Christmas week December 2000

[damianslaw]

I posted a thread about Dec 2001, which turned out to be a preety decent wintry month, no exceptional falls of snow, but consistently cold from second week on with lots of frost, there was some snow just before christmas and more notably just before new year with some severe frosts.

Thinking about 2001 got me thinking about 2000, which until just before christmas had been predominantly very wet, windy and very mild atlantic driven, an abrupt change of fortune occurred just in time for christmas. High pressure built to the north suddenly and ridged its way through Iceland and Greenland, low pressure filtered down from the north with cold air embedded. I remember christmas day being cold sunny and frosty, Boxing Day colder still with a very thick frost all day which looked like snow. The 27th followed suit, and then the snow arrived overnight into the 28th, a decent fall about 5 inches. The 29th-31st brought ice days, before further snowfall on New Years Eve followed by a rapid thaw.

 

Perhaps the most perfectly timed cold snowy spell of modern times?

[MP-R]

Certainly a more impressive spell than the late December 2001 one but a much less pleasant month leading up to it. It's quite interesting running the archives through the lead up to it, as the Atlantic slides way south under the developing high pressure to the north.

What a beautiful pair of charts from that week!

 

From then on, it was a decent winter for cold, especially in January and the second half of Feb / early March.

[damianslaw]

14 minutes ago, MP-R said:

Certainly a more impressive spell than the late December 2001 one but a much less pleasant month leading up to it. It's quite interesting running the archives through the lead up to it, as the Atlantic slides way south under the developing high pressure to the north.

What a beautiful pair of charts from that week!

 

From then on, it was a decent winter for cold, especially in January and the second half of Feb / early March.

Yes quite an unusual evolution, a very southerly tracking jetstream.

[Kirkcaldy Weather]

As I was only 4 I cant remember the conditions but looks like it was very snowy on the 28th December especially in the west / sw of Scotland (Glasgow) and very cold too. 

 

BBC News | SCOTLAND | Snow causes havoc for Scots

NEWS.BBC.CO.UK

 

BBC ON THIS DAY | 29 | 2000: Freezing Britain grinds to a halt

NEWS.BBC.CO.UK

from the last paragraph "A powerful cold weather front known as The Snowplough has been pushing snow in a loop across Scandinavia, Scotland and Ireland down over England towards France, covering the whole of Britain for the first time in six years." Never heard of that terminology before.

Also Christmas day 2000 was Aldergrove, Antrim Northern Ireland's sunniest Christmas day "Northern Ireland 6.7hrs at Aldergrove, Antrim in 2000 " 

Christmas snow records in the UK

WWW.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

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White Christmas infographic and video showing snow at Christmas in the UK over the last 50 years.

 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Great event, mainly overnight Wed 27th into Thurs 28th, Fri and Sat fantastic too, deep snow, clear blue sky ice days, then though turned milder to start 2001

tha dayz though remember them too well, listening to the 'new' Atlantic 252 on longwave!!!!!!!

[damianslaw]

Yes very strong memories of this christmas, excellent winter walking conditions under blue skies, light winds and deep snow. It was the coldest spell since early Jan 1997, indeed since then there had been little cold weather to speak of, so it felt very refreshing.

 

[Weather-history]

 

[Chesil View]

I was in Norway for this Christmas week in 2000 and benefited hugely from the Scandinavian low pressure that gave much of Britain a covering.

I was staying in the ski resort of Geilo where we had a 24 hour blizzard followed by a 36 hour blizzard (and nothing ground to a halt and no prangs on the roads either). On our final day my wife and I were Cross country ski-in on the plateau above the resort when we noticed that all the locals suddenly turned tail and headed back to the ski-lifts.  Thinking they must know something we followed suit and it was just as well. By the time we got back the temperature had dropped to minus 30 accompanied by near gale force winds. 
Despite being properly kitted out the cold was truly breathtaking. Thankfully it was only ten minutes down to our hotel and the roaring log fire.

I remember seeing on The  TV in the reception that one of our major airports  had ground to a halt due to a couple of inches of snow and bemoaning the traditional British lack of preparedness to the manager of the hotel. He was however very sympathetic to the British plight.  Saying it’s much easier to keep going in Geilo because they know that everything that falls from the sky from mid nov -mid March will be snow. And so life was completely geared to it. They didnt have to worry about freeze thaw creating icy roads etc.

