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Winter 2009/10 memories


Harry233

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Posted
  • Location: Perth, Scotland
  • Location: Perth, Scotland

December 2009:

Mean maximum: 4.3.C (-2.7.C)

Mean Minimum: -3.3.C (-3.8.C)

Mean: 0.5.C (-3.3.C)

Rainfall: 58mm (67%)

Sunshine: 19 hours (61%)

January 2010:

Mean maximum: 3.7.C (-3.2.C)

Mean minimum: -3.2.C (-3.2.C)

Mean: 0.3.C (-3.2.C)

Rainfall: 64mm (60%)

Sunshine: 63 hours (137%)

 

February 2010:

Mean maximum: 4.6.C (-2.5.C)

Mean minimum: -2.9.C (-2.7.C)

Mean: 0.9.C (-2.6.C)

Rainfall: 32mm (57%)

Sunshine: 92 hours (124%)

 

Defintely the best winter I’ve experienced, snow lay from 16th December until 14th Januarythen again from 23rd January until the 6th Febuary before finally the 17th until the 2nd March. Some exceptionally low temperatures as well with a maximum of only -6.2.C and a minimum of -16.3.C on the 29th December, then a minimum of -17.1.C and a maximum of only -6.6.C on the 5th Janaury and a minimum of -14.1.C on the 19th February. Snow depth peaked at 42cm on the 28th December. What’s your thoughts?

 

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Posted
  • Location: Edinburgh (previously Chelmsford and Birmingham)
  • Weather Preferences: Unseasonably cold weather (at all times of year), wind, and thunderstorms.
  • Location: Edinburgh (previously Chelmsford and Birmingham)

This was before I took an interest in the weather (that started in December 2010), but I do remember the snowfalls. I estimate we only had around two weeks of lying snow. I don't think the Winter was anywhere near as much of an event in Essex as it was elsewhere in the country. I'm moving to Edinburgh in September so if it's going to happen again I'll be in a better-suited location!

Edited by Relativistic
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Posted
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet

Utterly fantastic. Was practically living in Morley with a girlfriend at the time a little under 200m asl on the outskirts of Leeds (LS27).

 

A full 30 days of unbroken lying snow (or more accurately a layer of compacted ice) and a peak depth of 29cm on Jan 6th.

 

Jan 6th also produced my single greatest snow event, 21cm in 10 hours (I assume it was so significant because existing snow cover allowed almost all of it to settle).

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Posted
  • Location: halifax 125m
  • Weather Preferences: extremes the unusual and interesting facts
  • Location: halifax 125m

A wiinter that reminded some of us older members of winters gone by.I was fortunate to witness winters of 1979 and the 80s winters ,notably 1986 so know what winters can produce.December 2009 gave a very cold[subzero] 2 week spell from mid December with a covering of snow before a heavy dumping of snow early jan 2010.Although we had some gentle drifting it was a shame the wind did not  really pick up but the air went damp before another lengthy cold spell.The period from mid December to mid Jan was subzero here but neither December or January gave a subzero month in their own rights.There were other pockets of cold and snow to follow through to April but had the wind blown parts of the winter could have rivalled 1979.For me however March 2013 and March 2018 were better events for snow which produced enormous drifts like we had seen in 1979.

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Posted
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine and 15-25c
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)

2009/10...hmmm what can you say..was decent for snow and cold the best in that regard since 1995/6..still doesn't match up IMO to the some of the winters of the late 70s and Mid 80s

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Posted
  • Location: The North Kent countryside
  • Weather Preferences: Hot summers, snowy winters and thunderstorms!
  • Location: The North Kent countryside

I remember it well. What a fantastic event. Never seen snow as deep since. Walking through the fields it was well above my knees. Was also bittersweet because it's the last time my Dad went sledging with all of us before his joint and muscle problems kicked in.

