Interesting reading other comments esp yours John. I have so much to say on this - It certainly ended very well but like you it's a shame it didn't occur earlier but it was well worth the wait, seeing as Exeter missed out virtually between the whole of Monday and Wednesday in terms of snow showers. Yet the very city including two towns which haven't seen snow are in the red Met Office warning zone (Exeter, Crediton, Tiverton, Cullompton etc). So that's what I call fate!?
Thursdays blizzard was spot on although perhaps started a little earlier than expected as I woke up to a dusting of power and flakes in the wind but from around 2pm Thursday it really came down and came down like old fun! Never have I seen such heavy snow fall - we had perhaps 10cms or 4-5" in 3 hours. The blizzard total gave us around 7 ins of snow. Shops closed early and transport systems stopped running! It reminded me of a snowfall event in Toronto back in Jan 2005, but shops stayed open and public transport continues - I think Jiries was there too. This was pure powdery snow 6 to 7 ins of it! - also it was lovely seeing little young ones enjoying it as some younger than 5 have never seen snowfall and settling in Exeter. So for a blizzard and snowfall settling must have been over whelming! - It was really nice to see people esp children and families happy and positive vibes - it really lifted their spirits which lifts yours - well it did mine. Of course feel for those who may have been stuck or stranded! - Thank goodness it was my week off!) ha!
So After yesterdays blizzard of 6- 8" in parts of Exeter city (difficult to measure depth as it was drifting). Woke up to sheet ice so all that powder snow which fell had frozen thanks to freezing rain last night and most of the day we had light snow followed by tiny ice pellets/sleet/snizzze then the odd flake mixed in as temp dropped to -0.3c and then all the precipitation becoming snowflakes and this left a trace to 0.5 of a cm. The very interesting part was actually seeing those tiny ice pellets of drizzle gradually turning more and more snow like and snow flakes. - This lasted for for two hours but it was lighter snow and it did alternate between ice pellets and snowflakes in heavier bursts but even those ice pellets settled, so we ended in large snowflakes this afternoon giving additional covering to Existing covering! - Just observing that transition from drizzle to ice pellets to snowflakes in the precipitation this afternoon evening looked mesmerising. It was almost like it was drizzle/rain _=boo!! then ice pellets/snizzle for half an hour and then the odd flake mixed in with it looking up at it then more flakes than ice pellets then all flakes and no ice pellets haha! - It really was a classic transition from one precipitation to another and to another. - Today's event reminded me of a day in an 2013 i think 17th but it was more the fact it was sleety rain and back to sleet and nothing settled as the temp was around +1.5 or something!
We had two official ice days Wed and Thursday - Wed temp rose to 0.2c but i'll consider this an ice day. Thursdays max was -2c - perhaps the coldest daytime max since December 2010. I know somewhere in Somerset recorded a temp no higher than -4c which was the coldest ever daytime max for a spring month of March.
We had the coldest daytime max of -2c on Thursday - and coldest winters daytime max of 0.2c on 28th Feb which has been the coldest daytime max since i have witnessed since moving here in 2011. I think for winter stats the max of 0.2c could well have been the coldest max since that December to remember in 2010.
The Quay had partly frozen over for the first time since Dec 2010 with snow settling on the thin ice (albeit slush) and on shallower parts of the Quay. I'll upload some photos of everything in due course. What was also impressive was also seeing such huge icicles from gutters and esp from buildings in High street - some parts were closed off by police due to safety.
Also the freezing rain causing glaze - it really looked lovely! - Just hope I can get out my driveway tomorrow - this is some real Canadian/NE USA Nor/easter style winterstorm weather here! Another good thing was lampost watching Tuesday night and Wednesday night!
I can't rate this but I will say that it was worth the wait - it really was! If it wasn't for storm Emma then I would have given this a 0/10. If it wasn't for the freezing rain Thursday night then the snow would have not turned into sheet thick ice/glaze on top - which of course meant I couldn't make use of the snow and when I could do for a snowball fight it was too powdery! Nice to walk on as the top layer had frozen and it just went "crunch!" ha!
This has ended poorly with heavy rain - I would rather see a gradual warm up and the sun to come out as well. But it's heavy rain and freezing rain too is never good because it becomes sheet ice on top of snow! It's raining heavily now as I type. So the long and short was that it got off to a really frustrating start, esp knowing many places like Plymouth, Falmouth etc and so on got snow and Exeter didn't see any thing. Then looking on the rainfall radar seeing the English channel streamer 50 miles south of us!
