Dave Ludlow wrote:
On 6 Dec 2014 09:48:58 GMT, "Norman" wrote:
Dave Ludlow wrote:
On Fri, 5 Dec 2014 11:45:42 -0800 (PST), Scott W
wrote:
On Friday, 5 December 2014 17:35:43 UTC, Dave Cornwell wrote:
Andy M. wrote:
The snowiest places in the UK?
Ken makes the list at 5 come in at number 5.
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning...-10/snowiest-p
laces?WT.mc_id=Facebook_Content_Snow I suppose it's a case of they
would be wouldn't they. Be interesting to see if there is any change
for lowland England in the last 50 years. I'm sure it used to be
somewhere like Norwich in my old Geography books but maybe further West
these days - the M4 corridor seems to feature quite regularly.
I'm surprised Buxton isn't on there
Buxton appears to be just inside the 45 to 60 days range (at the lower
end) according to the Met Office regional climate maps so just misses
out on that top 10 list. It would do somewhat better if they limited
the list to real live towns and cities! Tideswell must do quite well,
too. 
For the 5 years 2009-2013 the average annual number of days with snow/sleet
falling in Tideswell is 51. The highest was 73 days in 2010 and the lowest
30 days in 2011. The average annual number of days with more than 50% snow
cover at 0900z is 35. The highest was 63 days in 2010 and the lowest 14
days in 2012.
5 years is, of course, a very short averaging period and, as Ken in Copley
has pointed out, 2009-2013 was a realtively snowy spell.
Thanks for that, the Met Office averages map seems not unreasonable
then, given that it places Buxton at the lower end of the 45 to 60
days band.
Many years ago when commuting daily to Buxton (via Long Hill) I used
occasionally to wander across to the Museum to have a read of the old
handwritten climat. records, which were especially interesting for
cold winters. Do you know if there is still an observer for the Buxton
climat. site or is it an AWS these days?
Incidentally I had my first air frost of the Winter last night, a
highly unimpressive -0.1 deg C.
There must still be an observer at Buxton as the site is still a 'manual' one.
It looks a bit unloved these days, getting a bit overgrown. Also, there are now
fairly substantial trees all around the enclosure. These probably would not
have been there 50 years ago or would have been very small. I suspect that the
trees are having an effect on the recordings, especially rainfall.
Getting back to the original topic of this thread any selection of snowiest,
wettest, hottest, coldest places etc is really rather meaningless unlessthe
full list of the locations on which the selection is based is stated.
Undoubtedly there are many locations in the British Isles that are snowier than
those shown on that Met Office page which, incidentally, no longer appears to
be available.
In the Daily Weather Summary issued by the Met Office there is a map of the UK
showing spot values of snow depths at 0900. Often, in winter, that map has the
words 'No Snow' printed across it even when there are extensive areas of lying
snow across the country above 500 metres. What they mean, of course, is that
there is no lying snow at any of the stations used in compiling the map, but
without listing those stations the map is rather meaningless. I've raised this
with them a few times but I might as well try talking to a brick wall :-(
--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.
http://peakdistrictweather.org