2018 Beast From the East

[danm]

Seeing as this wasn't too long ago, there doesn't seem to be a historic weather thread for this event. The airmass was exceptionally cold. Just imagine if it arrived a month earlier! We could have had a spell that ran Jan 1987 close for depth of cold.

 

[danm]

What was pretty remarkable is how well forecast this event was. We had very few wobbles from the model outputs running a good week to 10 days before the cold weather hit. 

19th Feb:

 

21st Feb:

 

22nd Feb:

 

26th Feb:

 

28th Feb: 

 

1st March:

 

[Frigid]

Crazy to think this was nearly 5 yrs ago. Have many great memories of this event, though I remember not being able to make a snowman since the snow was powdery. IIRC the coldest day was the 28th Feb where the temp didnt exceed -2C. March 2018 saw another easterly mid month which brought more snow and cold temperatures. Easily the best March I've lived through, close to March 2013 which didn't bring much snow around here. 

These charts are no joke!

  

  

In comparison to Jan 1987

  

If the BFTE happened a month or two earlier, it would've been spectacular..

[damianslaw]

It was quite exceptional in terms of depth of cold uppers late in the season, on a par with late March 13 and Jan 87 in this respect. As you say had it occured a month earlier we may have rivalled Jan 87 cold wise.

It was a slow burner, we'd had a week of increasingly colder settled weather beforehand. Counted down the days before the beast was released. Tues 27th eve was the time, a shortlived heavy snowfall gave about 3-4 inches. Very powdery. Wed 28th one of those magical snowy days, temps stayed well below freezing. However the most freezing day was Thurs 1 March a max of -2, and a windchill about -20 degrees, the wind was fierce. I remember it caused much damage to woodlands, unusual direction, just like Storm Arwen.

The second cold spell was a Saturday 17th, heavy snow in the evening, another 3 inches. The snow stuck through 18th which was very cold.

[danm]

16th Feb video from the Met Office talking about the SSW and potential for very cold end to Feb/start to march:

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by danm

[A Face like Thunder]

We had little or no snow in this part of the NW but the cold.... I had not experienced anything similar since Jan 1987. Even the kids were kept indoors at school because it was too cold to go outside!

[danm]

and a 10 day trend from 14th Feb talking about the SSW and potential for deep cold:

 

[trickydicky]

It was well forecast but the red warning was in the wrong place. It was the North Pennines that got battered.

It was a very interesting period of weather. It was dry and frosty preceding it and started with an overnight snowfall here on a Tuesday (27th)  I think of 10cm or so. That thawed in the afternoon below 100m but then it snowed again that night and carried on right through the day after (28th). Soft powdery snow falling straight down in relatively big flakes. The day after was similar (1st March) and we ended up with 20-25cm of snow and some minor drifting in the wind which was starting to pick up. It was a very picturesque scene.

My main memory of the event though is being woken up in the early hours of 2nd March by what sounded similar to a train going past or an aeroplane taking off. I looked outside and the 20ft high or so larch trees over the road were nearly bent right over by the force of the wind, and several bins were making for their escape. It is the strongest and noisiest wind I’ve ever experienced. The next day, though it was still very cold, most fields were clear of snow, it having been blasted away by the force of the wind into enormous drifts anywhere in lee of the east wind. Places only a couple of miles from here directly at the foot of the Pennine escarpment were almost buried. It’s the only time I’ve ever experienced anything quite like that. 

Edited November 14, 2022 by trickydicky

[trickydicky]

Some stuff off my camera roll

 

 

 

 

[Sunny76]

2 hours ago, A Face like Thunder said:

We had little or no snow in this part of the NW but the cold.... I had not experienced anything similar since Jan 1987. Even the kids were kept indoors at school because it was too cold to go outside!

Yes it was exceptionally cold during that time. I recorded a minus 9 windchill on my phone, and while I walked through Hyde Park, it started to feel very uncomfortable. The wind was very strong, and even wearing a thick fleece and winter coat didn’t feel warm enough.

[Thundery wintry showers]

It feels rather ironic, considering that I've lived in Tyneside, North Yorkshire and Norfolk for significant periods, that since I started recording the weather back in 1993, the deepest level snow that I've measured at my location was 17cm on 1 March 2018, in Exeter of all places.  The snow also drifted considerably in the strong easterly wind.  There was also an ice storm the following night, which coated the snow cover in a couple of centimetres of ice, which made it very slippery, but the deep snow provided a soft landing.  The Met Office put out a rare red weather warning for snow for the South West that day.  While the cold spell was well forecast from a long way out, I remember that the big snowfall in Exeter was only picked up relatively close to the time. 