It was such a 'sigh' of relief in the end as the beast certainly made up for it's lost time and I pleased to announce that Exeter snow drought has ended. - First accumulation since perhaps Feb 2012 or Jan & March 2013 and the first significant fall of snow and accumulation since 2010. Even more impressive is that this has purely been snow started off as snow the blizzard and ended as snow too! - Just a shame freezing rain followed early hours of Friday.
I know many other parts has seen snow - but even in London - there have been snow showers and dustings with more flurries and more dustings or light snow for days but totals haven't been that great "2" is the max from what I observed and heard.
Exeter and most of East Devon, West Somerset and Dorset as per above missed all this nonsense etc had between "6 - 8" in the space of a 5 or so hours. I don't know what I would have preferred looking back. More frequent snow each day giving little accumulations or a no snow followed by a blizzard! I think many parts (excluding NE) but London had snow shower after snow shower giving little accumulation or flakes evaporating and only giving a dustings where as we had a well forecast red warning for a blizzard giving a dump (which is memorable too!?) The GFS/Met O and or BBC could have easily backed off from this and I thought they would have done. Even the day before the blizzard was forecast. - I thought this because we have been let down before many a time - most notorious was back in March 2013 when the channel isles got a dump and we (Devon) were forecast to have heavy snow (potential blizzards) but never did, because the system moved further south closer to the time.
Cardiff got 50cms of snow, that almost breaks if not has broken records!? Even December 2010 there was similar amount but it took several snowfalls to get to this amount and of course it lasted longer. NIGHTS were colder too.
So we know snow showers are very hit and miss with easterlies and also this easterly never really gave us a severe frost. - too windy! The greatest frost was perhaps near the start Monday morning!
So as mentioned above - if only this had occurred earlier in season, we could have broken more records!?
Part of me feels upset that, if only this low could just give us the blizzard only and then stay south or sink south after to keep us in the cold easterly for longer so we could record some nightime lows with the snow cover!? But another part of me feel's that this cold an snow has to end soon because it is spring and it needs to melt and soon because the driveway in my cul-de sac is under half a foot of snow/sheet ice and my car is frozen solid due to freezing rain.
Just hope we don't have to wait another decade or so for this to occur and when it does - make sure it happens in winter! 🙂 -I agree with John above - it would have been more memorable and snowy as well as colder etc, had it occurred earlier on. But with longer days we got to see the snow longer in daylight hours I guess and not dark by 4pm - So it has it's pros and cons.
Another thing which has been fantastic with this Siberian feast from the east - is the snow is not only dry, powdery and settles everywhere like icing sugar and was never transitional, but (unless it's pure luck) the heavy snow/blizzard actually fell during time hours so it could be observed and experienced. Unlike pulses of sticky wet snow back in winter 12/13 which occurred night time and to some extent December 2010 and Feb 2009. Those snowfalls that gave good accumulations occurred overnight into early hours, when everyone was/is asleep. - So of course no on experienced this. - Only upon waking to see the covering. etc.
Back to here and now - One thing for sure is certain- It will be a fantastic weekend for skiing in Scotland highlands where the cold is due to last all weekend and plenty of fresh powder there i bet!
I can talk on for ages but will leave it here - Photo's will be added to this message in due course.
Sorry for delay:
Here with photos commencing Friday 10 am view looking out my bedroom window:
It was just what I wanted to experience - I was actually much happier with the blizzard which gave us a dump perhaps the same levels as we got in Dec 2010 but not lasting as long and a blizzard and falling during the daytime this time around unlike 2010 when most of the snow event's were in the form of showers and at nighttime. As much as I moaned that the channel isles and south Devon and cornwall etc got snow showers when Exeter got nothing I was much happier with this blizzard - rather than snow showers giving dustings of 0.5cms to 1cm each time and flakes just blowing around in wind giving a trace or evaporating - like some have reported on here.
So the snow day was Thursday afternoon into evening but it started off as a few flakes followed by light snow. Temp was -3c all day rose to -2.5c by early evening. It was at it's heaviest around 6pm. - Powdery dry snow. We also had freezing rain Thursday night followed by ice pellets then more snow and then on Friday we had freezing rain thus crutch - lot's of glaze and sheet ice and then afternoon we had snizzle /ice pellets followed by heavy snizzle and then moderate snow that gave an additional 0.5 to 1cm of covering and temperature dropped from 0.2c to -0.5c in the snow shower on Friday which lasted from 3pm to 5/530pm ish. The main snowfall event was on Thursday of course. Shame the freezing rain ruined things so not sure of the depth but was around 7 inches to take the average - So perhaps 17cm's of snow. It's not easy to measure the snow depth esp as some was drifting - some places exceeded 20cms of snow come Thursday night where as other spots didn't make 15 cm's. SO I take the average of 17cms which is what we had back in 2010 - albeit it took two snowfall's (both at night times) to get tho this amount.
