On 27/03/2013 22:10, Joe Egginton wrote:
On 27/03/2013 20:43, George Booth wrote:
On 27/03/2013 20:25, John Hall wrote:
In article ,
Adam Lea writes:
Just wondering whether the situation over the last week or so,
with persistent easterlies and Atlantic fronts trying to push in from
the west, getting blocked then stalling and retreating again, is in
any way similar to the situation which brought heavy snowfalls in
the 1946/7 winter. It seems to me that frontal lows coming up
against a cold airmass but without a breakdown of the block is the
recipe for the heaviest snowfall events historically in the UK. Am I
correct here?

Many of them, certainly.

Someone has already posted elsewhere another of my thoughts
that if this stubborn block we have had this month had formed at,
say, the end of December, whether the cold would approach that
of the 1962/3 winter. If we are getting reports of ice days at the end
of March, heaven knows what the temperatures would be like if
the same block had formed two or three months ago.

I imagine we'd have seen maxima quite widely around -3 to -5C, and
perhaps a bit lower still in some places on the coldest days. Looking at
the temperatures recorded in February 1947 might give an idea. I've been
surprised at just how cold the UK has been in recent weeks, given that
temperatures upwind on the near Continent have been little lower if at
all.


Pre-2008, I had wondered just what it takes to get a big snow event
in the UK, now I am getting the idea.




Having suffered the curse of Thunderbird yet again I hope this gets
through to the group
My original reply, which went directly to Adam, was that, in essence,
the set ups were similar with fronts stalling as they attempted to
progress north-eastwards. However the 1947 winter saw a change from an
easterly regime in the first part to a more northerly one in the latter
stages as the controlling high pressure shifted westwards.
I also mentioned this website, www.winter1947.co.uk


Followup George not reply. It's caught me out a few times!

Joe
Wolverhampton.

Thanks Joe. Reassuring to know I am not alone with this irritating
aspect of an otherwise OK bit of software.

--
George in Epping, west Essex, 350'asl
www.eppingweather.co.uk
www.winter1947.co.uk