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March Blizzard

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Posts posted by March Blizzard

  1. For my location, the worst of it wasn't actually in Winter proper; it was November. Honestly, I very rarely get down/annoyed by weather, but that month was truly atrocious. The rain was thoroughly relentless, and as I work outside it was actually starting to genuinely wind me up. On paper December was worse for rain, yet it didn't seem as relentless or persistent as November, to me at least. Nor did December seem as dull generally.

    January wasn't great, but an improvement on the preceding 2 months and was sufficiently cool enough, with a snow event, to stop it from being a true stinker in my book.

    February by far the best, started off wet and miserable but overall I've greatly appreciated the frosty mornings, sunny days and number of dry days. 

    A poor Winter no doubt, though, and I'll be glad to never experience a November like that again.

  2. 14 minutes ago, MP-R said:

    Well thanks for taking the time to post that Costa. Maybe I should expect each winter to be dominated by the Atlantic, at least then most years my expectations will be exceeded. Sadly, having managed lying snow in the mildest of winters past, it's very difficult to lower my expectations. I will however state that I do not expect winter 09/10 every year lol.

    I think in any other winter, given the synoptics we've had, more of us would have had one if not two snow events already. Jan 18th and Feb 13th come to mind here.

    Yeah. In a way Winter is like a relay race, with each month representing a runner. In a typical race (Winter) a bad leg by one can be overcome by a good leg from another. However, this year, December reacted late to the gun, stumbled out the blocks and fell flat on it's face as it fumbled the baton to January. We've been playing catch up since, and the race had already been won by the time February handed the baton to March.

    And the UK winter relay team aren't the fastest to begin with...

     

    • Like 2
  3. 10 minutes ago, markyo said:

    At least we are having a extended spell of much more pleasant colder conditions,long may it continue. Lovely crisp walk,so much more refreshing to the stinking warmth of summer,everything seems just so much more cleaner and enjoyable. Here's to a cool summer with only the odd hot spell,that would be perfect.

    Agree with the first part of that completely. I love cold nights/frost at this time of year, and the potential for large diurnal temperature ranges, a common feature of late February and March. So much better than Atlantic driven cloud and rain, with almost static temperatures throughout. 

    If we can't have a genuine cold spell, then I'll take cool, calm and clear gladly.

    • Like 1
  4. 4 hours ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

    Agree about Feb being coldest month and Dec warmest, but isn't that only because of frequency of Atlantic air/low pressure? surely if we had exactly same setup mid Dec and mid Feb, mid Dec would be colder, seas colder also in Feb, colder still in march

    I get what you are saying in that February is probably more prone to winds from an Easterly/Northerly quadrant than December, so therefore has the more favourable conditions for colder weather than a Westerly/Southerly December. However, I'd still assert that the exact same set up in mid Dec and mid Feb would be colder in the latter for a variety of reasons.

    Mid February is in what I think of as the "core" of winter, the coldest 6 weeks, being January to mid Feb. December and second half of Feb, despite being winter and still capable of very low temperatures, fall outside of that period in which we historically have seen the coldest temperatures.

    As I said, the setup in December 2010 was as near perfect as you could get for cold, and it was of course very cold, but not colder than Feb 1986 and nowhere near as cold as Feb 1947. That late Nov/Dec 2010 setup, picked up and dropped into late Jan/February, would have probably returned a February CET around the -1.2C mark in my opinion, as opposed to the -0.7C of Dec 2010.

     

    • Like 1
  5. 48 minutes ago, March said:

    Because people want a snow event, as in snow being on the ground for a few days at least. Simply seeing some snow fall and not settling is hardly an event. 

    Of course. That sort of thing is more likely in February or first half of March than October or November, even December. Look at the met office average maps, more days snow falling and lying in February than December. Similar days of snow falling between March and December, for the 1981-2010 average, yet in the previous 2 averages March has slightly more.

    Last year I had snowcover that lasted for at least 4/5 days into Feb after a big fall in late Jan. it's been a long time since I've had lying snow in December. Not really a surprise, just closer to the climatic norm.

    Either way, in much of lowland England, snow tends to be marginal/transient regardless of what month it falls in. Bit of a moot point really.

     

     

  6. 24 minutes ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

    early cold way better, late Feb is just too warm, but seas the other way too cold for decent showers, Dec colder land/temps warmer seas bigger showers

    Wed does not interest me, models overdo snow potential, can guarantee nearer time that will downgrade to north only

    Have you forgotten just how mild the December just gone was? It would take a record warm March to beat the CET value it recorded. In a typical year, February will be colder than December. Late February/early March, temperature wise, is on a par with early to mid December. It's also typically snowier than December. The coldest February is colder than the coldest December. Even with very favourable conditions, such as December 2010, it still wasn't colder than February 1986, for example. There is a lot more ice in the Arctic in Feb compared to December, the seas are colder, much of Eurasia is colder in February. Pretty much the whole northern Hemisphere, outside of Maybe the Western half of North America, is colder in February than December.

    Yes, it may be too warm in late Feb/early March to see snow/cold for most of us in the UK this year, but only because of how warm much of the northern hemisphere has been throughout Winter. Not at all helped by that ridiculously warm December.

    I just don't get people looking for snow as early as October, when it is incredibly unlikely, and then giving up in February or March when there's a decent chance of it falling. It happens every year, regardless of how the season pans out beforehand. I just find it a little odd, but each to their own, and to be fair I don't begrudge people looking for a bit of "warmth".

    • Like 3
  7. 41 minutes ago, Supacell said:

    The coldest temperature of the month was -12.9c at Aboyne, Aberdeenshire early on the 11th March. 

    The cold spell at the end of the month was more remarkable because of low maxima than low minima with ice days but too much wind for it to get too low at night.

    5.7C and -0.3C were the average CET maxima and minima for the month, respectively. The coldest mean Max and joint 5th coldest mean min for the month of March. I prefer the look of March 1883: 5.9C and -2.0C.

    ...or better yet. February 1895, average monthly CET minima of -5.1! My idea of winter heaven.

     

  8. That's just it though, March isn't a warm month. 4th coldest of the year, colder than November. Far too much expectation of "warmth" every year, in my opinion. Reliable warmth should only reasonably be expected from around mid April onwards.

    A cold March would do me, make the most of the wintry window of opportunity. Unlike 2013, though, I'd rather the cold be there from the start, rather than beginning 10 days into the month.

     

  9. Just now, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

    didnt think nights of Jan and Mar '13 were that cold? very snowy spells though, this reminds me more of Dec 2010, with minus 10 nights

    March 2013 had comparatively colder maxima than minima. Saying that, I think the minima averaged around -0.3C for the month. Cold, but not exceptionally so. 

    Hard frosts with negative double digit minima was more typical of Jan and Dec 2010.

  10. 1 hour ago, cyclonic happiness said:

    As someone pointed out on Two, how can we expect cold weather, when even the north pole is above freezing in the middle of the Arctic night, in mid-winter???

     

    Something is very, very broken this year.  Are these temperatures unprecedented up there???

     

    (2 metre temps shown)

    gfsnh-9-6.png

    It is very weird to see temperatures in Svalbard similar to what we should normally be seeing in a UK winter, 5C max forecast for Longyearbyen tomorrow. At almost 80 degrees North, in late December. Crazy.

    • Like 1
  11. Wow, I can't believe the extent of the flooding in the south of the region today. I'm not too far down the road but there has been no flooding here, thankfully. Seen pictures of Rochdale underwater and the Irwell in Manchester city centre is raging. This is significant flooding in the second largest urban area in the country, was it on the BBC news at 10pm? I missed it...

    • Like 1
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