Jump to content
Snow?
Local
Radar
Cold?
IGNORED

Your Favourite Snow Event?


polarlow2

Recommended Posts

Posted
  • Location: Hanwell, west London
  • Location: Hanwell, west London

Hope no-one minds me starting this thread.

The lack of snow has got me reminiscing about my favourite snow of the past, and I was wondering what everyone else's favourite 'snow memories' are...I have loads, but my favourite is a vague recollection of a night in February 1996 when our part of north-west London got an absolute pounding during the early evening. It had been bitterly cold all day, and I remember seeing John Kettley on the BBC during the afternoon forcasting heavy snow to hit London during the evening. We had about three hours really heavy snow which left about 6 inches and lasted about three days.

February 2 2009 was also pretty special...

Anyway, feel free to share your memories!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset

Great idea as a thread.

I'm really torn between snow events as the best ones are usually the surprises as there's no forward expectation of what's to come. As such I would say my favourite ones are 26th February 2004 and 17th December 2010 from a surprise point of view and 6th January 2010 from an amount point of view - an extra week off school and was later topped up the following week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Liverpool - 23m ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Cold, snowy winters and hot, sunny summers!
  • Location: Liverpool - 23m ASL

Feb (I think the 2nd) 2009 is by far my favourite that I can remember, we got about 10" (possibly over 12" in rare drift areas) which is by far the largest snowfall event I've seen in my area - I even saw a snow plough go along the main road outside my house for the first time ever (not seen one since either). Quite an amazing snow event, absolutely loved it :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District. 290 mts a.s.l.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything extreme
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District. 290 mts a.s.l.

In chronological order;

Feb' 1956; huge drifts after a 24 hour blizzard

Feb' 1979; again, huge drifts after almost 48 hours of blizzard conditions. 53cm of level snow and drifts up to 8m deep.

April 1981; Almost 3 days of continuous snowfall and drifting in the last week of April. 59cm of level snow and drifts up to 10m deep in some 'favoured' locations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms and heat, North Sea snow
  • Location: Newcastle upon Tyne

Late November 2010 - a significant snow event every couple of days, reaching a final depth of 16 inches (40cm). I doubt I'll ever see another November like it. Also, January 2010 was good with lots of convective snowfalls, reaching 11 inches (28cm), but none of the snowfalls were that dramatic, unlike the thundersnow and dramatic snow squalls in November.

Edited by alza
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: warwick 74m. asl
  • Weather Preferences: WHITE GOLD
  • Location: warwick 74m. asl

In chronological order;

Feb' 1956; huge drifts after a 24 hour blizzard

Feb' 1979; again, huge drifts after almost 48 hours of blizzard conditions. 53cm of level snow and drifts up to 8m deep.

April 1981; Almost 3 days of continuous snowfall and drifting in the last week of April. 59cm of level snow and drifts up to 10m deep in some 'favoured' locations.

TM i was going to post my favorite, but seams pointless after yours :wallbash:. Well ok,here goes Dec 2010 two 10cm events in 4 days is about as good as it gets here, stayed on the ground for about 2 weeks.:good:

Edited by fozfoster
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Sunderland
  • Weather Preferences: cold
  • Location: Sunderland

10 Days; November 24 to December 3.

November 24 was the start, sleety showers in the afternoon, then heavy snow in the evening and night.

November 25, after 4cm overnight, a very cold day, with some showers, mainly wintry.

November 26, brilliant, cold, cloudy/clear day, and a massive 'finger' of snowfall, that gave 10cm (4inches) in less than 2 hours, sleet for half-an-hour, and then snow again.

November 27, cool day, more brisk showers.

November 28, night-time event provides yet again!

November 29, very heavy snowfall in the day.

November 30, more again.

December 1, Easterlies galore continue, more heavy snow.

December 2, freezing day, just too cold.

December 3, -12.2C in the morning (coldest since records began here in 87), freezing cold, and clear throughout the day, Ice Day, again... 42cm of snow cover (over 16 inches) lying, the most since at least 1987...

