Unexpected Snow

[snowblind]

4th of December 2020.

Forecast was only for rain but the rain turned to snow in the early morning and left a surprise 2cm covering on all surfaces.

[snowblind]

3 hours ago, snowblind said:

4th of December 2020.

Forecast was only for rain but the rain turned to snow in the early morning and left a surprise 2cm covering on all surfaces.

Actually when I did a proper measurement it was 3cms

[Bradowl]

Late April 1981, an area of low pressure coming in from South West was expected to bring a period of rain with any snow on tops of high ground to West of Sheffield, after it cleared it was supposed to become warmer after we had a few days of chilly but not drastically cold weather, infact end of March and first half of April was very dry and sunny. 

On the Friday morning (23rd I think) it started raining heavily but it felt very cold in the strong South Easterly wind and the rain became very Sleety and by mid morning turned to heavy Snow though not settling at first it soon started sticking to usual favoured spots, grass verge, roofs and cars and then by late afternoon all roads and pavements was covered in deep snow.

Local forecasters were insisting it would soon turn to rain and become milder but it didn't, only on the Saturday did it become very sleety though by now winds had veered North Easterly as the area of low pressure had changed direction becoming slow moving over South East of UK.

Waking up on the Sunday morning it was expected to have improved but sleet that was falling at lower levels had turned  back to Snow again and began settling in places that had  thawed, the snow continued all day only clearing to South during late evening leaving a very cold frosty night.

Hilly areas received over a foot of Snow with drifts several feet deep and Sheffield had its lowest April day time max temperature of 1'C which I think still stands as a record low with sub zero temps up in hills. 

Edited December 4, 2020 by Bradowl

[Eagle Eye]

Certainly came as a surprise to see this when i woke up in early December this year

 

[Eskimo]

December 17th 2010 - wasn't unexpected in the strictest sense, but it was to me. This occurred just before I followed Netweather, knew what weather models looked like and had apps pinging me weather warnings on my phone. I didn't know it was coming and we ended up with 8" in North Herts by the end of the evening. Royston, Herts received around 10" I believe based on rough estimates by my dad who had to drive back in it.

It remains the most snow I've seen without having to actually go out an travel to find it and one of very few instances I can remember where the snow was actually powdery. 

Edited December 12, 2020 by Eskimo

[I remember Atlantic 252]

3 years ago today quite good, evening snow off W'ly, still there in morning, slippery as hell

[sukayuonsensnow]

On 14/11/2020 at 13:38, SummerShower said:

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..

Seconding this to the top two. Being based in NE Hampshire I remember the 21st December 2009 event well. It started off with some sleet in the morning, think I got my hair cut around then. Then it rained (some of the rain was heavy) and washed away the 5 inches of snow already on the ground (for the most part) from a few days previously (the night of 17/18 December, this was forecast). Then it turned to flakes of heavy wet snow which lasted until well into the evening. I think 5/6 inches of snow in total fell from this event.

1st February 2019 I think anywhere between the M3/A303 and M4 got lucky (or unlucky if you prefer) with this particular snow event, given how uneventful the winter of 2018/2019 was otherwise. It was interesting since a low had kinda developed at close range models the night/morning before, and I didn't take it too seriously until I was at work and snow started to fall and become heavier and heavier. It was interesting since not far to the north/south/east of this area, there wasn't much snow to be had. It was a very localised and significant snow event for a very specific area of central southern England. Northern Hampshire was in the firing line for this intense snowfall. I had to close work early as the snow was so deep, and more crucially, unforecast. I measured 16cm in my hometown later that evening, wasn't what I was expecting. Surprises can and do happen sometimes in our part of the world.

[Timmytour]

On 12/12/2020 at 16:12, Eskimo said:

December 17th 2010 - wasn't unexpected in the strictest sense, but it was to me. This occurred just before I followed Netweather, knew what weather models looked like and had apps pinging me weather warnings on my phone. I didn't know it was coming and we ended up with 8" in North Herts by the end of the evening. Royston, Herts received around 10" I believe based on rough estimates by my dad who had to drive back in it.

It remains the most snow I've seen without having to actually go out an travel to find it and one of very few instances I can remember where the snow was actually powdery. 

I was living in Royston at the time and can vouch for the snowfall, and was a member here and confirm it wasn't unexpected!

