December 1999-January 2000

[A Winter's Tale]

Prior to the snow in Feb 2009, my favourite snow events and winter memories were from December 1999-Jan 2002. I have memories of Christmas Shopping in beefy snow showes, being stuck on the mate during a Blizzard wth snow depth over a foot, vertical snowfalls and plenty of other deep snowfalls. I can't quite remember exact dates, but I believe that this period was had some quite exceptional snowfalls tha even the past 3 winters have not quite surpassed.

http://www.personal....ther_dundee.htm, http://www.met.rdg.a.../diary1999.html, http://www.met.rdg.a.../diary2000.html, http://www.met.rdg.a.../diary2001.html are links which can show snow events.

I'd like to ask how where these winters in your region as I've heard many people say that this period was dull whereas in my opinion I have lost count of many deep snowfalls. Some dates that I can remember include 4 Dec 1999, Christmas - New Year 2000, 18 Feb 2000 though I have some real uncertainties with dates with snow in Dec 2001 and memories of heavy snowfalls between Dec 2000 and Feb 2001.

Edited March 15, 2011 by A Winter's Tale

[AderynCoch]

I remember it being sunny but cold in the run-up to Christmas 1999, before it turned milder and wetter. This continued into January.

A non-descript winter if my memory serves me correctly, though apparently it was the sunniest on record (could have fooled me).

Edited March 15, 2011 by AderynCoch

[A Winter's Tale]

Actually the title of the thread should be Dec 1999-Jan 2002

[cheeky_monkey]

Prior to the snow in Feb 2009, my favourite snow events and winter memories were from December 1999-Jan 2002. I have memories of Christmas Shopping in beefy snow showes, being stuck on the mate during a Blizzard wth snow depth over a foot, vertical snowfalls and plenty of other deep snowfalls. I can't quite remember exact dates, but I believe that this period was had some quite exceptional snowfalls tha even the past 3 winters have not quite surpassed.

Really where???..i remember this period apart from between xmas 2000 and new year 2001 as being pretty crappy in terms of cold and snow

[Summer of 95]

1999/2000 had not a single day of snowcover here, all I remember being a bit of sleet on Christmas Day and a few bits of non-settling wet snow in April.

2000/1 was reasonably cold (at least for the 90s/early 00s), but not until March was there anything like decent snowfall; 5cm on March 21st was the most that "winter". There was snow cover from 28-31 Dec and also 25th Feb; but they were only 1-2cm dustings.

2001/2 actually wasn't a bad winter, for the first half. A frosty, sunny December ended with snow on the ground at the end; the snow cover albeit slight (2cm) was the longest-lasting between 1997 and 2010. The first 5 days of Jan were cold; several ice days and -10 by night. This winter was badly spoilt by a non-stop Atlantic blast from about Jan 10th till the end of Feb, which brought buckets of rain, gales and hardly any wintry weather.

[MP-R]

1999/2000 had not a single day of snowcover here, all I remember being a bit of sleet on Christmas Day and a few bits of non-settling wet snow in April.

2000/1 was reasonably cold (at least for the 90s/early 00s), but not until March was there anything like decent snowfall; 5cm on March 21st was the most that "winter". There was snow cover from 28-31 Dec and also 25th Feb; but they were only 1-2cm dustings.

2001/2 actually wasn't a bad winter, for the first half. A frosty, sunny December ended with snow on the ground at the end; the snow cover albeit slight (2cm) was the longest-lasting between 1997 and 2010. The first 5 days of Jan were cold; several ice days and -10 by night. This winter was badly spoilt by a non-stop Atlantic blast from about Jan 10th till the end of Feb, which brought buckets of rain, gales and hardly any wintry weather.

Was 2001/2002 a La Nina winter or did the Atlantic just play silly monkeys? Even at the age of 10, I noticed what a dramatic turn around there was in that winter, wondering if the snow would ever return. It did, for about 5 minutes during a particular potent Pm spell around 26th-28th February.

@A Winter's Tale, looking back at particular charts with reference to 'Christmas Shopping', the 1999-2002 wasn't brilliant for pre-Christmas snow, though 1995-1999 was much better; the following could have been dates you were talking about:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1995/Rrea00119951206.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1996/Rrea00119961221.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1997/Rrea00119971217.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1999/Rrea00119991219.gif

[Summer of 95]

Was 2001/2002 a La Nina winter or did the Atlantic just play silly monkeys? Even at the age of 10, I noticed what a dramatic turn around there was in that winter, wondering if the snow would ever return. It did, for about 5 minutes during a particular potent Pm spell around 26th-28th February.