The snow melted on the 13th, a truly exceptional spell...

The second didn't provide much in snow, more than 10cm I think, but around 120 hours without the Mercury passing 0C is amazing on it's own!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl

We've had this discussion thread before, but anyhow, I need something to cheer me up this evening..

For me it has to be he 5/6 Feb 1996, an event I often talk about and think about. We saw 18 inches in total over a 30 hour period. It started at lunchtime on the Monday and finished Tuesday afternoon, perfect timing as it meant the rest of the week of school. I remember being sent home on the Monday afternoon.

More recently the events of 20/21 December 2009 delivered 10 inches, unusually courtesy of heavy showers from the Irish Sea - a very cold airmass and strong convection did the trick.

The brief hour or so of light powdery snow at 11am christmas day 2010 was perhaps one of the most special snow events, it came out of the blue and topped off a memorable 4 week cold spell.

Oh to have a Feb 5/6 1996 event again.. we are due one, most snowfalls since then apart from the dec 2009 event have delivered less than 6 inches to these parts, unlike most of the rest of the country which have been in much more favoured locations for bigger falls. We just missed out from the 5 Jan 2010 event.

Edited by damianslaw
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

If I'd been up at Cleadon between the 23rd November and 3rd December 2010, I'm pretty sure that event would have beaten all of the other events that I've experienced by a large margin. Sadly, I wasn't there, I was in Norwich in the infamous dry corridor, although I was able to monitor Cleadon's event almost as closely as if I'd actually been there, so overall it was a rather bittersweet one.

Thus, in chronological order, it's a close-run thing between:

  • 24-30 December 1995- had frequent heavy snow showers on Christmas Day itself and a snow cover that increased to 8cm by the end of the day, plenty of sunshine and exceptional low temperatures during the rest of the period.
  • 26-31 December 2000- the snow arrived a day late but this was a very atmospheric cold spell indeed, and gave thundersnow to Cleadon at 4:50am on the 29th.
  • 31 December 2009-9 January 2010. It started off with thundersnow on the late evening of the 31st, and New Year's Day saw 12cm at Cleadon, and it ended up as a very memorable bright snowy spell of weather. I went down to Norwich on the 5th, so I missed Cleadon's big snowfall on the 8th/9th, but it was sunshine and snow showers every day in Norwich as well and it was very picturesque indeed around UEA.
  • 16th-26th December 2010. It partly made up for missing out on the earlier cold spell- in Cleadon this spell gave some exceptionally low temperatures, sunshine and snow showers on most days, and a deeper snow cover on Christmas Day than even 1995 managed, and because of the sunshine and lack of wind I acclimatised to the cold quite well. It initially looked as if Cleadon might miss out on most of the snow but then at 5pm on the 19th a wall of snow moved in from the North Sea and produced 8cm in the space of a few hours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Caerphilly
  • Location: Caerphilly

17th December 2010, most snow i've ever seen in my life, had 2 inches overnight then around another 8 inches between 9am and 2pm. Following this we then had another few inches overnight into saturday morning. Another top up then came on the monday which dumped another 3 or 4 inches, so overall not a bad few days of winter.:smiliz19:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Glasgow, Scotland (Charing Cross, 40m asl)
  • Weather Preferences: cold and snowy in winter, a good mix of weather the rest of the time
  • Location: Glasgow, Scotland (Charing Cross, 40m asl)

27th November - 6th December 2010 would be my favourite spell of snow,if I had to narrow it down to a 3 day period it would be from 0:00 on the 28th November to 0:00 on the 30th 2010.

That spell produced the most snow in my memory, 42cm level at one stage after days of snow and temperatures not exceeding 2.1C.

