18th December 2010 Snowfall - 10 Years On

[danm]

In an exceptional December, the 18th was a memorable day with very heavy snowfall in the south of the country. We are 10 years on, to the day, from that snow event. 

The days prior to this saw a mid Atlantic high retrogress towards Greenland, with a chunk of the Polar Vortex descend to our latitude, bringing a frigid Artic airmass over the UK. 

This was the synoptic pattern on the 16th and 17th:

 

 

 

 

On the 18th, a feature developed within the overall low pressure system that tracked across southern England and Wales, delivering a period of intense, very heavy snowfall:

 

 

Here in London, we had a period of around 2-3 hours of heavy snowfall that dropped around 6/7 inches. 

That night was very cold, with -10c being recorded at Kew Gardens in London, quite exceptional for this part of the world.

 

Here are some weather forecasts and news reports from that day:

BBC Weather 18th December 2010: Heavy Snow in the south; a minimum of -17.2°C at Loch Glascarnoch

 

Edited December 18, 2020 by danm

[damianslaw]

Very much a S of England affair. I was in Newcastle Upon Tyne at the time, and there were just a few light snow showers around, and perhaps an inch of frozen snow on the ground. 

[Summer18]

Yeah it didn’t produce a lot of snow here, we did have a few showers though and the bitterly cold air left it on the ground until after Christmas. 

[SummerShower]

Even in the south I feel it was a hit and miss affair.  We had 2 inches on the saturday morning, which i wasnt complaining about of course.  However, places not too far away saw the band of snow ground to a halt and produce many more inches.  

If I recall it was the west Midlands along with parts of the home counties that were the sweet spot.

[snowblind]

I was visiting my Dad in North East London at the time. The snow came through in the early afternoon and dropped 3 inches there. The band was then supposed to pivot and stall in that area before pulling away. Back home in North Essex we weren't forecast snow as it was suppoded to stall to the South. I remember watching Ipswich playing at home on the TV that evening and it started snowing heavily there. The band had in fact gone further north than predicted and stalled over North Essex and South Suffolk. When I got home a few days later there was clearly a lot more snow there than in North East London, at least 6 inches I would say.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

1 hour ago, SummerShower said:

Even in the south I feel it was a hit and miss affair.  We had 2 inches on the saturday morning, which i wasnt complaining about of course.  However, places not too far away saw the band of snow ground to a halt and produce many more inches.  

If I recall it was the west Midlands along with parts of the home counties that were the sweet spot.

Aye, it was the W Midlands, still was good event here around 8cms I think, but not over a foot like SW Midlands

[summer blizzard]

Although we did get a few days of snow from the second northerly mid month it did not produce much here in Leeds. All our snow came in the Nov 24th-Dec 2nd period really (23cm at peak).

 

That probably speaks to my location favouring easterlies and fronts over northerlies though.

[mpkio2]

One of the best snowfalls I have ever expereinced in my life!!!!! 6inches of snow in Central London, which was very unusal!!

28th Febuary 2018 almost beats it though

[cheese]

On 20/12/2020 at 09:34, summer blizzard said:

Although we did get a few days of snow from the second northerly mid month it did not produce much here in Leeds. All our snow came in the Nov 24th-Dec 2nd period really (23cm at peak).

 

That probably speaks to my location favouring easterlies and fronts over northerlies though.

Yes the second half of the month was very dry with just a dusting of snow in East Leeds. On satellite imagery you can see how the Vale of York was snowless.

Much colder than the first cold spell though. 

Edited December 24, 2020 by cheese

[Sam200498]

I remember that day so well I was busy doing something and it was cold but dry but 2 hours later I walked out and it was like a winter wonderland and a bus got stuck along my local high street due to it

[Harry233]

Think this was more localised to the south. I remember a few light, snow showers but nothing exceptional although we had already a foot of snow in my area to that point. Think the main snow event was late November.

[Chesil View]

At my Dorset location it was December 20th that produced the best snowfall of December 2010. 

[emmett garland]

In Dublin it was a very snowy month thans to light bitterly easterly winds and lovely sea convection and the 23rd of the month saw our heaviest snowfall with many areas around greater dublin seeing 9 -12inches and thousands stranded at the airport.

[Metwatch]

 I believe I posted these before, but not in a dedicated thread for it in the historic weather section.

From the morning of 19th Dec 2010, with a morning low of -12C. I'd say about a good 8-10cm fell in south Birmingham.

 

Radar composite at 1200 and 1500 UTC 18/12/2010

A more in depth review on that day:

Weather - 2011 - Webb - The heavy snowfall of 18 December 2010 across the English south Midlands.pdf

 

Edited October 28, 2023 by Metwatch

[damianslaw]

No snow here on that day. Our heaviest snowfall of the month came on the evening of the 3rd December, a frontal feature from the NW gave about 4 inches of wet snow. It thawed quick the next day at low levels. Up until that point, we had seen a cm or two from snow showers on the bitter NE wind.

The only other notable snow in Dec 2010 was on the 27th when a front moved in from the atlantic producing 3 inches of wet snow that rapidly thawed.

Christmas Day threw a surprise 3cm fall late morning, magical stuff.

Dec 2009 was far snowier here. 

[cheese]

Our biggest fall of Nov/Dec 2010 was on the 1st of December. The streamer that had affected South Yorkshire moved north during the morning and gave us about 6 inches of snow (on top of the snow we already had) before dissipating in the afternoon. Leeds was in total chaos & all buses in the city were cancelled. We ended up with about a foot of snow, the deepest since 1995. 

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by cheese

[SqueakheartLW]

On 31/10/2023 at 02:04, cheese said:

Our biggest fall of Nov/Dec 2010 was on the 1st of December. The streamer that had affected South Yorkshire moved north during the morning and gave us about 6 inches of snow (on top of the snow we already had) before dissipating in the afternoon. Leeds was in total chaos & all buses in the city were cancelled. We ended up with about a foot of snow, the deepest since 1995. 

 

That was the same streamer that overnight 30th November into 1st December 2010 gave me 16 inches of snow, the deepest fall I have seen in my entire life and this snow including any melting took until 2nd week of January 2011 before the last traces of this finally melted.