March 2006 cold!

[damianslaw]

Roger's statistics show the running CET mean to 25th March in 2006 a very cold 3.6 degrees, the final figure was 5.0 degrees, a balmy 1.4 degree rise, and prevented the month as going down as probably the coldest March at least since 1987.

Share your memories of this cold wintry month - its one often forgotten.

I was in the NE of England for the first 20 days but then out of the country so cannot comment on the final week. 

Windermere reportedly had a foot of snow on the 12 March. I recall there was snow near the East Coast but not much.

The opening days I remember being very cold and frosty with plenty of snow showers about giving a number of mornings with cover. It was the third cold snowy start to March in a row.

I remember mid month being cold and raw with easterly winds, akin to 1996 and 2001.

 

Edited March 12, 2023 by damianslaw

[Weather Enthusiast91]

March 2006 was a month that was predominently cold up until around the 24th. The last week was a lot milder but also unsettled. 

[Summer18]

I remember snow showers in the first week but also lots of sunny weather.

The heaviest snowfall came on a Sunday (think it was the second week). It left a decent covering but nowhere near as much as ‘13, ‘18 or last Friday.

It was a decent winter for cold and snow  2005/2006, seemed mostly cold throughout starting with the cold spell in November. 

[Sunny76]

Winter 05/06 was cold, but it was like another slightly less cold version of 95/96 in my location. We didn’t have any snow. 
 

We had a decent cold dry december, with clear sunny spells especially around Christmas time. My ideal winter weather, alongside snowfall.

March 2006 from memory seems dull and cold. No recollection of any milder weather towards the end.

[danm]

I have a memory of a spell of cold, cloudy weather with some snow grains, but no proper snow during this time in London.

 

 

 

 

Winds then turn easterly with a big Scandi high:

 

 

[hillbilly]

I remember it well,working as a builder at the time and everything was frozen.Also to note the season 2005-2006 was only 4 air frosts shy of that in 2009-2010 with 53 and 57  respectively for my area in the Pennines.

[SqueakheartLW]

A winter that could have delivered a lot more than it actually did. The cold snap just after Christmas was the only snow I saw that winter until the cold that set in at the end of Feb 06.

March 2006 looked well on course to have a lower CET than the 3 winter months that preceded it until the May like temps that came in the final week which scuppered it.

Best part was the unexpected band of snow that came on the first Friday in March 06. Wasn't on any of the forecasts to happen then there it was that evening and gave a decent dumping of snow for a 1 hour event.

Absolutely no sign of any band of snow sinking down from the north there and at this point is wasn't far off my location

This one still doesn't really suggest any band of snow either, just a scattering of showers mostly in the west.

Was pleasantly surprised when we got a nice dumping of snow that evening.

Missed out on the 12th March snow event, stayed to the west of us but made up for it on the 14th in the morning when a band of snow pushed west to east.

A little bit more snow came on the 16th in a raw easterly wind but that was it for snow.

Generally cold until the following week when it suddenly came to an end.

The latter part of March 2006 was very mild but anyone with a good memory will remember that this didn't last long as when we got into April the Arctic winds came roaring back in once more.

 

[Don]

March 2006 delivered a brief flurry for me, say no more.

[LetItSnow!]

It was quite interesting the burst of (relatively) colder weather during late 2005 into early 2006. Indeed I remember heavy snowfall in April 2006 (though it wasn't a desperately cold month overall). Completely at odds with the off the scale warmth that occurred starting in June that would dominate for a whole year, still unmatched to this day imo.

[Summer of 95]

12th March 2006 biggest snowfall of the 2000s here (biggest between Dec 1995 and Dec 2010 in fact). There were also a couple of lighter snowfalls in the first few days.

This extended winter really does remind me a lot of 05-06; a cold snap in December that was a real let down snow-wise, a slight dusting in Jan but nothing more, and lots of boring dry cloudy weather that was often quite cold but produced nothing of note. Synoptics were often quite good-looking but the weather disappointed. Then March rescued it, just like this year.....

The other time that March really rescued a disappointing and frustrating winter was 1994-5 (again a snowless cold snap in December and a bit of snow in Jan)- but that one was much wetter, it was a kind of 2013-14 with more temperature variation.

 

[SqueakheartLW]

9 hours ago, LetItSnow! said:

It was quite interesting the burst of (relatively) colder weather during late 2005 into early 2006. Indeed I remember heavy snowfall in April 2006 (though it wasn't a desperately cold month overall). Completely at odds with the off the scale warmth that occurred starting in June that would dominate for a whole year, still unmatched to this day imo.

