South West & Central Southern England - Weather Chat, 6th December and Onwards...

[jethro]

10 minutes ago, Mapantz said:

Can you remember the date?

I have found this..

That's the one, thank you. If ever I see a chart like that again I'll be leaping with joy. Was there anything special which led to that set up, or was it simply luck of the draw?

[Mapantz]

6 minutes ago, jethro said:

That's the one, thank you. If ever I see a chart like that again I'll be leaping with joy. Was there anything special which led to that set up, or was it simply luck of the draw?

I'm pretty sure that was the result of a sudden stratospheric warming a few weeks earlier, as I started to look in to it with more detail and learned quite a bit.
That same system gave me my first lying snow since 1995! The next day, we had constant snow & graupel  showers, and some thunder as well. That was one of my favourite wintry days for many years!

[jethro]

21 minutes ago, Mapantz said:

I'm pretty sure that was the result of a sudden stratospheric warming a few weeks earlier, as I started to look in to it with more detail and learned quite a bit.
That same system gave me my first lying snow since 1995! The next day, we had constant snow & graupel  showers, and some thunder as well. That was one of my favourite wintry days for many years!

Thank you. Guess we'll just have to hope we get another set up like that one.

[Frosty hollows]

Moderate rain here

[katemart]

Raining 

[Zephyr]

00z raw EURO4 even splits rain over here lol, if it did fall as snow would just be my luck!

[TropicThunder]

Light drizzle, and it doesn't even feel that cold!

[John88B]

Morning all. Something I copied and pasted for people in our snow starved region about the greatest snowfall I ever witnessed, as a 12 year old lad, at the time living in Pilning, South Glos. The blizzard of Jan 1982.

The greatest disruption occurred on the 8th and 9th when an Atlantic depression moved into the Southwest Approaches; heavy snow accompanied by a gale force easterly wind produced one of the most severe blizzards of the century across southern England, the Midlands, Wales and Ireland. Throughout the snowfall, which lasted over 36 hours, temperatures were between -2 and -4C so the snow was dry and powdery and drifted freely in the wind. Transport services were completely dislocated over a wide area and millions of commuters failed to get to work in London two days running. South Wales was isolated for three days and troops were brought in to deliver essentials and to help clear roads. Worst hit were Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire and Glamorgan, where level snow lay over 60cm deep with drifts 6 metres high. Milder air reached Cornwall and south Devon, but heavy rain falling onto frozen ground in mid-Devon, south Somerset and west Dorset created extensive glazed ice in these areas.

Following the blizzard the cold tightened its grip. Early on the morning of the 10th the temperature fell to -26.1C at Newport in Shropshire, breaking the record for England which had been set just four weeks earlier.

Even at sea level in Pilning the level snow was over my knees with drifts up to 8 feet deep looking like an angry sea of white down the lane I lived in. We were snowed in for a whole week!

I hope this brings back good memories for those old enough to remember it and just remember it can and will happen again with the South West and South Wales being prone to huge snowfalls when the conditions are right for it.

Edited January 17, 2016 by John88B

[lettice]

Light rain here since 2am, 4mm so far today
Temp slowly rose from 8pm, when it was 2.4c to 4c at 5am. But last few hours it has dropped, now 2.9c
Light ENE, 1025 hPa
 

[The Enforcer]

1C - snow falling from about 6:30am looking like lasting until 8am, giving a dusting on some surfaces. More than I was expecting when I turned in last night.

Edited January 17, 2016 by The Enforcer

[Frosty hollows]

sun rising on a damp murky day. Again. At least it was warm 2 weeks ago ( cold whingepart1)

[Frosty hollows]

Sorry folks, I need to amend my weather report. From my bed it did look like murky(but colder) groundhog day, but having looked round the corner at the garden the rain has turned to snow at some point last night

There isn't enough to make a kitten a vest but I'll take you

[Weather-history]

8 hours ago, jethro said:

Light rain here in the Mendips.

 

Can anyone remember what the synoptic set up was which led to the snow in early February 2009? It's by far the best snow event I've had in the 18 years of living here, a good 10 inches deep which hung around for days.

Forecast for that day

 

 

[ARTDEMOLE]

Drizzle. Humidity 99%rh. breeze light. Temperature 3.3c.

[ARTDEMOLE]

Fog.  3.2c.

[Mark Neal.]

0.7c Light Snow falling. Been snow flurries since 5:30am. Only settled on a few cars and mud. 

[Andy Bown]

Enjoy your snow Oxford area people, cold rain/drizzle further West/South West!

[Nights King]

Steady rain falling and fogy 3c that was certainly a severe frost. Looking forward to the crystal clear cold day now.. 

[MP-R]

Complete fail of a cold spell. 4C and misty drizzle. Just revolting! Pattern reset is needed now.

[Ali1977]

Well here in the SW the cold spell was nothing more than average, but with no snow it wasn't even that good. Looks like any snow Monday has gone from the forecast, let's hope February brings the goods - after all it's statistically the coldest month - although the sun does. gather some strength as it goes on, something from the east would be better than North.

[Nights King]

2 minutes ago, Ali1977 said:

Well here in the SW the cold spell was nothing more than average, but with no snow it wasn't even that good. Looks like any snow Monday has gone from the forecast, let's hope February brings the goods - after all it's statistically the coldest month - although the sun does. gather some strength as it goes on, something from the east would be better than North.

 

Statistically January is the coldest month away from Devon and Cornwall which it is February due to colder sea etc

Thing that bothers me about waiting on February is ice days and severe day long frosts become less common due to strength of sun and marginal situations become harder although at the moment beggars can't be choosers.  

[MidnightSnow]

Mid week I was thinking if we don't get snow, at least we'll have a few hard frosts. We had one moderate frost yesterday morning and that was it

Light rain and miserable today. I usually try and stay positive but I think we can write off next week. Just got to hope they're right about something much colder in February.

Edited January 17, 2016 by MidnightSnow

[A.J]

7 minutes ago, Ali1977 said:

Well here in the SW the cold spell was nothing more than average, but with no snow it wasn't even that good. Looks like any snow Monday has gone from the forecast, let's hope February brings the goods - after all it's statistically the coldest month - although the sun does. gather some strength as it goes on, something from the east would be better than North.

??....cold spell?.....I don't recall having a cold spell recently .............I do feel sorry for the forecasters as it's gone a bit pare shaped, the friday forecasts for the weekend went for crystal clear skies, severe overnight frosts leading to a wintry, potentially snowy breakdown on Monday.....instead we got 2 days of absolute grot.....laden skies delivering drizzle, one light frost on friday night and the prospect of a chilly day tomorrow with light to steady rain.....thoroughly depressing stuff for all.....I'm really hoping that we can get some kind of wintryness during february otherwise it'll be the 3rd abysmal winter on the bounce and I'll be counting down the days with eagerness and anticipation for the summer!

[MP-R]

It's a shame there's no cold air in place over the parts of the country that will be affected by tomorrow's rain, otherwise we'd be looking at snow for the majority followed by a few cold days with frost for it to last. 

Instead it looks like this week is just biding (wasting) time. Let's hope a cold spell arrives in early Feb to make use of the still relatively short days. Further into the month, my attention turns to the north. 2004, 2005 and 2006's easterlies didn't bring any snow, that came from the coldest air to the north. 2009 and 1991's easterlies came early in the month.

[Nights King]

Do not fear... net weather gives me an 8% chance of snow on Monday evening