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cheeky_monkey

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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)

We have a thread for snow storms that never were..but what about unexpected snow events that were not forecast? i have three examples from my childhood..February 15, 1978, Mid March 1979 (can't remember the exact date) and Dec 8? 1981

any others?

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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset

Copied from the other snow thread:

Some completely unexpected snowfalls:

06th April 2008 - wasn't expecting a trough in the early hours to be this far west, but left a dusting

11th January 2008 - heavy rain all morning turned to snow in the afternoon and stuck; one of the few times I've seen flooded roads and snow on the verges

09th February 2007 - a true fight between milder and colder air with heavy snow falling for much of the day but never quite settling

24th January 2007 - what should've been a wishbone northerly, left a dusting in the early hours

28th February 2005 - after the failed easterly the week before, it was a surprise to wake up to lying snow under a much more anticyclonic setup

19th December 2004 - went to bed to the sound of pouring rain on the roof the night before and woke up to a good few inches of snow; classic slidergate

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Posted
  • Location: Shrewsbury
  • Location: Shrewsbury

The two where snow was in the forecast but nowhere near the amount we got; 8 December 2017 and 12 March 2006.

Add Christmas 2004 when again the chance was forecast, but I honestly didn't expect to see settling snow. And 4 April 2012, never expected to wake up that morning to snow on the ground especially after a nearly snowless winter including the rain at -1C in early February.

Going back, mid-December 1989.  I'm sure I remember it snowing unexpectedly one weekday evening and leaving a decent covering- it definitely wasn't Dec 1990 because I remember that too, that was a Saturday and it fell in the early hours. And not 1988 which was never cold enough. The Snow Survey of that winter mentioned it which confirmed I wasn't imagining it.

 

 

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Posted
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, storms and other extremes
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire

The Feb 2007 event sticks out for me. Never expected that much snow to fall- it was originally predicted to be a sleety mess. I've never seen snowfall that heavy either before or since that event. Got stranded on a bus for hours, cars sliding down side roads...it was bedlam and it came on so fast late afternoon.

A remarkable event in an absolutely dire and unremarkable winter

Edited by CreweCold
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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire
8 hours ago, CreweCold said:

The Feb 2007 event sticks out for me. Never expected that much snow to fall- it was originally predicted to be a sleety mess. I've never seen snowfall that heavy either before or since that event. Got stranded on a bus for hours, cars sliding down side roads...it was bedlam and it came on so fast late afternoon.

A remarkable event in an absolutely dire and unremarkable winter

Thanks for this CreweCold. I have to say I do not remember this snowfall despite being in Crewe at the time. If it was late afternoon, I might have got home from work before the bedlam started. It would have come just a month after the gale of Jan 2007 which caused widespread destruction. I do remember a Friday morning / lunchtime in December 2014 or 2015 when it snowed unexpectedly and heavily and similar bedlam resulted in Crewe. I was off that day so was able to enjoy the snow rather than endure it. 

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Posted
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, heat, sunshine...
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.

Most unexpected snow? Christmas 1968... And Yours Truly was glued to his thermometer throughout: 'rain or sleet' according to the MetO!

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Posted
  • Location: Shrewsbury
  • Location: Shrewsbury
36 minutes ago, A Face like Thunder said:

Thanks for this CreweCold. I have to say I do not remember this snowfall despite being in Crewe at the time. If it was late afternoon, I might have got home from work before the bedlam started. It would have come just a month after the gale of Jan 2007 which caused widespread destruction. I do remember a Friday morning / lunchtime in December 2014 or 2015 when it snowed unexpectedly and heavily and similar bedlam resulted in Crewe. I was off that day so was able to enjoy the snow rather than endure it. 

That must have been 8th Dec 2017, it was a Friday. Definitely not Dec 2015 (mildest Dec ever by miles) and 2014 had only the snow on Boxing Day (which was only a cm or two and didn't affect anywhere near as many places as forecast). Can't think of any other date that fits.

