late ice days

[damianslaw]

With the réal possibility of an ice day tomorrow for parts of the country, i just wondered over the last 50 years when have ive days been recorded later than 11 march. Many winters since 1988 failed to deliver ice days to the major cities of england. Indeed remarkably tomorrow could end up delivering equal coldest maxima of the season.

[A Winter's Tale]

In recent years:

12th March 2011 (-0.5C max Dalwhinnie)

30th March 2010 (-0.1C max Dalwhinnie)

[Harve]

I believe the blizzard at the end (!) of April 1981 recorded ice days in a select few places.

[Harve]

Also, the English record for the lowest Maximum temperature is -3.3c in Buxton in 1942, which seems very beatable at some point to me: I'm surprised it's not lower considering Dartmoor managed a -10c maximum in February.

[March Blizzard]

There was a -1.0C max on 8th April 1975 in Dalwhinnie. A 0.0C max on 15th April 1966 in Wales. These are the lowest max temperatures for the month of April (in the last 50 years) which is the latest month an ice day has been recorded. It doesn't necessarily reflect when the latest ice day occurred. I'd imagine a max of -0.1C must have been recorded well into April at 1 or more of the usual Scottish sites.

[March Blizzard]

Also, the English record for the lowest Maximum temperature is -3.3c in Buxton in 1942, which seems very beatable at some point to me: I'm surprised it's not lower considering Dartmoor managed a -10c maximum in February.

That English record does look slightly vulnerable, it may not even last tommorow. Interestingly, the Scottish record is only -3.9C, a temperature that is warmer than what I browsed for Glen Ogle today. Maybe we've broke a record and don't even know it?

[Harve]

That English record does look slightly vulnerable, it may not even last tommorow. Interestingly, the Scottish record is only -3.9C, a temperature that is warmer than what I browsed for Glen Ogle today. Maybe we've broke a record and don't even know it?

Glen Ogle got to -3.7c at 2pm this afternoon, but regardless, it's at 560m so I believe the Met Office don't count it.

[spindrift1980]

I've never really understood why the Met Office don't seem to count high altitude sites in temperature statistics/records. For instance, today on the summit of Cairn Gorm the following figures were recorded: 2013-03-10 18:00 -10.3 °C 2013-03-10 12:00 -8.5 °C 2013-03-10 06:00 -10.2 °C 2013-03-10 00:00 -8.5 °C

[spindrift1980]

I should say - those statistics come from the link below. At 10pm it was -11.5C. I appreciate that the very lowest temperatures will be in valleys during still conditions but often the daily low officially recorded by the Met Office for the UK will be higher than the figures recorded at Cairn Gorm or Aonach Mor. http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weather/maps/city?3&TIME=std&LANG=en&WMO=03065&ART=temperatur&LEVEL=140

[Weather-history]

A few locations reported an ice day on the 5th April 1911

[Terminal Moraine]

Even at this altitude ice days after mid-March are uncommon. There were two consecutive ice days on the 16th and 17th March 1979 with maxima of -1.2c and -1.0c respectively and another two on the 19th and 20th March 1980 with -0.9c and -0.6c respectively; the latter are the latest consecutive ice days on my 50 year record.

20th March 1985 just managed to qualify with a max' of -0.1c.

The latest ice day by a wide margin was 24th April 1981, at the start of the great blizzard, with a max' of -0.2c.

A probable contender for a late ice day here would also be 2nd April 1966 when I recorded a max' of 1.0c at a different site a few miles away at 178 mts. Possible candidates would also be 14th and 15th April 1966 when the max' was 2.2c at the same site; I have a long overlap of records between my current site and that one and the differential in mean maximum temperature between the two sites in April is 1.9c.

[Interitus]

Glen Ogle got to -3.7c at 2pm this afternoon, but regardless, it's at 560m so I believe the Met Office don't count it.

-3.2°C maximum in the end.

[Snowyowl9]

I see there was a maximum of -3.3c at lerwick on the 14th in 1992 which says was a new record.

1986 first half must of given a couple of 3 ice days.

Currently 0.1c here mist out,suntrap.

[UV-RAY]

March 1975 brought 6" snow around these parts with drifts in excess of 5 feet.

[Interitus]

Also, the English record for the lowest Maximum temperature is -3.3c in Buxton in 1942, which seems very beatable at some point to me: I'm surprised it's not lower considering Dartmoor managed a -10c maximum in February.

Looks like the English record is safe today already, bitterly cold nonetheless and some station records may go.

[March Blizzard]

Yeah, we may have had a chance if the cloud was thick and persisted throughout daylight hours. The sunshine, even in small doses, has already done its work in terms of keeping the record safe.

[sebastiaan1973]

Over here in the Netherlands for De Bilt it is 12 of march. Today was an iceday, so very close to a record!

[davehsug]

Wouldn't just about all of these ice days in Lowland England, from mid March onwards have been brought about by still freezing fog conditions persisting all day?

[Terminal Moraine]

Wouldn't just about all of these ice days in Lowland England, from mid March onwards have been brought about by still freezing fog conditions persisting all day?

I think the majority of ice days in March occur as a result of strong E/NE air flows, Dave. Anticyclonic conditions with persistent freezing fog are rare at this time of year as the strength of the sun is sufficient to break down any inversion under which freezing fog could persist and a cloudy anticyclone wouldn't produce much in the way of fog in the first place.

Looking back through my records ( which I know isn't exacly lowland but which does tell me what the synoptic conditions were at the time ) I couldn't find one instance of a freezing day in March or April resulting from persistent freezing fog.

The nearest approach was March 5th 1971 when a weak front moving through an anticyclone resulted in persistent light snow with fog on high ground and very light winds generally.

All the other occasions I could find back to 1963 were the product of, at least, a f 4-5 strength wind from between north and east, usually with cloudy skies but occasionally, as in early March 1965, with a good deal of sunshine.

[Snowyowl9]

March 3rd 2006 came close here,freezing fog all morning,but then a sunny and clear blue skies the rest of the day 1.4c max colder than today already and no wind.

[Weather-history]

12th March 1996: that was a really cold March day.

-2.8C at Boltshope Park as a maximum