Early Jan 2003 cold snowy spell

[damianslaw]

Thought I'd post about early January 2003 which delivered a week or so of preety cold weather with some snow about, indeed central london recorded its heaviest snowfall since Feb 91 on the 8 January with a level 2 inch cover.

The cold came courtesy of high pressure ridging through the country and to the NE, causing trough disruption in the atlantic and a bitter easterly feed by the 5th Jan producing near sub freezing maxima and a notably cold min of -18 degrees in Aviemore overnight the 6th.

The cold spell delivered a fair bit of snow to eastern parts, nothing especially significant, but it hung around for a good number of days away from the coast. Western parts saw little snow, but it was cold and frosty everywhere. Trough features in the easterly wind gave widespread snow to southern and south east parts on the 8th.

The high pressure quickly built back westwards into the atlantic and by the 10th milder air invaded from the NW.

I thought it interesting to look back at the events of early January 2003, it came on the back of a very mild wet christmas week, and I remember it did seem to come out of nowhere. Some of the model output back end of Dec 2016 was indeed showing something similiar happening this Jan, and indeed might we see something similiar happen to our high this Jan - very plausible. Interesting to note how it quickly went mild again with the block to the SW... mmm.. Winter 2002/2003 was a very blocked one in the main with alot of anticyclonic conditions especially first half of Dec and notably in February. It was never especially cold, but there was much frost in those periods. Late Jan 2003 produced a northerly that caused lots of mayhem on the M11 I seem to remember.

 

[MP-R]

Yes I remember this spell well, not least because it marked a change away from the very wet conditions of that New Year.

There were wintry showers here late on the 03rd and on the 04th as the northerly dug in ahead of the building high. Then very frosty and cold with an ice day on the 07th and some snow flurries on the 08th. It remained cold until the 12th down here.

As you say, the cold spell at the end of the month was snowier. 

[Weather-history]

 

 

[Don]

On 1/2/2017 at 22:27, damianslaw said:

Thought I'd post about early January 2003 which delivered a week or so of preety cold weather with some snow about, indeed central london recorded its heaviest snowfall since Feb 91 on the 8 January with a level 2 inch cover.

 

London had its heaviest snowfall in 12 years with a level 2 inch cover.  Us poor snow starved southerners!  However, after many snowless winters, that snowfall was a pleasant surprise and just three weeks later there was another snowfall giving a further couple of inches that caused the M11 mayhem, so not a bad winter for the time.

[danm]

Remember this well. I was about to turn 17 and was in my lower sixth year at school in Chigwell, on the Essex-Greater London border. I got to school at about 8, it was bitterly cold but dry and cloudy. By about 930 it started to snow heavily and didn't stop until about mid afternoon. 

Out in the London/Essex suburbs we got a good 4/5 inches of level snow.

This is a great example of a snow event appearing at short notice.

Edited January 3, 2017 by danm

[East_England_Stormchaser91]

Very clear memories of the 30th January northerly that gave a 12 hour blizzard here and caused chaos on the roads as it was so unexpectedly heavy and began to settle readily even with a sodden initial ground. Was without power all night that night too. Certainly an event that will always stick in my mind.