I feel that winter 2005/06 was the very early teaser to what was to come from 2008/09 to 2012/13. It was a hint that the atmospheric setup was changing but the change could have started the previous winter in 2004/05 which was a blocked winter and mild for most of it but the sudden increase in blocking and the dream synoptics of late Feb 05 that failed to deliver could have been the very first sign that things were starting to shift.

I know 2006/07 was mild and cold chances were generally scuppered by the weak El Nino. Weak El Nino's seem to always return mild winters then 2007/08 was scuppered by the strong La Nina before the trio of cold winters from 2008/09 to 2010/11 occurred with only a milder blip in 2011/12 before the final cold winter of 2012/13 which I feel was more a consequence of the SSW than anything else.

[damianslaw]

1 hour ago, SqueakheartLW said:

I feel that winter 2005/06 was the very early teaser to what was to come from 2008/09 to 2012/13. It was a hint that the atmospheric setup was changing but the change could have started the previous winter in 2004/05 which was a blocked winter and mild for most of it but the sudden increase in blocking and the dream synoptics of late Feb 05 that failed to deliver could have been the very first sign that things were starting to shift.

I know 2006/07 was mild and cold chances were generally scuppered by the weak El Nino. Weak El Nino's seem to always return mild winters then 2007/08 was scuppered by the strong La Nina before the trio of cold winters from 2008/09 to 2010/11 occurred with only a milder blip in 2011/12 before the final cold winter of 2012/13 which I feel was more a consequence of the SSW than anything else.

Thanks for all the posts and footage.

In response to the above, yes Feb 05 seemed to mark a turning point, more so to blocked conditions, after a lengthy very wet period with the atlantic mostly in charge since about May 07 with only a few shorter lived blocked colder/warmer spells. The long fetch easterly was very interesting to see, hadn't experienced that since Dec 96/ Jan 97. 05-06 was a very dry winter, blocked atlantic, this continued through the summer, with a change to atlantic conditions, but at times the jet went south, think Summers 07 and 08.

I feel a sort of change took place Dec 2020, with blocking back and lengthy dry spells, but the cold shots so far have been minimal at least so far. Will be interesting to see if El Nino marks a change to atlantic, but will it be a cold unsettled type..

[I remember Atlantic 252]

22 hours ago, Don said:

March 2006 delivered a brief flurry for me, say no more.

and here donald, 12th was a crap day weatherwise

[Don]

6 hours ago, Summer of 95 said:

12th March 2006 biggest snowfall of the 2000s here (biggest between Dec 1995 and Dec 2010 in fact). There were also a couple of lighter snowfalls in the first few days.

Was the snowfall on a par with those last week or greater?

[Summer of 95]

5 hours ago, Don said:

Was the snowfall on a par with those last week or greater?

Max depth slightly more on 12/3/06 (12cm vs 9) but last week had as much as then in total if you combine the 2 falls together. 

 

 

[AderynCoch]

Certainly the wintriest March I've experienced in the UK (I was away in 2013). I was also abroad during the final week so I missed the mild ending. 2005/6 was one of the colder winters around that time but it had been very frustrating personally as I didn't get much snow (there was also a severe cold spell on the continent in January that didn't make it to the UK), but March certainly helped to make up for it.

The 12th was quite a significant battleground event in western parts of Britain, similar synoptically to 5th February 1996. I had to travel from Liverpool to Sheffield that morning. There was a fair dumping on Merseyside but once I got past the M6 there was virtually nothing. There was then full cover over the Pennines but only patches in Sheffield.

[Norrance]

March started off with a cold Northerly with the usual suspects getting snow showers. One trough did make it down here on the 2nd iirc and gave us a couple of inches having earlier brought thunder-snow to Aberdeen and with frequent showers built the snow up to around 30 cms up there over a few days. I was working partly in Aberdeen then and commuting with difficulty. Most days in late Feb and early Match had a couple of flurries making it through but not really measurable here.

It then got milder for a few days before cooling down again. The night of the 11th to 12 th brought heavy snow to much of Western UK apart from the far South West and up here at least enough got across to the East to cause disruption. Around 15 to 18cms here.

My daughter was having a birthday party in town on the Sunday which had to be cancelled due to poor road conditions and moved to our house for those that could walk. In Glasgow many clubbers were stranded as transport ground to a halt late on the 11th and into the early hours. Official sited measured 25 to 30cms in the area. The deepest official low level snow report was 39 cms at Artalnaig in Perthshire from the fall on the 11th/12th.

I cannot recall anything memorable for the rest of the month but I assume that it remained quite cool.

Edited March 15, 2023 by Norrance

[reef]

It was quite a notable month in this neck of the woods and one I remember fondly as I was in my last semester at university.