Heavy but shortlived snowfall on the night of the 26th gave about 3cm, while the 27th itself was dry with the temperature just scraping to -1C. That evening, though, was incredible to witness as a car passenger. Having left for Glasgow at 6pm, after a hairy drive on icy roads with temperatures around -5C to Newburgh, we left the SECC at 10.30pm with the car thermometer recording -9C (this being in central Glasgow). The first flakes we saw were at 11.30pm around Kirkliston, and by the time we crossed the Forth Bridge and bombed up the M90 towards Kelty the road was covered and snow was intensifying hugely, massive flakes reducing visibility to almost nothing. It took us 90 mins to do a 10 mile trip, and there was no sign of clear road anywhere, just a total blanket of white and an orange glow in the sky. I woke up at 9am the next day to find, without any surprise, around 5 inches on the ground with more falling. However, the temperature was above freezing for the first time in 48 hours and more marginal uppers forecast, I feared coastal mushing. Added to that the forecast of very heavy precipitation coinciding with this rise and it did appear to be on a knife edge when the temperature hit 2C with the dewpoint at 0.8C at 3pm after a 5 hour dry spell. However, when the precipitation hit, it was firmly as snow, and through the night another 3 inches accumulated. It kept on snowing on and off through until Thursday 2nd December, when with around 15 inches (these depths are entirely from memory so may not be consistent with past posts!) it finally stopped. However, after a little wet snow and a slight thaw through the weekend, the morning of the 6th December ensured that the first full week of school snowdays in the memory of all pupils and teachers in Cupar was followed by more snow chaos, as a further 10cm fell, with far more between Glasgow and Edinburgh, which completely ruined the 'back to work' narrative of the day. I doubt I'll ever bore of telling that story, and I also doubt whether any future snow event will exceed it in terms of my own personal enjoyment or even in sheer depth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Melbourne, Victoria
  • Location: Melbourne, Victoria

In S London,where i've lived the past 15 years, it has to be this November/December 2010.

No other period has delivered so much or lasted so long.

Pre that, it has to be Feb 1991, which delivered 50cm+ of level snow in Yorkshire where i lived at the time. That was the most snow i'd seen in the UK, it lasted 3- 4 weeks on the ground.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Biggin Hill Kent (205m often in the low temp league)
  • Location: Biggin Hill Kent (205m often in the low temp league)

Many snow events but especially January 1987 with 2ft of snow with 20ft drifts in Biggin Hill and max temp of -8c . February 1991 with over a foot of snow with brutal cold (I'm hoping for a a February repeat this year.) Then of course December 2010 Freezing weather on 4th Dec followed by heavy snow on Tuesday the 7th which only stopped on Friday morning 10th

72 hours of non stop snow which left over 40cms of dry powdery snow and a night temp on Friday of -11c -unfortunately a warm front moved in on Saturday evening spoiling the dry snow but leaving about 6ins of snow which lasted the whole of December . On Saturday morning of the Dec 18th there was an intense snow storm which left 14cms of dry snow . Horzontail snow with high winds left windows covered . :pardon:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Wildwood, Stafford 104m asl
  • Weather Preferences: obviously snow!
  • Location: Wildwood, Stafford 104m asl

Nov 30th 2010 was very good, also Dec 18th and 22nd having decent snowcover for Xmas, did very well Feb 8-9 2007, Feb 2nd-5th 09, Jan 2010 also good, 5th-13th

Nov 18th 1996

19th Nov 1996

20th Nov 1996

but best has to be the perfect hit superlow of 19th Nov 1996, only seemed to affect Staffs,Shrops, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Remember it IB! I remember the 'bimbo' Emma Jesson saying we are in for a dumping of snow on tuesday! not had a repeat since really with a bullseye hit from an Atlantic superlow with arctic air in place on the 18th. There were slight thaws but snow remained until the Atlantic rolled in on the 25th Nov

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Shrewsbury
  • Location: Shrewsbury

Nov 30th 2010 was very good, also Dec 18th and 22nd having decent snowcover for Xmas, did very well Feb 8-9 2007, Feb 2nd-5th 09, Jan 2010 also good, 5th-13th

Nov 18th 1996

19th Nov 1996

20th Nov 1996

but best has to be the perfect hit superlow of 19th Nov 1996, only seemed to affect Staffs,Shrops, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Remember it IB! I remember the 'bimbo' Emma Jesson saying we are in for a dumping of snow on tuesday! not had a repeat since really with a bullseye hit from an Atlantic superlow with arctic air in place on the 18th. There were slight thaws but snow remained until the Atlantic rolled in on the 25th Nov

Not all of Shrops unfortunately- only 2cm here and it was gone the next day. Oswestry area got about 4-5cm but it was really east of the M6 that got the real dumpings as I remember.

