South West and Central Southern England Regional Weather Discussion 22/02/2018 Onwards

[Bristawl Si]

Light snizzle here

[kevvo]

Snow radar shows the channel precipitation moving north into Dorset & Hampshire as snow, rather than rain. Whatever it is, this is probably the last hurrah to an amazing, weird even couple of days. I've had snow and ice many times before, but powder snow with an ice topping. I can't ever recall that.

[Steve Caiels]

59 minutes ago, snowdog said:

That last bird is probably not a thrush but a Fieldfare. We have had a few in our garden the last couple of days

 

Yes - I think you are right.  I thought Fieldfare was the nickname for a Mistle Thrush, but I stand corrected!  They were both solitary.  I hope they weren't separated from their flock in the high winds.

[Andy Bown]

We've had some drizzle this evening, which was presumably freezing, but I didn't stop to check while negotiating the nearly 2 foot drift on the patio near ours bins! 

Remarkable how that drift has accrued from the roof and also snow blown along the side of the house! 

As and when a thaw ensues it's going to take days to return to normality!

[Mapantz]

Transitioned back to rain now. It's pretty wet too - not sure how long it will take to melt the ice in the rain gauge though?

[karlos1983]

4 minutes ago, Singularity said:

Puzzling to be seeing sleet at -1*C with a -2*C dew point, an ENE wind and sub-zero 850s.

I suppose there must therefore be a warmer layer up there somewhere, just not at the 850 hPa level.

 

So while this event went well for those wanting a lot of snow in a short space of time, for longevity a lot of things have behaved badly, most notably storm Emma heading more east of the predicted track this afternoon (bringing more of a S component to the flow aloft, pushing today's snow away from the far south and reducing the capacity of the cold air to keep fighting back) and yet still not performing the split away toward the near continent that could have brought the cold boundary back south again.

Thankfully, it's March, and so there's an additional (on top of reduced negative socioeconomic impact, for example) major positive to the cold not hanging on at anything like such magnitude; much less damage or loss of life among plants and animals. Having seen such an extraordinary event play out right before my eyes and after 4 exceptionally cold days with some appetisers of snow here and there, I might even refrain from complaining about the rain next week! 

 

Of course it's not like this snowy spell is absolutely done and dusted; so much lying snow with ice in the mix or on top will take a great many hours to melt even if we see quite mild temps arrive on Sunday. Not sure just how many though!

It’s been fantastic, I won’t complain when the rain washes it away because it is March. If it was still Jan or early Feb I’d be disappointed and looking for the next spell. 

But ive been model watching since October and interest has been there all winter really. We’ve been unlucky on a fair few occasions. I’m absolutely exhausted, been averaging about 5-6 hours tops sleep a night, significantly less the last week! I’m looking forward to some sleep ?.

then storm season  ⛈ 

[MidnightSnow]

blob or go home

[Jason74]

Rain in this part of Poole (Upper Parkstone) and the thaw has now begun. 

[EllyTech]

59 minutes ago, SilverWolf said:

Echoing the thoughts of others, it’s been great on here the last few days. We’re all a bit mad really, but the tech we have now allows an easy understanding ‘community’ to find (personally I don’t do Facebook etc, but not knocking those who do). 

Still snowing here, prob 7-8 inches, hate the thaw but can’t complain really! I need to go to work asap too, landscape gardener! But if weather stops me working might as well be worth it... 

Cheers all. 

You put it better than I could. Thank you to everyone here. Sharing a laugh, the snow.. and knowing that we all did have snow - even the less optimistic of us. It has been sort of dream-like. I don't wan it to go. 

[snowponies]

Going to the horses was an interesting experience. Car was a beast and managed 1ft snow drifts though had to get out for one drift that the car struggled to get over and dig at it to make it smaller. That was in lydford. Then went to a clients horses near shell garage sourton service stations and my word! I had to ditch the car and walk as the drifts were over the hedge! Must be 15ft in places. Went on the closed A386 too and they were using huge diggers to move the snow, road was barely single track (normally a 2 lane fast road) with 10ft of snow pushed against the hedges, amazing! 

[Singularity]

Just now, karlos1983 said:

It’s been fantastic, I won’t complain when the rain washes it away because it is March. If it was still Jan or early Feb I’d be disappointed and looking for the next spell. 

But ive been model watching since October and interest has been there all winter really. We’ve been unlucky on a fair few occasions. I’m absolutely exhausted, been averaging about 5-6 hours tops sleep a night, significantly less the last week! I’m looking forward to some sleep ?.

then storm season  ⛈ 

Chilly lows hanging about next week could lead to a few rumblers to whet the appetite 

[Pauldjbailey]

Confirm it’s snowing here in Verwood, Dorset ?

[EllyTech]

Radar shows more snow coming!

[karlos1983]

And rain, plain rain now. 

