[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

7 minutes ago, Retron said:

For once, just the once, eastern Sheppey was right in the firing line. A good 5-6cm in the space of two hours over lunchtime and the early afternoon.

Total snow depth here just outside Leysdown is 10-11cm.

This event does now feel very much like the good old days of the 80s, just with higher temperatures and less snow. It's still wonderful to have a proper easterly for once!

 

 

A good place name for settling snow!

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

Looks as if the cold ends on Sunday with extremely mild (12C) conditions from next week in the south.  We've managed to miss the heaviest of the snow to the north, east and south of us!  -10C is forecast tonight here under clear skies, so a potential 22C range from tonight to next Monday.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

1 minute ago, Neilsouth said:

 

The winds are due to shift back to more of a North/North Easterly tonight before backing full south easterly in the early hours! So still a good chance for many later too

However, as the wind shifts through E to SE it will be drier air and higher pressure so will kill any ppn.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

23 minutes ago, 95 Degrees said:

If this doesn't make it to the Brighton conurbation I don't know what will!

 

Sadly, it's probably too much to the N of E to get the heavy stuff there.  We've just had a flurry but the main stream is east of us again.  It went from a heavy E-W streamer last night to pivoting over us to the current NE streamer, but with it dying out for the period when it pivoted - i.e giving us nothing.  Nature can be cruel!

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

9 minutes ago, Mark said:

Have seen several Twitter weather accounts quoting negative double figures across central parts of our region tomorrow night, including London. 

Really? Thoughts? 

It's possible where significant snow still remains and with the wind falling much lighter.  The night is predicted to be largely clear, giving rapid radiation cooling.  London won't get that low, but rural areas, especially frost hollows, could see -10C.  It was -16.7C in northern Scotland last night and could be around that there again tonight.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

Just now, Mark wheeler said:

Of course as the snow starts to dissipate it starts settling widely on all surfaces. 

The tie is between temperatures dropping as the sun sets (allowing the ground to cool a bit) and the energy for convective showers also dropping.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

Fun with Bruno, our Husky/American Bulldog cross, today.

 

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

37 minutes ago, Jamie M said:

Convergence zone slightly further W

Right, can I order that version please?!

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

Just now, Floatylight said:

Surprised given the minus temps all day the thick snow on the paths  has melted so fast.

Snow all day and no settling?

Not even ice on the ground?

Those wind chill temps are very low so I can't quite work it out.

Warm, wet ground just below the surface and possible ducts and drains beneath too.  Add on a little solar warming (even through cloud) and it goes fast.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

1 minute ago, londonblizzard said:

The last few days of weather have felt more like what would have happened if some of the worse model runs from last week came in to fruition. But we ended up getting -11/-12 uppers, low dew points and ice days, and a fairly strong easterly, and most of our region somehow ends up getting dandruff precipitation, or some temporary more substantial snow which immediately starts melting/ disappearing.

A lot of my most memorable snow events in the past have been in feb though, so i don't really think the end result from the last few days is very typical from what these synoptics would usually deliver during feb. Also don't forget a lot of of the major historical events happening in feb..., like feb 1991, or 1947 which i think was most severe in feb.

Again, the very mild and very wet lead up to this has led to much ground snow loss, when a cold, frosty precursor would not have.  Bear in mind that if all the snow that fell had accumulated (on frosty, dry ground) many more areas would have a significant depth.  That's exactly what happened here on 24 January, when snow from the west settled on a hard frost - not a flake was wasted!

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

12 minutes ago, throwoff said:

The Beeb almost never go for streamers, I think they are too risk averse.

My point was that the BBC's output isn't consistent within itself (i.e. lining up the text summaries and the hourly breakdowns) and neither is the MO's today.  BTW, the BBC TV forecast this morning talked of streamers, too.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

The Met Office is doing what the BBC does - their SE regional text sumary talks of scattered snow showers in the east of the region overnight, while its forecast map shows a significant streamer NE to SW right across the middle of the region tonight/early tomorrow morning, with nothing to the east of that.  Consistency, even if wrong, is far better than such randomness.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

13 minutes ago, Froze were the Days said:

Always amazes me the variations we get with snowfall in this country and even in this region...if you look at the globe and then see the small UK and even tinier East Anglia/South East...problem is in general we get such microscale events as per this. The BFTE 2018 was a larger scale event but even then still variation in snow depths. Less of a problem with frontal snow which stays which doesn't happen often.

Anyway temp: 0.1c snow depth:  4cm approx with some thawing.

