North East England Cold Spell Discussion

[0000]

very light snow shower here 7pm apprx, but it really was insignificant,a few flakes blowing about in the breeze.

[izi]

very light snow shower here 7pm apprx, but it really was insignificant,a few flakes blowing about in the breeze.

what temp you got up in weardale?

[Hagler]

Just had a flash of lightning here.

[davyf]

There's a few flakes of something coming down here. I'm right on the border of the red, blue and green on the radar so I think I'm getting a mixture of everything.

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

This is so boring! I'm at work and I keep opening the internet out of habit but now there's nothing to look at.

Just a dull, damp Monday morning

It's been good though, depths I wouldn't call exceptional, but still as far as I can remember the deepest snow I have seen. I still can't help but feel it could have been better but maybe I'm getting greedy. I'm pleased we all got a good amount, even at the coast, and even snowstorm1, eventually!

It was the length of the cold spell which I would call exceptional, snow on the ground here since 17th December, thats 26 days and counting.

Loved the icicles too, I never thought in my life I would see icicles taller than me.

Hopefully we'll get a repeat in the next few weeks, but even if we don't this will be a winter we will all remember.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Yes, I'm surprised at how rapid the thaw has been but in truth I always felt that, for me, the really exciting weather was set to end at the weekend. I was in my element during those three weeks dominated primarily by sunshine and snow showers (it's exactly the kind of weather that inspired my title of "thundery wintry showers"), and in contrast, dull weather with the chance of a bit of sleet or snow didn't really capture the imaginatiion.

If the ECMWF at T+192 comes off we will get our sunshine and snow showers back with a cold easterly flow and some instability over the North Sea, but it seems an outside bet at this stage.

[Cloud 10]

Some light sleety snow here at the moment,which looks to be pepping up a bit according to the radar.

[peterf]

i want rain :unsure:

[0000]

A significant thaw today,it's that slushy muck, if it froze it'd be deadly.

Edited January 11, 2010 by hannegan

[Deep Snow please]

Well this Sat-Mon was definitely an amazing thaw, I want the snow back and lots of it.

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

Don't think I do. It makes life so inconvenient. Slipping around all over, old folks not being able to get out, bigger heating bills, no public transport, cancelled footie, etc, etc.

Now that it's starting to melt I'm looking forward to parking my car on our drive again, and not half a mile awap up a huge bank. I would like to reach Thursday with snowcover though, that would be 4 weeks, or Friday would make it 30 days, which would be a couple of good milestones.

I'm sure within a week or two all the inconvenience will be forgotten and we'll be ready for more.

Horrible here in Consett today, grey and cold with sleety drizzle, or slizzle.

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

Agreed on the snowcover milestones. That will be reachable if the snow stays on fields but vanishes from roads and pavements. Is the threshold > 50% at 0900hrs. ?

Just been reading the thread on this and that's right. Looks like it should be measured on an area of grass which isn't shaded from the sun. Well away from worrying about that here yet though, there's still a thick covering everywhere of about 8 inches.

[davyf]

Well I really enjoyed the snow until I got basically got accused this morning off my boss of pulling a fast one by not making it in Thursday and Friday. I'd already said I was going to work the 2 days back. Also got the car stuck again this morning after a bloke at the end of the street got his car bottomed out on the big channel of snow in the middle of the road. Then this afternoon I got a phone call from our lass to say the thawing ice has pulled the facia and guttering off the house so I'm having to arrange for that to be fixed.

I suppose that'll teach me for wanting it to snow so much :lol:

[dave79]

for me here on Teesside, i'll remember the two days (thurs and fri ) that give us 1 foot of snow and some of the best snow showers i've seen but this spell does not beat feb 92 in terms of the amount of freezing cold nights and the continues week of snow we had.

We only really had the heavy snow in this spell thursday, friday and saturday by sunday it had thawed pretty badly.

[Snowstorm1]

for me here on Teesside, i'll remember the two days (thurs and fri ) that give us 1 foot of snow and some of the best snow showers i've seen but this spell does not beat feb 92 in terms of the amount of freezing cold nights and the continues week of snow we had.

We only really had the heavy snow in this spell thursday, friday and saturday by sunday it had thawed pretty badly.

Yep good summary but we did have a white christmas and it did snow on the day itself albeit temporaly but still

[dave79]

Yep good summary but we did have a white christmas and it did snow on the day itself albeit temporaly but still

Hey snowman, that feb 92 event i mentioned, I've got a feeling we might see something along them lines this Febuary, the winter in 92 had a few snowy days before the main event came along, so there's hope yet

[paul tall]

for me here on Teesside, i'll remember the two days (thurs and fri ) that give us 1 foot of snow and some of the best snow showers i've seen but this spell does not beat feb 92 in terms of the amount of freezing cold nights and the continues week of snow we had.