 

Exeter was also heavily hit on 18 March, when it snowed almost continuously during daylight hours, and there was a level depth of around 10cm.

I lived in Exeter from October 2014 to March 2021 inclusive and only noted six mornings with >50% snow cover there during that period, five of which happened in March 2018.  The other one was from a rain to snow event on 31 January 2019.

 

[Kirkcaldy Weather]

On 13/09/2019 at 17:04, Kirkcaldy Weather said:

Here in Kirkcaldy we get the Forth streamer with snow showers starting in the North Sea then moving into the firth of forth before arriving here, the 3 best I have experienced in my lifetime so far (I am 26) were November 2010, February / March 2018 Beast From The East and February 2021 another Beast

The perfect setup is as straight of an easterly flow as possible and 850 temps usually from -8 and below.

February / March 2018

27th February 2018 saw the easterly begin to arrive up here with a bitter cold pool accompanying it      through the night into the 28th the easterly strengthened   with the gale force easterly winds blizzard conditions set in with the non stop snow showers and also plenty of thundersnow            even here at 20m ASL by the end of the event again I had a foot of snow which is quite an achievement at that altitude, also was in the center of a RED snow warning from the met office 

      

 

 

 

my pictures from the event

 

 

My post from the snow streamers thread with a few bits of editing

[MP-R]

On 15/11/2022 at 00:20, Thundery wintry showers said:

It feels rather ironic, considering that I've lived in Tyneside, North Yorkshire and Norfolk for significant periods, that since I started recording the weather back in 1993, the deepest level snow that I've measured at my location was 17cm on 1 March 2018, in Exeter of all places.  The snow also drifted considerably in the strong easterly wind.  There was also an ice storm the following night, which coated the snow cover in a couple of centimetres of ice, which made it very slippery, but the deep snow provided a soft landing.  The Met Office put out a rare red weather warning for snow for the South West that day.  While the cold spell was well forecast from a long way out, I remember that the big snowfall in Exeter was only picked up relatively close to the time. 

 

Exeter was also heavily hit on 18 March, when it snowed almost continuously during daylight hours, and there was a level depth of around 10cm.

I lived in Exeter from October 2014 to March 2021 inclusive and only noted six mornings with >50% snow cover there during that period, five of which happened in March 2018.  The other one was from a rain to snow event on 31 January 2019.

 

It surprises a lot of people nowadays to know that the SW is potentially the best place to get the heaviest snowfall totals... just not the most frequent. Annoying to think that even my location is sometimes a tad far north to get the heaviest dumpings like in Feb 2019 (which was still brilliant) and Feb 2009.

Beautiful pictures by the way! Often wondered how lovely the old centre of Exeter would look in snow.

[Jamie M]

 

 

Video above is from the heaviest snow shower I had on the 27th Feb, believe it dropped about 3 cm of snow in the 20 mins from start to finish.

8 cm on the ground was the maximum snow depth here for BFTE, quite a let down when compared to other areas getting nearly a foot of snow in Kent. Feb 2021 had 12 cm but a notable thing was definitely the cold, -2.1C max at Manston on the 28th. 

The COL station at Boughton-under-Blean got to -17.9C on the 28th, low in HB was about 10C higher! 

Edited November 22, 2022 by Jamie M
Converted video so easier to watch + added more info

[HafrenLMP1]

I think this is one of those 'if only' situations, certainly for my locality. I've just been looking back on photos on instagram and Strava. Woke up for work on Tuesday 27th to a blanket of snow, about 2-3''. By the time I'd returned home about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, most of it had gone, apart from the areas in shade.

While it remained bitterly cold for a number of days, looking at other parts of the other country was frustrating, as they seemed to have quite the dumping.  

 

I think there was another fall in early March, but this time it was wet snow, and had all gone by mid morning.........

 

And sadly, that was the last decent amount of snow for our area.....

[iand61]

Bitterly cold but little snow here was my memory from the end of Feb 2018 BFTE.

My car had long icicles hanging from under the front bumper and the conservatory windows facing east were coated with thick ice for several days.

mid March was a repeat only this time we had a decent fall of snow with a fair bit of drifting, the heaviest snow of that winter.

 

There was also one particular day/overnight saw a severe easterly gale across the south Pennines and I’m pretty sure a gust of over 90mph was recorded on the moorland section of the M62 but I can’t remember whether this was during the late Feb or mid March events.

 

[hillbilly]

3 hours ago, iand61 said:

Bitterly cold but little snow here was my memory from the end of Feb 2018 BFTE.

My car had long icicles hanging from under the front bumper and the conservatory windows facing east were coated with thick ice for several days.

mid March was a repeat only this time we had a decent fall of snow with a fair bit of drifting, the heaviest snow of that winter.