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Posted
  • Location: Bedfordshire 33m above mean sea level
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy and thundery.
  • Location: Bedfordshire 33m above mean sea level

December 2010 was special because it was my baby's first Christmas and first time i'd ever seen snow before Christmas. We have photo's of us with the village Christmas  tree. ( last year we had snow when we were supposed to see Santa, so that was magical too)

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Posted
  • Location: Bewdley, Worcs; 90m asl
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and sun in winter; warm and bright otherwise; not a big storm fan
  • Location: Bewdley, Worcs; 90m asl

December 2010 for me. Jan 2010 didn't actually produce an enormous amount of snow here, nowhere near the totals some places got. It did have a couple of days of blazing blue skies over full snow cover without the Dreaded Dripping, though, and that's a rarity that's always worth having. I made sure I got out and about as much as possible on those days :) December 2010 had about the same amount of snow (here) but much lower temperatures and the once-in-a-lifetime sight of the River Severn frozen over in Bewdley. Best snow here was actually December 2017: 28cm from memory, probably the deepest since 1982.

Edited by Arctic Hare
corrected date
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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
1 hour ago, Leo97t said:

Which was better for you guys. The mid December to mid January 2009/2010 cold spell or December 2010?

Always good to think about deep cold and snow in the height of summer, something I find myself doing, when I begin to tire of the base summer state, I do the same in winter sometimes, thinking about sunshine and warmth when we are having any prolonged cold that is..

Snowfall wise winter 09/10 beat Dec 2010 here hands down. We had about 8 inches from snowfalls on the 20th and 21st, the snow stuck around through until Boxing Day but it then thawed on low ground. We missed out on the epic snowfalls on the 6 Jan, we had a couple of inches only. A few light falls thereafter, but nothing significant.

Coldwise Dec 2010 was exceptional, lakes froze over, and parts of rivers, we had a 9 day run of sub zero temps from 17-26 Dec. 

Neither winter though brought a blizzard. Indeed we haven't had one of them for ages and ages, we keep missing out. Mind March 1 and 2 this year brought a sustained freezing easterly gale which wipped up the snow and felt like a blizzard. We just missed out on the 23 March 2013 event, it seemed to skirt around here, places just a few miles further west were plastered in the stuff.

Edited by damianslaw
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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

I spent those two winters in a mix of Norwich and South Tyneside. 

In South Tyneside I think the period 25 November-26 December 2010 beat the mid-December to mid-January 2009/10 spell.  The spell of north-easterlies from 25 November-2 December 2010 was particularly amazing.  In Norwich, however, Dec 2010 had its disappointments, notably being in the dry corridor in the north-easterly spell, and so the 2009/10 spell was the comfortable winner.  Conversely, in my current location in Exeter Dec 2010 was miles ahead of the 2009/10 spell, so it does vary depending on location.

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Personally the three heavy recent falls I can r ember occurred in successive winters. Feb 2 2009, Jan 6 2010, Dec 18 2010 with Feb 2009 being easily here heaviest with almost 25cm which is quite extraordinary for London these days

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Posted
  • Location: The North Kent countryside
  • Weather Preferences: Hot summers, snowy winters and thunderstorms!
  • Location: The North Kent countryside
11 hours ago, Leo97t said:

Which was better for you guys. The mid December to mid January 2009/2010 cold spell or December 2010?

December 2010. Way more snow, although it didn't last as long. Roads hadn't been gritted either so the whole area wasn't going to work. Was so nice to be out and about seeing other adults reverting to being 10 years old.

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Posted
  • Location: Perth, Scotland
  • Location: Perth, Scotland
16 hours ago, Leo97t said:

Which was better for you guys. The mid December to mid January 2009/2010 cold spell or December 2010?

December 2010 was better and more severe, although the rest of the winter wasn’t fantastic, January was generally cold and dull and after a thaw midmonth there was very little snow and February 2011 was atrocious very mild, wet, dull and windy. 2009-10 was better for its longevity and was the best winter I can remember. Although Decembers 2010 statistics are incredible.