We only really had the heavy snow in this spell thursday, friday and saturday by sunday it had thawed pretty badly.

The snow in February 91 was only down for about 7 days, whereas this spell is 27 days, so God knows what you are talking about.

[peterf]

heavy snow here lol.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Don't think I do. It makes life so inconvenient. Slipping around all over, old folks not being able to get out, bigger heating bills, no public transport, cancelled footie, etc, etc.

That's a perfectly valid viewpoint. Sometimes I can get a bit defensive inside when reading that sort of comment- I've had a lot of exposure to the idea that I should want mild moist winters and as little cold and snow as possible out of respect for those who suffer inconvenience and disruption because of the latter, and that doing otherwise is unreasonably selfish. I used to get teachers at my old school preaching that to the kids, and of course it's also the line that the media emphatically takes on the subject. The same also applies to wanting convective precipitation or thunderstorms but to a lesser extent.

I must say I'm not a fan of the slushy period that often follows a spell of snow (a more rapid thaw, and preferably generated by sunshine rather than rainfall, would be nice) but I'm afraid I was very much in my element during the first 9 days of January.

[peterf]

That's a perfectly valid viewpoint. Sometimes I can get a bit defensive inside when reading that sort of comment- I've had a lot of exposure to the idea that I should want mild moist winters and as little cold and snow as possible out of respect for those who suffer inconvenience and disruption because of the latter, and that doing otherwise is unreasonably selfish. I used to get teachers at my old school preaching that to the kids, and of course it's also the line that the media emphatically takes on the subject. The same also applies to wanting convective precipitation or thunderstorms but to a lesser extent.

I must say I'm not a fan of the slushy period that often follows a spell of snow (a more rapid thaw, and preferably generated by sunshine rather than rainfall, would be nice) but I'm afraid I was very much in my element during the first 9 days of January.

i'm not averse to the same again, but maybe the end of next month would do.

need a wee break from it for now so as to get essential jobs and repairs carried out.

[dave79]

The snow in February 91 was only down for about 7 days, whereas this spell is 27 days, so God knows what you are talking about.

I'm saying that event we got in feb 92 was alot worse than what we got from this current spell, you may have a lot of snow cover and seen plenty of snow showers over the 27 days, we only ever really seen 3 days of heavy snow and as soon as came it went by the sunday/monday, we never really seen the really really cold nights that were reported further up the north east and around the country, we got a fair few sleety showers when other areas where getting snow, so overall yes it was a decent spell but not as bad as previous events.

[Rollo]

I'm saying that event we got in feb 92 was alot worse than what we got from this current spell, you may have a lot of snow cover and seen plenty of snow showers over the 27 days, we only ever really seen 3 days of heavy snow and as soon as came it went by the sunday/monday, we never really seen the really really cold nights that were reported further up the north east and around the country, we got a fair few sleety showers when other areas where getting snow, so overall yes it was a decent spell but not as bad as previous events.

I get the impression Dave that Teeside was somewhat unfortuneate in that it only had snow for such a short time,here only 6 miles or so from Newcastle centre snow has been laying continuously for 26 days so far and although melting I would think could be still here in another three. Generally over the country and I suppose there will always be the exceptions I think this would be the case.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Looks like there's a fair few wintry showers around the region- anyone spotted any snow or hail?

Btw hope nobody took my earlier rant the wrong way- people are perfectly entitled to dislike cold snowy spells because of inconvenience, disruption etc, or wish them away after temporarily enjoying them for the same reasons, without necessarily implying that others should think that way. The problem I have is mainly with the media rather than with people posting here.

[Cloud 10]

Proper snow shower here now.

I turn my back on the radar for a couple of hours and this is what happens.

[dave79]

I get the impression Dave that Teeside was somewhat unfortuneate in that it only had snow for such a short time,here only 6 miles or so from Newcastle centre snow has been laying continuously for 26 days so far and although melting I would think could be still here in another three. Generally over the country and I suppose there will always be the exceptions I think this would be the case.

its just my location thats all, if i drive 10 minutes up the road to guisbouorgh which is the other side of the hills, they have had the snow since the first spell back in mid december and an awful lot of it, I also think someone brought a valid point up a couple of weeks back about me being so close to the steel works and its effect on the climate around us.