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Beast from the East 2021.Post-mortem.


sunnijim

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Posted
  • Location: Yorkshire
  • Location: Yorkshire

Snow 4/10.  A few cm and no drifts.  Many many dustings of many different types of snow. Still there in shaded parts.

Cold 8/10.  BFTE burst a pipe join in our garage. This freeze has frozen the garage pipes again. I put a heater in Wednesday night in anticipation of the cold and took it out again Thursday when Look North weather said it would be warmer next night. Whoops! Now, await the thaw with fingers crossed and a plumbers number to hand.  Also can't get into my rough shed at the bottom of the garden. We had flooding here  - so much flooding this winter - which froze before subsiding but the thick ice is frozen to the grass right up to the the door and inside. I want a thaw to get into my shed but if the thaw comes with more rain, the shed might flood again - like the garage might if the pipework has not held. Roll on spring!

Edited by Aleman
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Posted
  • Location: Peterborough
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and frost in the winter. Hot and sunny, thunderstorms in the summer.
  • Location: Peterborough

Tomorrow will be the final day and the final chance for an ice day (most days here have scraped to 1c.

Honestly the most frustrating element is not the fact that barely any snow has fallen, but that my location was so close to a streamer that last several days and deposited several inches of lying snow over Lincolnshire. That said the 2018 spell did the same thing but the exception was there was more snow here and the breakdown produced over 24 hours of persistent light snow that deliver around 4 inches of snow.

Overall the pattern was decent for what it was, but there are probably going to questions of what if, first what if the high to the north remained in place instead of retrograding westwards into Canada, secondly what if the Scandi high development was able to force the coldest air westwards instead of stalling just east of us with winds veering towards the south. Both could have delivered a truly epic spectacle for most places. Unfortunately the result is a rather mixed picture overall, though some areas won big time from this.

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Posted
  • Location: South Gloucestershire BS35
  • Weather Preferences: Severe weather enthusiast
  • Location: South Gloucestershire BS35

No snow here from this easterly at all (We had a couple cm though in January for a day I guess, so more than some have had...

Very cold couple of nights at the 'peak', ice was actually quite limited though as it was quite windy!

Remembered more for putting up my heating bills rather than anything interesting weather wise  Hoping for something in March, but if not, looking forward to some warmer weather and to resume my storm hunting 

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Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield

The other thing and this lion cub from the east was how high the humidity was until yesterday most of the time in the high 90's normally easterlies are dry. The warm ground also helped in the melting the snow despite temperatures below freezing only in the last few days has the ground finally frozen. I guess saturated ground takes time to lose heat. Last night we lost snow due to the air being fairly dry.

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Posted
  • Location: Nottingham
  • Location: Nottingham

4/10 for Nottingham

I had reasonable expectations for at least 7-10cm of snow 

Monday morning started well with a good cover and a newly issued amber warning . From that point it didn’t really kick on.

Snow fell on Monday-Wednesday but depths across the city were never more than 2-3cm and there was a surprising amount of melting . 
Streamers seemed to set up just to the south of the city which might have been more impressive .

The cold was persistent with good frosts but I believe most days edged above freezing 

 

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Posted
  • Location: Tullynessle/Westhill
  • Weather Preferences: Cold and snowy or warm and dry
  • Location: Tullynessle/Westhill

Snow : 9/10

Repeated snowfalls and I must have at least 40cm of snow across most of my garden, although some of that was probably lying before the 'beast' arrived as we've had at least patches since Xmas Eve. Several daily totals of 10cm+, started quite heavy and wet but ended up very light and powdery. That powdery top layer has been drifting in a strong wind the last couple of days so now some good drifts around and has caused chaos on the local roads despite no new snow falling. 

Temperature : 9/10

As I'm up a hill not quite the extreme low temperatures of the valleys around here but -12C one night. This morning will see us finally back above freezing after over a week of sub zero temperatures  day and night. 

Overall its easily been the best winter here since 2009/10 and even with a thaw there will likely be snow lying in places for weeks to come. In the forestry plantation 150m up the hill from me there must be at least 2m of lying snow. I can't be sure as it's been over a week since we managed a walk up there, when it was already very deep in snow, as since then all the parking areas have been burried. 

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

Snow 2/10.  Monday and tuesday had light snow falling throughout the morning but was surprised that the snow started melting on tuesday despite a temperature of around 0C, as this snow stopped.  Was very light anyway and only a dusting.

Slight dusting overnight into wednesday and Thursday too but the flakes were so tiny they rendered lamppost watching useless!

Often you get troughs moving through in these setups and was surprised none did this time.

Daytime temps were mostly just above freezing and it was often windy preventing a significant drop at night.

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Posted
  • Location: Morecambe
  • Location: Morecambe

Snow: 2/10 Although some snow flurries made it across and we did get an actual proper moderate snow shower, there was no lying snow here although I kinda knew I was not lik ly to get any lying snow anyways. 

Cold: 6 out of 10, the cold was certainly there at upper height with uppers of - 12 quite widely over the UK but it was not until the winds went more SE'ly we truly felt that cold with exceptionally low dew temperatures. 

Problem with the easterly it seemed to me was thicknesses was not low enough fully to create deep instability. The leftover cloud cover that was in the North Sea did not help at the start of the week and it probably was not until the Wednesday we saw a more widespread convective set up. Goes to show cold uppers and warmish north sea does not always mean snow showers, not quite that simple. 

