Remarkable lack of snow for parts of the UK this season.

[Weather-history]

They are going to be local variations but at least around here the lack of snow this season has been remarkable. What I mean by season is the extended season that includes autumn and spring as well besides the winter.

In past winters where the winter has been largely snowless, some wintry weather has occurred in the autumn or the spring or sometimes both. 2007-08 saw wintry periods from mid March to mid April, 1988-89 saw November snow and snow in March and April for parts.

This season 2013-14, there was nothing in the autumn and the spring thus far has been devoid of anything and looks like remaining that way with the models backing away from a wintry Easter threat.

There has only been 3 falling days of sleet and snow since 2nd April 2013 to now, a period just over a year.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

few flakes on 30th Jan, and better snow temporary covering on Feb 11th, since my last snow on 2 Apr '13

[Thundery wintry showers]

Same here- since the 2012/13 season I have only seen three days of sleet/snow falling, the 20th November, 11th February and 12th February, and none with any lying snow at 0900, though there was a dusting on the ground late on the 11th February.  

 

It came close to getting cold enough for sleet/snow showers here on the 22nd and 23rd March, and there was certainly some snow on the higher parts of the Sutton Bank area, but as far as I'm aware the only wintry precipitation that I had was hail.  

 

Certainly a strong candidate for "most snowless season of the last 50 years, and probably longer" in this area of the country as I have researched into snow events in since 1947 and have not located any similarly snowless seasons- even 1991/92 had more lowland snow (20 December 1991, mid-February 1992 in particular).

[Summer of 95]

10 days with sleet or snow falling this Winter but 7 of them were just sleet (RASN) and 2 of the other 3 were 13/14 Jan, when snow fell from 2345 to 0030. The other one, Feb 11th, only missed being a snow lying day by one hour or so despite a very brief cover (it started settling about 0930, accumulated to 0.5cm, was gone by 1130). So not completely snowless but very poor.

 

It was the lack of low temperatures that was most extraordinary- no day failed to reach 3C and no night reached -4. There were only a couple of times when the temp stayed below freezing for more than an hour or two, a lot of the air frosts were around 8pm before inexplicably rising later in the night, equally inexplicably jumping above and below freezing all night, or a brief freeze in the hour before dawn.

 

The 11 months and 6 days without a single day of snow falling that I had between Jan 7 and Dec 13 2011 was not beaten though.

[hillbilly]

I guess it is the weathers reply to the most hyped up winter ever predicted...'THE WORST WINTER OF ALL TIME'.......What did you expect!!!!

[Don]

I think this 'extended season' has certainly been the worst I have ever experienced if you enjoy wintry weather!  Really cannot get any worse.......

[MP-R]

I actually cannot remember an extended season with no snow lying at all in my back yard (N. Somerset). Even in the mildest of winters there has been at least a temporary covering. Even 2008 managed 1cm on January 11th and a dusting of about the same on April 6th.

[Cheshire Freeze]

We'll probably be buried under the stuff for 3 months next winter.....OK I can awake from my dream now lol

[Nick L]

Not a single flake through the entire 2013-14 "season". Abysmal! The only positive is that it's not possible for next winter to be worse in terms of wintry weather.

[Don]

The only positive is that it's not possible for next winter to be worse in terms of wintry weather.

 

Absolutely!!

[Don]

I actually cannot remember an extended season with no snow lying at all in my back yard (N. Somerset). Even in the mildest of winters there has been at least a temporary covering. Even 2008 managed 1cm on January 11th and a dusting of about the same on April 6th.

 

You never know we could have a June 1975 event this year!

[AderynCoch]

Not a single flake through the entire 2013-14 "season". Abysmal! The only positive is that it's not possible for next winter to be worse in terms of wintry weather.

It's possible for it to be just as bad though.

 

I can sum up my hopes and the actual outcomes of this "winter" thusly:

 

[damianslaw]

Yes I've commented on the woeful lack of snowfall in these parts this season. Recent years have delivered plentiful snowfall both in the winter months and outside of them, for instance 2006/2007 delivered snowfall in March despite very little Nov-Feb, 2007/2008 delivered snow in March and April again on the back of little snow in Nov-Feb. Not this year though, despite some heavy snow on the fells in late March there has been no snow so far this spring and as April wears on the chances of low level snow in spring decrease markedly (though we can still get some even in May- 1997 being an examples, but probability is very low).

 

Even the exceptional warm winter 88/89 delivered snow in Nov and April.

 

Comparable 'winter seasons' to this year were 89/90 which returned a couple of shortlived snowfalls in late Jan and late Feb, and winter 91/92 which from memory produced one snowfall only in late March. Of the two, this winter season has felt very similar to winter 89/90 which started off quite cold and frosty second half of Nov into Dec, but saw a very wet mild stormy Jan and Feb and mild benign March. Winter 91/92 despite being snowless was colder with much frost in mid Dec and notably so in late Jan and was a very dry winter season.

