Bit late posting but for me that was a very memorable spell.
I'd rate it about 8.5/10.
Temperatures were below freezing from Tuesday all the way until late Saturday afternoon. I think it was Wednesday which got no higher than -4C! All of the snow was pure powder with no marginality whatsover. I've never seen heavy convective snow falling before at temperatures of -6.5C at just 200 m asl.
We had true blizzard condition at times. Two days and nights of truly incredible winds (up to 80mph) which whipped the snow up into deep drifts normally reserved for the highest and most exposed roads around Glossop. We had a proper ground blizzard for a few hours on Thursday evening. No actual snow falling but visability was greatly reduced and previously gritted main roads were re-covered with snow.
At one point there was only one way out of Glossop. All other routes were blocked with drifiting snow. The council and farmers worked hard to dig out the roads by the weekend. Some of the drifts were house height at 400m asl with some cars completely buried in a layby just outside Glossop. Truly incredible scenes.
There are still drifts now at town level. Conditions at times were very dangerous with people becoming trapped on county lanes and trees coming down. Mad to think that the worst conditions came just a yellow warning over 12 hours after the severe winds had started. There was a genuine danger to life across the Peaks and Pennines at times.
Great to see a return of the huge icicles not seen since the big freeze of 2010!
Snowfall was up there with the best Easterlies in my lifetime in Glossop. I'm not yet 30. I was able to record a peak depth of around 25-26cm on my sheltered west facing bin. Elsewhere the depths were all over the place due to drifting. The heaviest convective snow fell on Tuesday evening/night with persistant light snow for the next couple of days following. Had the intesity kept up we could have easily had 2ft+ of snow.
Extra points also scored for the rapid thaw. From full cover on Saturday night, 90% had vanished by Sunday morning.
Deep cold Easterlies can really deliver to these parts (NW England but really close to or in the Pennines). The Pennines actually boost the showers in certain scenarios meaning we get simalar totals to places in the East. Further west of Manchester it's a different story.
Now let's see what the next spell delivers....
Edited by user
12 March 2018 18:42:22
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Reason: Not specified
Glossop Derbyshire, 200m asl