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Posted
  • Location: Kilburn, NW London
  • Location: Kilburn, NW London

Here in NW London, I would give it 9/10 for cold, 1/10 for snow, and 0/10 for enjoyment.

 

Total let down.  Worst ever fail TBH.

 

A whole week of serious cold, easterly winds for 4 days straight, but not even 1cm of snow.

 

 

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

9/10 for East Yorkshire  (  with hardly any elevation )

Heavy snow for 3 days and drifting ( we hit the streamers )

7 days of temperatures barely above freezing ( including 3 ice days )

A low of -12 C for my location.

Even better on the Wolds where roads are still in the process of being unblocked.

Lots of people sledging and even skiing and ice skating  

Much better than 2017 and up there with 2010 to be honest for this location.

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Posted
  • Location: Garswood, Merseyside
  • Location: Garswood, Merseyside

It was interesting synoptically and for it's localised impacts. Remarkable low temperatures and snow in eastern Scotland, heavy snow in very localised parts of the East of England. A reminder however, that an Easterly is not necessarily a 'beast' nor are they all national events. Looking at posts here and in the regional forums for the majority of the UK it was a bit of a let down for snow fans. In my location I'd give it a 3/10 for snowfall as it did exceed my expectations of being completely dry - as easterlies usually are here. There were plenty of light snow showers which were quite pleasant in the sunshine (very odd to see many instances of fairly strong sun whilst snowing at the same time.) For cold it gets a 9/10 for longevity and ridiculously low DPs - particularly for this part of the world. Manchester Airport ended up recording DPs of -14c which is something noteworthy as the dry, polar continental airmass certainly did stick around. Interestingly though, despite this for much of the spell it actually felt quite nice here despite low minima, the shelter from the easterly wind and gorgeous sunshine made it a very pleasant and usable week of weather (but I am biased towards sunshine it has to be said.)  As a summary I really enjoyed it but not for snow obviously it was actually a lovely sunny spell with gin clear skies, with a finale of a bitterly cold day or two when the wind direction changed to a SE. 

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Posted
  • Location: Ashbourne,County Meath,about 6 miles northwest of dublin airport. 74m ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Cold weather - frost or snow
  • Location: Ashbourne,County Meath,about 6 miles northwest of dublin airport. 74m ASL

The cold spell was rubbish here. Temperatures always in the range 0c to 3/ 4c one or two dustings most of which melted after a couple of hrs.  Mostly cloudy, no frost. I would rate it 3/10 at a push.

I would rate the much maligned feb 2005 spell  for example better. 

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Posted
  • Location: Carryduff, County Down 420ft ASL
  • Location: Carryduff, County Down 420ft ASL
8 minutes ago, sundog said:

The cold spell was rubbish here. Temperatures always in the range 0c to 3/ 4c one or two dustings most of which melted after a couple of hrs.  Mostly cloudy, no frost. I would rate it 3/10 at a push.

I would rate the much maligned feb 2005 spell  for example better. 

Very true. A real East to West split.

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Posted
  • Location: Broxbourne, Herts
  • Weather Preferences: Snow snow and snow
  • Location: Broxbourne, Herts

While the depth of cold was impressive, I don't think it lasted long enough to make it memorable as such, and as far as snow is concerned, it comes a long way second of snow events just this year so far, never mind other years.

 

For me what makes this spell so memorable is that destruction of the myth that, once entrenched, cold air is hard to shift.  Let's face it, the cold air is hardly every strong enough to displace the mild air we usually have over us.  Milder air will always win out unless there is something impeding its strength!  Alas this February has shown that cold air need more than just presence to fend off an Atlantic onslaught....

 

2000773239_ColdSweptAway.thumb.jpg.6db540d78ab0096712741b5c80487769.jpg 

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

Like many others, generally a disappointment here. Notable windchill and low dewpoints but other than that, very ordinary. Frosty highs produced lower temperatures in much milder winters.

Northerlies always take first place for me where snow is concerned. An easterly requires an input of precipitation from somewhere else e.g. a northerly preceding it or following, or a channel low, or a stalling Atlantic against it (which despite cold depth failed miserably this time). Even rarer is to get troughs in the easterly flow. 

More snow fell here in the transient events during January.

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

I'd say 5/10 here in Exeter, this location doesn't generally get much from easterlies unless a channel low engages the cold air (like on 1 March 2018) or we somehow hit the jackpot (18 March 2018).  It would have been a 2 or 3 had it not been for a dusting on the Thursday morning which drifted by the roadside to a depth of about 1cm.  There was also a sugar coating early on the Wednesday which quickly melted.  Otherwise it was mostly cold, cloudy and not very pleasant down here.

I tend to think that this easterly was only a true "beast" in Scotland, and maybe the north of England at a push, where the coldest air hit and there were plenty of snow showers off the North Sea.  Further south, the coldest air didn't really get in, although it was of course cold enough to give a lot of snow over much of East Anglia and parts of the SE. 

I think our media is in danger of using the term "beast" for any sort of half-snowy easterly in the coming years.  The one at the end of February/early March 2018 was definitely a "beast" as it was by many measures the coldest since January 1987, and that of 17/18 March 2018 could justifiably be called a "beast" because of how potent it was for that late in the season.  But this one, for me, only really qualifies north of the Scottish border.

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