These things happen elsewhere too - for example, look at lake effect snow in upstate New York, where some staggering falls tail off to barely a covering within a few tens of miles.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

2 minutes ago, Surrey said:

How about this.. Local road to me known for flooding because it runs of the hills.. But I've never seen ice like this.. 

Yes - we have this on a local flood-prone road - spray is thrown up and freezes.  

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

5 minutes ago, Lord Grogon said:

It's a fair point, but I think you are overplaying the sun effect slightly for Feb. It only really becomes an issue as you move towards the end of the month. Something to do with the increasing rate it's angle changes in the sky as you move through the month. There was a lot of discussion about it during the 2018 BTFE especially relating to the second event in mid-March when basically nothing settled.

December has it's own problems being early in the Winter. Less of a well developed cold pool to tap into. Plus higher SST's can cause their own problems. That only leaves January as the "premium" month.

We've been really unlucky this winter. January was chilly and very wet. That means the ground is saturated but had little opportunities to cool down or freeze. The worst possible combination pre a cold spell. 

As you say, a few days of sun and frost would have made all the difference.

The sun is now about six weeks higher than its minimum in December and is starting to have a noticeable impact.  Even in moderate cloud its radiation can melt snow in sub-zero air, whereas in December/early January it is too weak unless fully sunny.  February snow in southern Britain is always likely to melt in any sunshine when it's powdery as it has more air/surface area to absorb warmth.  A bit of thaw and re-freeze toughens it up a little although reduces the volume/depth.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

2 minutes ago, Djdazzle said:

I agree with some of this. However, it is perfectly possible to get heavy, settling snow in February. The problem this time is that for the most part, the snow has not been heavy or continuous enough. I also think that the wind isn't really strong enough to mix up the lower levels to prevent heating.

But yes, more things have to go right in February to the conditions just right.

That is largely what made the 2018 'Beast' so remarkable, especially the last stage in mid-March, when we had sub-zero maxima for several days.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

Disappointed so far with the NW radar - it has failed to reflect reality quite often in this spell - it shows a continuous cover of light snow over our area now and we actually have partly blue skies widely and nothing falling at all.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

2 minutes ago, North Downs Snowboarder said:

My nan used to take the Daily Express, in recent years I've come to understand why - its commitment to the weather is 2nd to none! If I were to nitpick I'd say it underplays severe/extreme events but I suppose you could put that down to classic British reserve

Ther tabloids generally hype the weather hugely!  They are not known for their worship of facts.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

33 minutes ago, Great Plum said:

Interestingly, whilst the temperature has only just got above freezing here for the first time in 48 hours, the local ponds have not frozen - is this due to the wind? Additionally, the deeper puddles have barely frozen...

Yes, and the fact that the water has been relatively warm recently after what has been a mild winter.  We have two large ponds and they are only slushilly(!)-covered.  With still, clear nights they should freeze easily.  A calm, clear night has a steep temperature gradient from the ground/water up, whereas the wind both keeps the water moving and mixes up the air so that the water surface-level will be exposed to, say, -2C whereas it might be -8C in still air with the steeper gradient.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

I suspect most of the white stuff tonight will be frost.  Clear spells and a lighter wind could lead to some very low temperatures.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

1 minute ago, yamkin said:

Other radar outputs were also in the same boat 

The alien artefact off Thanet must have woken up and destroyed everything!  Actually I have noticed there are several such anomalies in that area, but the one off Thanet's east coast is by far the largest.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

Met Office reports heavy rain at Heathrow, where NW radar shows only snow everywhere.  Mind you they've been showing rain at Aviemore very often this week, which has clearly been nonsense.  I find it odd that they can get reporting actual conditions, rather than forecasts, so wrong.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

1 minute ago, alexisj9 said:

Watching the front in the south, I think Sussex might actually get a suprise today. It hasn't swivelled yet. Though don't get your hopes up, it might do so any time., But worth watching while it still has northerly movement.

Still 400 miles away over warm water, though.  Sorry, but I can't see it getting anywhere near Sussex.

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

Brighter spells here and no snow falling at present.  +0.1C.   Big visible difference between parts of our garden just now - one area is sandy (free-draining), with full snow cover; the other is loamy and wet, with slushy stuff.  Looking both ways from the same spot.

 

[South East, London and East Anglia regional discussion - 8th February onwards]

12 minutes ago, Howie said:

Snowing a lot here but it's melting on the ground again, really sobering 

You really need to amend your profile to include your location if you are going to refer to "here" - no-one can tell where that is.