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Posted
  • Location: Carmarthenshire
  • Location: Carmarthenshire

The Feb 2007 event was completely unexpected as it was forecast to quickly turn to rain.  It still counts as the deepest single fall I've experienced here.  

Only other ones I can think of are Nov 2005 which wasn't completely unexpected but the amount of lying snow took my by surprise, and Jan 2013 when the snow also lasted much longer than forecast.

 

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Posted
  • Location: Wildwood, Stafford 104m asl
  • Weather Preferences: obviously snow!
  • Location: Wildwood, Stafford 104m asl
20 minutes ago, virtualsphere said:

The Feb 2007 event was completely unexpected as it was forecast to quickly turn to rain.  It still counts as the deepest single fall I've experienced here.  

Only other ones I can think of are Nov 2005 which wasn't completely unexpected but the amount of lying snow took my by surprise, and Jan 2013 when the snow also lasted much longer than forecast.

 

Fri 9th was unexpected, Thurs 8th was expected, both good events

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Posted
  • Location: Wyke regis overlooking Chesil beach.
  • Weather Preferences: Snowfall
  • Location: Wyke regis overlooking Chesil beach.
On 11/11/2020 at 21:58, cheeky_monkey said:

We have a thread for snow storms that never were..but what about unexpected snow events that were not forecast? i have three examples from my childhood..February 15, 1978, Mid March 1979 (can't remember the exact date) and Dec 8? 1981

any others?

Definitely remember Feb 15th  1978 Cheeky monkey. Forecast to be sleet turning to heavy rain but became s real blizzard that brought Dorset to a standstill the next morning. The same thing happened on the night of the 16thFeb as well although as we now know these were simply the warm up acts for the legendary Blizzard of 78 on the 18/19th Feb.

Best Blizzard and deepest drifts (20 plus feet) of my life by a country mile.

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Posted
  • Location: North Newbald , 139 feet asl
  • Location: North Newbald , 139 feet asl

15th - 20th  Feb 1978 when i lived in Wimborne Minster , Dorset when i was 9 year old ..........outrageous and never to be forgotten. 10 foot drifts over the hedges and it seemed to snow for days and days and days on end. 

 

 

( edit just seen the post above from BB )

Edited by Jeremy Shockey
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Posted
  • Location: Basingstoke
  • Weather Preferences: In summer, a decent thunderstorm, and hot weather. In winter, snow or gale
  • Location: Basingstoke

21st December 2009.  Was forecast to be 'rain with the possibility of sleet'.  What happened?  The worst gridlocked traffic the area has ever seen as 4 inches fell in about 3h.  

1st February 2019.  Overnight snow into the morning was expected and there was about 2 inches.  However the 6 extra inches we got in the afternoon was not - this came from nowhere as the forecast for the afternoon was patchy rain and sleet.

And a couple from 1994 actually.  1st was on a Thursday early in January.  Nothing expected but a good few inches of snow, the top layer of which was frozen, lay by the morning.  Also a saturday morning in april there was an unexpected fall which melted quickly during the day though.  Think this was 9th..

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Posted
  • Location: on a canal , probably near Northampton...
  • Weather Preferences: extremes n snow
  • Location: on a canal , probably near Northampton...

27th Feb 2018, lovely gloriously sunny day, nothing forecast other than Scottish snow. I left work in the Northants sun, as I approached Leicester on the M1, the matrix signs were flashing 50...FOG. .....then after Leicester 40...FOG.... everyone still doing 70mph.

I could see the snow shower ahead, a mile from Junc22 (signs still saying FOG) it was like driving into a wall of whiteness. The motorway came to a halt. I managed to get off at Jnc 22 to go cross country...traffic was almost stationary. Picture was taken after 15 minutes of snow on a dry surface.

Went off road up the back of BradgatePark....just happened to have drone in car.

 

 

20180227_165655.jpg

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Posted
  • Location: Wyke regis overlooking Chesil beach.
  • Weather Preferences: Snowfall
  • Location: Wyke regis overlooking Chesil beach.
35 minutes ago, Jeremy Shockey said:

15th - 20th  Feb 1978 when i lived in Wimborne Minster , Dorset when i was 9 year old ..........outrageous and never to be forgotten. 10 foot drifts over the hedges and it seemed to snow for days and days and days on end. 

