Cold in March is pointless from a true southern point of view.. It's about as useful as laxatives are when you have the trots!!

So yes winter is approaching it's last legs for this season down in the true south.

So I won't remind you of the many March cold spells, nor of March 2013 specifically.

As of today there is 38/90ths of winter remaining. That's barely past half way.   I'll accept that the next 5 days can be added, but that still leaves well over one-third. 

But of course you can trot out 'the sun is getting stronger now', which of course it never did before the modern era...  

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And f1 is were they've been all season long!! 

Is this the motor racing thread now? 

 

So I won't remind you of the many March cold spells, nor of March 2013 specifically.

 

As of today there is 38/90ths of winter remaining. That's barely past half way.   I'll accept that the next 5 days can be added, but that still leaves well over one-third. 

But of course you can trot out 'the sun is getting stronger now', which of course it never did before the modern era...  

Remind me exactly of what in 2013?? One morning were there was a little wet snow that had thawed by noon despite the air temp being around 2C, thick cloud cover, minus double digits 850's, and a biting NE wind- the suns rays are still able to penetrate the clouds by March. 

Spring in the true south arrives by mid February.. spring officially begins on 1st of March for the whole of the UK.

 

And f1 is were they've been all season long!! 

Is this the motor racing thread now? 

Yep fast racing towards spring down south 😁

 

Remind me exactly of what in 2013?? One morning were there was a little wet snow that had thawed by noon despite the air temp being around 2C, thick cloud cover, minus double digits 850's, and a biting NE wind- the suns rays are still able to penetrate the clouds by March. 

Spring in the true south arrives by mid February.. spring officially begins on 1st of March for the whole of the UK.

Not true at all, I live in Hampshire and March 2013 delivered ice days into the fourth week! I have a photo of the car thermometer reading -1C at 1.42pm on March 24th, in among photos of a walk through the snow. If Hampshire isn't the "true south" of the country then I don't know what is? The Lizard, maybe?

 

 

Not true at all, I live in Hampshire and March 2013 delivered ice days into the fourth week! I have a photo of the car thermometer reading -1C at 1.42pm on March 24th, in among photos of a walk through the snow. If Hampshire isn't the "true south" of the country then I don't know what is? The Lizard, maybe?

Perhaps on the higher ground on the downs and towards the Surrey border but it was still snowless for the most part. 

And cold pockets can happen in Hampshire with ice days even in October - fog & mist can be stubborn and there are plenty of frost hollows in the county.

Certainly wasn't snowless around here. Fleet pond was frozen for a couple of weeks IIRC and that is at 60m asl.

Anyway the latest GFS ensembles certainly show a significant cooldown on the cards for early February, and not even the most ardent mildies can argue that the first half of February is "too late" for decent cold weather down south!

Mean pressure anomaly chart at T372 - the trend is definitely there and there are some proper old-school easterlies among the ens.

 

 

Not true at all, I live in Hampshire and March 2013 delivered ice days into the fourth week! I have a photo of the car thermometer reading -1C at 1.42pm on March 24th, in among photos of a walk through the snow. If Hampshire isn't the "true south" of the country then I don't know what is? The Lizard, maybe?

it is difficult to argue against evidence but some will! As you say some signs of an easterly some would argue Feb 91 didn’t deliver !

Certainly wasn't snowless around here. Fleet pond was frozen for a couple of weeks IIRC and that is at 60m asl.

Anyway the latest GFS ensembles certainly show a significant cooldown on the cards for early February, and not even the most ardent mildies can argue that the first half of February is "too late" for decent cold weather down south!

 

Mean pressure anomaly chart at T372 - the trend is definitely there and there are some proper old-school easterlies among the ens.

WELL checking back a the official data recorded At met stationss i see even Farnborough (nearest to fleet) only had one ice day - as in a day where the temperature didn' reach 1C.

That was on the 11th @ 0.7C. 

The 24-26th saw 3 days with temps reaching at or just above 1C.

https://en.tutiempo.net/climate/03-2013/ws-37680.html 

Yes early February can certainly deliver snow days still with a little cloud cover to help down here. 

