UK Mountain snowfall from 2016 onwards

[Blessed Weather]

 

[damianslaw]

Could this thread be renamed 17/18, bit misleading... anyhow, some decent winter conditions now established on some of the Lakeland Fells, reading the mountain assessor reports from Helvellyn, some good ice climbing conditions in the eastern gullies have bedded in. Despite a temporary thaw tomorrow night / Monday morning, conditions next week look excellent for maintaining this firm base, the freeze/thaw cycle will actually work in favour, next weekend promises to be superb for winter walking in the Lake District, frozen ground at all levels, a solid base of hard snow with soft powder on top- tricky for walking, but climbers will love it. Looking forward to the winter wonderland scenes and snowy pictures, might even have an ice weekend where temps don't get above freezing, right in the depths of winter!

[Blessed Weather]

Looking cold and snowy up on the Cumbrian peaks this afternoon (Wed 17th):

Keswick Blencathra

Not surprisingly, no-one interested in skiing on the Lake District Ski Club slopes this afternoon!!

Raise hill, next to Helvellyn:

http://www.visitcumbria.com/webcams/

[mike Meehan]

I am starting to get quite pessimistic about the chances of a good old Scandi/Russo high - we are now mid way through the season that the temps in Western Russia and Scandinavia appear to have been exceptionally mild with a number of days at Moscow being above freezing when quite often at this time of year we see max temps often down to -18C.

The cold does not really seem to have set in until the other side of Urals is reached.

Until now much of Scandinavia has been on the mild side with temperatures near the seasonal average starting to drop in the northern parts.  

No doubt there is still time for this but as the season advances the chances become less and less. 

The northerly outbreaks from the Arctic north are all very well but they tend to be relatively short lived and in our part of the world give rise to wet snow rather that the lovely dry stuff.

Come back 1963 - all is forgiven!

 

[damianslaw]

3 hours ago, mike Meehan said:

I am starting to get quite pessimistic about the chances of a good old Scandi/Russo high - we are now mid way through the season that the temps in Western Russia and Scandinavia appear to have been exceptionally mild with a number of days at Moscow being above freezing when quite often at this time of year we see max temps often down to -18C.

The cold does not really seem to have set in until the other side of Urals is reached.

Until now much of Scandinavia has been on the mild side with temperatures near the seasonal average starting to drop in the northern parts.  

No doubt there is still time for this but as the season advances the chances become less and less. 

The northerly outbreaks from the Arctic north are all very well but they tend to be relatively short lived and in our part of the world give rise to wet snow rather that the lovely dry stuff.

Come back 1963 - all is forgiven!

 

High pressure tends to influence more come February and especially March and into April, so plenty of time yet - and can still pack a punch in terms of delivering exceptional cold weather. The continent takes a long time to warm up during the Spring, a high pressure ridging out of Siberia in mid Feb in Scandi when it often does can produce a significant cold pool despite the increasing solar warmth, you don't need embedded cold air in January to do this - look back at Feb 2005 for an example of this.

Raw easterlies in March are though not my cup of tea.

Back to the thread- Friday and more especially Saturday look excellent days for winter mountaineer enthusiasts - Sat will see light winds and sunshine and low freezing levels,  make the most of it!

[mike Meehan]

3 hours ago, damianslaw said:

High pressure tends to influence more come February and especially March and into April, so plenty of time yet - and can still pack a punch in terms of delivering exceptional cold weather. The continent takes a long time to warm up during the Spring, a high pressure ridging out of Siberia in mid Feb in Scandi when it often does can produce a significant cold pool despite the increasing solar warmth, you don't need embedded cold air in January to do this - look back at Feb 2005 for an example of this.

Raw easterlies in March are though not my cup of tea.

Back to the thread- Friday and more especially Saturday look excellent days for winter mountaineer enthusiasts - Sat will see light winds and sunshine and low freezing levels,  make the most of it!

