January 4th-6th 2010: Snow!

[Weather-history]

2 years ago this now when a number of places got some sizeable snowfalls. It started here on the Monday evening of the 4th when the first snow showers moved in from the Irish Sea. By the early hours, heavy showers of snow were streaming in and snow depths were rapidly increasing. The conurabations of Liverpool and Manchester woke up to a winter wonderland with the Greater Manchester area having one of the biggest snowfalls for years, it was chaos!

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/2010/brack/bracka20100105.gif

It was southern parts of England turn the following night when that region had one of its biggest snowfalls for years

www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/2010/brack/bracka20100106.gif

[Stratocumulus perlucidus]

I remember that day. My son woke me up as he was I'll about 1 in the morning and we had about 2 inches. But it carried on all morning and afternoon, totaling about 8 inches. It just wouldn't stop.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I remember coming down from Cleadon (Tyne and Wear) to Norwich on the train on the 5th January. Cleadon got just a dusting from the front that moved south overnight 4th/5th, but sizeable falls from North Sea convection shortly afterwards as the wind veered north-easterly. The front pepped up over Yorkshire and was in the process of giving sizeable snowfalls as I passed through the region. The frontal snowfalls missed East Anglia altogether, with very little snow around Peterborough but an inch around Norwich from snow showers on preceding days.

[johnholmes]

15cm here through 5th into 6th with a start of 1cm at 0900 clock time on the 5th

I thought that was a lot of snow until the next winter

30Nov 1730-0830 1Dec=35cm!

The record, as far as I know for this area, certainly in 60 years, no idea before 1943 though.

[feb1991blizzard]

2 years ago this now when a number of places got some sizeable snowfalls. It started here on the Monday evening of the 4th when the first snow showers moved in from the Irish Sea. By the early hours, heavy showers of snow were streaming in and snow depths were rapidly increasing. The conurabations of Liverpool and Manchester woke up to a winter wonderland with the Greater Manchester area having one of the biggest snowfalls for years, it was chaos!

http://www.wetterzen...cka20100105.gif

It was southern parts of England turn the following night when that region had one of its biggest snowfalls for years

www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/2010/brack/bracka20100106.gif

I lived in Ordsall Lane, salford then, brilliant memories and went some way to making up for feb 1st 2009 when everywhere 8 miles east took a pasting and salford had one short heavy shower on the sunday and 18 hours of sleety drizzle, that said, i cant help feeling i wish i had moved here 2 years earlier, some places around here had 5 foot drifts in the 2010 event and a foot of level snow in 09 and 10, i cant help feeling i may of missed the boat now and we will soon be back into Atlantic winters with solar output increasing, even then though, i have seen scenes the last couple of years i had long given up on ever seeing again.

Here is what i would have experienced had i moved here 1 year earlier. Clip from January 2010.

Edited January 4, 2012 by feb1991blizzard

[summer blizzard]

This was the greatest snow event of my life.

I already had 8cm lying on the ground (mainly from snow showers on December 18th) but on Monday 5th i awoke at 5am for work and checked the radar to see the front looking pretty heavy just about approaching York. I had been fairly excited as forecasts on here for Yorkshire were around the 10cm mark which is fairly decent.

As it happened, snow started in LS27 at 06:15 and by 06:45 accumulations on roads were present as the snow was moderate to heavy, as the day went on it became apparent that the front had pivoted north of the forecast location as i got 21cm of fresh snow over a 10 hour period.

This was the biggest single snowfall i had ever seen (there was bigger in 1995 or 1997) and led to my record depth of 29cm, in addition to this i had 31 days of lying snow.

[feb1991blizzard]

This was the greatest snow event of my life.

I already had 8cm lying on the ground (mainly from snow showers on December 18th) but on Monday 5th i awoke at 5am for work and checked the radar to see the front looking pretty heavy just about approaching York. I had been fairly excited as forecasts on here for Yorkshire were around the 10cm mark which is fairly decent.

As it happened, snow started in LS27 at 06:15 and by 06:45 accumulations on roads were present as the snow was moderate to heavy, as the day went on it became apparent that the front had pivoted north of the forecast location as i got 21cm of fresh snow over a 10 hour period.

This was the biggest single snowfall i had ever seen (there was bigger in 1995 or 1997) and led to my record depth of 29cm, in addition to this i had 31 days of lying snow.

Was the 18th december snow still lying then? i thought it got washed away on boxing day and mild muck made its way all the way up to scotland, i may be wrong but didnt we get a reload after exmas?

[summer blizzard]

Was the 18th december snow still lying then? i thought it got washed away on boxing day and mild muck made its way all the way up to scotland, i may be wrong but didnt we get a reload after exmas?

My exes house (LS27) and mine (BD11) are near 200m which may have played a role however while some snow melt did occur there was still a good covering by the time of this event.

Last year i also had a covering survive to the second northerly.

[I Cumbria Marra I]

Im sure i got rain from that cold front then as it moved south the cold air caught up turning it to snow then it stalled over the manchester/ liverpool area lol one of the most frustrating days of my life! haha

[Aaron]

The snow came down hard on the 5th for all northern areas.

[summer blizzard]

The snow came down hard on the 5th for all northern areas.

Indeed, i hope we can get a synoptic repeat this winter.

