What Is The Snowiest Place In The Different Parts Of The Uk?

[Aaron]

The snowiest big city must be Edinburgh

[I remember Atlantic 252]

staffordshire's snowiest areas like Leek, Flash snowiest part of staffordshire at 425m asl, these areas to see loads of snow from tomorrow, being high and further north, ideal for a WNW airstream

[Teesdale]

For the NE England the Weardale valley is probably snowiest district - exposed to NE/E airstreams and can do very well out of frontal attacks from the west. I think I read Middleton in Teesdale is the snowiest largest village in NE England. Nenthead is the snowiest settlement in Cumbria with Alston just behind.

Shap often sees alot of snow as well but is slightly lower than Alston and much less exposed to NE/E blasts but it does better than Alston when NW winds or fronts move in from the west hitting cold air.

The top of Cross Fell is the snowiest location in England as a whole - beating Helvellyn.

Harwood area of Upper Teesdale probably just edges out Upper Weardale. Been closer to highest peaks its just wetter and colder than the next door valley.

Alston is probably significantly snowier and colder than Shap. It does get low min but its never stuck me as a snowy location.

[Aaron]

Shap isn't really snowy, is it? Cold for sure but not very snowy.

Usually the frost hollow's are not very snowy, with Braemar the exception.

[Teesdale]

Your right it is snowy compared to the rest of England but I think in severe Easterly dominated winters its location well to the west of the Pennines means it just doesn't get the deep snowfalls from the East.

[damianslaw]

Your right it is snowy compared to the rest of England but I think in severe Easterly dominated winters its location well to the west of the Pennines means it just doesn't get the deep snowfalls from the East.

Granted - Shap isn't renowned for lots of snow but it is a notorious cold spot - so when snow does fall it has a habit of sticking around a long time. However, it does beat Alston when it comes to fronts moving in from the west being closer to the coast it recieves much heavier precipitation than Alston which is quite far inland. It doesn't however do well in north easterly and easterly airflows as opposed to Alston.

As for the Lake District - few places are sufficiently high enough to record high amounts of snowfall. Eastern valleys do better than western valleys - villages such as Troutbeck just to the north of Windermere in the Troutbeck valley do quite well as well as villages like Dockray which are above 200m. Snowiest valley probably Patterdale and those in the Shap Fells.

[recklessabandon]

Re: the cities - I recall a thread from last winter on the UK's snowiest cities, not sure if anyone recalls this or the conclusions?

[Aaron]

Aberdeen I believe. Aberdeen is the snowiest city in the UK, but I would not call it a large city by any means.

If you want big city living and reliable snow, then Edinburgh is your best bet

Edited December 3, 2011 by Aaron

[recklessabandon]

Aberdeen I believe. Aberdeen is the snowiest city in the UK, but I would not call it a large city by any means.

If you want big city living and reliable snow, then Edinburgh is your best bet

sounds about right, cheers

[Verglas]

Snaefell

(the hint is in the name :lol: )

oh, sorry, it's 'miss Isle of Man' again, we don't exist

:blink:

[rowieboyz]

For the south west I would say Dartmoor, for a warm part of the country it can get quite cold and snowy up here!

Jase

[Gord]

How do the islands do surrounding our coasts get on? (Isle of Wight, Scilly, Anglessey, Isle of Man...maybe not the Scottish Isles as some of them are seeing snow as I type!)

I'd imagine that they don't see that much in the way of snow. I know Scilly and Anglessey struggle...Isle of Wight can do well in an easterly can't it? How does the Isle of Man fare?

Edited December 4, 2011 by Gord

[Aaron]

The Isle of Wight doesn't do too badly for snow in the right set up. In fact, they usually nick the snow from Southampton/Portsmouth

[davehsug]

With regard to the East Midlands, where I live takes some beating if the wind is between SE and NE but overall the snowiest area would have to be Buxton and the surrounding villages. Being further north west that area benefits from frequent snow showers in cold W/NW air streams and these tend to occur more frequently than air flows from the E/NE.

