Best Febs for cold and snow after indifferent winter starts

[Snowyowl9]

1994 had almost twice as much snow as feb 2009 here and that was colder and came in the second half of the month as feb 2009 came in the first half.
Somebody mentioned 2004 its 2003 I`m thinking of,remember this cold snowy NW-ly bit like what the charts are showing currently.

  http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/2003/Rrea00120030203.gif
http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/2003/Rrea00120030204.gif

Edited January 25, 2015 by Snowyowl9

[Day 10]

6" 1991, sent home from school early then had couple days off, quite rare on the Wirral! We are normally protected by the Pennines but yeah was a good snowy spell for many.

[spindrift1980]

I've started a thread about the cold snowy period of late Jan 96 and early Feb 96 which includes mention of the event you talk about. It was a classic battleground situation with the cold air winning out. It was very much a 'west' event, with Dumfries and Galloway, Cumbria, coastal parts of NW Eng, N Wales hit hardest - the snow didn't make much further inroads than the west midlands and Pennines, had it hit a more populous part of the country it would not doubt get much more mention than it does. I've said it many a time, but for here it was easily one of the greatest snowfalls of the 20th century.

There was quite a lot of snow from that event in the Glasgow area - enough for schools and workplaces to close early and the usual transport issues, but nothing too extreme (although I never went onto the high ground in those days!).  Certainly one of the better snowfalls of the 90s in lower-lying parts of western Scotland though.

[feb1991blizzard]

6" 1991, sent home from school early then had couple days off, quite rare on the Wirral! We are normally protected by the Pennines but yeah was a good snowy spell for many.

 

Yes, the second best ever in my lifetime (Midlands then), nearly a foot in about 6 hours, It was parents evening I think so we were going home early anyway but it was cancelled with only 1 inch on the ground, I had being telling everyone at school all week we were going to get marmalised and no one believed me, they all laughed until it happened of course, very rare in them days for people to be proactive wrt forecasts as opposed to being  reactive when it was too late, this I guess was just to big an event and to severe a forecast to ignore.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc49oYbAIr4

[Timmytour]

Yes, the second best ever in my lifetime (Midlands then), nearly a foot in about 6 hours, It was parents evening I think so we were going home early anyway but it was cancelled with only 1 inch on the ground, I had being telling everyone at school all week we were going to get marmalised and no one believed me, they all laughed until it happened of course, very rare in them days for people to be proactive wrt forecasts as opposed to being  reactive when it was too late, this I guess was just to big an event and to severe a forecast to ignore.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc49oYbAIr4

Wouldn't it be great to see that kind of forecast again!

I remember it well....I was working on a 6th floor of a building near Aldgate in London and onthe thursday we could see cars slipping and sliding on the fast settling snow.

The next day, on the friday, I got chucked off a train at Seven Sisters as they wouldn't go any further, got to Kings Cross by tube and then had to walk from there to get in. I was one of only about three out of fifty in our office to get in.  Spent an hour trying to warm up by the heaters that someone had found!

I'm sure that was the "wrong type of snow year".... often mistaken for the reason on which British Rail blamed the trains stopping running (they actually said "different" not "wrong")

[feb1991blizzard]

Wouldn't it be great to see that kind of forecast again!

I remember it well....I was working on a 6th floor of a building near Aldgate in London and onthe thursday we could see cars slipping and sliding on the fast settling snow.

The next day, on the friday, I got chucked off a train at Seven Sisters as they wouldn't go any further, got to Kings Cross by tube and then had to walk from there to get in. I was one of only about three out of fifty in our office to get in.  Spent an hour trying to warm up by the heaters that someone had found!

I'm sure that was the "wrong type of snow year".... often mistaken for the reason on which British Rail blamed the trains stopping running (they actually said "different" not "wrong")

 

You can!, just buy the Daily Express!!!!, Only joking, we want it to be a forecast that actually verifies of course.

