South East and East Anglia Regional Discussion 11th March 2013 15.00 hrs onwards

[Severe Siberian icy blast]

PICTURES GUYS???

[barmybint]

Kent police on twitter reporting that Hawkinge is now cut off from Folkestone - jackpot area do far for Kent so stay safe all down that way

[Jason H]

Moderate snow from Steves neck of the woods has made it here.

[alexisj9]

Nice big flakes here but they are not falling, they are going sideways and even rising lol.

Edited March 11, 2013 by alexisj9

[Radiating Dendrite]

OMG Blizzard and thunder! Must have about five foot out there now! Even had a snow tornado, dorothy and toto flew past my window looking a bit annoyed.

[Stevieray1]

Still coming down heavy. A good few cms on the pavements and road now

[Bluebreezer54]

Occasional light to moderate snow showers now in Nw London.

May I respectfully suggest that Fluid Dynamic be disqualified from the Snow Depth Cup on the grounds that :

A/ He was daft enough to run out of booze and chocolate

B/ He doesn't have a tape measure so is simply going to make it up

C/ I am drawn against him in this round and its the only way I will progress

[DEYS(Kent)]

I believe Hythe is pretty much cut off too....hills at either end of the town are impassable.

[Jason T]

I am sorry for those further north missing out. Really heavy out there now - possibly the heaviest of the day!

Chio its fine,To be honest im glad those who missed out before are getting a big brucey bonus.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Jason T

[Met4Cast]

I tried taking pictures but the snow is so heavy the flakes are just reflecting the flash too much to see anything!! Whiteout conditions, amazing

[NYCSnow]

Just got home from work in central London...dry as a bone up there but as soon as you get outside the M25 there's a covering, with a good few cms here. Most interesting aspect is the wind...blowing the snow in gusts making it feel really Arctic outside.

[kold weather]

Wind flow remains in place for the next 12hrs or so, so whatever you have now, you'll probably continue to have broadly in that time period. As the frontal core starts to move away we may see the convection pep up even more.

[Jason H]

I believe Hythe is pretty much cut off too....hills at either end of the town are impassable.

Negative. Parents live in Hythe. Just spoken with them. Whilst it's snowing heavily and settling, they are not cut off.

[Canalboy]

I'm fingering a bottle of Hennessey VSOP here myself. Although in this case it could stand for Visible Snow 0 Percent

[Hotspur62]

Amazing,37 pages on this Thread since 3pm and 90% of posts coming from people in only 3 counties(Kent,Sussex and Essex).Can you imagine if that LPS had been another 100miles North to cover the whole SE!!

Still just the odd flurry here in Petts Wood/Orpington with about 0.5cm on the ground and the temp -1.7 with that wind the bitterest i have felt all winter!!

[gooner265]

OMG!!!! It's a whiteout here!!!!!

nothing here ???

[sarah7meme]

I've sent Lottie 2

I've not got recent ones but will get some in morning

I don't care if u doubt me I'm drunk in pjs and not going out to prove it lol

The drift I sent Lottie was at 5pm

Imagine it now...

[lottiekent]

Look at travel cams

Gridlock on m20

Loads of local roads closed

I got the snow drift on road

How do I add from iPhone?

Sarah's photo's from Lyminge -

[Floatylight]

Wind flow remains in place for the next 12hrs or so, so whatever you have now, you'll probably continue to have broadly in that time period. As the frontal core starts to move away we may see the convection pep up even more.

That's me then heavy showers here atm

[Rinse The Raindrops]

Just had a drive back from Rayleigh to Benfleet in blizzard like conditions tonight has really made up from previous disappointments this winter coming down thick and fast

[Tamara]

indeed,most of the day has been blizzard like,winds even stronger now.Roads a sea of abadoned veichles and minor prangs.Just hope all folk make it hope to the warm tonight.The forecasts issued by the M.O and BBC have been dreadful for this part of the world.Tonights amber warning like shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted.

I was witnessing news 24 forecasts calling for "snow to settle after dusk" as i was hearing of local ambalance crew unable to reach Hastings hospital due to drifting snow.

I know I have had fun this afternoon in the snow, and there are those of the general public who conversely wanted reassurance that the conditions were not going to be too prohibitive to get around - but I agree that the forecasting has been a little too over cautious in this respect, politely speaking , On the basis that snow was already readily settled with freezing temperatures early this morning for some of us from the word go.

The snow settling after dusk statement was a poor one (in forecasting terms) even if it delighted those of us in terms of being snow fans To my mind the complete lack of sun today was one factor for these SE coastal regions that has helped encourage snow to settle throughout the day with the temperature at ground level thus being able to effectively reflect the upper air temperature potential, as would the deeper part of winter, with less solar insolation, cater for more naturally.

Being closest to the frontal zone effectively catered for that - so warmed ground or not (and the mild spell was quite brief) I think this aspect of the forecasting could have been handled better It should have been possible to take into account the frontal cloud shield - in a nutshell.

Meanwhile - the snow keeps coming down here and after a lull for a while it is now thick and heavy again

Edited March 11, 2013 by Tamara Road

[Southender]

Another whiteout here in Southend.

It really is incredible to see this in March. Best event of the whole winter. Madness!

[WestSussexSnow]

still coming down hard - over 5cms - and the wind is whistling through parts of the house that obviously I didn't know needed draught excluder!

[Cloud 10]

I think its fair to say this hasn't been a dry Easterly.

[Stevieray1]

I don't have a flash on my iPad (or don't know where it is if there is one !!!)

First photo is from 3 ish this afternoon and 2nd is now. Sorry it's so dark, hope you can still see