You really can't claim Buxton as the East Midlands though! geographically, like the whole of that part of Derbyshire it's in the North West.

[Aaron]

Buxton is part of the East Midlands reigon, not the North West, geography has nothing to do with it.

Edited December 4, 2011 by Aaron

[Verglas]

How do the islands do surrounding our coasts get on? (Isle of Wight, Scilly, Anglessey, Isle of Man...maybe not the Scottish Isles as some of them are seeing snow as I type!)

I'd imagine that they don't see that much in the way of snow. I know Scilly and Anglessey struggle...Isle of Wight can do well in an easterly can't it? How does the Isle of Man fare?

IoM often misses the snow completely due to the warm moat we have around us, and depending on the wind direction anything we get can be quite localised, like just the southern tip or the north west coast or over the 'mountain road' from Ramsey to Douglas via snaefell above 600ft asl.

The effects on travel is that the mountain road just gets closed if there's more than 3 flakes fall as there are coastal routes available and hardly anyone is affected by the road closures (from Creg ny Baa to Ramsey usually, part of the TT race course and they don't want to damage the racing surface with machinery) and they only bother ploughing it when the thaw has set in. The problems with most commuting routes is that there are some hills on most which soon get blocked with slithering cars, buses etc., and with a large amount of the population working in the Douglas areas it can cause long backlogs to and from work.

I must say that last year was exceptional, so early, dry snow from the east for a change, (not the soggy wet stuff which just goes to slush and packed ice as we are usually just barely at freezing point), and down to sea level, and although I have a 4x4 it wasn't worth taking it out as the roads were gridlocked, I walked into town with a rucksack of weather gear to meet Mrs V and get her home from work. Next morning (sat) she set off like Nanook at 8am for the 2 mile walk through the snow to open up at work for 9.30 !

The local road salt stocks have been replenished ready for action and there is an increased interest in fitting winter tyres and a few places offering 'snow sox' but it will be seen if there is any less gridlock next time we see the white stuff.

Many years ago (too many !) when I travelled to work over the mountain road I often met sheets of frost in the mornings on the newly laid 'blaw knox' surface and had a set of studded tyres for my mini which I fitted at the first frosts and left on until it warmed up in the spring, it was uncanny how you just drove normally and smoothly and straight past people slithering about, I even towed an old chap in his A35 up hill on snow as he was stuck almost at the top and everyone else was about ½ mile behind at the bottom !

Just wondering if/what we'll get this winter, likely just a few flurries at a guess

Edited December 4, 2011 by Verglas

[BleakMidwinter]

For the Lothians and Borders area, Edinburgh is hopeless unless we get exceptional Easterlies laden with snow*.

The Borders are all pretty snow-y, most winters. The A7 bus to Gala often used to carry shovels and the passengers in the 1980s would get out and dig on occasion...

East Lothian gets very little, but then it gets very little precipitation at all.

MidLothian is fairly reliably snowy, specifically around the higher ground alongside the North-South line of the Pentlands.

*this explains why the Council had to get the Army out to clear ice, because Edinburgh since the winter of 79/80 has not had enough snow for the residents to understand how to clear a pavement...

[mardatha]

I'm right on the A7 and highish, and we get a lot of snow and we get it every year. I think Soutra and the Stow/Lauder hill are very snowy, and also that long stretch of high road (A7) between Selkirk and Hawick

Edited December 4, 2011 by mardatha

[Lauren]

My area normally gets the most of the snow along with the North Downs in Kent.

[NorthernRab]

It depends on what you mean by "place" - the snowiest "place" in the Highlands would be somewhere like Sgor An Lochain Uaine or Cairn Gorm, that is, it would be a mountain.

The snowiest settlements would be hamlets in the Badenoch area.

The snowiest villages and towns would be found in Badenoch as well, like Dalwhinnie for example.

[Kentish Kiwi]

For London & the SE, perhaps Whipsnade or High Wycombe.