From a imby perspective this winter so far has been the best in 5years..3 Snow events giving a overall total of 20 cm....9 days of recording snow falling..and rightly its only 22 Jan...As far as I see the potential is still there...Take yesterday....although snow totals were not excessive...it reminded me of when we used to get snow to mild breakdowns in the 70s....most breakdowns south of the Trent usually only get rain...dp and 850 and altitude dependant...but yesterday was a reminder that it is still possible....

I can relate to that too. Yesterday was an uncanny reminder of Sunday 20th Jan 1985 in these parts. Although it’d been a cold month we’d not seen any snow up to that point. I can remember being so disappointed that it was just wet snow that quickly dissapeared. 

After that it turned very mild into Feb and thoughts were we’d not get any decent snow that winter.

Then by the weekend of 9/10 Feb we were digging our way out the back door! 

WELL checking back a the official data recorded At met stationss i see even Farnborough (nearest to fleet) only had one ice day - as in a day where the temperature didn' reach 1C.

That's not an ice day - an ice day is when the temperature doesn't go above 0.0C. (Some would say -0.0C, as in it doesn't go above freezing point whatsoever.) 0.7C isn't an ice day.

 

That's not an ice day - an ice day is when the temperature doesn't go above 0.0C. (Some would say -0.0C, as in it doesn't go above freezing point whatsoever.) 0.7C isn't an ice day.

My understanding is that 0.0°C is not an ice day.

 

That's not an ice day - an ice day is when the temperature doesn't go above 0.0C. (Some would say -0.0C, as in it doesn't go above freezing point whatsoever.) 0.7C isn't an ice day.

So  in that case then even the coldest day of March 2013 was not a true ice day down here in Hampshire.

 

My understanding is that 0.0°C is not an ice day.

So is it -0.1C and lower?

 

So is it -0.1C and lower?

Logic would probably dictate that it's any number in degrees Celsius that is expressed with a minus sign in front of it. 

 

I can relate to that too. Yesterday was an uncanny reminder of Sunday 20th Jan 1985 in these parts. Although it’d been a cold month we’d not seen any snow up to that point. I can remember being so disappointed that it was just wet snow that quickly dissapeared. 

After that it turned very mild into Feb and thoughts were we’d not get any decent snow that winter.

Then by the weekend of 9/10 Feb we were digging our way out the back door! 

I was living in a village about 10 miles from Burton and I remember that spell well. The snow was so dry and powdery that the fields were almost clear of snow, but in the lee of hedges and some of the lanes there were some huge drifts and some of them must have been 3 to 4 metres tall.

 

Remind me exactly of what in 2013?? One morning were there was a little wet snow that had thawed by noon despite the air temp being around 2C, thick cloud cover, minus double digits 850's, and a biting NE wind- the suns rays are still able to penetrate the clouds by March. 

Spring in the true south arrives by mid February.. spring officially begins on 1st of March for the whole of the UK.

March 12th 2013. Channel islands so further than the south coast had near a foot of snow. So if the channel islands can get lying snow in March there is hope for all. Winter is not over. Looking at the 6z GFS this would testify there is still time.

 

So is it -0.1C and lower?

Well... depends on the accuracy of your thermometer! -0.0000001°C would be an ice day, for example.

Certainly wasn't snowless around here. Fleet pond was frozen for a couple of weeks IIRC and that is at 60m asl.

I think maybe you're thinking of another spell? 

Looking at the Farnborough data for that month (March 2013), there was only one day with a mean temperature below freezing, and that was the 11th with a max of +0.7C and a min of -2C.

There were three days when snow fell; the 11th and the 12th when Farnborough recorded no measurable precipitation, so these must have just been flurries. The main snow day was 23rd which in Arborfield was much like yesterday morning; wet snow struggling to stick and almost making the grass look white. It certainly wasn't enough to make a snowman, or even a snowball.

I know places further east, Kent for example, got some decent snow. But for Arborfield (and that's only 6 miles from your house) it was one of those disappointing spells in terms of decent snow, much like December 2010 when we also got short changed, and in fact the whole of this winter so far! Compare that to April 2008 when we had nearly 5 inches of snow on the 6th.