musehead

Bit of a surprise to see light snow falling this morning in SW London! We seem to be on the edge of the heavier stuff further south. Not sticking to anything, but not at all sleety. Nice big flakes.

Having lived in Wandsworth, SW London since 2011, this has probably been the best cold spell of the last 10 years for me. Snow depth maxed out at only around 3-4cm, but I've never seen deeper around here. Pretty much a whole week with snow on the ground, and properly frozen ponds is something I've not really seen before too. Constant falling (very light) snow for 36+ hours was brilliant! Admittedly, I missed the BFTE in 2018 because I was abroad!. Previously to that, I had a great snow event with the Thames streamer in Feb 2009 (hit the jackpot with about 35cm near Leatherhead) and 2010 was great of course too.

12z EURO4 shows it in pretty much the same position, gradually sinking south through the afternoon.

The narrow streamer that formed over the Thames seems to be drifting North. Snow pretty much stopped now in SW London, but still cloudy. Clouds look thin though.

Finally getting some proper snowfall in SW London, I'd say it's light to moderate right now. Accumulation in the last hour or so has probably equalled the last 12 hours, about 1cm!

Light snow continuing in SW London, although it's a little heavier compared to the extremely light stuff we had all day yesterday - amazing to have falling snow all day, but without any noticeable accumulation...! Have added around 0.5cm overnight, probably have around 2cm on the ground now.

I think we are looking for convective showers coming in this evening and overnight, rather than the mass of light precipitation to our East

Think the problem was that almost all the snow that fell yesterday melted when it touched the ground. It snowed lightly here for almost 12 hours, would have probably added up to a couple of cm had it been a little colder. We seem to have gained about 1cm here overnight, which had no trouble settling on most non-pavement surfaces.

I'm in the "heavy" band that's over south London now, it's not heavy though. Similar light snow to what we've had most of the afternoon and not settling.

Just on the edge of the heavier radar returns here in Wandsworth, however it's still pretty light and not really settling on anything.

The 06z EURO4 is not accurate for my area (Wandsworth, SW London) in the short range. Indicating around 2cm of snow depth, whereas in reality it's too warm to settle at all so far. Currently snowing lightly, no sleetyness since about 9am.

Wandsworth, SW London. Disappointed to wake up to nothing but wet pavement (meto app had said light/heavy snow from 2am). But light graupel and sleet has started falling intermittently since around 8am.

Tooting, SW London - Had around 2-3cm. Melting rapidly now.

Slightly sleety rain in Tooting (SW London) again at 25m asl. I expect somewhere around Box Hill >200m might get a few flakes from the line of showers passing south over SW London right now.

Drizzle and light sleet mix falling in Tooting (SW London), 25m asl. Nice to start 2021 with some wintry precipitation!

If you're talking about 1st/2nd Feb 2009, surely the setup was quite different? It was a Thames streamer that dumped 30-40cm of snow over SW London and Surrey that night. I remember it well because I was living near Leatherhead at the time, which was pretty much bullseye for the streamer. It was very cold (around -3C before and during the snowfall, at 70m asl), and the melt didn't set in for several days.

Snowfall in Normandy/Rouen area, northern France this morning: https://actu.fr/societe/neige-normandie-fortes-pluies-alerte-vigilance-orange-plusieurs-departements-eure-seine-maritime-calvados_16595792.html Only 11 days after 27-28C was reported in the area. I wonder if the highest parts of the downs might see a bit of sleetyness. Probably not.

Slightly sleety near Leatherhead (~70m asl) - noticeable on the windscreen.

Light to moderate snow in Wandsworth (S London). The heavier stuff is to the South of here.

HIRLAM 12z looks similar if slightly more optimistic than the ARPEGE 12z. HIRLAM is going for 2-3cm widely across London/South England from this and light snowfall sticking around a little longer into the early hours behind the main area of precipitation.

The 12z ARPEGE seems to model the incoming blob quite well. Shows it widening and intensifying slightly as it passes through Kent, and shows it hitting East London approx. 16:00 (now-ish). Fully departing West London approx. 22:00. Then continuing into Central-Southern Enland and SW England by around 03:00am. Widely 1-3cm of snow across the south expected from this.

Worth mentioning that the red/yellow returns on the north of the blob (currently) on the NW radar appear to be an error. If you run through the animation you can see them appearing intermittently in the same place.

There are some more "blobs" incoming behind from Belgium/Germany on the same trajectory, but they appear to be breaking up over Belgium.

We have about 2-3cm on some surfaces in Wandsworth although it hasn't really settled on any patios, pavements etc. Wasn't very impressed with HIRLAM or EURO4 model performance for my area. Both were suggesting 10-15cm of snow accumulation, our total was more like 3-5cm if you include yesterday mornings snow which melted after a few hours. We just missed out on the overnight snow which sprung up to the West of London.

Light snow blowing around in the air all afternoon in Wandsworth. Accumulating slightly but not really heavy enough. It's clearly colder than this morning as the melted snow on cars etc has re-frozen. Should accumulate quite readily if it gets heavier later. Comparisons to the Feb 2009 setup are exciting - I hit the jackpot with that event in the hills near Leatherhead. There was no snow on the ground at ~6pm and it was quite clear before the clouds started building. It was cold enough to accumulate straight away with no melting. I remember the Met Office Red Warning for the area being issued at quite a late stage. The snow was heavy and almost constant once it had started -12 hours later there was 35cm level snow depth.