Cold Spell 11th January onwards

[Dangerous55019]

After a day of heavy, cold raw wet rain, it finally started snowing here in Flintshire at about 15.30!! 
It only lasted for about half an hour or so, but enough to turn the grass pale green 
But once it had cleared, the skies over towards the Liverpool/ North area looked very convective... Would it be greedy if I now asked the weather gods for some thunder snow? 

[Spikey M]

It's settling!

[Dangerous55019]

Hello, looks like the Weather Gods might be answering me 

[Windblade]

4 hours ago, Jo Farrow said:

I wrote about this today but it was from the showers off the sea, not the frontal stuff over SE Britain, I included some others on the community 's quotes http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=news;storyid=7897;sess= 

Thanks Jo, interesting read. Both times I witnessed it were at night so the lightning was even more noticable. Incredible, and something I'm grateful to have seen.

It did indeed snow this evening on my way home. Temperature was 4.5c when I left and it was raining hard at that time, in just 45 minutes it had dropped to 2c and the rain had turned to slushy sleet, and just twenty five minutes later it was 0c with thick snow settling on the roads. No pictures sadly as I was driving (reading the temp off the dash display), but I've never ever seen temp drops that sudden before.

Edited January 12, 2017 by Windblade

[Windblade]

4 hours ago, hillbilly said:

Yes winter tyres are far better and when I started driving in the mid 80s many people had them,i guess that was because we had worse winters in that period.What causes gridlock in snow however is because we have far more vehicles on the road but also what most people do not realise is modern car tyres. In the mid 80s and earlier most cars had tyres at 155 to 165 width even sporty ford xr3s only had 185 mm wide tyres.Today even little cars like a focus or corsa have tyres at 225 and sporty audis and bmws have 265s or wider.When driving in snow it is much better with narrow tyres so where an 80s car would push through snow with narrow tyres modern ones just skid..I however don't have that problem,the Range rover copes well and if I am in the old van,i put on the chains,its amazing how much snow you can get through with chains on.

I've never tried winter tyres (too much messing about changing tyres over on the off chance we get some snow - before tonight the last time we had significant snowfall in my area was four years ago). I prefer instead to stick with high performance rubber all year round for the extra grip/safety. I must admit though I was very grateful this evening for having a car with 4wd (Mk2 Audi TT 2.0T Quattro). First time I've tested it in the snow and the extra grip was outstanding. Before that every car I've had has been fwd - admirable mentions go to the hyundai coupe and vauxhall calibra I once had which both put in very decent perfomances in snowy conditions (the calibra in particular actually had a "snow mode" on the gearbox which backed off the power and would pull away in a higher gear to prevent wheelspin - that was a new thing back then and pretty useful to have), but nothing comes close to 4wd coupled with traction control. My first and second cars were both "92 Ford Orions and they were almost undrivable in the snow (but I still loved them all the same)!

Edited January 12, 2017 by Windblade

[hillbilly]

Just now, Windblade said:

I've never tried winter tyres (too much messing about changing tyres over on the off chance we get some snow - before tonight the last time we had significant snowfall in my area was four years ago). I prefer instead to stick with high performance rubber all year round for the extra grip/safety. I must admit though I was very grateful this evening for having a car with 4wd (Mk2 Audi TT 2.0T Quattro). First time I've tested it in the snow and the extra grip was outstanding. Before I had that I've had fwd cars and admirable mentions go to the hyundai coupe and vauxhall calibra I once had which both put in very decent perfomances in snowy conditions, but nothing comes close to 4wd.

Yes the 4wd audi tt will be great in a covering of snow but put 4 inch or more in the road with any sort of hill and it wont be worth s£!t .The tyres are too wide and not nobbly and there is no road clearance.ISimilarly the x5 has too wide a tyre and is slated in snow,the best being 4x4 with narrow nobblys and good ground clearance.

[The Enforcer]

Seeing as the mods don't seem to mind this being 'tyrechat', I wondered if there is any issue with using winter tyres all year round, seeing as they are supposedly good in the wet, which can occur in any season?

For me, the main issue is that roger can't drive in the snow and no matter how good your tyres are, they are no help when roger crashes into you.

Hoping tomorrow morning's snow in the south will be increased on the 18z NMM:

Edited January 12, 2017 by The Enforcer
Added some charts

[Windblade]

9 minutes ago, hillbilly said:

Yes the 4wd audi tt will be great in a covering of snow but put 4 inch or more in the road with any sort of hill and it wont be worth s£!t .The tyres are too wide and not nobbly and there is no road clearance.ISimilarly the x5 has too wide a tyre and is slated in snow,the best being 4x4 with narrow nobblys and good ground clearance.

Yes, the ground clearance is quite poor so theres a limit to what it can do. Luckily we don't get a lot of snow round these parts and even when we do its normally no deeper than 1 inch. I think the best wheeled veichle to take snow has to be a land rover.

Edited January 12, 2017 by Windblade

[Windblade]

Back on topic - more thundersnow strikes showing on radar over the sea to the southwest of ireland.

Edited January 12, 2017 by Windblade

[Nick F]

4 hours ago, Jo Farrow said:

I wrote about this today but it was from the showers off the sea, not the frontal stuff over SE Britain, I included some others on the community 's quotes http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=news;storyid=7897;sess= 

Last time I witnessed 'thundersnow' was a frontal event on 28th Jan 2004' when a potent cold front and squall line raced south across the UK, think it was +4C ahead of front and -3C immediately behind, the cold air undercutting creating strong convective updrafts and lightning even well inland. Was spectacular when the rain suddenly turned to heavy snow too. 