Mean maximum: 0.6.C (-6.3.C)

Mean minimum: -7.2.C (-7.1.C)

Mean: -3.3.C (-6.7.C)

Rainfall: 34mm (39%)

Sunshine: 49 hours (157%)

 

December 2010 also holds my coldest night of -18.1.C on the 6th, lowest daytime maximum of -8.3.C on the 2nd and greatest snow depth of 49cm.

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Posted
  • Location: London
  • Location: London
On 18/07/2018 at 21:17, Leo97t said:

Which was better for you guys. The mid December to mid January 2009/2010 cold spell or December 2010?

December 10 was better in London, for snow, but 2009/10 was very cold for long periods. I also think Feb 2009 was a good period for snow. 

2009-2010 years were the best snow years since the mid 80s. 2018 and 2013 come close for cold and bitter winds.

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Posted
  • Location: London
  • Location: London
On 18/07/2018 at 23:35, Leo97t said:

Personally the three heavy recent falls I can r ember occurred in successive winters. Feb 2 2009, Jan 6 2010, Dec 18 2010 with Feb 2009 being easily here heaviest with almost 25cm which is quite extraordinary for London these days

I think 2009 was probably slightly heavier than December 2010. Both were quite notable for cold and snow in the London region. Think 2018 can be added to that list, and it was the worse snowfall since 2010.

Just goes to show, that despite a warming climate, snowfall and bitter temps can occur.

Edited by Sunny76
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Posted
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet

Snowfall for me this year only peaked at 12cm sadly so more comparable to the easterlies of 05/06. 

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  • 2 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Reading/New York/Chicago
  • Location: Reading/New York/Chicago

2009-10 was better in the Reading area in terms of snow. Decent fall before Christmas which lay for a while and some very cold temperatures. It was spoiled only by the thaw which happened around Christmas Eve and lasted until the New Year. Having said that, my daughter was born on December 29th, so I guess it was a good thing we weren't having to battle snow!

What really made 2009-10 the better winter was the snow on 6th January which was the deepest I could recall since at least 1991 in Reading. We were trapped for two days in our street until I coralled a group of neighbours to help dig out the road. Don't really recall much about the rest of the winter; I'm guessing it was the usual fare where it gets cold in Reading but generally missing out on snow being too far West for E/NE showers and too far South for N/NW spells.

December 2010 was of course notable for the cold, but there was less snow in Reading. I know that some areas were seeing deep falls from November, but again these were from the NE, so Reading caught very few of the showers. The Northerly later in December delivered a decent fall and of course provided decent cover for Christmas Day (first since 1981 in Reading I believe - there was patchy and melting cover in 2009), but not to the same depth as January 2010 and once the thaw set in the rest of winter was utterly forgettable, as were most of the winter months between December 2010 and February 2018 with the honorable exception of 2013 which did at least provide a covering, albeit thawing pretty much as soon as it arrived. 

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Posted
  • Location: Dublin, Ireland
  • Weather Preferences: Cold, snowy winters and warm, sunny summers
  • Location: Dublin, Ireland
On 18/07/2018 at 21:17, Leo97t said:

Which was better for you guys. The mid December to mid January 2009/2010 cold spell or December 2010?

No comparison there here in Dublin, December 2010 was colder and snowier, got down to Dublin's all time (since known records began at Phoenix Park in the 1830s I think it was) low of -15c on Christmas Day - perfect timing. Constant streamers most days, I remember every single day like yesterday. Woke up on the morning of November 27th 2010 to find my garden and neighbourhood with snow everywhere and blue skies. It was wonderfully perfect. The next day was the exact same and Dublin got down to its lowest November temperatures on record (so did Ireland at -11.5c beating 1919's long standing record of -11.1c). Further streamers occurred on November 29th to December 2nd. November 30th particularly stands out to me as a completely overcast day with consistent snow falling. I was in school and was sent home early then my school closed for the week. The snow stopped for a few days then came back on the 7th as a cold front reintroduced bitterly cold air (after a relatively milder but still very cold weekend of the 4th/5th) and had a severe frost on the 8th with blue skies. The milder period then came but the second freeze occurred bringing record breaking low temperatures again completely smashing previous records for Dublin and Ireland. I had streamers coming off the Irish Sea on the 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd. It didn't seem as amazing to me at the time as the first spell at the end of November (which is still my preferred one out of the two to this day) as I was probably just used to it by that stage. How stupid was I to take it all for granted. 

