Is it snow or rain on the way for parts of the UK?

[gord]

After a week of high pressure, a mild murky high this time...which has evolved into sunny and pleasant by day and clear and frosty by night...thank goodness....the Uk is now actually looking at a very complicated weather picture ahead.

Without going too much into the sypnotics, (I'll let someone else do that!) there is a low pressure coming in off the Atlantic sometime this week and hitting some cool air over the UK....which could cause a battlefield between cold and mild over the Uk and could bring large amounts of snow...and maybe...just maybe....not only to just the more northern higher parts.

But the models are having a very hard time with it.....we could get all rain, the low could miss us completly and we just end up murky and mild, the low might not even reach us and we'll just keep getting more of this sunny weather, (2nd best option i reckon!)...or, we might for once in our snow starved history, just hit that jackpot. Has to be the said, more northern parts have a better chance.

Its going to be a very interesting week over here and the potential is there for somewhere in the UK to get a very large snow event.

About time too!

[Yarrah]

I hope you get some, it looks like this might become your first real chance this winter.

All I know is that I won't see a white street this week. Temperatures will reach a normal 5°C this week, so maybe we'll get a bit of snow which melts instantly when it reaches the ground.

[gord]

The Met Office have just issued our first warning for heavy snow:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/ ... ngs.html?2

If you look at the risk of disruption map...i'm in the 70% area!

But, there must still bea lot of caution....the low only needs to track 50 miles either way and the senario could be changed. This thing is far from set in stone yet but a sensible move by the Met Office to get an early warning out....hopefully they wont be given too hard a time if the low decides not to co-operate!

[Yarrah]

Wow, I counted 7 snowflakes falling from the sky on my way back home this evening. Madness...

Gord, any idea if the systems that's forecasted to dump some snow on the UK might also head this way? KNMI doesn't seem to mention any possible snow in the next three days.

[gord]

I'm not sure Yarrah, looking at the track of the low...it could well do i suppose...how good is the Netherlands at pcking up these depressions when the UK has finished with them?

a warm sector will be passing through very close to southern England which could cause a rain event in some southern parts.

The current model output seems to show the low moving across into mainland europe, the netherlands is well within the cold air....so i cant see why you wouldn't see anything from this.

Still a lot of uncertainty. Low goes too far north, we get rain....too far south, we get nothing! At the minute, its progged to be just right...but when has it ever gone just right?

And your position off the north sea coast should help over the next few days as well Yarrah i would have thought...as long as snow showers can get inland far enough to you.

[Yarrah]

I'm not sure Yarrah, looking at the track of the low...it could well do i suppose...how good is the Netherlands at pcking up these depressions when the UK has finished with them?

Not very good. Snow showers usually only occur when the wind's coming directly from the North Sea. Western winds (coming from the UK), tend to bring only rain.
Looking at the latest weather maps from the KNMI, it seems the eastern UK coast might get whipped by some snow, but it also shows the low moving into the direction of Northern Germany. I don't see any large quantities of snow reaching the center of my country, but maybe the northern provinces are lucky.

[Yarrah]

Ok, forecasts ave changed dramaticly. KNMI has now issued a Weather Alert. 5-10 cm of snow is expected.

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but it is forecasted to hit the western part of the country in the morning. Since there will be about 2 or 3 million people on their way to work or school, it has the potential to cause some problems.

Let's see if they upgrade the alert to a warning.

Gord, any changes on the warnings for the UK?

[gord]

As far i can tell, the warning for 10-15cm of snow still stands...but the Met Office and BBC weather sites are experiencing a lot of traffic right now and its hard to connect!

A cold and crisp day today with frost hanging on all day. First bank of high cloud streaming in from the west now...here it comes!

[Yarrah]

Official Weather warning now.

I'll try to make some photo's tomorrow, since the the middle part of my country (where I live) is forecasted to get the most snow.

[P.K.]

GFS is forecasting snow for you as well yes. I've already got the camera charged up ready for it. Got to -5.6C last night, some other places got as low as -9C, making it three days in a row to go below zero here at least. Might sound odd but this hasn't exactly been a common occurrence this winter being only the third time this has happened.

Edit - Image is centred on 51.65N, should have mentioned that before...

[gord]

First reports of snow coming in from the West country and across Ireland, some rain at low levels, but this was expected in those parts of the country, the feature is now showing nicely on Uk radars:

http://www.meteox.com/h.aspx?r=.ukweath ... t=loop1uur

Most places still below freezing and it is a very frosty night again out there.

As well as the main band coming this way, the east coast has seen soe nice snow showers develop through today.

Having to pinch myself...is this really it coming? Is this the snowfall we've been waiting so long to see?

Only a couple of hours away now...which is still enough time for it to go wrong!

edge of the seat time!

[gord]

Just realised the link above has picked up off the UKweatherworld link...is this ok?

[P.K.]

Odd, I'll put something in the Team Discussion area on UKww, that link shouldn't work really.

[P.K.]

Ah ok it is adding the referrer into the link it looks like.

9cm so far here and still snowing. Most snow for several years.

[P.K.]

12cm in the end here, not bad at all.

[gord]

Huge variations around here. around 5cm where i live at the top of my village, a dusting to a cm just half a mile away at the bottom of the village. Surrounding places range from around 1cm to 5cm....when i drove to work this morning, i would be driving past green verges onsome bends and white verges on others.

Was good to have a measureable snowfall this winter...it wont go down as a great one and it may even get forgotten fairly quickly...but its saved whats been an apalling winter so far.

As for Saturday, i'm pretty sure thats just going to be a rain event for here now....i dont expect anymore snow now.

[P.K.]

I've uploaded some photos of this to here.

[Yarrah]

Cycling through the snow; fun, bet very cold. Anyway, I took some pictures on my way to college. Too bad the snow's gone already.

1 pm, it just started to snow


A bit later, just outside the city.


University's looking pretty depressive.


Rietveld-Schröder House. First time I've seen it without Japanese tourists taking pictures of it


Snowy Park near my house

[gord]

Surprisingly, todays snowfall is much bigger than yesterdays. Its been coming down thick and fast for most of the afternoon and temperatures have just gone below freezing so its sticking thick and fast. The hype was surrounding yesterday but its today thats proving to be the big one!

[P.K.]

The hype yesterday was right here. A little snow today, nothing settled though and had turned to rain by mid afternoon. Still a few cm on the grass outside though.