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Old January 10th 10, 05:31 PM posted to uk.sci.weather
Steve Ball[_2_] Steve Ball[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity by Weather-Banter: Jan 2010
Posts: 20
Default Snow reaches southern Spain.

After the cold air finally sank south across Europe and reached Gibraltar on
Friday, the arrival of a low pressure system from the southwest today looked
liked the right set up to give some snow across the high ground of nearby
Spain.

The rain arrived in Gibraltar at 08Z this morning with the temperature at
5C. With temperatures lower across inland Spain ( 2C in Malaga ), I headed
for the nearest mountains, the Sierra de Bermeja just inland from Estepona
on the Costa del Sol.
When I reached the refuge hut at around 1250m the temperature was 0C with
light snow falling. As I took the 1.5km walk to the peak (Los Reales at
1449m) the snow quickly intensified and began settling. At the summit my
hand held geos was indicating a wind chill of MS 15 in a wind gusting 17Kts.
On my descent I noticed the snow line was at around 680m.

While the snow wasn't at all on par with the scale in the UK, it was
certainly nice to experience my own little slice of snow and to be reminded
that it does actually get this far south (and not *that* high an altitude)
from time to time!

Steph ( weather forecaster - Gibraltar)