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Posted
  • Location: South Kilkenny, Ireland
  • Location: South Kilkenny, Ireland
23 hours ago, BruenSryan said:

No comparison there here in Dublin, December 2010 was colder and snowier, got down to Dublin's all time (since known records began at Phoenix Park in the 1830s I think it was) low of -15c on Christmas Day - perfect timing. Constant streamers most days, I remember every single day like yesterday. Woke up on the morning of November 27th 2010 to find my garden and neighbourhood with snow everywhere and blue skies. It was wonderfully perfect. The next day was the exact same and Dublin got down to its lowest November temperatures on record (so did Ireland at -11.5c beating 1919's long standing record of -11.1c). Further streamers occurred on November 29th to December 2nd. November 30th particularly stands out to me as a completely overcast day with consistent snow falling. I was in school and was sent home early then my school closed for the week. The snow stopped for a few days then came back on the 7th as a cold front reintroduced bitterly cold air (after a relatively milder but still very cold weekend of the 4th/5th) and had a severe frost on the 8th with blue skies. The milder period then came but the second freeze occurred bringing record breaking low temperatures again completely smashing previous records for Dublin and Ireland. I had streamers coming off the Irish Sea on the 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd. It didn't seem as amazing to me at the time as the first spell at the end of November (which is still my preferred one out of the two to this day) as I was probably just used to it by that stage. How stupid was I to take it all for granted. 

Yes the 26th November to 10th December 2010 spell was exceptional here in southeast Ireland also with some heavy snowfalls and 2 weeks of deep lying snow & freezing but often sunny conditions. The snow streamers in the run up to Christmas in the second cold spell from 17th to 26th December were much more localised mainly hogging the extreme east coast with not much of a breeze to push them further inland. Dublin was certainly in the sweet spot for that second spell in December 2010. I remember driving to Dublin airport to collect my mother in law on the Sunday just before Christmas in blue skies but freezing conditions. Approaching Dublin from the Southside I could see the snow clouds in the distance and it was snowing heavily and accumulating by the time I reached the airport. Luckily ours was one of the last planes to land before the airport shut down. As we drove away from Dublin the blue skies reappeared and I watched the snow clouds slowly disappear in my rear view mirror with clear blue skies ahead of me again the whole way home. Apart from a few light dustings of snow that second spell was more noteworthy here for almost 10 days of perma frost with sub zero temperatures and ice .

The mid Dec 2009 to mid Jan 2010 spell was also memorable here mainly for the heavy snow falls in January but not in the same league as the late November to late December 2010 cold spell to follow.  

After the Feb 09 snow and then the following two exceptional winters, like you, I thought we were back to the good old days of regular cold snowy winters. Apart from March 2013 and the 2017/2018 winter just gone, it has not panned out that way but hopefully we can now get a run of several cold ones in a row with us now entering solar Minimum etc 

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Posted
  • Location: Walsall Wood, Walsall, West Midlands 145m ASL
  • Location: Walsall Wood, Walsall, West Midlands 145m ASL

I recall it snowing more than once during December 2009, but the only specific date I remember distinctly was the evening of the 23rd. Unfortunately it was slowly thawing throughout Christmas Eve and come the big day itself there was nothing left here, save for the odd patch of residue here and there so we missed out on anything that could be classed as a White Christmas here unfortunately compared to other places.

We had more snow here just after the New Year, but though we had full cover it wasn't particularly deep, maybe a couple of inches if that at best.

There was also more some time in late February but that didn't last long from memory.

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