 

 

( edit just seen the post above from BB )

Great Times JS.

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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl

25 December 2010 - Whilst not a heavy snowfall and on any other day would not have been remembered, but because it came on Christmas Day it has added memory.. 

After over a week with the temperature held below 0 degrees, remarkable in itself!, Christmas Day 2010 was forecast to be a dry sunny freezing day with no precipitation whatsoever, there was not frontal activity or shower activity expected, indeed pressure was quite high. However, a surprise moderate snowfall happened late morning, superb timing, about 10.30am lasting until lunchtime, then came to an abrupt end. The morning dawned cold and clear, and I went for a walk about half 9, I could see clouds gathering dark from the west, and thought it very odd, there was no wind as well which made it more odd, and no reports on TV of any likely precipitation from the west. Yet it came out of nowhere.

I think it might have been an exceptionally localised event, air rising over the central lakes. Anyone else have any snow on Christmas Day 2010? 

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Posted
  • Location: Wyke regis overlooking Chesil beach.
  • Weather Preferences: Snowfall
  • Location: Wyke regis overlooking Chesil beach.

 A  couple more have come to mind while I have been ruminating on unexpected snowfalls.

 

No.1.

24th/25th Dec 1993.

Its hard enough to get snow in lowland  Dorset at any time let alone a white christmas.

I lived in Winfrith Newburgh at the time and on Christmas Eve some friends called round and took us to a pub in the next village. The Sailors return at East Chaldon, at closing time our friends had to head home but my wife and i and some other locals enjoyed a lock in with the Landlord.

Around 2am we headed back the mile and half or so to our home in Winfrith when ( being  bald and without a hat i realised I could feel precipitation landing on my head It felt strange because it didn't feel like rain, but the air didn,t feel cold enough for snow. As we walked a car came along the road and I could see in the headlight beams that it was indeed snow that falling. What excitement to be walking home early hours xmas morning in a snowfall. I went to bed in full expectation that it would be gone by the morning as at that point it wasnt settling but come the morning and it was still gently snowing and a christmas card scene of about a cm of snow had settled. The first white and only white xmas ( in terms of snow falling) of my adult life). An afternoon walk gave a views to the north Dorset hills where it was clear that the snow was a lot thicker. I can still picture it glistening in the sunshine on that Christmas afternoon.

 

No 2. Was an extraordinarily localised and completely unforecast snowfall which I think happened on Saturday 27th January 1979.

My family lived at Worth Matravers on the Purbeck coast at that time and on this Saturday morning my father dropped me in Wareham  to get the train into Bournemouth to go shopping. I arranged to meet him back at Wareham station later in the day on the basis that If i was there he'd pick me up but that if I wasn't he'd carry on and I,d get the bus home.  whilst in Bournemouth I bumped into a friend who was about to get a bus home to Wimborne and I walked with him to the Bus station where I was greeted by signs saying that bus services to Swanage from Bournemouth were cancelled due to snow!  The weather in Bournemouth was quite bright but a walk down to the sea front showed the Isle of Purbeck to be shrouded in thick pewtery grey cloud with no sign of the Purbeck hills to be seen.  I made my way to Bournemouth station and caught the train back to Wareham hoping to arrive in some kind arctic wasteland only to be disappointed as the train drew in to a cold and grey Wareham town.

My Dad picked me up about 15 minutes later and we headed towards the cloud shrouded hills around Corfe castle still with no snow on the ground. However as we entered Corfe Castle the scene changed rapidly going from nothing to about 4 inches of snow on the ground in the matter of a couple of hundred yards.  We slithered our way through Corfe and then up the steep and  winding Kingston hill to arrive home in Worth Matravers with about 6 inches of snow on the ground. the fall was incredibly localised to just the land from Corfe Castle southwards to the sea. But no less memorable for that.

