January 2013 Cold Spell - How's it been for you ?

[The watcher]

Not very good. Had one night of snowfall, about 2 inches that melted overnight. The rest was just sleety wet mess. Only 1 night got below 0c and cloud cover was consistent throughout. However, only a few miles away and higher regions saw 6 inches that lay for a good while. Snowfall this far West was interspersed and locale really made all the difference. The sea was my enemy in this instance, however, it did deliver the first snowflakes seen for just over 2 years.

[Frosty_wsm]

Well it didn't compare to Dec 2010 where we had a nice depth of snow lying for 9 days and there wasn't any thaw at all until the 8th day, still we only had the one snowfall back in Dec '10 and we struck lucky there with the Welsh steamer that hit us.

With this recent cold spell we managed 2 snowfalls, 1st fall stayed on the ground for 3 days without much if any thaw until the 4the day, 2nd snowfall didn't leave much on the ground and it was gone within a day or two.

Still my wait for a repeat of Dec '81 continues, where we had a foot of lying snow at sea level.

[Snowyowl9]

Still snow and ice on the roads around here yet where its drifted,and they are whoppers along the top road 7foot deep still,road is that narrow with snow piled high on both sides,and it frozen last night making it treacherous down to 1.2c.

Does look very mild tommorrow which will thaw quickly,drifts will be around for awhile yet though.

[Frosty.]

It's all well and good saying the charts show promise but we've been hearing those words most of the winter. The last cold spell wasn't nothing spectacular in terms of deep cold, for many places it was simply too marginal for snow either falling or lying for any period of time. The outlook at best suggests transitional cool/cold snaps for the foreseeable, this may change in the coming days but until then I prefer to comment on what the models are showing, rather than hoping.

It was plenty cold enough for most, put it this way, I wish we still had it now instead of the wind and rain. Synoptically it wasn't a dream cold spell but it was the snowiest spell with deep drifting for many, many years and on most days the max temps were hovering around freezing point which is pretty good for the uk, hopefully if we do get another freeze, it will eclypse the recent one and then we can say we have had a good winter but at the very least, the models are showing cold snaps in the next few weeks which is far better than constant swly mush.

[The PIT]

Well after zero Snow for December we managed to get 13 days with Snow lying. Even now there's some Snow clinging on in the higher regions of Sheffield. Surprise Snow on two days which was nice. If we had some clear skies we would probably got the -10C that the GFS kept throwing up. Out of ten I'd give it 5.5.

[ScottSnow]

Overview of Jan 2013 cold spell now that it is well and truly over.

Days with falling snow: 14 (13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th)

Days with lying snow (50%+): 14 (Mon14th - Mon 28th)

Max depth: 21cm ( Sat 19th although there were similar depths on Mon 21st and Sat 26th)

Max depth of snow would have been greater but the snowfalls were marginal at times so didn't add a great deal to the snowdepth. Temperatures were steady with no exceptionally low night time minima. The persistent cloudcover and often marginal conditions for snowfall were the most disappointing aspects of the cold spell. The snowy breakdown was a bonus and something that was sadly missing from Jan and Dec 2010.

I had some great days out walking in the snow in Teesdale on the 16th and 24th and North York Moors on the 18th. I also enjoyed skiing at Yad Moss in the pennines on the 23rd. Spent a few nights out sledging as well. I certainly tried to make the most of the snow.

7.5/10

[Froze were the Days]

It's been ok rather than noteworthy here (on the Essex coast) up until the short wave event which occurred on Sunday 20th we only had patchy snow on the ground from a cm fall (from the trough which brought heavy snow to Wales) and up to that stage had felt short changed as snow had fallen more substantially as far east as western London. By Sunday 20th we experienced just over 6 cms (not noteworthy) which slowly thawed in the week after with day time max temps fluctuating between 0.5c - 2.5c so no ice days. By Saturday 26th all the snow had thawed. The only day I can consider noteworthy for cold was the 18th which barely saw temps above freezing and with a moderate to fresh easterly wind - a true 'easterly feel'.

So overall nothing to write home about with temps or depth of snowfall. The Feb 2012 event was far better lasting for 12 days with snow on the ground and nearly 6 inches in depth, the heaviest fall here since February 1991.

5/10 for this event.

Edited January 28, 2013 by Froze were the Days

[chionomaniac]

http://earthobservat...ew.php?id=80291

It's a pity that the cloud only disappeared once the snow had melted in the south, but a good pic nonetheless.

[Stu_London]

Would rate this winter (so far) as 4th out of the last 5 - which is when we seemed to enter the phase of colder snowier winters.

1st - 2010/1 - average Jan and Feb cannot take away from the 1 in 200 year event that was Dec 2010.

2nd - 2009/2010 - 2 great cold spells with classic build ups.

3rd - 2008/9 - decent cold spell in December and cracking snow event in Feb.

4th - 2012/13 - decent 2 week cold spell with multiple snow events. A decent cold snap in Feb could see 3rd place under threat, but something special needed to threaten 1st or 2nd.

5th - 2011/2 - Disappointing start partially offset by double snow event and 10 days cover in Feb

With yesterday's event, I would move 2012/2013 up a place to 3rd purely because rain to snow events of that nature are pretty rare. If I can hang on to snowcover until Thursday (reasonable chance as I have 5 inches in places), then I will have had more days of snowcover this winter than any of the aforementioned.

Would need something special to dislodge either number 1 or 2 and little in the models to suggest that this will happen.

[johnholmes]

Well now that January is well clear how about some proper summations of the WHOLE month for cold and snow.

How about you compare temperatures and snow, both falling and lying to what the average is for your area rather than some, reading through this thread, who seem to expect sub zero C days and snow falls and depths more akin to our two High Peak members sitting well over 1000ft!

just a suggestion.

I'll do my own statistics summary before long and then my personal summation of how the month was as far as cold and snow.

as ever the old bugger likes accuracy and reality as you can see.

[johnholmes]

A personal view of January in terms of cold and snow

The month was one of 3 parts with the cold spell lasting from about 10th to 25th of the month.

Average temperature for the month was 0.8C up on the long term so nothing there to trigger any real comment

However if I look at that spell from 10-25 inclusive the mean was 0.9C so very respectable for a spell of two weeks. I have no idea how it compares to other cold spells of similar length in any winter months. It gave 15 ground frosts and 9 air frosts. The average for this area for January is 9 air and 16 ground frosts, so that cold spell ended up giving about the average for the whole month. There was one ice day with a mean of -3.2C and the first since 20 December 2012.

Snow fell on 8 possibly 10 days (I was away for the second half so reliant on other folks observations). Only one respectable fall just 3cm the others being less.

My own interpretation would be the cold was about average with no ‘super’ lows, snow fall was a bit above average but only one fall I experienced of any depth and that just 3cm so on that score not a very good example even for this fairly snowless area.

Edited February 11, 2013 by johnholmes

[hillbilly]

had plenty of snow showers and days just havnt had the cold to keep snow cover and the depths and im missing living at 340m where there is more of each and plenty drifts

[Coast]

[johnholmes]

A nice visual presentation but why did he have to gabble over the top of it? Hardly any reason I would have thought to need to rush-spoilt it to a degree but a good idea.

Edited February 21, 2013 by johnholmes