Lightning on 28/01/2004

faxes 

[Snow and storms]

30 minutes ago, The Enforcer said:

Seeing as the mods don't seem to mind this being 'tyrechat', I wondered if there is any issue with using winter tyres all year round, seeing as they are supposedly good in the wet, which can occur in any season?

For me, the main issue is that roger can't drive in the snow and no matter how good your tyres are, they are no help when roger crashes into you.

Hoping tomorrow morning's snow in the south will be increased on the 18z NMM:

I use my winter tyres all year round on my 4x4 as i cant affoard to have both sets. The performance is fine in summer, about a 10% drop in performance which isnt even noticeable, it will however help you up nearly any hill in ice and snow within reason through out winter and is so much better through a lot of autumn and spring where temps regulary hover around 8 degrees which means your grip is outperforming most road users in the conditions your most likely to have an accident. The downside to this is your tyres will wear quicker in the summer but if you get a good quality set they will still last a few years unless your doing silly mileage in which case you should have a second set anyway. Mine are on there second winter and the tread is still great.

There is a video online that shows a standard fwd car with winter tyres climbing a indoor snow hill against a 4x4 with traction control but normal tyres, the car wins by a long way, the 4x4 can barely get going. It also shows a standard car with normal tyres that cant even move.

Edited January 12, 2017 by Snow and storms

[feb1991blizzard]

John Hammond putting it into perspective by showing the daytime max's from 30 years ago are well below what the nightime minimums will be tonight, the BBC have a chance now to get people interested in weather, why cant they just upload all the forecasts for that cold spell including the John Kettley countryfile forecast from 10/01/87 to their youtube channel.

[Don]

3 minutes ago, feb1991blizzard said:

John Hammond putting it into perspective by showing the daytime max's from 30 years ago are well below what the nightime minimums will be tonight, the BBC have a chance now to get people interested in weather, why cant they just upload all the forecasts for that cold spell including the John Kettley countryfile forecast from 10/01/87 to their youtube channel.

That brings it all back!  My area did ok for snow but nothing like the depths achieved in north Kent with 30 inches in places!  Where I lived there was about 6 inches but this was someway short of the February 2009 and January 2010 events.  However, it was the intense cold that was most notable for many but the rest of that winter saw little snow.  Back to this current cold spell, it certainly pales in comparison!

[feb1991blizzard]

Just now, Don said:

That brings it all back!  My area did ok for snow but nothing like the depths achieved in north Kent with 30 inches in places!  Where I lived there was about 6 inches but this was someway short of the February 2009 and January 2010 events.  However, it was the intense cold that was most notable for many but the rest of that winter saw little snow.  Back to this current cold spell, it certainly pales in comparison!

I lived in Birmingham and had a week and a half off school and it was up to my chest.

[Mark wheeler]

I was 9 . I don't remember the cold that much from any other outbreak  , I must have been protected from it  , I do however remember dirty great big drifts of snow I have never seen since . I mean these drifts seemed like a apartment block to me .

 

[Don]

5 minutes ago, feb1991blizzard said:

I lived in Birmingham and had a week and a half off school and it was up to my chest.

I only had 3 days off school!  I had to wait until February 1991 for the next significant snow event.

[Met4Cast]

6 minutes ago, Mark wheeler said:

I was 9 . I don't remember the cold that much from any other outbreak  , I must have been protected from it  , I do however remember dirty great big drifts of snow I have never seen since . I mean these drifts seemed like a apartment block to me .

 

 

Looks about right to me, perhaps a touch further West than forecast

Edit: Ignore. Somehow managed to quote you instead of someone on a completely different thread. It's been a long day..

Edited January 12, 2017 by Daniel Smith

[Mark wheeler]

3 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said:

 

Looks about right to me, perhaps a touch further West than forecast

Edit: Ignore. Somehow managed to quote you instead of someone on a completely different thread. It's been a long day..

Ok that's fine. However when I read  through I agreed .

[snowbunting]

On the topic of reminicing about times gone by. It has been a long long time since we had proper blizzard conditions. But on Lewis that is exactly what we have tight now. It is defo snowing though rainfall radar shows sleet. Meto forecasted snow shower then sleet. So much colder than forecasted. Presently have 2 inches of snow on ground. 50mph gusts... more snow falling. Proper little blizzard. Here is hoping that occluded front doesnt have too a warm an upper. 

[cheese]

1 hour ago, feb1991blizzard said:

John Hammond putting it into perspective by showing the daytime max's from 30 years ago are well below what the nightime minimums will be tonight, the BBC have a chance now to get people interested in weather, why cant they just upload all the forecasts for that cold spell including the John Kettley countryfile forecast from 10/01/87 to their youtube channel.

I wasn't born until the following August, but by all accounts January 1987 was rather disappointing here - it got very cold, but only for a short while, and it was also largely dry with just a few flurries. Really nothing to write home about, and perhaps explains why those who tend to reminisce the most about January 1987 tend to be from places like Kent and Essex, where the snow was very deep.

December 1981 seems like it was a very snow month here.

 

Edited January 12, 2017 by cheese

[matty40s]

Looks like a lovely big blob of snow coming down the spine of the country now.

[Polar Maritime]

Heavy drifting snow here.

[East_England_Stormchaser91]

Just about to get hit by that front in around 30 minutes! 

Took a trip towards the mouth of the tidal river welland this morning near holbeach too, scary how high the water was getting. 

Dread to think what may happen if we see a higher surge later on.. 

[matty40s]

https://twitter.com/Rushmoor02/status/819607718323486720/photo/1

 

It doesn't matter what tyres you have if you drive like this. Numpty.

[Arnie Pie]

Snow showers in Brum earlier on