I can't for the life of me remember the year, but I do recall a time during the Eighties when we travelled 15 miles up the A10 to play football.  20 minutes into the game it started to snow catching everybody by surprise. We assumed it was just an unexpected quick shower but it carried on falling and shortly into the second half conditions had become so bad that the game had to be abandoned.
 

On the return journey, it was noticeable that the amounts of lying snow quickly dwindled away to nothing. Back we returned to our "home pub" where the guys from our reserve team had just arrived having completed their match at home.  They thought we were winding them up about the reasons for our game being abandoned! With the conditions such as were prevalent locally, it was almost impossible to imagine it had snowed, especially to such an extent as required a game to be abandoned, just a few miles up the road.  

[Rollo]

Friday/Saturday March 13th/14th 1979, Leaving for work in light to moderate rain I was surprised as on the journey into Newcastle it turn to moderate sleet and during daylight hours to snow giving a light covering in the centre of town, Being mid March and having had a wonderful snowy winter already I paid very little attention to it. We live about 6 miles north of Newcastle and before returning home I rang my wife who informed me that there was no lying snow but that it was indeed snowing, The journey home wa fairly easy other than the snow was obviously getting heavier and I could see that the temperature was falling. 
By the time I got home it had turned into a full scale snowstorm and it continued snowing right through Saturday and although much lighter by then it did not finally die out until 16-30 on the Sunday afternoon.

[A Face like Thunder]

8th - 9th January 1968 - according to Philip Eden, "the first major event of this year of disasters caught forecasters by surprise and deposited 30cm of level snow over Wales and a large part of England".

Quite why the snow was so unexpected in this decade of cold, snowy winters is anybody's guess. However, here is the scene in the South London / Surrey borders on 10th January. 

[Billy Hicks]

One of the more forgotten snowfalls I can remember in the London area was January 30th 2003, a few weeks after the slightly more famous event on the 8th which I missed at the time. It was mostly forecast for the East of England, so for my part of NW London to be absolutely covered in it by the afternoon was a big surprise and it lasted a fair few days on the ground here. Me and my brother took photos from a fancy new digital camera we'd got for Christmas the previous month!

It particularly stands out during a long run of mostly snowless winters during the 2000s, although Feb 2007 was fairly significant and then that incredible run when it became a reliable yearly event for a while - Feb 09, Dec 09, Jan 10, Dec 10, Feb 12 and Jan 13 were all memorable there. Then nothing until Dec 17 and Feb 18!

[A Face like Thunder]

I make no apologies for re-posting this one from 71 years ago today, 26th April 1950, South London / Surrey / North Downs.

[Arctic Hare]

The one in early May 1997 sticks in my memory. Election Day a few days earlier had been warm and sunny, so it was a bit of a shock to the system less than a week later to see snow settling for an hour or so! Obviously it melted in minutes once the sun returned, but I really didn't see it coming in those days of much less up to date info.

[Metwatch]

More recently i'd say 2 come to mind, 2nd March 2018, though i didn't really check charts much at the time just Met Office forecasts, they didn't show a flake of snow that whole Friday here, but then ended up with on and off light to moderate snow amounting to quite a few inches, almost worthy of an amber warning!

Another one is 7th January 2021, which started off very chilly -3C with fog, then a very cold daytime max of -0.7C. By the evening it cooled down very quickly, making way for some very fine and light sugar like snow at -2c, continuing into the early hours which amounted to almost 2cm melting the next day. Was so light that the radar barely picked it up, must have been a very weak decaying front. Can't remember it being forecast much either.

On 26/04/2021 at 09:26, A Face like Thunder said:

I make no apologies for re-posting this one from 71 years ago today, 26th April 1950, South London / Surrey / North Downs.

Wow another 26th April with fairly widespread deep snow cover across England, alongside 1908 and 1981. Interesting date to say the least!

[AderynCoch]

Boxing Day 2014 was a good one in Central/Northern England. Didn't even consider the possibility until I saw a still from the BBC evening forecast (on this forum as it happened). An hour or two later and it was snowing - a nice late Christmas present.

Liverpool:

 

DSCF9586.AVI

 

Edited October 12, 2023 by AderynCoch

[alexisj9]

With me, I was in Croydon at the time, Feb 2009, there was snow forecast but not till later in the day. In reality, it snowed very heavy during the night from a streamer pepped up by the Thames. Woke up to knee deep snow. Closed shops and no transport.