Edited by Broadmayne blizzard
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Posted
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, storms and other extremes
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire
16 hours ago, A Face like Thunder said:

Thanks for this CreweCold. I have to say I do not remember this snowfall despite being in Crewe at the time. If it was late afternoon, I might have got home from work before the bedlam started. It would have come just a month after the gale of Jan 2007 which caused widespread destruction. I do remember a Friday morning / lunchtime in December 2014 or 2015 when it snowed unexpectedly and heavily and similar bedlam resulted in Crewe. I was off that day so was able to enjoy the snow rather than endure it. 

You're almost certainly thinking of December 2011. A very marginal NW'ly month which produced an out of the blue snow streamer. I remember it causing mayhem on the roads.

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Posted
  • Location: North Leeds
  • Location: North Leeds

A couple that stick out, 29th April 2016, we woke up to a couple of inches of snow which is the latest snow I can ever remember, it melted off by 10am though.

Another is the morning of the 19th February 2011, it was supposed to be my first driving lesson but we had a covering of snow here that made me cancel it. Don’t think it effected anywhere else!

Edited by Summer18
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Posted
  • Location: Croydon
  • Location: Croydon

Unexpected falls for me were:

6th January 1994 - It rained all day turning to snow in the evening and leaving an inch by the next morning. I think the first mention of snow was refernce to sleet in the forecast that evening.

8th January 2003 - The morning forecast mentioned some snow showers. It ended up snowing continuously for 3 or 4 hours in South London and we ended up with 3 inches. It was the heaviest snow since 1991.

28th January 2004 - I don't think the thundersnow event was forecast until not long before it happened because I missed it. I went to the gym (which was windowless) and it was cloudy and dry. I was shocked to come out a couple of hours later to a winter wonderland and traffic gridlock.

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Posted
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

Growing up on Merseyside almost every snowfall felt unexpected! 16th December 2011 was completely out of the blue though. There wasn't much and it didn't stick around long but it made for a nice early Christmas present.

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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire

15th March 1964, Surrey and North Downs (2)

5th and 6th February 1996 - Blackpool and Fylde coast (2)

Both unexpected in the areas concerned.

I could add Christmas Day 1970 but have no pictures of that rare and unexpected White Christmas (Surrey and North Downs) which caused travel disruption throughout the holiday period.

bramley avenue 18.jpg

bramley avenue 19.jpg

snow 5196 (1).jpg

snow 5196 (2).jpg

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Posted
  • Location: Northern Ireland
  • Weather Preferences: Proper winter/Proper summer
  • Location: Northern Ireland

Can we ever truly “expect” snow in the British Isles. Apart from The highlands of Scotland it never really seems to be a done deal. Even when it is forecast, I expect to be one of the places that misses it, and don’t believe it until I see it. Quite a lot of snow at times in this location but still couldn’t say I ever really “expect” it lol

Edited by Northwest NI
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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire
3 hours ago, Northwest NI said:

Can we ever truly “expect” snow in the British Isles. Apart from The highlands of Scotland it never really seems to be a done deal. Even when it is forecast, I expect to be one of the places that misses it, and don’t believe it until I see it. Quite a lot of snow at times in this location but still couldn’t say I ever really “expect” it lol

I am sure you are right and perhaps it should be 'unforecast' rather than 'unexpected'. It has to be said though that the present day forecasts are much more thorough and generally accurate than they were in days of old, and I could be fairly sure that the snows of March 1964 and Christmas 1970 would not have been forecast for the area around the North Downs where I lived. After that, quirks of mother nature can lead to memorable weather events, for example The Great Storm of 1987 occurred because an intense area of low pressure turned left in the English Channel rather than right as forecast. The Fylde coast snow of 5th and 6th February 1996 is a similar example, when an occluded front got stuck over the west coast of Wales, England and Scotland and produced a very narrow line of heavy snow over two days, with the problems exacerbated by a very cold January beforehand. Thus there was chaos at sea level in Blackpool but little or no snow over the neighbouring Bowland Fells, both of which I can confirm from experience. As so often happens in these instances, mother nature decides what to do in her own good time rather than following what we want her to do in the here and now!   

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