/3 ins of snow in S.E.London/N.W.Kent, Would have no doubt been more but snow took a while to settle probably due to high soil temps after weeks of above average temps and very little frost.

http://www.wetterzen...00120050222.gif

I remember the weather associated with the next chart very well. I sat up into the early hours of the folllowing morning posting with the likes of Steve Murr and TEITS as we awaited a period of snow forecast to move west from Germany/Holland only for dew points to be the wrong side of marginal and snowfall was restricted to higher parts, such as the Pennines etc, while lower ground had just rain and sleet.

http://www.wetterzen...00120050224.gif

But the following day, that small low tracked west along the Channel and my area experienced a 2nd Thames streamer event, again giving a max of 2/3 ins.

http://www.wetterzen...00120050225.gif

The weather remained very cold with some great looking synoptics into early March. I recorded something like 12/13 consecutive days of snow falling in this spell, albeit mainly light and just flurries at times but that is quite exceptional for an outer London borough.

Yes, a spell I remember with great affection, with all the wonderful synoptics it produced and imo marked the change in respect of whether or not high latitude blocking would start to show its hand more often again, in our part of the Northern Hemisphere.

Regards,

Tom.

Edited November 15, 2012 by TomSE20

[AderynCoch]

I was living in the hills of west Sheffield (right on the edge of the Peak District) at this time and this was a cracker of a cold spell. We got the first flakes on the 19th but the snow really got going on the night of the 20th/21st and peaked on the 22nd/23rd. We had about a foot of level snow, and it didn't completely thaw until well into March (there was still some snow about in the second half of the month).

I really wish I was up there during those mammoth snowfalls at the beginning of December 2010. It must have been amazing.

[SMU]

50Cms of snow up over Boltshope park in the NE

s

[summer blizzard]

Some would argue that this was the first spell which heralded the return of the easterly in winter as it was followed by Fed/March 2006, the Channel lows of Fed 2007, the almost of 2008 and then winters 2009, 2010 and even 2011/2012. Before this we had gone several years without a notable easterly even if this one was notable for the wrong reasons, mainly that snow fell frequently but the lack of a cold pool lead to melting.

[philglossop]

Remember this spell really well- in fact it's the only time in my life so far that I got snowed in.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/2005/Rrea00120050224.gif

That Thursday we got up to drive to work in Manchester from Glossop there wasn't a hope of even getting the car down the hill let alone getting to work! I seem to recall the BBC weather at lunchtime saying Glossop had had 25cm of snow and I wouldn't disagree with that figure.

Meanwhile down in Manchester work couldn't understand why we'd not made it in, they'd had nothing!!

Good times.

[damianslaw]

Remember the period very well. I was living in Newcastle at the time and recorded a number of days with snow falling, often it was fairly light and gave a dusting or a couple of cms at best coverage. Dewpoints were often very marginal and with ground temps high places near and at the coast only saw rain or sleet at best. The difference in conditions between the suburbs of Newcastle and Sunderland was notable. However, places further inland in NE England did very well for long lasting snow cover with dewpoints and uppers just the right side of marginal for a good 3 week period.

What was most notable about this period were the synoptics, we hadn't experienced such strong persistant northern blocking since early winter 96/97 and it came as a refreshing change. It was a shame the synoptics arrived in late winter and after a long period of very mild wet weather, had they arrived a month earlier a notable cold period would probably have ensued with less marginal conditions.

We saw similiar synoptics in late Feb- late March 06, indeed this period of weather marked a change in overall synoptics and conditions for a good 2 years up until May 07 with an emphasis on dry weather and blocked conditions with a run of cold winter months and very warm/hot summer months.

[Weather-history]

My forecasts uploads have reached this stage.

Elizabeth Saary, remember her? warns a cold wintry spell is on the way

17th February 2005

[NUT]

My forecasts uploads have reached this stage.Elizabeth Saary, remember her? warns a cold wintry spell is on the way17th February 2005http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPU3Tkhqgqk

Very attractive lady. I wonder what ever happened to her.....................

[Weather-history]

Very attractive lady. I wonder what ever happened to her.....................

Is she still with the BBC?Anyway, here she is again on 18th February 2005http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7duEftzzxj4

[Weather-history]

19th February 2005: I remember this being cloudier than forecast with snow flurries at times

[Weather-history]

One of the wintriest Countryfile forecasts for a long time

[damianslaw]

Not since Jan 97 had such synoptics been seen - a long 8 year barren spell without extensive northern blocking, indeed any noteworthy cold between Jan 97 and Feb 05 came courtesy of shortlived northerly attacks, albeit the late Dec 2000, late Feb-early March 01 and late Feb 04 northerlys packed quite a punch, so in this respect it was very refreshing indeed.

 

In terms of snowfall it was definately an eastern event, the west saw very little snow at all. Temperatures were very marginal for snowfall on low ground and especially near the coast, however, many central and eastern parts of england did receive decent coverings from time to time and a long number of days with snow falling, but it was very wet sticky snow which struggled to settle especially during the daytime and on occasion simply thawed as it hit the ground. Indeed I remember on one day in Newcastle it rained instead of snowed washing all the wet stuff away - very frustrating, and therefore was not a classic snowy easterly. I think N Sea SST's were very high for the time of year, and ground soil temperatures also. We had seen a couple of northerly blasts in early Feb with maxima as high of 7 degrees as well- indicative of the warm uppers which prevailed throughout the winter despite what on paper appeared to be very cold synoptics. Such synoptics in the last few winters would have delivered much colder uppers.

 

Personally I rate late Feb 2006 - mid/late March 2006 as a more snowier episode particularly for the NW and Scotland with colder nightime temperatures. Late Feb 2001- March 2001 also - but these spells saw more of a northerly flow, hence were not an eastern event only.

[MP-R]

This was a fantastic spell for convective snow showers and cloudscapes, though pretty naff for accumulations across the south. Here in Bristol the only registered day with snow lying at 9am was February 28th after a few hours of heavy snowfall before dawn.

2006 was a less impressive easterly but the northerly that followed was a lot better with snow showers on the 28th, a covering on the 1st then the battleground scenario on the 12th. Of course there were further snow flurries right up until the 22nd.

Definitely a heralding of more winter easterlies to come, though in this part of the country with do better when the wind has a more northerly component. As such, there wasn't a noticeable change in snowfall from previous years, especially not after January and February 2004.

[Weather-history]

BBC news report

[Weather-history]

21st February 2005

[Weather-history]

22nd February 2005

[Weather-history]

23rd February 2005: threat of more organised snow

[Weather-history]

24th February 2005: we got some snow but it was largely sleet when it did fell, which wasn't often.

[summer blizzard]

I got all snow.

[cooling climate]

24th February 2005: we got some snow but it was largely sleet when it did fell, which wasn't often.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzKRTH2o6hE

The forcast for Friday was way off as the low to the se moved further north giving significant snow in

a number of locations.

[Weather-history]

25th February 2005: less cold

[Weather-history]

26th February 2005

[Weather-history]

27th February 2005: I remember having a little ding dong with John Holmes that Peter Gibbs was wrong to say winter 2004-05 was the driest since 1962-63.