Dec 2010 is certainly in my top 5 as it scored very highly both on persistence and depth of snow; the late Nov/early Dec snowfalls would have been a candidate by themselves but then the pre-Christmas snow as well made it a cert.

Others would be 12 Mar 2006, 19-21 Dec 1995 and 8 Dec 1990; contenders for the fifth include Febs 1991 and 1994, 20 Nov 1988 and Jan 1987 (though wasn't in Shrewsbury then). Not Feb or Nov 1996, or anything from 2009/10 which were all massive disappointments here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Powys Mid Wales borders.
  • Location: Powys Mid Wales borders.

TM i was going to post my favorite, but seams pointless after yours :wallbash:. Well ok,here goes Dec 2010 two 10cm events in 4 days is about as good as it gets here, stayed on the ground for about 2 weeks.:good:

This was the most severe blizzard most snowfall and most cutting east wind ever,I`ve seen was January 1982 but shorter lived to...

Fave is february 1985 blizzards 10inches but almost a fortnight of drifting massive drifts.

Thats what makes a proper memorable snow event a stonking blizzard and gale force east winds.

Still rate January 1987 higher than anything we`ve seen during these last few winters as it was more memorable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: East Anglia
  • Location: East Anglia

Easy 1979, drifts 4 to 6ft deep across the Norfolk countryside, a great many towns and villages cut off for several days, I’ve not seen snow like it since, only 81 and 87 got anywhere near as close. last year saw some tidy falls here in Derbyshire, with some drifts up on the hills. This year, despite Decembers deep cold, snowfall has amounted to very little.

Although I was alive in 62/63 I was to young to remember it, 78/79 is my holy grail for snowfall, so on a personal level all of the years since 87 have been a disappointment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Valencia, Spain or Angmering, West Sussex
  • Weather Preferences: 22-38C in summer with storms, cold in winter with some snow/or 15-25C
  • Location: Valencia, Spain or Angmering, West Sussex

easily the november 29th-december 3rd event in december 2010! (espescially december 1st/2nd) where 20+ CM snow throughout sussex,kent,surrey,s.london,hampshire etc. ending a brilliant cold spell!

November 29th: very cold day followed by light snow overnight and on my birthday too, yay!!

November 30th: a cm or two of fresh snow, wet snow/sleet throughout the day and more overnight

December 1st: The best Snowday i've ever seen in Brighton area, about 2-5cms of fresh snow in the morning, snowed throughout the day before heavy/very heavy snow from 9pm-1am gave 15cms in just 5 hours!!:smiliz34:

December 2nd: 20cms lying snow and over 1 foot-45cms on the south downs! amazing :yahoo: and kept snowing throughout the day adding another 2-5cms!

December 3nd: very cold night, and didn't get above -3 throughout the day a very cold evening (almost -10c at 5:50pm) the fun and games ended there though as an atlantic front pushed temperatures up dramaticlly and somehow thawed most of the snow, what a period of cold it was though, possiblly even better than jan 2010!!

