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Sea temperatures are one factor, but there are lots of other variables. Cold fronts that come down from the north are obviously going to hit northern areas first & as they move down across the UK they usually do so with a 'herring bone' effect, meaning that the snow will usually break up & move apart the further south it gets, so by the time it gets down here there is no snow... Also the upper air temperatures are normally not as cold over southern areas as they are further north, so precipitation will fall as rain here, when it may fall as snow further north... And even when the upper air temperatures are cold enough for snow, it can only take a slight change in wind direction, coming off the sea, to mix with the colder air & it will again fall as rain or sleet & not snow... Places like Kent & Sussex (& even London) can often get snow from the near continent, due to the short sea track, but here it has to cross more sea so again the colder air will get milder air mixed in & usually be rain/sleet... The best bet for getting snow on this part of the south coast is from an infamous 'Channel low' where a deep area of low pressure will bump into cold air & produce snow here, but these are quite rare & even when we do get those the snow is transient as the low pressure will eventually win (normally after a few hours) & the heavy snow will either turn to rain before it stops or it will cause a rapid rise in temperatures after it stops so that any lying snow melts.
So really the upper air isn't cold enough. I kind of noticed that when I watched the GFS. It seems to warm up rapidly after the middle of Northern Ireland and the South of Scotland.
Really? Even here it snows and lies down to the beach at least once a year. The hills above 600m are semi- alphine.
You know if you look on met office map beachs in shetland etc get like 40 days of snowfall. It is really easy to get snow here and often when we are forecast a minimum of rain and 3c, we end up getting snow and 0c. It is pretty easy to get. All you need is calm winds and heavy rain.
So why are you not getting it? Is the sea really hot?
Shetland gets a lot of sleet/snow falling but the vast majority of it won't settle.
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