[Don]

39 minutes ago, alexisj9 said:

With me, I was in Croydon at the time, Feb 2009, there was snow forecast but not till later in the day. In reality, it snowed very heavy during the night from a streamer pepped up by the Thames. Woke up to knee deep snow. Closed shops and no transport.

I think the actual 'main' event that was forecast later in the day turned out to be a damp squib, so just as well we got the Thames streamer?!

Edited October 12, 2023 by Don

[Dancerwithwings]

1 minute ago, Don said:

I think the actual 'main' event that was forecast later in the day turned out to be a damp squib, so just as well we got the Thames streamer?!

Yes Don, we’ve had a few of them ….Unexpected….many a time thats happened

A expected full on forecasted dumping, that’s turned into “:a damp squid “ prams and toys to go with it

[Don]

44 minutes ago, Dancerwithwings said:

Yes Don, we’ve had a few of them ….Unexpected….many a time thats happened

A expected full on forecasted dumping, that’s turned into “:a damp squid “ prams and toys to go with it

Unexpected are always the best (obviously!).

One other such damp squib I remember was overnight Saturday 9th January 2010, when another significant snow event was forecast for the south east, but it didn't materialise and what happened instead was some places had a thaw take place!  So I suppose it was actually worse than a damp squib and a disaster might be a better phrase!

Edited October 12, 2023 by Don

[Dancerwithwings]

6 minutes ago, Don said:

Unexpected are always the best (obviously!).

One other such damp squib I remember was overnight Saturday 10th January 2010, when another significant snow event was forecast for the south east, but it didn't materialise and what happened instead was some places had a thaw take place!  So I suppose it was actually worse than a damp squib and a disaster might be a better phrase!

Ya right there….from damp squib to a disaster…WOW!!!  
when that’s happened, I can’t dare even log in to N/W…

As it’s a full on lol 

Edited October 12, 2023 by Dancerwithwings

[Don]

8 minutes ago, Dancerwithwings said:

Ya right there….from damp squib to a disaster…WOW!!!  
when that’s happened, I can’t dare even log in to N/W…

As it’s a full on lol 

It certainly wasn't pretty on here that night lol!

[Geordiesnow]

1 hour ago, Don said:

I think the actual 'main' event that was forecast later in the day turned out to be a damp squib, so just as well we got the Thames streamer?!

Yep was the same further northwards, heavy snow showers during the day but the nighttime bought more prolonged rain/sleet with a gradual thawing of the snow, it really was marginal stuff that the whole of lowland eastern areas were on the wrong side of marginal unfortunately.

[Dancerwithwings]

35 minutes ago, Don said:

It certainly wasn't pretty on here that night lol!

Lol, I love the premature thoughts with some ( gotta  a laugh )  in respect on how the forthcoming Winter season will pan out….

For us prolonged members have heard it and seen it all before…bless ‘em !

I don’t evaluate anything until the first day of Winter 01/12, it’s the best way, otherwise you burn yourself out

Edited October 12, 2023 by Dancerwithwings

[SqueakheartLW]

Another snow event that ended up a lot better than expected was Thursday 12th Feb 2009.

The forecast showed a band of light and patchy snow coming down from the north throughout the day, arriving in my location during the evening, maybe leaving a very slight dusting of snow.

What actually did happen was the front was more active than predicted and arrived about 6 hours early and gave around 4 hours of steady snow that left a nice covering.

Unfortunately that was also the last snow of that cold spell and the winter as a whole as the rest of February 2009 was mild.

[Summer of 95]

17 hours ago, Metwatch said:

More recently i'd say 2 come to mind, 2nd March 2018, though i didn't really check charts much at the time just Met Office forecasts, they didn't show a flake of snow that whole Friday here, but then ended up with on and off light to moderate snow amounting to quite a few inches, almost worthy of an amber warning!

Another one is 7th January 2021, which started off very chilly -3C with fog, then a very cold daytime max of -0.7C. By the evening it cooled down very quickly, making way for some very fine and light sugar like snow at -2c, continuing into the early hours which amounted to almost 2cm melting the next day. Was so light that the radar barely picked it up, must have 

There was another day in Jan 2021 when hours of torrential rain at about 10C suddenly became settling snow, it was about the 21st? A few days before the main event on the 24-25th anyway, it must have been the time the cold air for that one arrived. 

Also the surprise 2cm covering from a few Cheshire Gap showers on 22-23 Jan 2019, the only snow here that winter