February 2012 Snowfall

[danm]

12 years ago today, large parts of the E, S & SE saw heavy snowfall, after a front approaching from the west/NW bumped up into cold air from the east. We saw heavy snowfall overnight 4th into 5th Feb, much of which stuck around for several days as dry, cold air continued to feed in from the near continent into the SE. 

Satellite image from the time:

 

Synoptics:

 

I was living in Ilford, east London at the time, here are some photos. 
 

4th night and 5th morning:

 

After a partial snow melt, we had another light to moderate snowfall which added to the snow cover. Still had some snow cover on the 10th:

…and the 12th:

 

A week with snow on the ground doesn’t happen all that often down here. December 2022 was another such spell. 

Edited February 4 by danm

[damianslaw]

Yes, we had about 5 inches, the snow was light but fell for quite a number of hours. It stuck around for a while. I think there was a freezing rain event a few days later, but may mix it up with Feb 13.

Feb 09- Feb 13 with exception of 2011 brought 4 snowy cold Februaries. 

[baddie]

I remember Feb 2012 very well. I havent recorded a minimum temeprature lower that that cold spell (-8c on the 11th). There was 10cm of snow on the 5th. My interest for weather grew through 2012, considering the good March and bad Summer

Feb 2012 first half and Feb 2019 second half would REALLY take the cake

[Frosticle]

Enjoyed this spell. I was living in Ealing in west London at the time and, like most of the south-east, we had several inches of snow. I do remember it got quite wet late in the event and we had a slow thaw. Think the coldest air was east of London.

We had another covering on the 9th, although most of the heavier snow stayed to the west of London.

[damianslaw]

The first half of Feb 2012 was very cold, on a par or possibly colder than 1991, and colder than 2009. The second half as the case with 1991 and 2009 was mild, indeed very mild cancelling out the cold first half. Interesting to note cold first halves to Feb followed by mild second halves occured in 91, 09, 12 and 21. Conversely 1994, 2005, 2018 reserved cold for second half, 2013 and 2006 also to an extent.

Continuously cold Febs have been scarce, 1986 most famous case, 96 was episodic, 01 also, 2010 closest to a consistently cold Feb since 86 without ever being very cold, I guess 2013 and 2018 were quite cold throughout but as said coldest weather occured late on.

[Billy Hicks]

This was a really big one in the South East and does seem a bit forgotten now, it came after a completely snowless 2011 here (although that wasn't seen as too much of a problem given how unforgettable 2010 was!) and crucially fell on a Saturday night, causing some very long delays home as trains and buses came to a standstill. I was stuck in central London for hours waiting for buses and my dad was equally stuck on the motorway between Birmingham and London, we both ended up getting home about 5-6am Sunday morning.

Along with January 2013 and those big years of 2009-10 it did start to feel like snow was going to be back every year again, until the wet winter of 2013-14 heralded a change in winters to mostly snowless ones again until later in the decade.