Several Flash Warnings mention "Heavy Snow" of 2 to 5 cm in depth. Now
to me less than 1 inch of lying snow is not exactly a heavy
accumulation, I remember one night in Bradford when we had 5 inches in 3
hours or so. Has Global Warming made the people of the UK so less used
to snowfall ? Maybe the Met Office needs to tame down their seemingly
dire warnings ?

Michael.

"Michael" wrote in message
.. .
Several Flash Warnings mention "Heavy Snow" of 2 to 5 cm in depth. Now to
me less than 1 inch of lying snow is not exactly a heavy accumulation, I
remember one night in Bradford when we had 5 inches in 3 hours or so. Has
Global Warming made the people of the UK so less used to snowfall ? Maybe
the Met Office needs to tame down their seemingly dire warnings ?


Heavy to me would be at least 15-20cm depth

Several Flash Warnings mention "Heavy Snow" of 2 to 5 cm in depth. Now to
me less than 1 inch of lying snow is not exactly a heavy accumulation, I
remember one night in Bradford when we had 5 inches in 3 hours or so. Has
Global Warming made the people of the UK so less used to snowfall ? Maybe
the Met Office needs to tame down their seemingly dire warnings ?
Michael.

Surely 'heavy snow' should be an assessment of the *rate* of snowfall, not
the accumulated depth? A light dusting of snow falling on top of an
accumulated metre is not 'heavy snow' - well, not to me, at any rate.

Anne

Anne

In article ,
Michael writes:
Several Flash Warnings mention "Heavy Snow" of 2 to 5 cm in depth. Now
to me less than 1 inch of lying snow is not exactly a heavy
accumulation, I remember one night in Bradford when we had 5 inches in
3 hours or so. Has Global Warming made the people of the UK so less
used to snowfall ? Maybe the Met Office needs to tame down their
seemingly dire warnings ?

IIRC, back in the 1960s 8 inches or more was heavy snow and 4-8 inches
was moderate snow.
--
John Hall
"Three o'clock is always too late or too early
for anything you want to do."
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

Anne Burgess wrote:

Surely 'heavy snow' should be an assessment of the *rate* of snowfall, not
the accumulated depth? A light dusting of snow falling on top of an
accumulated metre is not 'heavy snow' - well, not to me, at any rate.

Yes - the MO definition of 'heavy snow' is "Snow falling at a rate of 2
cm/hour or more expected for at least two hours.".

http://www.metoffice.com/weather/eur...ningguide.html
--
Steve Loft, Glenlivet. 200m ASL
Weather and webcam:
http://www.livet.org.uk/weather

On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 21:05:00 -0500, Michael wrote:

Maybe the Met Office needs to tame down their seemingly dire warnings ?

http://www.meto.gov.uk/weather/europ...ningguide.html

"Heavy snow - Snow falling at a rate of 2 cm/hour or more expected for at
least two hours."

This is what they base the heavy snow warning on. You might be thinking
of "Very heavy snow - Snow falling at a rate of 2 cm/hour or more
expected for at least two hours, accumulating to 15 cm or more."

Looking at that warning guide page have they re-defined "Blizzard"? I'm
sure it was windier (F7/32mph or F8/39mph) and less visibility (50m)
instead of 30mph/200m.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

"Michael" wrote in message
.. .
Several Flash Warnings mention "Heavy Snow" of 2 to 5 cm in depth. Now to
me less than 1 inch of lying snow is not exactly a heavy accumulation, I
remember one night in Bradford when we had 5 inches in 3 hours or so. Has
Global Warming made the people of the UK so less used to snowfall ? Maybe
the Met Office needs to tame down their seemingly dire warnings ?

Michael.

According to UKMO Meteorological Glossary 'a rate of accumulation of snow
(in the absence of drifting) greater than 4cm/hour'

I also see Steve Loft's report from Glenlivet of 28cm of snow this morning
which is a greater depth than I have ever recorded here (since 1976)

All the best
--
George in Epping, West Essex (107m asl)
www.eppingweather.co.uk
www.winter1947.co.uk

"Michael" wrote in message
.. .
Several Flash Warnings mention "Heavy Snow" of 2 to 5 cm in depth. Now to
me less than 1 inch of lying snow is not exactly a heavy accumulation, I
remember one night in Bradford when we had 5 inches in 3 hours or so. Has
Global Warming made the people of the UK so less used to snowfall ? Maybe
the Met Office needs to tame down their seemingly dire warnings ?

Michael.

(Apologies if this message arrives in duplicate as my previous reply seems
to have disappeared into cyberspace)

According to UKMO Meteorological Glossary 'a rate of accumulation of snow
(in the absence of drifting) greater than 4cm/hour'

I also see Steve Loft's report from Glenlivet of 28cm of snow this morning
which is a greater depth than I have ever recorded here (since 1976)

All the best

--
George in Epping, West Essex (107m asl)
www.eppingweather.co.uk
www.winter1947.co.uk

I also see Steve Loft's report from Glenlivet of 28cm of snow this
morning
which is a greater depth than I have ever recorded here (since 1976)

It's the most snow I can remember experiencing for a very long time. I
seem to remember one event back in the 80's when I lived in Cheadle in
Staffordshire when I think there was more than this, and certainly some
huge drifts - my car on the drive was completely buried. I think it may
have been 1984 or 1985, does anyone know?

I think the most I have ever seen was beside Loch Glascarnoch one winter in
the early 1970s when I drove through a snow cutting twice or three times the
height of my car (OK, it was just a Mini but still ... )

I also saw film taken on Cairngorm in 1963 of people on skis jumping over
the top of buses in the snow cutting on the road up to the car park. (I
wonder what happened to that film? I bet the Scottish Film Archive would
like to have it!)

Anne

On Thu, 2 Mar 2006 09:52:19 -0000, George Booth wrote:

According to UKMO Meteorological Glossary 'a rate of accumulation of
snow (in the absence of drifting) greater than 4cm/hour'

Some one needs to tell the the Meto's left hand what the right hand is
saying... But that might be station reports rather than trigger levels
for issuance of warnings. B-)

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail