On 13/02/2016 21:19, Keith (Southend) wrote:
On 13/02/2016 19:58, Freddie wrote:
dawlish Wrote in message:
I pose it as a question, but would the synoptic situation that we've
had over the past 24 hours have submerged southern England in a
blanket of snow 20+ years ago? We've now got fairly strong
north-easterlies and cold rain at the most, over England.

No, as the continent is not cold. You have an Easterly that is 36
hours old, and the presssure pattern that caused the easterly
originated over the SW Approaches and propogated eastwards. An
identical synoptic situation 20 years ago would've had an
identical effect, all other things being equal.


I think the difference 20 years ago is the near continent would have
been much colder and we would be looking at temperatures hovering around
zero today. The ice has retreated much further north and east a bit like
all the glaciers have retreated higher up the mountains.

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I think Freddie is right but so are you. The two are not mutually
exclusive. There is no question that the North Sea is rarely as cold in
February as it used to be and the Baltic freezes much less. Has to have
an effect as air passes over it.
Dave