 

Yes, to be honest though, despite it being an Easterly, the real heavy snow (around 7-10pm on Thursday the 7th) was when an occluded front moved East to West and it brought massive flakes, I don't buy into this thing that Easterlies don't bring big flakes and its always more powdery.

[MP-R]

You can!, just buy the Daily Express!!!!, Only joking, we want it to be a forecast that actually verifies of course.

 

Yes, to be honest though, despite it being an Easterly, the real heavy snow (around 7-10pm on Thursday the 7th) was when an occluded front moved East to West and it brought massive flakes, I don't buy into this thing that Easterlies don't bring big flakes and its always more powdery.

 

 

Indeed! I've found that the more cyclonic the easterly, the bigger the flakes (may be stating the obvious there, not sure). I think so many times our easterlies are not that unstable so flakes are pretty small compared to beefy northerlies/westerlies, but certainly 2nd Feb 2009 and 1st-2nd Dec 2010 brought big fat flakes.

Edited January 25, 2015 by MP-R

[feb1991blizzard]

Indeed! I've found that the more cyclonic the easterly, the bigger the flakes (may be stating the obvious there, not sure). I think so many times our easterlies are not that unstable so flakes are pretty small compared to beefy northerlies/westerlies, but certainly 2nd Feb 2009 and 1st-2nd Dec 2010 brought big fat flakes.

 

I was in Salford in 09 and got really light drizzly sleet for 18 hours while people 5-10 miles East had up to a foot of lying snow so cant comment on flake sizes on that one, I remember the 2010 (same location as now) Nov 30th I think or around that time, huge flakes, massive PPN rates for 2 or 3 hours and 6 inches on the ground,

[MP-R]

I was in Salford in 09 and got really light drizzly sleet for 18 hours while people 5-10 miles East had up to a foot of lying snow so cant comment on flake sizes on that one, I remember the 2010 (same location as now) Nov 30th I think or around that time, huge flakes, massive PPN rates for 2 or 3 hours and 6 inches on the ground,

 

Oh that's interesting. Massive fat flakes fell on Bristol on the 2nd Feb 2009. Oddly, there was a good 36 hours of heavy snow falling while I was studying in Egham, Surrey on 30th Nov-1st Dec 2010 which never settled. It took until the 2nd to get a dusting in that neck of the woods. Must have been the warming effect of London.

[feb1991blizzard]

Oh that's interesting. Massive fat flakes fell on Bristol on the 2nd Feb 2009. Oddly, there was a good 36 hours of heavy snow falling while I was studying in Egham, Surrey on 30th Nov-1st Dec 2010 which never settled. It took until the 2nd to get a dusting in that neck of the woods. Must have been the warming effect of London.

 

Blimey, that was a proper -10c uppers spell as well with temps in cities below freezing, that certainly wasn't one of those watered down crap spells by any stretch.

[MP-R]

Blimey, that was a proper -10c uppers spell as well with temps in cities below freezing, that certainly wasn't one of those watered down crap spells by any stretch.

 

Exactly, I contributed a lot of whinging into the SE thread those two days haha. It was especially annoying hearing that my flatmate who lived in Croydon went home on 30th then couldn't get back as they had heaps of it there - most puzzling. But hey ho, I can't say Egham was the most exciting place for weather.

 

So I think I've deduced from this thread overall that we're overdue a proper snowy Feb. 2009 had a good start but then became very benign and increasingly mild after the 10th. 2010 was a good cold month overall, in fact I registered snow falling on the 8th, 9th, 10th, 17th, 18th, 22nd and 23rd but only the 18th saw snow actually lying. I don't remember itself as I was very young, but by the sounds of it I am preying for a Feb 1996 type event. I asked my grandfather about the 6th Feb event as he kept a note of the weather in his diaries but he was working in London during the week at the time which just missed out. May have been different had he stayed in Bristol.

[Snowyowl9]

The CET for February 2003 was 3.9c so pretty cold for recent febs,that had no easterly as far as I remember.

CET for 1994 was 3.2c and 2009  was 4.1c cold first half,mild second.

Edited January 26, 2015 by Snowyowl9