Sleet or snow fell on 8 days here, with three separate events producing lying snow on the 3rd, 4th and 14th. The event on the 14th was unusual in that it was a battleground snowfall, which don't often deliver here.

Mid-month was rather cold with the temperature not rising above 5C between the 10th and 18th.  The 3rd had a minimum temp of -5.4C, which remains to this day the second coldest March minima on record.

The mean temp was 2.9C here to the 24th - 0.2C lower than the 1st-24th March 2013. However the last 7 days had a mean of 10.5C and  it finished on 4.6C (-1.6C) which is the 4th coldest March in my 43 years of records.

Its worth noting that the April that followed had 5 days of falling sleet/snow and May had one day too. The latter was the latest in the spring I've ever seen (30th May), which is ironic considering what happened in the June/July!

Edited March 18, 2023 by reef

[baddie]

I only just read the stats on March 2006 in my area. It was worse than March 2013, 2018 and 2023, and almost as bad as March 1996 and 2001

The month was only a little bit duller than average, but over half of it was in the first 6 days, and there were two sunny days around the equinox. The rest of the month was just mind-numbingly dull. The 7th-21st reported just ONE day of any sunshine, which was the 13th, and even that only brought in two hours of sunshine. The end of the month was a washout but at least milder.

March 2006 was just exceptionally cold right up until the equinox, and pretty much was cold as March 2013 until then. The Northerlies were nice to start with, but I got no snow out of it, but at least got sharp frosty nights and crisp sunny days. The Easterlies from the 7th-21st brought in rain and average temperatures to start with, then just a little bit of snow on the 12th, then just days and days of overcast skies, drizzle, and temperatures not getting above 5c sometimes. The last week of the month brought the CET up, but it still remained 2.5c colder than average by day, and the coldest since 1996

An absolute waste of an extended winter month, and probably horrendous for SAD sufferers. A hideous March I dont want to see repeated

 

Edited January 13 by baddie

[damianslaw]

32 minutes ago, baddie said:

I only just read the stats on March 2006 in my area. It was worse than March 2013, 2018 and 2023, and almost as bad as March 1996 and 2001

The month was only a little bit duller than average, but over half of it was in the first 6 days, and there were two sunny days around the equinox. The rest of the month was just mind-numbingly dull. The 7th-21st reported just ONE day of any sunshine, which was the 13th, and even that only brought in two hours of sunshine. The end of the month was a washout but at least milder.

March 2006 was just exceptionally cold right up until the equinox, and pretty much was cold as March 2013 until then. The Northerlies were nice to start with, but I got no snow out of it, but at least got sharp frosty nights and crisp sunny days. The Easterlies from the 7th-21st brought in rain and average temperatures to start with, then just a little bit of snow on the 12th, then just days and days of overcast skies, drizzle, and temperatures not getting above 5c sometimes. The last week of the month brought the CET up, but it still remained 2.5c colder than average by day, and the coldest since 1996

An absolute waste of an extended winter month, and probably horrendous for SAD sufferers. A hideous March I dont want to see repeated

 

March 86, 96, 01, 06 and 13 all shared strong similiarities. Cold, dull woth easterlies dominating. March can be a very easterly month. 

[baddie]

18 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

March 86, 96, 01, 06 and 13 all shared strong similiarities. Cold, dull woth easterlies dominating. March can be a very easterly month. 

You can otherwise have March 2020 or 2022, where Easterlies brought in a period of fine, sunny and warm weather

[I remember Atlantic 252]

26 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

March 86, 96, 01, 06 and 13 all shared strong similiarities. Cold, dull woth easterlies dominating. March can be a very easterly month. 

it can, but more so April and May which are the 2 most E'ly months

[baddie]

15 minutes ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

it can, but more so April and May which are the 2 most E'ly months

This is the problem with Easterlies. It brings either North Sea Clag, Excessive Heat and Humidity (e.g August 2020) or Relentless rain and wind (e.g Storm Babet), but occasionally brings in favourable weather e.g March 2022, April 2020, October 2016 etc. I prefer Westerlies or Southerlies during anticyclonic conditions, it can still be nice.

Edited January 13 by baddie

[Don]

March 2006 delivered next to no snow for me.  2013 and especially 2018 much better from that perspective.

[LetItSnow!]

I don't remember March 2006 but one of my earliest weather memories is a heavy snow event in early April 2006 that absolutely blanketed where we lived at the time in north-west Kent. Despite being April it was one of the heaviest snowfalls I can remember in my childhood. The type of snow that weights down tree branches and covers everything. I remember our TV having no signal. It actually woke me up as I was in bed and there was a commotion about the TV not working and I looked out the window and to my wonder it was a winter wonderland. I was only 5. I think that was a local event.