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A Cold Spell Threat Goes Pear Shaped...


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Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam

This was frustrating for cold weather lovers, a potential cold spell and it goes pear-shaped. 6th to 9th February 1995

Monday night's forecast suggest an extensive frost by Wednesday night

By Tuesday night's forecast, the frost for Wednesday night is not quite as extensive as previously predicted but the front pushing southwards to clear the bulk of the country and a very extensive frost for Thursday night

By Wednesday night, the front was to clear most parts leaving a cold Thursday and Friday, with the threat of frontal snow for weekend as Atlantic systems try and move in.

It had all changed by Thursday, the system was not going to clear through but push back northwards, so Friday is now forecasted to be milder in the south than predicted with snow further north and the weekend milder than predicted

What I remember was that we had snow flurries on the Wednesday from the front sinking southwards and during Thursday evening ahead of the advancing front but the expected main snowfall never happened and all we had was heavy rain. The expected frosty nights happened around here, we only had one frost.

The really cold air never even got to the far south nor southwest.

This was the age, where most people wanting to know what the weather was going to be like in a few days time had to largely rely on the BBC 5 day weather broadcasts, this was before widespread Internet use where now you can just go look at the models yourself, so it came across as a shock to see how quick predictions change.

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Posted
  • Location: Motherwell, Lanarkshire
  • Location: Motherwell, Lanarkshire

I'm almost certain that there was a dumping of several inches of snow south and east of Glasgow the following week, on the evening of Friday 17 February 1995 to be precise (I recall this because of a family birthday) but can't recall anything about the previous week.

It was almost all gone by the following afternoon though - a pale imitation of what was to come in December '95, with its sub -20C temperatures, or even the heavy snowfalls in February 1996.

Edited by spindrift1980
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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl

I have vague recollections of this period, and the promise of very cold weather, but don't recall any snow or substantially low temperatures. Jan and Feb 95 did have potential to bring a fair bit of wintry weather, but unfortunately most of the country ended up on the wrong side of the very marginal lines. We did however, reap some rewards in early March and much more so during the following winter. The 5/6 feb 96 in this part of the country being particularly special and not bettered since.

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

I vaguely remember being ill that week and watching an ITV forecast by Bob Johnson (a rare example of an ITV weather presenter that I regard highly) talking of cold weather with snow showers near the east coast during midweek, but "mild again by Friday". There were some snow showers in the Tyne and Wear area late on the 8th but they were hit and miss and the temperatures were marginal- Cleadon had just a couple of sleety flurries whereas nearby Sunderland had some heavy snow and a thin covering in parts of the city the next morning. Bob was certainly right about it turning mild by the 10th (Friday)- a belt of frontal rain was preceded by a bit of sleet and that was it!

According to stats from Weather Log, northeast Scotland did manage a significant cold and snowy spell from this northerly outbreak, but many snow lovers further south would no doubt have been lamenting the fact that it could have been them too, if only the jet had stayed south.

The notion of a heavy snowfall east and south of Glasgow on 17th February 1995 sounds quite plausible to me, as it was a very showery day (I actually remember it quite well, including being driven through some heavy ones in Yorkshire) and the showers were wintry on high ground, especially in the north. It must have been quite localised and/or restricted to high ground though as Glasgow Airport had no significant lying snow that month.

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