Just a Thought

[mike Meehan]

What if all the rain we have this winter fallen as snow I just wonder how it would have turned out - no doubt it would have kept the coldies happy although it may have been some would not been able to get out of their own front door

25 mm of rain approx equivalent to 30 cm of snow, more if it is dry

Edited February 6, 2014 by mike Meehan

[March Blizzard]

Isn't that pretty much what has happened in the Scottish Highlands? Some serious snowfall up there this winter.

The UK as a whole has a climate just on the wrong side of marginal; a few degrees colder and we might not be too far off a Hokkaido- style climate...

[mike Meehan]

It got perilously close at one point mike...that two day colder sourced easterly was swept, actually no..knocked for six by that wickedly persistent westerly! Considering how cold and snowy Scandinavia was, it would've been potentially a pretty notable wintry period.

If say the colder had won out for longer, pushed ever further westwards and if it had remained there, absolute gridlock would have ensued for all elevations - closely followed by the big thaw.

Much like 47 and 63 was.

Oops you said that

Personally, I never thought a repeat of '47 or '63 was on the cards for us and I was never surprised that the cold really didn't extend any further into the North Sea.

 

Although the cooling in Scandinavia came, eventually, for most of the time it was restricted to there, with most of central Europe, except for the more northern parts of Germany, Poland, Baltic States and the far east of the EU really not developing that much in terms of cold.

 

What we really need to get those kind of winters is more extensive deeper cold which is longer lasting. Not sure what the anomalies are in the North Sea but I would have thought that with the mild weather we have had there would have been above average and this would have hindered the expansion of the Scandy cold pool.

 

If I recall correctly the sea temps in '63, when I was plotting these charts was mostly about 4C, though down to 3C in parts on this side and down to near freezing in the eastern parts near the Friesian Islands but now I believe we have 7's, 8's and 9's.

 

In short the Atlantic had too much puff for us and never gave the continent much chance to cool down and for a good part of the winter that extended to western Russia.

Edited February 7, 2014 by mike Meehan

[mike Meehan]

It did get to -40 odd centigrade over parts of Scandinavia....a more prolonged ENE flow would have been more than nippy All that moisture = big fireworks.

The problem was that it was for a relatively short period of time.

[syed2878]

wrong thread.

Edited February 8, 2014 by AVFC.

[Gray-Wolf]

Hi Mike!

 

I was counting my blessings on that point just the other day!

 

Had the European cold just lapped over us leaving us the snow side of marginal all winter then we could have seen some massive wet snow accumulations? 

 

Minus 5 uppers that remained as the rain moved in, even if they were melted the day after the disruption would have been huge ( plus melt flood events of course?)