 

[SqueakheartLW]

Very memorable for me too. I was in my final year of secondary school and the Christmas holiday was almost cut into two halves in terms of the weather. A cold and sometimes snowy first half then the milder second half of the holiday.

The weekend before Christmas was rather dull and fairly mild in comparison to what was on the way.

Christmas Eve for me was cold and wet with icy rain and sleet and I remember they'd said snow showers for the big day itself but I didn't believe the forecast at the time

Christmas Day. The big day itself did see some snow showers but none of it settled at all which was the disappointing part about the day.

Boxing Day was really like Christmas day with further wintry showers that didn't settle again

27th and 28th December. This was the best part of the cold spell when the band of heavy snow moved through. This covering was to last until the new year thaw came.

29th and 30th December. Two ice days on the 29th and 30th with some sharp overnight frosts over the snow fields.

31st December. Was anticipating the blizzards and whiteout conditions that had been forecast but this snow event was a big let down for me in North Lincolnshire. Started off with a bit of wet snow and soon turned back to rain.

[Walsall Wood Snow]

Fantastic spell this was and was actually one of the first instances for me of setting off a craving for cold and snowy Winters (whereas before it was more of a just craving it at Christmas and now and again in the vain hope school would get closed). Even though it was short it was kind of enough at the time and with pretty much a repeat here exactly a year later ( 29th. I mentioned in the Christmas weather historical thread it was the 27th in 2001 but it was in fact 2 days later) I was contented with them for those Winters as they were a decent cold and snowy spell for each Winter that fell almost perfectly in the Christmas holidays. 2002 came without such charm and this set me up as the almost constantly disappointed snow fanatic I remain to this day .

[damianslaw]

On 23/12/2019 at 13:57, Walsall Wood Snow said:

Fantastic spell this was and was actually one of the first instances for me of setting off a craving for cold and snowy Winters (whereas before it was more of a just craving it at Christmas and now and again in the vain hope school would get closed). Even though it was short it was kind of enough at the time and with pretty much a repeat here exactly a year later ( 29th. I mentioned in the Christmas weather historical thread it was the 27th in 2001 but it was in fact 2 days later) I was contented with them for those Winters as they were a decent cold and snowy spell for each Winter that fell almost perfectly in the Christmas holidays. 2002 came without such charm and this set me up as the almost constantly disappointed snow fanatic I remain to this day .

Interesting to note how we've had a few back to back cold snowy Christmas spells 1995 and 1996, 2000 and 2001, 2004 and 2005, 2009 and 2010 roughly 5 years apart alas this was broken big time 2014-2016, 10 years now waiting for something colder than norm at Christmas not just average as would describe the post Christmas weather in 2014 and 2017. Surely due something soon..

[SqueakheartLW]

No better way to get the first good cold spell under way than to have it timed perfectly to arrive on Christmas Day but the main reason this sudden pattern change happened is probably the sudden stratospheric warming which happened earlier in December 2000

7th December 2000                                 10th December 2000

The first warming takes place and subsided and weakened the vortex but the second warming is gathering pace on the 15th December 2000

15th December 2000                               17th December 2000                               19th December 2000

20th December 2000

In the second warming the one over Siberia combines with another warming and attack on the polar vortex from over Canada and Greenland and this displaces the vortex right across to the Pacific side of the pole, good news for winter weather lovers. This event was probably what triggered the sudden change in the weather pattern in time for Christmas 2000

However this wasn't the last of the stratospheric story during the winter of 2000/2001 as two more warmings took place

19th January 2001                                   31st January 2001                                  5th February 2001

The second batch of warmings takes place between 19th January 2001 and 5th February 2001. This acts to weaken the vortex yet again and this time it is displaced right above NW Europe. Not so favourable for us which may explain the let down for the potential icy cold spell predicted for early February 2001 which doesn't quite come off but there is some colder weather around this period and the second warming could have contributed towards it and then the mild spell that follows in mid February

The final spell of sudden stratospheric warming takes place between 12th February 2001 and 15th February 2001

12th February 2001                                 15th February 2001                                 1st March 2001

This final warming is no doubt what contributes to the sudden turn to colder weather again later in February 2001 and no doubt plays a major role in the cold weather that comes in the March too. With the polar vortex initially settling over Scandinavia after this warming that could have played a part in the very cold March over Scandinavia.