-4C and fog all the way into work through Essex, this morning, but as
I was walking along Oxford Street I noticed very small grains of ice
floating down.

There's no actual fog here. Would this be classifed as "snow" or
something different?

- Tom
London, W1.

On Dec 6, 9:11*am, Tom Bennett wrote:
-4C and fog all the way into work through Essex, this morning, but as
I was walking along Oxford Street I noticed very small grains of ice
floating down.

There's no actual fog here. *Would this be classifed as "snow" or
something different?

- *Tom
London, W1.

Snow grains -- falling out of a layer of stratus with a base at about
200ft.

Stephen.

This has been mentioned several times before on here Tom,I noticed it many
years ago when working in East London,when visibility improved dramatically
from dense fog to over a mile as ice crystals precipitated out as almost
fine snow giving a slight cover on the ground.The explanation at the time
given by the Met Office was air pollution particles triggered the phenomenon

RonB


"Tom Bennett" wrote in message
...
-4C and fog all the way into work through Essex, this morning, but as
I was walking along Oxford Street I noticed very small grains of ice
floating down.

There's no actual fog here. Would this be classifed as "snow" or
something different?

- Tom
London, W1.

On Monday 06 Dec 2010 09:11, Tom Bennett scribbled:

-4C and fog all the way into work through Essex, this morning, but as
I was walking along Oxford Street I noticed very small grains of ice
floating down.

There's no actual fog here. Would this be classifed as "snow" or
something different?


Sounds like snow grains.

Another possibility in freezing fog, though rarer, is ice needles. They
happened a year or so back and prompted quite a discussion here. I think the
Met Office initially took the stance that it couldn't happen and hadn't
happened but eventually gave in. First time I noticed a fall of ice needles
was in Dec '62 when they clustered together as quite large flakes..

--
Graham Davis, Bracknell
It was raining cats and dogs and I fell in a poodle. [Chic
Murray(1919-1985)]

On 06/12/2010 09:47, Stephen Davenport wrote:
On Dec 6, 9:11 am, Tom wrote:
-4C and fog all the way into work through Essex, this morning, but as
I was walking along Oxford Street I noticed very small grains of ice
floating down.

There's no actual fog here. Would this be classifed as "snow" or
something different?

- Tom
London, W1.

Snow grains -- falling out of a layer of stratus with a base at about
200ft.

Stephen.

Same thing is happening in south Oxon at the moment. No fog, uniformly
grey, snow grains falling.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Davenport"
Newsgroups: uk.sci.weather
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 9:47 AM
Subject: Snow (?) grains in central London at 09.00 hrs


On Dec 6, 9:11 am, Tom Bennett wrote:
-4C and fog all the way into work through Essex, this morning, but as
I was walking along Oxford Street I noticed very small grains of ice
floating down.

There's no actual fog here. Would this be classifed as "snow" or
something different?

- Tom
London, W1.

Snow grains -- falling out of a layer of stratus with a base at about
200ft.

Stephen.

There was a similar phenomenon at Heathrow last Friday from about 500FT of
stratus :-

EGLL 031350Z 22007KT 190V270 4000 -SG BR FEW004
BKN006 M03/M04 Q1012
EGLL 031320Z 25007KT 210V280 4000 BR FEW004 BKN005 M03/M04 Q1012
EGLL 031250Z 27007KT 4000 -SG BR OVC005 M02/M04
Q1012
EGLL 031220Z 27007KT 230V300 4400 -SG BR SCT004
BKN005 M03/M04 Q1012
EGLL 031150Z 27007KT 230V290 4000 -SG BR SCT004
BKN005 M03/M04 Q1013

Jon.

I woke up this morning to a covering of snow (north Hampshire) which was
unexpected. I just went out and noticed that the air was filled with
fine ice crystals. I drove down the hill and within 250 yards there was
no lying snow. So it seems that the fog is turning to fine ice crystals
in a very localised area only.

This isn't the first time i've observed this locally, and I strongly
suspect that it has something to do with the closely located AWE
complex.

jochta wrote:

Same thing is happening in south Oxon at the moment. No fog, uniformly
grey, snow grains falling.

Wouldn't be around Didcot by any chance?

On 06/12/2010 13:19, Steve Pearce wrote:
wrote:

Same thing is happening in south Oxon at the moment. No fog, uniformly
grey, snow grains falling.

Wouldn't be around Didcot by any chance?

Not at the moment no

I'm currently near Benson. The fog lifted just before lunch and then we
had some snow grains fall for about half an hour.

We do occasionally get Didcot snow from the power station at home. It's
blowing the wrong way for here though.

jochta wrote:

Not at the moment no

I'm currently near Benson. The fog lifted just before lunch and then
we had some snow grains fall for about half an hour.

We do occasionally get Didcot snow from the power station at home.
It's blowing the wrong way for here though.

As it happened I travelled along the A34 yesterday and today, and sure
enough as I approached the closest point to Didcot power station, the
whole area was a winter wonderland.