Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Man, I'd sure feel frustrated if I lived at 50 feet, one tiny, teensy, little mile from a 1100-foot hill...lol. I bet there are days you can stand out in your yard in the rain and see snow falling up on the hill nearby, huh?
This is the kind of thing I was looking at during my trip up to the Keweenaw (one of the places I hope to move to once I leave Atlanta) - the larger town of Houghton is at 600 feet, while a smaller town 12 miles away is located at 1225 feet - guess where I'd rather live? lol. I asked one of the locals if there was a big difference between 600 feet and 1200 feet, they indicated that while both locations get a huge amount of snow, being 600 feet higher does help, due to the orographic lift of lake effect snow. In my dream world, I'd raise that up to about 2500 feet, but alas, there is no place in Michigan that exceeds 2000 feet (1979', to be exact). But then again, I'd be moving from a place that averages two (2) inches a snow a year - so I shouldn't be getting too greedy, huh?
Actually I get very angry alot. I hate living here at this level. I always see the cars coming down the hill with big chunks of snow on their roofs when I am going to school and we just have wet ground and you would not believe how much half a degree makes.
I will take a pic of it this winter as its guarnteed to happen. It happens every single year without fail.
19 miles is a 'big deal' when you're discussing areas that are generally low in elevation anyway. Rain/wet snow in York but heavy snow in Leeds, that's quite a big difference for two cities that aren't far apart. It shows how the slightest difference in elevation can make all the difference - especially last winter which had a lot of marginal events.
In fact, there was a person on NetWeather in Normanton, near Wakefield, who would often report wet, non-settling snow while we had settling snow here, because they are lower down in elevation, despite being 10 miles away. They are around 40-70m asl, so not much different to here (86m).
Wouldn't the Penines and the Scottish Highlands absorb a lot of the snow that would have otherwise made it across the Irish Sea anyway? Or is there some kind of local lake effect snow because of the Irish Sea, considering that your cold fronts blow in from Norway?
When we get cold temperatures it normally arrives from the N/NE/E not the NW, the N/NE/E winds can bring in snow showers produced by lake effect. Also areas of low pressure can brush Eastern Britain on occasions we got such a event last winter, it snowed all day.
You can see the little white specs which are snow showers - sometimes there much more substantial, at the end of your forecast you can see the low pressure moving up from France up to the east coast of Britain
So the reason why I keep saying that east is best for snow is because most of our snowfall comes in the form of showers brought in by N/NE/E winds and the pennines and the Scottish Mountains block the snow from hitting Northern Ireland, Western Scotland, West Wales and the Soutwest of England.
Most of the time Northwesterly winds are not that cold and bring in very little snow especially this far south and east which is due to the Pennines.
The Northeast seem to be the first location in the UK to get snow
Quote:
Originally Posted by dunno what to put here
Yes, the Pennines do tend to kill snow showers coming in from the North Sea, so areas further west miss out, although most of our snow comes in the form of fronts and they often arrive from the SW, when milder air collides with colder air. A lot of the time, the milder air may have 'won out' in NW England and they may get rain, while snow falls across NE England under the colder air.
NE winds tend to be colder too so even though they occur less frequently than NW winds, they'll typically provide more snow and cold. A NW wind isn't always very cold - it may just bring cold rain showers or hail, or sleet or wet snow that doesn't settle away from high ground.
Frontal producing snow here in the southeast is bad news. But further North and east they get snow, normally we'll get rain while Birmingham gets snow.
I don't know where p london is getting this ne wind business out of. Nw winds are the most common cold winds in the winter and incase you did not notice the 2010 cold spell which brought me 5 weeks of snow came from the north west aka greenland express.
Ne winds are very rare. Well here anyway.
I don't know where p london is getting this ne wind business out of. Nw winds are the most common cold winds in the winter and incase you did not notice the 2010 cold spell which brought me 5 weeks of snow came from the north west aka greenland express.
Ne winds are very rare. Well here anyway.
NE winds here are not very rare, and they are colder than NW winds, so even though they occur less frequently, they will provide colder, snowier weather to the affected regions. There are exceptions - such as late December 2010, but late November 2010 and into early December provided an almost constant succession of snow showers for NE England and E Scotland, and then we had temps of -20C in the Vale of York and highs of -7C.
Quote:
Originally Posted by P London
When we get cold temperatures it normally arrives from the N/NE/E not the NW, the N/NE/E winds can bring in snow showers produced by lake effect. Also areas of low pressure can brush Eastern Britain on occasions we got such a event last winter, it snowed all day.
You can see the little white specs which are snow showers - sometimes there much more substantial, at the end of your forecast you can see the low pressure moving up from France up to the east coast of Britain
So the reason why I keep saying that east is best for snow is because most of our snowfall comes in the form of showers brought in by N/NE/E winds and the pennines and the Scottish Mountains block the snow from hitting Northern Ireland, Western Scotland, West Wales and the Soutwest of England.
Most of the time Northwesterly winds are not that cold and bring in very little snow especially this far south and east which is due to the Pennines.
The Northeast seem to be the first location in the UK to get snow
Frontal producing snow here in the southeast is bad news. But further North and east they get snow, normally we'll get rain while Birmingham gets snow.
Low pressure affected SE England in early March too, the 11t I believe, and delivered blizzards to the south coast and the Channel Islands, and the same thing happened on 2 December 2010 and gave over a foot of snow to some areas such as Surrey and even south London (Crodyon etc).
Actually I get very angry alot. I hate living here at this level. I always see the cars coming down the hill with big chunks of snow on their roofs when I am going to school and we just have wet ground and you would not believe how much half a degree makes.
I will take a pic of it this winter as its guarnteed to happen. It happens every single year without fail.
I feel your pain. I'd be angry too...lol. In North Carolina, where I lived there wasn't much elevation difference in my immediate area, but we'd always be on the border of the north-south rain/snow line - sometimes it'd be all rain in town, while just a few miles north, it'd be heavy snow, man, that hurts bad to experience that...lol. So close, and yet no cigar. That's why when I do make my move (someday, someday...), I'm going to a place that's *guaranteed* to get a lot of snow, no ifs or buts about it...LOL.
Seems like NE winds are actually a bit more common than NW winds in London.
For Leeming, N Yorkshire:
NW winds are more common up here, but I can guarantee you that they are less cold and snowy in this part of the world compared to NE winds.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
But further North and east they get snow, normally we'll get rain while Birmingham gets snow. 