Pretty certain, as Aaron says, the North Downs are snowier than those two locations, primarily due to a favourable combination of their altitude and proximity to the sea. Also their exposure to the 'famous' Thames Streamer is a significant factor - they can actually be one of the hardest hit areas in England under a potent easterly and a a supportive wind direction (specifically more ENEerly).

I would suggest that places such as Blotley Hill (267m & highest point on the North Downs) or the area around Biggin Hill, which is directly in the firing line of the Thames Streamer, would be in contention for snowiest area in the SE. Locally, but slightly further south, the town of Crowborough (242m asl) is also often mentioned and regarded as being particularly hard hit by snow.

Leith Hill (294m asl and part of the Greensand Ridge) in Surrey is also surely a strong contender, being the highest point in the SE (south of London), second highest in the whole of the region by only 3m, and also in an overall favourable location for a variety of snow set-ups. It is also slightly further from the UHI of London than the above areas of the North Downs which may be a contributing factor, at least in retaining snowcover, although I am uncertain what impact London's UHI has on areas of the North Downs that have relatively significant altitude.

Edited December 5, 2011 by Kentish Kiwi

[BleakMidwinter]

Aberdeen I believe. Aberdeen is the snowiest city in the UK, but I would not call it a large city by any means.

If you want big city living and reliable snow, then Edinburgh is your best bet

Not sure where you get your data from, but from 30+ years living in Edinburgh, it doesn't have "reliable snow". That long period of endless snow at the start of 2010? We had dry clear pavements and sunshine. The lack of snow in early 2011? That would be our six weeks of snow that the Army had to clear...

Edinburgh gets a smattering of snow when the rest of the country gets snow dumps - if it comes from West, South, or North, then we don't get it, as it is cut off by the sea estuary, or the hills.

Only if it comes due East do we get snow in any meaningful amount.

I am told by friends from Aberdeen that the city itself rarely has more than an inch or so of snow - AberdeenSHIRE gets heavy snow, yes, but the city itself seems not to.

p.s. also, Edinburgh is not usually classed as "big city" as it only has fewer than half a million people (and about forty million students...). Just don't want anyone relocating here eagerly expecting heavy snow in the great metropolis!

Edited December 5, 2011 by BleakMidwinter

[Cheviot]

For the north downs in Hampshire, the area between Basingstoke and RAF Odiham probably gets the most consistent snow, if there is to be snow in the south. This is because anything south of the area is affected by coastal warming, West of the area won't benefit from Easterlies as much, north is lower or drier, east is affected more by proximity to coast, lower lying or London's heat island affect.

As with much of the South and South East, the best snow comes from Easterlies aka "Thames Streamer" air flows. There has been snow every winter for the past 6 years at some point in the winter. The previous 3 years have seen dumps that have remained for at least 1 week, with 2010 seeing snow lying for roughly 4 weeks and piled snow lasting 10. In 2009/10 at one point we had a single dump of 37cm (deeper than my shovel length) on top of an existing 12cm - so 49cm lying, which was with us for just under 2 weeks. This was then topped up with further lighter falls.

In comparison with other north downs od south downs areas, if the streamer is on, then it delivers more here, or at least haz done for the past 4 out of 6 years, owing to the peculiarity of its micro-climate.

Each Winter when I get into work, most of the areas around have little or no snow, while this area can be snowed in if you don't have the right gear.

[picog]

In the west midlands, it would be the Shropshire hills, like the Long Mynd and Stiperstones. Titterstone Clee also does well — people are regularly cut off by snow every winter.

[spindrift1980]

I am told by friends from Aberdeen that the city itself rarely has more than an inch or so of snow - AberdeenSHIRE gets heavy snow, yes, but the city itself seems not to.

Depends whether 'snowiest' means deepest snow or most often - Aberdeen is by some margin the UK city with the most lying snow days, although being at sea level it doesn't do as well as inland parts of Aberdeenshire (which, to put it into context, are the snowiest lowland areas in the entire British isles). In the context of the UK as a whole, Aberdeen is a still a pretty snowy place.