Views From my house the day commences @ 11am:
11 am - Few flakes and flurries
12pm midday - Flurries/light snow with tiny flakes
1pm light snow becoming moderate snow
2pm - Heavy snow - with blizzards and drifting off rooftops:
Fast forward (as I was in town).
Just after 5pm:
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Exeter high street around mid afternoon: - As you can see busy eh!? Buses and shops - people @ work ha! Again the snow was being blown off rooftops and even road and pavements which added to the drifting which made it look more severe and the snow heavier of course.
Castle Street
Queen st:
Gandy Street:
Exeter Cathedral in a blizzard:
Exeter Quay 5:30pm Thursday: - Already 4-5 inches in places.
View of the Waterfront -Exeter Quay
FRIDAY:
After light snow followed by freezing rain there was (as alluded to above) more snow in the afternoon Friday - the drizzle became snizzle which then became flakes and then moderate and at times heavy snow for 2 hours which then became flakes and then freezing rain followed by light rain as temps rose above 0c late on Friday to ruin things!
This was in Exeter high street once again - Love those icicles: - This reminded me of streets in Toronto!
Exeter Cathedral on Friday around 4pm when freezing drizzle pellets turned back to pure snow.
Freezing rain during most of Friday gave us Glaze: - By my driveway on the Quay!
Such a shame it melted quickly, but it did start earlier- by 9am as seen in first few pics there was already a trace/dusting! - and as I may have said it came far too late in the season but it was well worth the wait. Even though London had snow on more days - just like Plymouth and Truro from that English channel streamer there wasn't more that 5cms of lying snow there and they didn't really experience the full dump' of the blizzard we did. Again there were many other locations - perhaps Aberdeen even where by snow fell many days but there wasn't a period of heavy persistent snow or blizzard like in east Devon, Somerset and Bristol & Avon which lasted 6 - 8 hours or so. This really made up for it's lost time and everyone was so excited and happy - which made me happy! I feel emotional in some ways because I don't know when we will next see any snow let alone a blizzard dumping up to 1ft of snow in some parts of the SW. - It was worth the wait. But shame it wasn't earlier. It would have also been nice if skies cleared that night to allow temps to plummet so we could have recorded some record low's but sadly temps rose.
That being said - i'll rate this event a good 9 out of 10. - This easterly with the blizzard made me feel as if I was in Toronto Canada! I felt like it was a lake effect snow event too but instead Bay of Biscay effect snow!
I was beginning to give up hope as you know and i honestly thought the models would flip, like always! If I was asked a couple weeks back I would have never had guessed Exeter would have seen snow again this year let alone have a blizzard! Best of all it was as good as the great Blizzard of Toronto on 21st Jan 2005 - This blizzard only lost a few marks for the fact that there was rain and freezing rain on Thursday night as well as Friday and Friday wasn't an official ice day.
In fact to compare this was the great blizzard in Toronto Canada - Jan 2005: -See below - This is Spadina Avenue and Queens street:
People still out and buses/trams working as normal as well as the cars moving as they normally would do regardless of the weather.
Toronto's Blizzard 21st Jan 2005: - Well, it just looks like a normal day really!? People get on with their every day lives and even drive too.
Exeter's Blizzard 1st March 2018:
Very similar in terms of snow depths and temps (both sub-zero in terms of temperatures!) and powder snow but notice shops all closed and no public transport compared to above in Toronto where by tram and buses still operate and cars can still drive to where they have to go to and in general people continue to commute. In Exeter - not one bus or car was spotted moving after 3pm if you see below pic.
Icicles off buildings in Exeter: On High street and Queen st (ironic eh?) - Another Queen street!? OOB's too!
Icicles on a street in Toronto on queen st:
Edited by user
Monday, March 5, 2018 2:30:40 AM
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Reason: Not specified
Home Location - Kellands Lane, Okehampton, Devon (200m ASL)
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Sean Moon
Magical Moon
www.magical-moon.com