'47 did not start until late Jan but that year they had a good Greenie setup which extended to Scandy.

We live in hopes - recently the Scandi high has teased for a short while then though better of it and in any case the continental temps were far too high to do any good. 

Though at the same time we had December 2010 which at one time I thought could have exceeded 1963 but was cut short by us getting revisited by the jet streams moving north.

But as you say by the time March and April arrive I start to get anxious for the Spring with balmier temps - the snow is for winter.

Watford is still well below the freezing level.   

 

[J10]

On 13/01/2018 at 20:24, damianslaw said:

Could this thread be renamed 17/18, bit misleading... anyhow, some decent winter conditions now established on some of the Lakeland Fells, reading the mountain assessor reports from Helvellyn, some good ice climbing conditions in the eastern gullies have bedded in. Despite a temporary thaw tomorrow night / Monday morning, conditions next week look excellent for maintaining this firm base, the freeze/thaw cycle will actually work in favour, next weekend promises to be superb for winter walking in the Lake District, frozen ground at all levels, a solid base of hard snow with soft powder on top- tricky for walking, but climbers will love it. Looking forward to the winter wonderland scenes and snowy pictures, might even have an ice weekend where temps don't get above freezing, right in the depths of winter!

Now Amended

With the recent heavy snowfalls over the Scottish Mountains, does this mean that better retention is expected this summer? 

Edited January 19, 2018 by J10

[Spindrift2017]

28 minutes ago, J10 said:

 

With the recent heavy snowfalls over the Scottish Mountains, does this mean that better retention is expected this summer? 

Too early to say really, though certainly more promising than last year.  

A big factor is whether there is a cold and snowy spring with snow continuing to accumulate, or a warmer spring with prolonged melting starting early.  

From what I can tell, (not really having been in the Highlands much this winter) there have been some quite heavy falls, but nothing exceptional, although the recent snowfall on westerly winds will have helped redistribute snow into the east-facing hollows and gullies which often retain snow longest.  There haven’t really been many of the big winter storms with copious rain at low levels but large quantities of heavily drifting snow at altitude yet so far this winter - these are often more effective at building up snow at altitude than colder set-ups.  

Freeze-thaw cycles also help snow retention in the long run too as re-frozen snow is more resilient. The freezing levels have obviously been low recently  - not sure yet whether the expected milder period next week will deliver freeze-thaw cycles (hopefully) rather than an extended period of thawing.

 

[damianslaw]

Great mid winter conditions in the Lakeland Fells today. Didn't venture too high but didn't need too for deep snow, 400 metres and level snow up to the knee made for very tough going along a path that no-one had broken in.. very tough at times. I was on the old drovers road between Dowthwaitehead and St Johns in the vale if anyone knows it. Spectacular views of Blencathra. 

Shame the snow will be washed away in the days ahead, but highest hills should retain a cover just about perhaps.

Mid winter in the Lake District - there is a special quality at this time of year, everything in its mid winter slumber when it snows even better. It can be a dismal time, but days like today make up for the dark days..

 

[Blessed Weather]

Great photo of the snow up on the Yorkshire Dales this morning (21/11/18):

Photo: Paul Kingston (@PaulKingstonNNP)

[damianslaw]

A dusting of snow on the eastern fells this morning, snowline roughly 500 metres, nothing substantive. Last three Novembers have brought a decent snow cover down to very low levels 200 metres courtesy of northerly airstreams, November easterlies don't really cut the mustard..

Next week might bring more significant transient snow - as atlantic fronts crash into the colder uppers - may be shortlived.

Looking forward to the first decent snowfall of the season that sticks. December in recent years has been very poor on the snowfall front - last year not bad, but it didn't last long. Have to go back to 2012 since had a run of mornings with snow cover. Dec 09 and 10 were excellent, the latter had snow cover preety much throughout on higher ground, 2009 brought heavier falls, but had to wait until mid-month.