Edited by BrightInBrighton
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire
  • Location: Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire

Favourite Snow events for each month:

January: I can't choose one particular event but my favourites occured around late nineties and early naughties and 2010

February: I remember an exceptional snow event in 2001. Feb 2009 was also decent

March: Without a doubt 2006. My largest snowfall

April: Snow showers in 2007

May: Snow showers in 2010

November: The great snowfall of 2010

December: December 2010 and 2009 had brilliant snowfalls though I have good memories of cold and good snowfall in 1999/2000 and 2001.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl

Favourite Snow events for each month:

January: I can't choose one particular event but my favourites occured around late nineties and early naughties and 2010

February: I remember an exceptional snow event in 2001. Feb 2009 was also decent

March: Without a doubt 2006. My largest snowfall

April: Snow showers in 2007

May: Snow showers in 2010

November: The great snowfall of 2010

December: December 2010 and 2009 had brilliant snowfalls though I have good memories of cold and good snowfall in 1999/2000 and 2001.

Very surprised to see you quoting the January's of the late 90's and early 00's in such high esteem with regard to snowfalls. From memory the Jans of 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 delivered very few snowfalls of any quality. Indeed Jan 2000 and 2002 I think were devoid of snowfall around north england. Jan 98 saw one brief snowfall on the 18th delivering a couple of inches and that was it. Jan 99 saw lots of high level snow but apart from some wintry showers around 9-12th I don't recall any snow. Jan 2001 saw some snowfalls in the middle week, I was in Stirling at the time, but again I don't remember any appreciable falls. Feb 2001 however delivered alot of heavy snow both early and late to eastern parts of Scotland and NE England, less so the west of Scotland.

Of the three winter months over the past 20 years, Jan has been the poorest in terms of delivering appreciable snowfalls for these parts it has to be said. Feb has delivered much more than Jan, and in recent years Dec unusually has become the star month.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Liverpool
  • Location: Liverpool

Has to be the one we experienced last year- It started snowing at about 6pm on Friday the 17th and didn't stop until about 6am on the 18th. It wasn't always massively heavy, but was never light, and by the morning it had left about 10 inches of snow. It took a week to get this down to about 6 inches ( Only on heat conducting surfaces though) and then that remainder had gone in a day with the extremely heavy rain. Would love for that to be a regular thing but it's such a rare event.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire
  • Location: Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire

Very surprised to see you quoting the January's of the late 90's and early 00's in such high esteem with regard to snowfalls. From memory the Jans of 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 delivered very few snowfalls of any quality. Indeed Jan 2000 and 2002 I think were devoid of snowfall around north england. Jan 98 saw one brief snowfall on the 18th delivering a couple of inches and that was it. Jan 99 saw lots of high level snow but apart from some wintry showers around 9-12th I don't recall any snow. Jan 2001 saw some snowfalls in the middle week, I was in Stirling at the time, but again I don't remember any appreciable falls. Feb 2001 however delivered alot of heavy snow both early and late to eastern parts of Scotland and NE England, less so the west of Scotland.

Of the three winter months over the past 20 years, Jan has been the poorest in terms of delivering appreciable snowfalls for these parts it has to be said. Feb has delivered much more than Jan, and in recent years Dec unusually has become the star month.

Perhaps some of these snowfalls happened in February instead of January.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Exeter - 96m ASL
  • Location: Exeter - 96m ASL

best one has to be the 20th december 2010...... i think the official figures from exeter airport were 22cm in a 3 hour period, this was accompanied with thunder and lightning! this was good snow although not as good as the 2nd best event on 5th january 2010 where we had around 4 inches of powder snow. 3rd has to be 2nd feb 2009 and this deliverd about 5 inches although very wet snow, i did manage a quick journey to okehampton that day where the had 19 inches fall overnight!!!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Weardale 300m asl
  • Weather Preferences: Snow
  • Location: Weardale 300m asl

January 1963 just before we went back to school.

The family next door had a pony called Velvet and managed to knock together a large sleigh, we harnessed Velvet to it and all got on and went round and round Frensham ponds in Surrey at quite a lick pulled by the pony. That, and learning to skate on ponds in beautiful natural snowy surroundings, with lots of space so no-one would knock you over and long runs sledging down steep hills… total magic.

Sorry if this sounds like I'm trying to trump everyone, but it's one of the advantages of getting older. I'm in my late 50s and still get a huge kick out of snow and ice, it's bloody marvelous!

Edited by Iceni
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...