[damianslaw]

The 5th Jan 2010 event was a bit frustrating for these parts. We saw 2-3 inches in the early hours, but nothing more, thanks to the front making a swift passage through Cumbria, but then seeing it become slow moving just 40 miles to our south over central lancs was a stroke of bad luck. Alas it delivered close to a foot in some parts of central/southern lancashire and greater manchester area. Cold fronts moving down across the country don't tend to pep up as they move southwards but normally weaken substantially but on occasion can hang around southern england for a while. The cold front was wrapped around a developing shallow low feature which helped the front to become very slow moving and erratic in its movement.

Had it behaved in a similiar way over SW Scotland then Cumbria would have been caked in the white stuff with local topography coming into play and pepping up the intensity of the snowfall even more so. Alas its not often lancashire and manchester do better than us from snowfall associated from a cold front moving down from the NW.

The event itself couldn't have been timed better depending on how you look at things (not good for emergency services and economy generally or children's education), the first week of January generally is a bit of a hard slog for many of us - a good time for hiding indoors, many schools closed for the rest of the week and many people struggled to make it into work, the sub zero temps powder snow and blue skies made it feel like continental Alps, a few superb days followed for winter walking - I could only make the most of the conditions on Sat 8th Jan undertaking a brilliant walk near St Johns in the Vale north of Thirlmere, I have not seen similiar conditions since, yes last december 2010 delivered the cold and blue skies, but the snow was not as deep in these parts and the weekends before christmas are always a bit too busy to make the most of getting outdoors - compared to weekends in january when things are generally much quieter.

Here's hoping we see another few days like those between 3-9 Jan 10 this winter - I'd be happy if we saw just one week of similiar weather even if the rest of the winter remainded mild and wet. I suspect we will have a good crack early-mid February still early enough for the snow to remain deep and crisp with the effects of the sun being quite limited still, by late Feb such conditions would be much harder to sustain.

[Weather-history]

I have downloaded Granada Reports on this snow event of the 5th January 2010. This is the 1st part and I will download the 2nd part in the near future. It really was a memorable event.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Mr_Data

[danm]

BBC weather forecast from about 5pm on 5th January 2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmJaScvgaOg&feature=plcp&context=C4e6f036VDvjVQa1PpcFM31siyQdCnA6-SOrauvMo1BzEM0M-xSsY%3D

...and John Hammond on the BBC the next morning (6th Jan):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6efrxL7J48w

Edited March 15, 2012 by danm

[Weather-history]

I have downloaded Granada Reports on this snow event of the 5th January 2010. This is the 1st part and I will download the 2nd part in the near future. It really was a memorable event.

Here's the 2nd part

[Weather-history]

10 years ago.

 

[Don]

6 hours ago, Weather-history said:

10 years ago.

 

Fond memories and incredible to think it’s 10 years ago.  The snow hit the south on the 6th and some places received depths of 13/14 inches.  I had 8/9 inch depths where I was, but impressive all the same!

[danm]

This was the spell where parts of central southern England got a huge dumping of snow, over a foot in places, particularly around Basingstoke. Here on the northern/eastern side of Greater London we missed the worst of it but still ended up with 3 or so inches of snow. 
 

 

[Don]

18 minutes ago, danm said:

This was the spell where parts of central southern England got a huge dumping of snow, over a foot in places, particularly around Basingstoke. Here on the northern/eastern side of Greater London we missed the worst of it but still ended up with 3 or so inches of snow. 
 

 

Yes, Basingstoke can be a sweet spot for snow.  It was similar February 1st last year when I think they had depths of around 8 inches?

[danm]

2 minutes ago, Don said:

Yes, Basingstoke can be a sweet spot for snow.  It was similar February 1st last year when I think they had depths of around 8 inches?

Would you say so? Personally don’t think of Basingstoke being a sweet spot for snow. It’s quite far west for North Sea streamers, to far inland for northerly snow showers etc. It can benefit from channel lows, but they’re quite rare. 
 

I just think Basingstoke on this occasion was coincidentally in the right place. 

[Don]

5 minutes ago, danm said:

Would you say so? Personally don’t think of Basingstoke being a sweet spot for snow. It’s quite far west for North Sea streamers, to far inland for northerly snow showers etc. It can benefit from channel lows, but they’re quite rare. 
 

I just think Basingstoke on this occasion was coincidentally in the right place. 

That's what I've heard.  I think Basingstoke also did well for snow during the mid-March 2018 BFTE, too.  Also, bear in mind, there are a few snow 'domes' nearby (I used to live in one!)  This perhaps makes Basingstoke seem like a sweet spot by comparison!

Edited January 5, 2020 by Don

[damianslaw]

Yes 10 years ago now, I note my post from 8 years ago , and echo these. Sad to think we've only had one similiar spell of weather since in January, but wasn't as cold - Jan 2013. What has happened to sustained snow and cold weather in January?

[Don]

3 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

Yes 10 years ago now, I note my post from 8 years ago , and echo these. Sad to think we've only had one similiar spell of weather since in January, but wasn't as cold - Jan 2013. What has happened to sustained snow and cold weather in January?

It's been consigned to that cold world in the sky.......

[summer blizzard]

As alluded to in my 2012 post at the top of this thread this remains the single greatest frontal event I have experienced.

21cm falling over 10 hours, probably maxing out potential accumulation because it was falling into existing snow/ice.

[Frost HoIIow]

What a fantastic snowfall that was. Crazy to think it's been 10 years. It was a snowfall without much wind unlike 2018's two beasts which blew the snow all over the shop leading to unreliable measuring but still very enjoyable. The January 2010 event was just an absolute tonking with a deep covering all over. One of those occasions where you needed snow boots or wellies or you'd get very wet cold feet.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Frost HoIIow