Ever Had Snow from the South?

[Eye to the sky]

January 1987 saw a band of snow move up from the south,bought on by gale force SE winds.Theres a BBC weather forecast on YouTube titled the big freeze.

[Thundery wintry showers]

It's a real struggle to get widespread snow from a direct westerly, and it's even harder to get it from a southerly or south-westerly, because the implication is that the arctic air has had to travel over the Atlantic at low latitudes before getting to here.  However, I can think of some rare examples when arctic or continental air headed into the English Channel and then came up from the south or south-west.

 

As others say probably not, only seen it like you mention with embedded cold air.

 

Had wintry showers from the south off the channel as the low centre moved west on the 3rd Feb 2009.

That was a particularly unusual case.  I remember it well, because I was in Exeter during the first half of 2009.  A cold east to north-easterly flow brought continental air into the Channel and then a shallow low drifted westwards and sent the continental air back up from the south, and brought sharp snow and hail showers to Exeter although the lying snow thawed in the sunny intervals in between the showers.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/cfsr/2009/Rcfsr_1_2009020312.png

 

More common (though still rare) is when a low pressure system embedded in a northerly or north-westerly regime settles near Ireland, bringing cold air into the Channel and sending it up from the south or south-west to England, Wales and Scotland:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/cfsr/1979/Rcfsr_1_1979012900.png

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/cfsr/1995/Rcfsr_1_1995030718.png

I also remember the March 1995 example for sharp snow and hail showers but thaws in the sunshine in between.  The 1979 one was from before I was born though!

Edited December 20, 2014 by Thundery wintry showers

[Summer of 95]

Settling snow from the south I can remember once, the night of 23-24 Dec 2009. For the previous two weeks it had snowed everywhere but here on a series of N, W and E winds but we had jack time and again. The weekend before it rained from the north when everywhere else had snow. So it was a nice surprise when this system came up from the south and produced lying snow. It didnt last as it turned milder late on the 24th but at least we finally managed one day of lying snow that awful month, and it was the southerly that did it when the snowy directions failed time and again. Dont I hate it when people say December 2009 was snowy- they should have been here!

From the west isnt that uncommon traditionally, rain hitting cold air. Can give us some good dumpings like 12th March 2006, but also a few.spectacular failures like 4th Feb 2012 (again snow seemingly everywhere else, at least to the east of here)

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Settling snow from the south I can remember once, the night of 23-24 Dec 2009. For the previous two weeks it had snowed everywhere but here on a series of N, W and E winds but we had jack time and again. The weekend before it rained from the north when everywhere else had snow. So it was a nice surprise when this system came up from the south and produced lying snow. It didnt last as it turned milder late on the 24th but at least we finally managed one day of lying snow that awful month, and it was the southerly that did it when the snowy directions failed time and again. Dont I hate it when people say December 2009 was snowy- they should have been here!

From the west isnt that uncommon traditionally, rain hitting cold air. Can give us some good dumpings like 12th March 2006, but also a few.spectacular failures like 4th Feb 2012 (again snow seemingly everywhere else, at least to the east of here)

 

I had that as well, but cold air was already in place, didn't actually arrive from the south

[damianslaw]

Settling snow from the south I can remember once, the night of 23-24 Dec 2009. For the previous two weeks it had snowed everywhere but here on a series of N, W and E winds but we had jack time and again. The weekend before it rained from the north when everywhere else had snow. So it was a nice surprise when this system came up from the south and produced lying snow. It didnt last as it turned milder late on the 24th but at least we finally managed one day of lying snow that awful month, and it was the southerly that did it when the snowy directions failed time and again. Dont I hate it when people say December 2009 was snowy- they should have been here!

From the west isnt that uncommon traditionally, rain hitting cold air. Can give us some good dumpings like 12th March 2006, but also a few.spectacular failures like 4th Feb 2012 (again snow seemingly everywhere else, at least to the east of here)

 

We tend to get our biggest falls of snow from the west - this is when warm fronts move into cold continental air especially when they become slow moving, incidentally when this occurs we are usually under a light south/southeast drift, but strictly speaking such synoptics can't be described as westerlies or southerly airstream.

[Summer of 95]

I had that as well, but cold air was already in place, didn't actually arrive from the south

Must have been colder than what was there, as everything else gave no snow. And that rain from the north a few days before, which came from cold air hitting cold air, summed up that month.

[Lettucing Gutted]

It's a real struggle to get widespread snow from a direct westerly, and it's even harder to get it from a southerly or south-westerly, because the implication is that the arctic air has had to travel over the Atlantic at low latitudes before getting to here.

You forgot about this Cold Zonality classic from January 1984.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1984/Rrea00119840115.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1984/Rrea00219840115.gif

[Mark.C]

You forgot about this Cold Zonality classic from January 1984.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1984/Rrea00119840115.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1984/Rrea00219840115.gif

-10 850's from a polar maritime, am I correct in reading this? must have been some low SST's because normally the polar air is modified as it crosses the water

[Daniel*]

January 20th 2013?

Loved that snowy spell we got over 10cm not quite sure of exact depth of it was quite heavy at times and quite persistent lasted for over 6 hours. I recall being in McDonalds and seeing millions of flakes suddenly falling quickly coating all surfaces white, quite magical. That was a great day of radar watching. Just a big mass of PPN spreading north from the mainland. Great event for the SE.

[Mark Neal.]

Loved that snowy spell we got over 10cm not quite sure of exact depth of it was quite heavy at times and quite persistent lasted for over 6 hours. I recall being in McDonalds and seeing millions of flakes suddenly falling quickly coating all surfaces white, quite magical. That was a great day of radar watching. Just a big mass of PPN spreading north from the mainland. Great event for the SE.

Was good to see that one from the Radar , agonising close to us we were right on the western limit to that system so was flurries for much of then afternoon. Gave another cm to the 10 we had on Fri 18th. Remember watching the snow falling in N London as Spurs played Man Utd on the box.

[Mark Neal.]

Sunday 17th March 2013.

Some rain falling the first thing that morning as it got heavier it turned to snow and big flakes of snow some of the biggest in recent memory. Snowed for a good 50 minutes heavily, gave 3-4cm. Then melted by afternoon. Can remember Ian F putting in the SW thread about the potential through Wilts that morning just the night before but never really thought more of it. Pleasant surprise! That was on a slack southerly flow.

[East_England_Stormchaser91]

Was good to see that one from the Radar , agonising close to us we were right on the western limit to that system so was flurries for much of then afternoon. Gave another cm to the 10 we had on Fri 18th. Remember watching the snow falling in N London as Spurs played Man Utd on the box.

Yeah! Remember that event lasted for around 10 hours here. The band seemed to have stalled over us for quite a long period of time and was then pushed on by what looked like another batch coming out of the Low countries N-N'Westwards. It was also like talcon powder type snow too! 

I think a SE streamer set up over Suffolk if i remember correctly too what may have given thundersnow near the Ipswich area!