How bad is your snow addiction ?

[carinthian]

Snow addiction fans would love this chart from February 1969. Yes, this produced a proper Polar Low with very low temperatures and widespread deep snowfall in the North of England. I remember it well, 9 inches at Manchester Airport on the edge of the Cheshire Plain and 15 inches in the Cheshire Peak with deep snow drifts. The temperature at 4pm was -5c just after the Polar Low passed and fell to -20c in the days following.

 

 C

[jethro]

No it can't.

 

Beauty.....it's in the eye of the beholder.

 

Snow.....mmmm, love the stuff. Quite why opaque frozen water manages to captivate me, and many others quite so much is impossible to explain.

 

Personally speaking it's for so many reasons....dark, dank, bleak winter landscapes transformed almost in an instant to a glistening, brilliant, sparkling vista; those grim winter light levels are restored to high summer brilliance as the sun is bounced off the snow. For a girly who likes glittery things, nothing, not even diamonds, can beat the sparkle of a ray of sunshine on a snow covered tree.

 

The silence. In these days of non stop living and noise, deep snow is about the only time when the noise from traffic stops almost completely. Nothing around here stirs, it's as though something or someone has pressed the pause button on life, step outside and the entire world is yours and yours alone. Just you and your crunchy footsteps.

 

The neighbourliness. After your moment of owning the world, fellow adventurers appear. People who live just a few doors away but you never see, often have never met, suddenly have time away from work and can only spend it in their village. New faces, smiles, chats, mutual appreciation for the fun to be had spark a camaraderie which stays, so that stranger who you used to see drive past is a stranger no more, now it's someone you share a wave and a smile with. The elderly, the infirm, the neighbours, get a knock at the door and a chat - need anything, wood brought in, anything from the shop?

 

The excitement. As a lady of ever advancing years there's one thing and one thing alone which can in an instant transform me into a little kid again. I can remember being excited as a kid on Christmas eve, longing for Santa to come, wondering has he been? If I'd been naughty, wondering if he'd come at all. But remembering isn't the same as being or feeling. A forecast of possible snow and I'm right back there to that Christmas eve feeling, up and down like a yoyo looking out the windows, is it? Has it started? Forecast said overnight snow possible... who needs sleep anyway? Finally admitting defeat, crawling into bed at stupid o'clock, say a little prayer, cross my fingers and fall asleep hoping. Next morning, (and I'm not a morning person, tea, coffee, fags and I'm kind of awake an hour after getting up) it takes possibly as long as 20 seconds for my brain to register the light, the very unique light that only a fall of snow can create, is filtering through the curtains. I'm out of bed, across the room and throwing open the curtains and windows, grinning like a Cheshire cat in less than 2 seconds.

 

The fun. Sledging, ski-ing, snowball fights, building snowmen. What's not to like?

 

How bad is my snow addiction? Let's just say I'd be more than happy to have a little shack on top of Ben Nevis to retire to for the winter, and if winter dragged on a bit and we had a really late spring, it wouldn't be the end of the world :-)

[Snowyowl9]

I should changed my name to thunder owl as that is my biggest addiction in weather.

Snow seen plenty of that,but thunderstorms are much harder to come by.

[Cheshire Freeze]

I'm an easy 10 on the scale....You know it's bad when you're analysing the height above sea level of certain parts WITHIN the same town, a town that averages 50m asl. No chance of me moving to a 'dipped' part of town (about 45m asl) but every chance of me moving to a house at 55m asl

[Cheshire Freeze]

It's your opinion but I feel I have to exercise my opinion as regards to this. I think you need to go to Specsavers because it can be a thing of beauty. This is what I took 5 years ago

 

Has to be Dec '10? For sheer beauty of rime and generally picturesque scenes, that month surely has to be up there with the very best of them. Magical. Looking back, I think we should all be humbled that we got to witness the month of December 2010 (very nearly the coldest ever December on record), months like that don't come round that often!

 

Damn, given myself goosebumps now just thinking about it!

Edited July 29, 2015 by CreweCold

[NL]

If it snowed at 21℃ I'd be a happy man..!!

[Milhouse]

Its alright watching it snow, its when it settles then it becomes a ballache. Im more addicted to watching it melt. Nowt better than watching mild winds get to work on a lawn full of mucky slush and compacted ice thats no good to anyone.

[Weather-history]

Snow brings a dead world alive. Skeleton trees seem to come alive, the drab colours are replaced by a brilliant white, decaying vegetation is covered. It brings a "light" to the long dark nights. A full moon and a snow cover is a beautiful sight.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Weather-history

[I remember Atlantic 252]

That is the most welcome feeling after a cold spell - watching those lovely warm southerlies charge in and put an end to the misery that has ensued for days on end.

 

eh? lovely warm southerlies? hardly, just a miserable dull windy thaw normally with rain at around 8C

[Mother Goose]

That's magical: rime and snow is a beautiful combination. For me, it's also the sound; there's a certain kind of muffled stillness that you just don't get at any other time. Just a shame it's so damn rare.   

Stunning photo Yarmy

[Yarmy]

Stunning photo Yarmy

 

It's Weather-history's work. 

[Yarmy]

Watching it thaw is much more fun for me because by that point, I know that the misery is nearly over as that soft mild air rushes in across the land. When it's falling, my spirits fall with it as I have to mentally prepare myself for disruption and my arthritic knee causing me a lot of pain, which I hardly enjoy. Yeah... snow sucks, in all honesty.

 

Last year you were well up for it: 

 

https://forum.netweather.tv/topic/80936-autumn-2014-forecasts-thoughts-predictions/page-4#entry3016635

 

Tempora mutantur and all that though, and people can like whatever they want.

[ukpaul]

I had a week in Iceland earlier this year which was just magical, touring around glaciers, glacial lakes, waterfalls etc., all with complete snow cover and beautiful blue skies. Even the incoming waves had frozen at the sea's edge. An awe inspiring place with beautiful weather, the only thing missing was a day of snowfall to see it being topped up (well, an erupting volcano would have been nice too, but Bardarbunga had just stopped...)

[Weather-history]

Has to be Dec '10? For sheer beauty of rime and generally picturesque scenes, that month surely has to be up there with the very best of them. Magical. Looking back, I think we should all be humbled that we got to witness the month of December 2010 (very nearly the coldest ever December on record), months like that don't come round that often!

 

Damn, given myself goosebumps now just thinking about it!

Yes it was December 2010

[Nick L]

December 2010...will we ever see its like again? A magical month that was. Stunning photos there WH.

[johnholmes]

December 2010...will we ever see its like again? A magical month that was. Stunning photos there WH.

 

Yes I posted, I think, a fair number of photos from the heaviest fall that I think Doncaster has ever had. 35cm of dry snow between 1730 30 November and 0800 1 December

Other than vague memories of an 8 year old in January-February 1947 that is also the most snow I have seen fall in England. About average for the Alps but that is another story!

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Yes it was December 2010

 

7th Dec was amazing here, thick rime and bright blue skies all day, and rime never thawed in the sun, the 8th though turned slightly less cold with a thaw of rime

[stewfox]

Well i think 25th September 1885 had snow falling in London, so will be starting lamp post watching shortly.

[reef]

Well i think 25th September 1885 had snow falling in London, so will be starting lamp post watching shortly.

It was certainly rather cold for the time of year then, but looking at 850hPa temperatures (in this case around -1C or -2C) it was probably soft hail in a convective shower:

 

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1885/Rrea00218850925.gif

[Cheshire Freeze]

I've lost the original copy of this but you'll have to take my word for it that this was a stunning photo that I took in Dec '10 (have had to take this lower resolution one off Facebook). Crystal blue sky with the bright white rime

 

Edited July 30, 2015 by CreweCold

[Nick L]

Yes I posted, I think, a fair number of photos from the heaviest fall that I think Doncaster has ever had. 35cm of dry snow between 1730 30 November and 0800 1 December

Other than vague memories of an 8 year old in January-February 1947 that is also the most snow I have seen fall in England. About average for the Alps but that is another story!

 

Didn't get a great deal of snow back in Cannock compared to many parts of the country, but still got 5-6 inches. It was the severity of the cold that was incredible for me, and the snow we did get lasted for weeks. A marvellous month.

 

But my snow addiction is still off the scale, even if my life is made difficult at work because of it

[I remember Atlantic 252]

7th Dec '10

[stewfox]

It was certainly rather cold for the time of year then, but looking at 850hPa temperatures (in this case around -1C or -2C) it was probably soft hail in a convective shower:

 

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1885/Rrea00218850925.gif

 

I was going on this

 

http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/index.php?/topic/68103-earliest-london-snowfall-september-1885/

[hillbilly]

The 'Holy grail' for me would be a winter to end all winters,starting very early in October and running right through into May.I do not know what years would be nearest to this but the years that spring to mind [although quite short from it] are 1978/79 1954/55 and 1916/17.

[Daniel*]

It would be off the scale nothing beats a picturesque Victorian style village in a blanket of thick snow. Even in London it can make the city beautiful it just evokes nostalgia to me of winters past.