The cold NWlys of early february 2003.

[Snowyowl9]

Who remembers this very productive snowy showery cold snap starting from februay 1st to the 6th with a strong west to NWly I certainly remember it well.

The 4th gave 6 heavy snow showers from 3.30 to 7.45pm.

Got 3 inches in total and some drifting.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Class this was, very good Cheshire Gap setup, probably same amount as you here, 5th especially was very snowy all morning

[damianslaw]

Vague memories of a bit of snow, but nothing substantial - I was in NE England at the time. Earlier in January brought more snowfall. February 2003 was quite a decent month overall, lots of sunshine and frost I seem to remember.

[Weather-history]

Remember the showers that Monday of the 3rd Feb being wintry and they became more and more wintrier by the evening, soft hail and snow. Left a covering.

 

[hillbilly]

Yes I remember it well,not a great amount of snow but certainly a cold white spell.I was working as a builder at the time and very fortunate to get an inside job to cover the said period,great looking out the window with a smile on my face instead of freezing.

[SqueakheartLW]

I remember this period well but where I live the week before gave us the most snow being in the east. Got some very heavy snow showers on 30th January 2003 but this early February cold spell did very little in my area thanks to the Pennines blocking out the showers from getting over from the west.

[Methuselah]

Was living by Inverness, at the time...What a stonker that one was...And, it was 18C (Aboyne) only two or three days' previous!

[Lee Notts]

There was a big story about people stranded overnight on the M11 I think 

[Norrance]

Was working in Aberdeen at that time. Heavy snow showers caused severe traffic disruption just a few days after the warmest Scottish January temperature of 18.3C in the same area.

[karyo]

Northwesterlies were still cold enough to produce the goods then.

Now they are pathetic and watery.

 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

5 hours ago, karyo said:

Northwesterlies were still cold enough to produce the goods then.

Now they are pathetic and watery.

 

Aye even in 2003, 17 years ago not as warm as now, into TMW, but as we all know winters warmed even more since around 2012

[Thundery wintry showers]

I was studying at Lancaster University at the time, and as quite often happens in marginal snow events in the North West, the M6 proved to be the "snow line".  Lancaster had showers of wet snow on the afternoon of the 2nd and frequent snow and hail showers on the 3rd, but while the snow did accumulate during the showers, it thawed during the clear intervals in between and so there was only a 20-30% covering on the ground on the morning of the 4th.  Areas just to the east of the M6 had a >50% snow cover early on the 4th and you didn't have to go very far inland to see snowfields on the 5th either.  I recall being quite annoyed when Lancaster had a proper white Christmas from a very similar setup in 2004 while I was staying in south Tyneside and got nowt! 

The M11 event was from a northerly on 30 January, which brought frequent snow showers mainly to eastern areas and an area of more organised snowfall that headed southwards through East Anglia and Cambridgeshire and into London, infamously causing delays on the London Underground.  This was followed by a breakdown from the west on the 31st and then the cold north-westerlies, whereupon it was the turn of many western areas.  My records indicate that the south Tyneside area had a brief snowfall early on 4 February 2003 which accumulated, but soon melted, but it had about 10cm from the late January northerly.

Although it's getting harder to get widespread snow from a north-westerly as the climate warms, don't forget that it happened as recently as late January 2019.

Edited December 30, 2019 by Thundery wintry showers