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

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

Anne Burgess wrote:
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



Quite correct Anne, I woke up this morning to half an inch of snow,
thinking that we had a heavy shower in the night.

Though I've just looked at my CCTV images from last night, and we had
continuous, mostly light snow for about two hours (4 to 6 am)

Joe
Wolverhampton
175m asl

Anne Burgess wrote:
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


I agree that 'heavy' refers to rate and not to accumulation.
I am naturally pleased to read elsewhere in this thread that the Met
Office definition agrees also.

But it is perhaps more interesting to see how many people think it
refers to depth, even when posting after the definition has been posted
a few times.


--
Gianna

In message , Anne
Burgess 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 ?
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
Anne, I agree. When observing I used to use visibility as a good guide,
generally 2000M was moderate and 1000M heavy.
Cheers
Paul
--
'Wisest are they that know they do not know.' Socrates.
Paul Bartlett FRMetS
www.rutnet.co.uk Go to local weather.
400FT AMSL 25Miles southwest of the Wash

"Paul Bartlett" wrote in message
Anne
Anne, I agree. When observing I used to use visibility as a good
guide, generally 2000M was moderate and 1000M heavy.
Cheers
Paul

.... the current advice (from the Met Office / Civil Aviation) for ATC
observers when deciding the intensity of snow is as follows:-

slight snow: visibility 4000m or greater
moderate snow: visibility less than 3000m
heavy snow: visibility less than 2000m

Like you Paul, I would have moved the 'heavy' category down to 'fog
limits', which is what we usually experience with heavy snow. I'm not
sure how these 'official' definitions were arrived at. However, they are
listed as a 'guide' rather than strict limits, so observers should still
use some discretion.

Martin.


--
FAQ & Glossary for uk.sci.weather at:-
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/booty.weather/uswfaqfr.htm
and
http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/metindex.htm

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)

"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