On Saturday, 13 February 2016 19:58:16 UTC, 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.

--
Freddie

Yes, it's not An Easterly as we know and love, well, some people. The air in it has been lurking not too far from these islands and doesn't come from anything like far enough east to be seriously cold. Having said that, the North Sea and near continent are a little warmer than normal.

Tudor Hughes.