Why do European weather services not measure snowfall? (climate, record, days)

[Acajack]

I've noticed that in weather stats for European cities the average snowfall by month or by year in cm is almost never available.


All you get is "days with snow".


And of course a precipation number in mm that includes both rain and snow.


Why is that?

[ase42dv]

True! and I would like to know that

In Ávila, Spain for example which is at 1.132 masl (3.714 ft asl) gets 20 snowy days on a regular year with some heavy snow days. Why they don't measure it ?

They only tell "it has accumulated X cm" when it's a rare heavy snowfall. But in a normal term they not. Wondering why...

[B87]

Because snowfall is not regular enough or doesn't settle on the ground in many places.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by B87

Because snowfall is not regular enough or doesn't settle on the ground in many places.

In some places yes, but data is still very hard to find for colder climate countries like Germany, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Belarus, Russia, etc.

[alex985]

European meteorological agencies seem to be lacking when it comes to stats recording honestly (no offense).


Keeping data on snow depth at the end of the month or snow days seems rather pointless the amount of snow that falls is much more helpful.

[alex985]

Originally Posted by B87

Because snowfall is not regular enough or doesn't settle on the ground in many places.

That's a poor excuse, considering every European country has at least a few places that see snow a couple of times a year.....

[B87]

Originally Posted by alex985

That's a poor excuse, considering every European country has at least a few places that see snow a couple of times a year.....

Yes, but a lot of the time it doesn't settle, which makes measuring the snow depth difficult...

Our Met Office considers a 'day with snow lying' to be any amount of snow, covering at least 50% of the ground. Even if it was so thin that it looked like a heavy frost - but covered over half the ground - it would count as a day with snow lying.

[ben86]

On Ogimet at least you can get hourly snow depths for a lot of places so measurements are taken and the info is available, I have no idea why met offices don't use it to collate proper statistics on how much falls.

When you look at how detailed the info is on the US/Canadian/Australian weather services' websites I don't really see why our Met Office can't at least put record highs/lows for each site for each month, it's a pain having to go through year after year of data manually to check if Bingley's broken a record.

[flamingGalah!]

Originally Posted by alex985

That's a poor excuse, considering every European country has at least a few places that see snow a couple of times a year.....

Not every country

[flamingGalah!]

Originally Posted by ben86

On Ogimet at least you can get hourly snow depths for a lot of places so measurements are taken and the info is available, I have no idea why met offices don't use it to collate proper statistics on how much falls.

When you look at how detailed the info is on the US/Canadian/Australian weather services' websites I don't really see why our Met Office can't at least put record highs/lows for each site for each month, it's a pain having to go through year after year of data manually to check if Bingley's broken a record.

It's because the Met Office want to charge you for that data, quite outrageous, all info should be freely available...