On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 16:46:29 -0000, Philip Eden wrote in

snip
There was an article in 'Weather' in the mid-80s (I think) on the
factors required to produce very low minima in the UK
by Roach and Brownscombe. One of their conclusions was
that widespread lows below minus 10 almost always require
a snow-cover, preferably fresh and reasonably deep. It was
a rather patronising article, I remember thinking, and I trawled
the MWR and DWR for every occasion since 1945 when
a temperature of -10 or below was recorded with a less than
50% snow cover; I drafted a sarcastic Letter to the Editor, but
(probably wisely) never sent it. I think I found about 20 examples
in 40 years, but only 3 or 4 of these could reasonably have been
described as "widespread", and many of the others were
isolated observations at well-known frost-prone sites.

An added factor, if we do get low air temps next week, would be the
abnormally warm soil for January. The upward heat flux would make such low
temps unlikely over bare ground. If the cold spell were to be prolonged,
then clearly the soil would cool and lower minima would ensue.

I recall my lowest air temp here without snow over a 30 year period was
about -7C, but with snow was about -13C.

--
Mike 55.13°N 6.69°W Coleraine posted to uk.sci.weather 23/01/2004 17:39:53 UTC

"RJ Webb" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 18:20:32 GMT, (max) wrote:

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 18:01:41 -0000, "Tom"
wrote:

Ignore the media - they're more inaccurate in their everyday
non-weather reports than the met office are in their weather
forecasts!


The Grauniadh was at it today... Spouting crap about the cold weather
in Canada coming our way sigh

There was another howler on the BBC news this evening.
They were talking about temps at the south pole on Mars being
-120C. 'And that's 6 times colder than the freezer in this laboratory.......'

You might expect such sloppiness from the tabloids but you would
expect better from the so-called quality press and flagship news
programmes.

I wonder if they do *any* research at all into what they are saying
to check it isn't nonsense.

No wonder the public's understanding of weather and science in
general is so poor in this country.

Col
--
Bolton, Lancashire.
160m asl.
http://www.reddwarfer.btinternet.co.uk