TonyK St Albans

St Albans. Looked out the window at 5.45am - nothing but rain. Ditto 7am, so stopped checking until 8.30am only to find heavy snow settling on grass and cars. Started to ease off soon after albeit with the odd flurry, but all gone now (10.30am) so I reckon that will be the last we see of the snow for this winter.

Which is exactly what happened. Fascinating insight to why we get the drizzle. But what's happening when we get snizzle? Is that when the temperature is much lower?

Were you at WHL? If so, commiserations. My son and grandson were there so share your woe!

Temperature now rising in St Albans, set to continue overnight, so snow cover will be all gone come daylight. Oh well, it had its moments.

Well done. There's something quite special about being out in steady snow. Trust all that runninmg about toasted you up nicely! Did the snow settle quicker on the astro than elsewhere? I was in Clarence Park doing my daily walk until about 4.30, by which time the sleet had turned to heavy snow. Was startled by the brilliant white of the games courts erlier where the snow had somehow not thawed whilst everywhere else was just wet.

Impresive memory! I vividly recall much of the preceding stuff up to the end of February, but after that, nothing.

Thanks. That made me chuckle!

Sleet turned to steady snow about 4pm in St Albans. What's more it's getting steadily heavier andeverything is turning white again. Mesmerising to watch! Radar suggests it just might bow out with a flourish in about an hour.

Steady sleet since 1pm suddenly became really heavy snow for a good 10 minutes. Looked like the real deal then - argh - stopped abruptly!

Very light drizzle in St Albans right now, so the Current M/O forecast St Albans looks way too good to be true!

St Albans - Settling on the car but not on the ground .so far. I fear it's going to be one of those days when it never quite gets its act together.

Just checked in to find Met Office has dramatically upgraded snow forecast for St albans area since earlier today. Now expecting snow continuously from 3am Wednesday right through to 1am Thurs, with sleet expected around Wed lunchtime. Dunstable is a few hundred metres higher so could be even more up your way.

Met Office keep revising tomorrow's temp downwards too. All of which has me wondering (ever the optimist!) could it? ... Is it just even possible that tomorrow's rain turns out be the white stuff instead?

One thing I'm loving about this thaw is the way it's behaving itself. Usually associate thaws with horrible, mucky puddles and dirt everywhere but this one is not so much thawing as shrivelling gradually and gracefully. Hoping it keeps it up until it's all gone.

Whoe footprints on porch roof this morning? Cat? Pigeon? Fox?

Going by car dashboard, -7 at eastern fringe of St Albans. Lowest ever I've seen it.

Taken this morning. Day Four since snow fell. Don't ever remember it staying pristine for so long on trees.

Another striking similarity between December 1962 and now is that once the snow had arrived, it stayed put. The temperature stayed below freezing day after day, However the forecasters seem pretty confident the Atlatic Low will break through this coming weekend and the snow will all be gone by Monday. If so, that is where the similarity will end. Chances are the forecasters are riight, ... but ... but ... we wait and see!

Wind?

I sense certain similarities, though also clear differences, between December 1962 and now. Although fully 60 years have elapsed since then, I still have very vivid recollections of that dramatic winter. I was living in Hornsey, North London, at the time. From around mid-December '62, the weather turned much colder as well as drier, very similar to what we had the week before the snow arrived on Saturday night.. But whereas the snow has already arrived this time around, in 1962 it did not show up until Boxing Day. The other potential similarity - sort of - is that the massive High that usually sits over central Asia and Siberia at this time of year instead spread towards Europe and Britain, bringing with it bitingly cold winds (the original Beast from the East if you like). So when an Atlantic Low arrived over Britain on Boxing Day it not only bumped into the cold air, turning what might have been rain into snow, it also came to a grinding halt, blocked off by the Siberian High. Hence when the snow arrived sometime around midday in North London it continued falling nto the evening and through the night. I remember waking up to an amazing 35cm (14") of snow , but even more astonishing was that by that time the snow had turned to freezing rain, which created a curiously crusty topping to the snow. The house I was living in not only lacked central heating but also draught-proofing so you can imagine my horror when I went to the front door to check out what was happening I was confronted by thick lying snow inside the hallway. The high winds had penetrated the gaps in the front door to such an extent the snow was several inches thick either side of the door jambs. That Siberian High continued to block off Atlantic systems for the following ten weeks, resulting in not only one of the coldest ever winters on record but also one of the driest. Whether anything similar will happen this Winter remains to be seen ....

Maybe, tbf was difficult to assess the way it blew around,

Ha! I use the term very loosely! Maybe just two cms, would you agree?

Thanks for that. Now you mention it, that's what I'd heard too. Seems to be settling quickly everywhere this time, including on pavements and patios, which yesterday's dump did not succeed in doing.