Re: Ankle deep in moaning Minnie's

>That's the way I read it too, Will. Down near Bournemouth we got some
>sleet/snow/hail for a short period on Thursday afternoon which did settle
>quickly before the temperature crept up and it turned to rain - as forecast.
>Without the first incursion (warming the boundary layer) I think the second
>front would have given a lot more snow in the south that would have settled
>for a while over a larger area than has seemingly been reported. That's with
>benefit of hindsight though.

This *always* seems to happen.... a very weak front produces either
small amounts of snow or no snow at all, but contributes a much bigger
temperature rise than any subsequent fronts.

Examples include exactly two years ago, when very cold weather which
persisted all day (probably about 0 or 1C) was replaced by much less
cold conditions (perhaps about 6C) around 1700GMT (west Cheshire) but
with no precipitation at all. At the same time the cloud cover changed
from altostratus to lower stratus. Predictably the more active front
brought only rain.

The earliest memory I have of this sort of thing was around January
20th 1985 when the cold spell of the last two weeks suddenly ended with
a 'dry thaw' around 1700 again, the snow melting without any apparent
change in the weather (overcast) - again must have been a dry front.
Again this thaw was followed by significant rain overnight. IIRC it
then went very mild for three weeks before more snow arrived in
February.

I can think of very few fronts coming from the west which have actually
given significant snow and have not been preceded by a 'dry thaw'. I do
remember one in December 1997 which brought lying snow to the
Southampton area in a month which was otherwise much milder than
average. I also remember one or two very weak fronts which came in from
the northwest which produced small amounts of snow - but in those
cases,the weather behind the front remained settled, if warmer.

Nick

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