 

There was also one particular day/overnight saw a severe easterly gale across the south Pennines and I’m pretty sure a gust of over 90mph was recorded on the moorland section of the M62 but I can’t remember whether this was during the late Feb or mid March events.

 

You must have just missed out as just over the hill here we had a decent cover which whipped up in the wind to block many roads over 200m and below,BFTE part 2 was not too far behind with anothe repeat show,maybe not just as potent.

[Metwatch]

Cannot believe it's been almost 5 years since one of the greatest late winter/early spring cold event living in England i've personally experienced.

Having temperatutes of -3 to -4 for most of the first day of meteorological Spring along with dry drifting snow (not the wet slushy type!) is mind boggling, let alone to witness that during the middle of winter.

Also what astounds me is how after the 2nd beast during Mid March, 4 weeks later mid - high twenties were seen across large areas of the country, something that facinates me about spring: The sudden changes that can and does happen in conditions for a short span of time.

On 21/11/2022 at 13:22, MP-R said:

It surprises a lot of people nowadays to know that the SW is potentially the best place to get the heaviest snowfall totals... just not the most frequent. Annoying to think that even my location is sometimes a tad far north to get the heaviest dumpings like in Feb 2019 (which was still brilliant) and Feb 2009.

Beautiful pictures by the way! Often wondered how lovely the old centre of Exeter would look in snow.

The SW is underrated for having some of the best blizzards. A few good but older events come to mind such as mid Feb 1978 and the last few days of December 1962

Edited November 23, 2022 by Metwatch

[Summer18]

It was an amazing spell of weather, probably second only to the March 2013 in terms of snow depth I can remember. The wind was absolutely brutal, I don’t think I have ever experienced a wind that felt as cold as it was during this spell.

A particular memory that sticks out is me having to stop my car to smash blocks of ice off my windscreen wipers whilst I was driving to work. It was so cold I thought I was going to catch hypothermia!

Amazing that we had a similar Easterly a few weeks later, the snow didn’t stick as long due to the stronger sun mind. 

Probably my favourite Spring weather wise. 

[O'Maille80]

I stayed up the night Storm Emma hit but seen very little snow, 20 miles up the road this was a common sight.

 

[O'Maille80]

[iand61]

7 hours ago, hillbilly said:

You must have just missed out as just over the hill here we had a decent cover which whipped up in the wind to block many roads over 200m and below,BFTE part 2 was not too far behind with anothe repeat show,maybe not just as potent.

Aye looks like it.

Nowhere near as bad here as March 13 which easily gave us the worst blizzard and biggest drifts since Feb 79 and yet even that was very localised with places only a few miles further into Lancashire seeing very little.

[Maz]

On 14/11/2022 at 13:51, trickydicky said:

It was well forecast but the red warning was in the wrong place. It was the North Pennines that got battered.

It was a very interesting period of weather. It was dry and frosty preceding it and started with an overnight snowfall here on a Tuesday (27th)  I think of 10cm or so. That thawed in the afternoon below 100m but then it snowed again that night and carried on right through the day after (28th). Soft powdery snow falling straight down in relatively big flakes. The day after was similar (1st March) and we ended up with 20-25cm of snow and some minor drifting in the wind which was starting to pick up. It was a very picturesque scene.

My main memory of the event though is being woken up in the early hours of 2nd March by what sounded similar to a train going past or an aeroplane taking off. I looked outside and the 20ft high or so larch trees over the road were nearly bent right over by the force of the wind, and several bins were making for their escape. It is the strongest and noisiest wind I’ve ever experienced. The next day, though it was still very cold, most fields were clear of snow, it having been blasted away by the force of the wind into enormous drifts anywhere in lee of the east wind. Places only a couple of miles from here directly at the foot of the Pennine escarpment were almost buried. It’s the only time I’ve ever experienced anything quite like that. 

On the edge of Pennine's in SE Lancashire, that is my main memory too.  We got 5 inches + snow, which is unusual here on an easterly, all powdery due to the intense cold.  Then the roar of the El'y wind descending down from the hills.  Next morning it was like the snow had thawed, everywhere, except in shelter, stripped of the powder snow.  Was a great spell of weather to experience.

[matty40s]

I remember leaving Northants in bright sunshine, mid afternoon, as I approached Leicester, the motorway signs were flashing slow, fog warning. Half the way up the hill to Coalville(Junc 22), entered a wall of snow which brought the traffic to a standstill. I managed to get off at the junction and crawled until I found a lane to escape up.

 

back at the boatyard, the ice on the sluice showed how cold the air was...

[I remember Atlantic 252]

2nd mini beast a forgotten event maybe? nowhere near as snowy, but caused the cancellation of Stafford half marathon