@A Winter's Tale, looking back at particular charts with reference to 'Christmas Shopping', the 1999-2002 wasn't brilliant for pre-Christmas snow, though 1995-1999 was much better; the following could have been dates you were talking about:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1995/Rrea00119951206.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1996/Rrea00119961221.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1997/Rrea00119971217.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1999/Rrea00119991219.gif

1999/00 was the La Nina winter, the fact it was so different from this one, as well as eg. the difference between the major El Nino years of 1983 (cold Feb, hot July) and 1998 (exactly the opposite), leads me to be somewhat sceptical about the ENSO/UK weather connection. I remember in 1997/98 everything was being blamed on El Nino; the storms around Christmas, the May weather in February, the Easter floods, the cold dull June and July.

[damianslaw]

Snowfall during the winters of 99/00, 00/01, 01/02 not a patch on snowfall in winters 08/09, 09/10 and first half of winter 10/11 here in the far north of england i.e. cumbria/tyne and wear/durham.

Snowiest period of winter 99/00 came just before christmas with a number of days from mid month onwards seeing snow showers brought in on a cold polar maritime airflow but not particularly potent. The weekend prior to christmas 99 saw the coldest weather of the whole winter in the aforementioned parts with snow cover and clear skies. The rest of the winter was very benign with only one day of snow cover on and around the 18/19th Feb.

Winter 00/01 was a much better one for snowfall. The period 24th-31st Dec saw the coldest weather of the whole winter and here in the Lake District the snowiest with a couple of ice days and a good fall of snow on the 28th. Jan 01 saw some snow showers, I was living in Stirling at the time and remember a cold spell mid month with some light snow but nothing potent however temps struggled to get much above freezing. Feb 01 was very snowy in Scotland both early and more particularly late on, with heavy snow in NE England at the end of the month and into March. Indeed March 01 saw a number of snowy outbreaks at times. Whilst cold and snowy compared to other winters between 87-08 winter 00/01 was not a patch on 95/96 or 09/10 and indeed period 24th Nov - 27th Dec 10.

Winter 01/02 began on a cold frosty note with much cold weather during December culminating in a chilly christmas with some light snow both pre and post christmas. The opening days of Jan 02 were very cold with ice days, but the month turned into a damp squib with very little in the way of further cold weather and no snow. Feb 02 was as abysmal as this month just gone in terms of snow. Apart from Dec 01 winter 01/02 firmly belongs in the very dire camp of other winters in terms of snow and cold like 97/98, 06/07 and 07/08. I don't believe Scotland fared much better than here during winter 01/02 in terms of snowfall.

[A Winter's Tale]

Was 2001/2002 a La Nina winter or did the Atlantic just play silly monkeys? Even at the age of 10, I noticed what a dramatic turn around there was in that winter, wondering if the snow would ever return. It did, for about 5 minutes during a particular potent Pm spell around 26th-28th February.

@A Winter's Tale, looking back at particular charts with reference to 'Christmas Shopping', the 1999-2002 wasn't brilliant for pre-Christmas snow, though 1995-1999 was much better; the following could have been dates you were talking about:

http://www.wetterzen...00119951206.gif

http://www.wetterzen...00119961221.gif

http://www.wetterzen...00119971217.gif

http://www.wetterzen...00119991219.gif

The date was 4th December 1999.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I note that A Winter's Tale's location is on relatively high ground and just to the north of Glasgow, which explains a lot. The winter of 1999/2000 was generally snowless in most lowland parts of Britain, but it was snowy on high ground in Scotland, especially during December 1999, and the Glasgow area was particularly heavily hit by snowfalls during a polar maritime incursion on the 16th February 2000.

2000/01 was a notably snowy winter in the vicinity of the Scottish Lowlands.

February 2002 had a notable polar maritime incursion on the 22nd/23rd which produced numerous snow showers. Snow cover was short-lived or non-existent in most parts of lowland Britain but again, many northern and western areas with a bit of altitude got sizeable accumulations from it. However, I was under the impression that the Glasgow area missed out on most of the snowfalls in late December 2001- again perhaps a bit of altitude helped?

Thus the accounts described in the opening post of the thread sound realistic, but only representative of the experiences of a limited area of the country.

[Scottish Princess]

You have an impressive memory A Winter's Tale. How do you remember such specifics when you were only 3? You must have been near buried!

Have you got any old photos?

Edited March 16, 2011 by Scottish Princess

[A Winter's Tale]

You have an impressive memory A Winter's Tale. How do you remember such specifics when you were only 3? You must have been near buried!

Have you got any old photos?

Home Videos have dates on them. Some of the dates are guesses on events and objects such as type of car at the time. Dec 1999 is one of the clearest early memories I have. I kind of started this thread about snow events that I can't get a date for as there was quite a few decent ones.