 

Its been an unusual 'winter season' - a one off I think and normal service should return next winter - i.e. we should at least see a bit of snow and cold weather during the mid Nov-mid April period

[reef]

Completely snowless here aswell, we havent even seen any sleet. The previous worst 'winter' was 1988/89, but that had lying snow in November and a day of sleet falling during the winter quarter itself. Im quite suprised as I never thought I would see one so snowless. Theres still the rest of April and May of course, but its looking likely Ill record an entire Autumn/Winter/Spring without anything.

 

As has been mentioned, at least it cant be any more snowless next winter!

[Richard2901]

The most snowless winter in over 150 years of records for the Aberdeen area with just one dusting on 19th November here in the outskirts. The majority of the city probably had no days with snow lying at 9am.

 

Days with snow lying and max depth:

 

2004/05: 16 (5cm)

2005/06: 22 (26cm)

2006/07: 8 (2cm)

2007/08: 7 (5cm)

2008/09: 21 (16cm)

2009/10: 43 (19cm)

2010/11: 34 (28cm)

2011/12: 6 (6cm)

2012/13: 33 (15cm)

2013/14: 1 (1cm)

 

The absence of frost has been just as shocking with an absolute low of -2.5C and a lower frost duration for Autumn/Winter/Spring combined (110.1hrs) than my previous record low for winter alone (141.1hrs for 2007/08). 

 

Total frost duration:

 

2005/06: 399.7hrs

2006/07: 175.8hrs

2007/08: 222.6hrs

2008/09: 383.1hrs

2009/10: 664.8hrs

2010/11: 612.9hrs

2011/12: 217.5hrs

2012/13: 445.0hrs

2013/14: 110.1hrs

 

No month had as many frosts as April 2013 with minima consistently 1.5-2C above average since October except in November which had the coldest minima but still over 2C.

 

Mean Minima:

 

Oct: 7.6 (+1.6)

Nov: 2.2 (-1.1)

Dec: 3.7 (+2.5)

Jan: 2.6 (+1.4)

Feb: 2.7 (+1.7)

Mar: 3.9 (+1.9)

April: 5.2 (+2.1 to 13th)

 

Northerlies would have been far better than what we’ve had in spring. An extremely boring season so far with lots of wind, gloom and drizzle, very little nice weather and nothing remotely interesting. Given the similarities with Spring 1997 it wouldn't surprise me to see snow in May.

[hillbilly]

Just come back from Carlisle and seen snow patches still on cross fell....Amazing since everyone has had practically nothing except the Scottish highlands!!!!

[Nick L]

Just come back from Carlisle and seen snow patches still on cross fell....Amazing since everyone has had practically nothing except the Scottish highlands!!!!

 

Yeah the northern mountains had a bumper season!

[Mokidugway]

The lakes has been disappointing too , only got two snow hikes in the winter , although the snow was quite deep higher up !!....

[Weather-history]

It seems to have been trend the last few months, any cold threat shown in the models so far out is reduce to virtually nothing when it gets here. Another example has just gone by. It has happened before but usually one or two threats survive but this season nothing is surviving.

Looks like now a completely snowless spring.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Weather-history

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Snowless Spring here, suppose too low down, really for snow (proper snow) need to be over 300m asl

[Polar Maritime]

A very poor Winter indeed even round these parts.., Roll on the next one !

[damianslaw]

The lakes has been disappointing too , only got two snow hikes in the winter , although the snow was quite deep higher up !!....

 

 

Yes a very disappointing season for winter walking in the Lake District, unlike last year. Whilst ground above 700m did see some hefty long lasting cover, there were few days when conditions were safe enough to venture high up due to the incessant gales/severe gales and poor visibility. We had one crisp clear cold sky weekend at the end of November and that was it for settled cold conditions - a terrible winter. There was a heavy fall of snow in late March down to low levels and I was finally able to do some winter walking.

 

I suspect this winter/spring will go down as an oddity - an anomaly, indeed any attempt at a cold spell has been cancelled by the atlantic all season - very unusual not to see one northerly blast by this stage.

[Terminal Moraine]

The accumulated snowfall for the period November 2013 to April 2014 was just 11.9cm here. The only year with less over the same period was 1993/94 with 11.7cm, and 2003/04 came in with 12.3cm.

 

Realistically, differences of 0.2 and 0.4cm are neither here nor there when measuring snowfall, which is never the most exact of sciences, so all three seasons were equally poor.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Terminal Moraine

[Weather-history]

The accumulated snowfall for the period November 2013 to April 2014 was just 11.9cm here. The only year with less over the same period was 1993/94 with 11.7cm, and 2003/04 came in with 12.3cm. Realistically, differences of 0.2 and 0.4cm are neither here nor there when measuring snowfall, which is never the most exact of sciences, so all three seasons were equally poor.

That is a surprise 1993-94 on your list. I'm that surprised I'm going to say are you sure?We got about that amount you recorded from one snowfall during late February 1994 alone.It was one of the better winters of the 90s in terms of snow, at least around here.

[Summer of 95]

That is a surprise 1993-94 on your list. I'm that surprised I'm going to say are you sure?We got about that amount you recorded from one snowfall during late February 1994 alone.It was one of the better winters of the 90s in terms of snow, at least around here.

You beat me to it! We had more than that in February 1994 alone. Maybe he means 1992-3 or 1991-2?