"Trevor Harley" wrote in message
news:2004111720250216807%taharley@dundeeacuk...
I have a colleague who claims that it snowed in the Doncaster region on 26
September 1991.

I think this is most implausible, even on high ground. I know September
1991 was a warm month overall, but it had a cold, unsetttled spell around
the 26th - but not that cold.

Trevor ... it rang a loud bell, so I went rummaging through my
ink-on-paper archives of early Sunday Telegraph columns, and
yes, it was there, dated 27th Sept 1991 (dunno whether that was
a Sunday, or simply the date I wrote it):

"Just over two years ago I wrote about a ferocious June hailstorm
that struck Gillingham in Kent. At the end of the storm the ground
was covered by two inches of melting hailstones, but the local
police station told radio and TV that the district had been visited
by a freak snowstorm. Having tried to explain why snow was
physically impossible in the prevailing atmospheric conditions, and
that the police officer was thus mistaken, I even received an
anonymous letter accusing me of being anti-police!

"Well, much the same thing happened last Thursday near
Doncaster when a tremendous thunderstorm brought heavy
hail in a swath across the suburbs of Balby and Sprotborough,
and, sure enough, reports of snow once again filtered through
to the media. But it /wasn't/ snow.

"We all know what two inches of slushy snow looks like
because in an average winter most of us get some [well, we
did in those days - Ed]. Not many of us can say the same
about two inches of melting hail. This is because hailstorms
are very localised phenomena, maybe affecting a small patch
of the country, say, three miles long by 300 yards wide, and
only infrequently do they produce significant accumulations of
hailstones on the ground. Melting hail is perhaps best described
as a "slushy porridge" with the rainwater quickly draining
through it, leaving a whitish crust on the surface. In other
words it looks for all the world like slushy snow.

"In case you are still unconvinced, the temperature in
Doncaster on Thursday evening was 50-52F (10-11C)
and the atmosphere was above freezing-point up to nearly
one mile above the ground. It is physically impossible for
snowflakes to survive a journey from cloud to ground in such
an environment."

Philip Eden