-0.2c my ice days are numbered me thinks!

the one thing I haven’t really had, which I find odd, is wet snow... I would have expected wet snow before the ice storm last night, but it just switched like a light switch from powder to ice to freezing rain. 

good luck further north in the region tonight . Fingers crossed ? for you all

Edited March 2, 2018 by karlos1983

[karlos1983]

6 minutes ago, Singularity said:

Chilly lows hanging about next week could lead to a few rumblers to whet the appetite 

My attention will switch back to the Mod thread again tomorrow. But won’t be as busy as I might usually. Wouldn’t mind some warmth, my lovey palms and new bushes have taken a battering last night, and are almost touching the floor ☹️ I wouldn’t mind but they cost me a fortune

[Guest]

MAKING SENSE OF THIS CONSTANTLY CHANGING TYPE OF PRECIPITATION

We sometimes talk about marginal conditions but I've never seen them quite like this. In the last 2 hours I have had the lot. Dry powder snow with a temp of -1 c, then ice pellets at the same temp, then freezing rain at -0.5 c but only for 20 minutes, then a short period of wet snow with big flakes with the temp up to 0 c, then freezing rain with the temp back down to -1 c (not a typo), then a bit of sleet, then rain with the temp finally over zero but at about + 0.2 c. I looked at the radar and thought that's the slightly less cold air moving in with rain showing up. Then about 20 minutes ago ( 2045 at the time of writing this bit) I noticed the temp had fallen back to -0.5 c again and just as I was checking the temp reading, some more heavy snow started with huge flakes around 3 cm across. It has stopped now and it's temporarily dry now and holding at -0.5 c but there are some brighter colours on the radar - will this all be rain or some more snow or something in between?

Here's a precipitation type checking tip: What I do every few minutes during all these changes is open my window (I live on my own so I can get away with it )  and hold out a piece of stiff black card. Then I can clearly see what type of precipitation falls on to it or in the case of ice pellets or pins, bounce off it. Super-cooled freezing rain drops will form a splodge of ice on the card on impact. Obviously standard rain will just leave a damp patch. I try to capture any type of snow flake which tend to melt as the card was room temperature (perhaps I should keep the card in the fridge before hanging it out!). Not to be confused with freezing rain, is black ice, which forms when ordinary rain or drizzle falls on to a sub zero surface but this time not immediately freezing on impact as it is not super-cooled. Pretty complicated and we have seen it all today! .

All those temp changes were confirmed by the icicles hanging from the lamp post adjacent to one of my windows either dripping or not. In fact it can all be confirmed by the 24 hour temp chart. The nearest reading showing is Exeter which is 10 miles north of here. Just look how it switches between 0 c and -1 c many times. It's not just associated with the periods of lighter or heavier precipitation. Ignore the more normal min/max changes (which do show up to some extent), these are super imposed by the cloudy conditions and the changing air flow. We have seen the upper 850 temps fluctuate a lot and they're back to sub zero now. They have been thoroughly mixed up by Emma. There's a small patch of very pale green = 0 c to +2 c just south of west Devon and Cornwall; there's a patch of very pale blue = 0 c to -2 c close to here but I am under a small patch of the next shade of blue = -2 c to -4 c and there is a larger patch of those over much of southern England, the Channel and north-west France. The next patch of slightly darker blues = -4 c to -6 c are north of the M4 but there is another patch of those moving back into western Cornwall now! There are also some sub -6s and sub -8s further north and in Wales and sub -10s still showing over the west of Germany. So with the dense surface cold only slightly displaced and still performing something of an undercut with the less cold air still not reaching the surface (or being forced to over ride the cold block) what will happen next?

   24 hours to 1920 GMT Mar 2nd                  Arome 12z T+8 for 2000 GMT Mar 2nd                     Live rain/snow radar                              NW radar screenshot 2100

                     

Still dry here but it looks like ordinary rain is incoming but the temp is still - 0.5 c so it will be black card time soon      David

Edited March 2, 2018 by Guest
Correct typos and check charts

[Mapantz]

It's raining moderately now. Temps up to 0.8C. Where the roof is covered in ice and the gutters are blocked solid, the rain and melt water is pouring over the edge. The sounds going on are amazing! 

[TropicThunder]

Raining here, and the big icicle on the lamppost outside has just gone. Guess that's it for another seven years. 

[Mapantz]

haha this is nuts! Water is streaming down the walls and everything! Flooding could be an issued now..

[Willsy]

This time 1.5 weeks ago I was in Australia enjoying the extreme heat and violent storms. Can’t believe I’ve been treated to this in the short time I’ve been back. What an array of weather! Never in my life have I been through some many extreme weather events in such a short space of time. Just need to see a twister and hurricane and I would have seen it all!! But large hail, extreme heat,scorching sun, massive 12ft waves,straight line 80mph winds, mcs’s, squall lines, Bowing  echoes, frequent lightning, elevated storms, dry power turbulence,snow, blizzard like conditions, sub zero temperatures and freezing rain will definitely cut it for me for the next few years for my weather fix!!!

 

 

[karlos1983]

2 minutes ago, Mapantz said:

It's raining moderately now. Temps up to 0.8C. Where the roof is covered in ice and the gutters are blocked solid, the rain and melt water is pouring over the edge. The sounds going on are amazing! 

Still holding at -0.2 here but dp is taking a kicking! It’s definitely the end now. But hey ho it was truly amazing! 

[ThundersnowDays]

Think I just had some freezing rain, it was very light but made a small crackling sound. 

[Mapantz]

5 minutes ago, karlos1983 said:

Still holding at -0.2 here but dp is taking a kicking! It’s definitely the end now. But hey ho it was truly amazing! 

Massive lumps of ice falling down outside. The lawn actually has a puddle on it where it's collecting on the ice. Who knew a thaw could be so interesting?

I need my rain gauge to thaw quickly - it's peeing down!

Edited March 2, 2018 by Mapantz

[Pauldjbailey]

Chucking it down here.......but it’s snow still!! Lol

[Dean E]

We just had 10 minutes of heavy rain and then 10 minutes of heavy snow. 

The atmosphere is warming, but the beast is trying to hold on.

Temp 0.2c DP -3