April snow: mid April 1999

[Weather-history]

Remember this well, wet snow on the Tuesday morning and snow showers breaking out on the Wednesday afternoon. It was strange feeling the warmth of the sun on your face and snowflakes falling around you.

12th April 1999

13th April 1999

BBC news report on the snow

[Weather-history]

14th April 1999

[Thundery wintry showers]

I note that the forecast from the 12th April 1999 had the trough for the 13th too far south and west- it was forecast to hit NW England and the Midlands and miss much of NE England, but Tyne and Wear unexpectedly caught the northern flank of the trough the next morning, which gave 2-3 hours of light to moderate snowfall and a dusting near the coast with more significant accumulations inland.

After a sunny period during late afternoon more snow showers followed behind and gave a covering, and there were more snow showers on the 14th. The frontal belt early on the 15th, accurately forecast on the 14th, brought a couple of hours of wet snow but the showers that followed behind were of rain.

I've seen a couple of instances of people recalling snowfalls in mid-April but struggling to remember if it was in 1998 or 1999, as both years had widespread snow around the 13th to 15th although widespread snow also fell outside of that period in 1998.

Edited December 15, 2012 by Thundery wintry showers

[Weather-history]

15th April 1999

[damianslaw]

I note that the forecast from the 12th April 1999 had the trough for the 13th too far south and west- it was forecast to hit NW England and the Midlands and miss much of NE England, but Tyne and Wear unexpectedly caught the northern flank of the trough the next morning, which gave 2-3 hours of light to moderate snowfall and a dusting near the coast with more significant accumulations inland.

After a sunny period during late afternoon more snow showers followed behind and gave a covering, and there were more snow showers on the 14th. The frontal belt early on the 15th, accurately forecast on the 14th, brought a couple of hours of wet snow but the showers that followed behind were of rain.

I've seen a couple of instances of people recalling snowfalls in mid-April but struggling to remember if it was in 1998 or 1999, as both years had widespread snow around the 13th to 15th although widespread snow also fell outside of that period in 1998.

Remember the evening of 12th Apr 99 well, seeing the snow showers giving a covering in the centre of Newcastle.

April 98 brought a number of snowy days to the Lake District in a very cold northerly airflow. Indeed there was a run of Aprils which brought decent low level snowfall at the time, 98-01, also 93-96.

[polarlow2]

Initially I thought this was the cold spell that brought several hours of heavy wet snow to north London on April 15, although I think that was 1998. Heaviest snow I've ever seen that didn't settle, despite falling for at least two hours.

[mcweather]

I remember this one very well because I was giving a talk about Dorset weather on the outskirts of Weymouth on a fine evening before the snow came. I told the gathered throng that I would not be surprised to see the hills that we could see out of the window covered in snow by the morning. Most of those at the talk had not seen the evening weather forecast so this was the first they had heard of it and coming on the back of a bright and fine if fresh spring day on the south coast It seemed totally at odds with the prevailing conditions and quite a few members of the audience said they couldn't see it happening especially on the back of a mild winter.

The next morning those hills were covered with about three inches of snow and further north in Dorset about 8 inches fell.

This was one of a strange sequence of events in 1997 98 and 99 when snow fell on or around 15th April in each year. especially in the hillier parts of Dorset.

[Weather-history]

 

 

  

[LetItSnow!]

Really strange month as it began and ended warm but with a cold middle. A month of notable yo-yo-ing in temperature. 

[Summer8906]

I remember this month well.

The first 8 days or so were actually unusually southwesterly, hence mostly mild and dull (1st, 2nd and 9th warm and sunny) - not too dissimilar to this year but less wet as the low track was further north.

The change took place via two cold fronts, IIRC, an initial one overnight 9th-10th which brought a chilly NW-ly for a couple of days and then another one overnight on Sun 11th-Mon 12th which brought in the full northerly. Mon 12 was a breezy day with hail showers.

The airmass remained in situ until May 19th though the wind lessened and eventually the northerly became very slack. There were several days with sunny starts with showers of hail and snow developing during the day. One day I was in the Bath area and a general area of snow came through in the morning, with a cover - this was probably Wed 14th or Thurs 15th.

This meant I experienced lying snow in April for three years on the trot, as I was in the northwest over Easter 1998 and experienced another bout of lying snow in Bath in the first week of April 2000.

(Lying snow in April has become really rare in recent years - last time I encountered it was in 2008).

I remember being in London on Sun 18th and I think it was the day of the London Marathon. By then the showers had died out though the cold bright airmass remained in place.

Mon 19th was sunny but sadly I remember a mass of cloud advancing from the SW into the evening, I distinctly recall the clear air retreating northeastwards that evening.

The 20th-23rd was very dull and wet with cyclonic SW-lies and a southerly tracking jetstream but something of a ridge produced a drier and rather warm weekend, and then a further transition occurred on the 25th/26th with the last Atlantic low in the sequence slipping southeastwards into France, producing thunder on the evening of the 26th as it did so - but then setting up a warm anticyclonic easterly to produce a very warm and sunny final four days of the month.

So a very mixed month. An unusually high frequency of dull SWlies (3rd-8th and 20th-23rd) but also a notable cold and notable warm spell.

Edited April 12 by Summer8906

[damianslaw]

Memories of heavy snow showers one evening in Newcastle, possibly the Tuesday evening of 16th?

The Aprils of 98-00 all brought lying snow after very mild winters with little snow. Interesting 2008 also brought lying snow after a very mild winter, 1989 as well... quite a correlation. April 16 also, again after a very mild winter. 

[Don]

I remember a snow shower on the south coast in April 1999.