All in all a great cold spell that I'll rate a 8 out of 10. Feels like a classic cold spell up there with Feb 1991 but not quite in the league of Jan 1987 etc. I'm basing this on a IMBY view and also an objective nationwide view. 

Also I'm not comparing this with Dec 2010 or Dec/Jan 82 because it was a short and sharp cold spell and not a long affair.

We had a classic synoptic pattern and a perfectly aligned scandinavian high for starters. 

We had a good build up to the cold blast with a cold and frost last weekend but that classic temperature dropping day by day. 

Snow has fallen every single day since Monday and we have had about 4 or 5 inches of powder snow with drifts of about 1 foot. 

We have had 3 consecutive ice days with temps between -1C and -3C and a low of -12C up the road in Farnborough. This temperature would of been smashed had cloud and snow not arrived around 3am.

To see the temperature at -4C and to see it snowing heavily outside is really quite exceptional. 

On a nationwide objective, Wednesday and Thursday were exceptional in terms of max temps with temps widely around -3C to -5C and minimums widely below -10C on Wednesday night. 

Thursday and Fridays snow storm in the SW was truly exceptional. I am pretty sure those parts of the world wont see that amount of snow for quite some time so a very rare event. 

Reasons why it wasn't an outright classic.

1) The cold spell didn't last long only about 7 days long by the time the cold is done but certainly better than anything since 2013.

2) Lack of truly exceptional cold night time temps below -15C to -20C. Had we of had no wind and cloudless skies, I am certain -20C would of been breached somewhere in the UK so perhaps a missed opportunity. 

3) And this is really nit picking...but its a shame the spell happened so late in the season. If this spell had happened in mid DEcember to mid Jan I am certain this spell of winter weather would have rivalled Jan 1987 because temperatures would have been 3 o4 degrees lower on average. 

All in all a good old retro classic easterly freeze up for many parts of the UK. I know some people missed out and I do feel your disappointment but looking at this objectively, this has been a classic nationwide cold spell up there with Feb 1991 and I feel we should all appreciate this because this is a very rare event on our shores the likes of which, we might not see again for another 5 to 10 years or more (But I'm hoping this isn't the case!)

Grant

Overall 6/10. For academic interest and stats it scores highly. For prettiness and wonder wonderland very low. Today in London looked more like Cold War Minsk in November than olde London Town in a Dickens novel.

The things that weren’t quite there:

- A snowy weekend (its all happened on working days)
- Sunshine for at least a day after thick snow has fallen
- Depth (here: 2cm. I realise others had much more)
- Happening in midwinter, ideally Christmas holidays
- Sticking to branches of trees to give that winter wonderland look - it all blew off
- Able to make snowmen and snowballs
- Days off work: my trains were running fine all week

Having said that it was really gratifying having snow fall in non-marginal conditions, and whilst not exactly Christmas card like, there was something romantically Dr Zhivagoesque about the windswept Siberian scenes and spindrift.

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It's certainly been a good, properly cold easterly spell here, astonishingly so for so late in the season. We missed out on most of the convective snow earlier in the week, but had frontal snow between about 4 and 6 pm yesterday afternoon. It only amounted to 3-4 cm, but as it was drifting and the temperature was well below zero it was quite impressive, settling at the edges and the centre of quite busy roads. Then it snowed for most of this afternoon, without much drifting this time, amounting to about 5 cm I'd guess (having not been out in it).

The cold spell fell well short of December 2010 or the winter of 2009-10 here in terms of duration and total snow amounts, but rates highly in terms of low maxima, the windchill, the powdery nature of much of the snow, the lack of slush (so far) and the drifting yesterday (which was most evident in some areas of pavements and roads being scoured clear of snow than in any notable drifts). And of course how late in the season it was made it even more impressive.

Using days off school as a criterion wouldn't have worked back in my childhood, when schools being closed because of the weather was very rare. Would you believe that in the winter of 1962-3 I never got a single day off school, even though I lived about 8 miles from my grammar school? The coach that was laid on because there was no direct bus service never failed to turn up, and the school was never closed. Admittedly, as luck would have it, all the really heavy snow fell either during the Christmas holidays or on a Saturday. Had the school been open on 27th or 30th December 1962, I'm sure I would never have been able to get there. As it turned out, the one day the school coach couldn't run due to the weather was following heavy overnight snow on 3rd-4th March 1965, a cold spell that in its severity so late in the winter has something in common with this one. See:

http://www.trevorharley.com/weather_web_pages/1965_weather.htm

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On a purely local level I would give it an 8 out of 10: three ice days (TBC), a -11C overnight low, and five days of falling snow, with three days (so far) of proper lying snow, a biting wind and a couple of glorious sunny crisp mornings.

Where it has missed out on is depth of snow - only topped out at 10cm, although maybe that would have been more if the garden hadn't been trampled by the kids! -  and the prettiness: the dry snow is responsible for much of that as it doesn't stick to trees and roofs so well. On the other hand that has made it easy to travel, although SWT clearly don't agree and the trains gave me a day at home (still working) today. Today has probably boosted it from a 7 to an 8/10, actually, for that reason and also because the snow was a bit stickier so better for snowballs etc.

Nationally I would have to give it a 9.5/10 as this has been a truly historic spell for so late in the season, with some huge snow depths, as well as freezing rain (not nice to experience, but interesting from a weather POV).

I'd be curious to know what the lowest thickness level recorded on an actual sounding was. Charts suggested 501dam at the peak of the cold, which would rate it in the top 4 cold pools of the past 70 years at any time of year.

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Objectively I will score this 8.5/10. Temperatures have remained below 0C for the last few days and I'll not forget walking to the pub and back last night for a St David's day meal. However it was not a patch on 1987 and I've come to the conclusion the reason for that has nothing to do with temperatures or snow amounts. It is all to do with age. I suspect young people will be talking nostalgically about this cold spell when they reach my age in the same way that I reference 1979 / 81 / 87 etc. The weather is about far more than statistics.  

 

Yes, I suspect nothing is going to better the 70s and  80s cold spells for me either.  Now I worry about failing heating, damage,  falling over, crashing the car (etc etc).  Then I had no responsibilities - thought I was indestructible (and was compared to my middle age self now !).

This spell has worked well for me though,  aside from attending a friends wedding, I was on holiday and had no  commitments to travel. Frankly, if it  had clashed with "day job"  commitments it  would rapidly have become a PITA !

 

 

 

 

 

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Yes, I suspect nothing is going to better the 70s and  80s cold spells for me either.  Now I worry about failing heating, damage,  falling over, crashing the car (etc etc).  Then I had no responsibilities - thought I was indestructible (and was compared to my middle age self now !).

This spell has worked well for me though,  aside from attending a friends wedding, I was on holiday and had no  commitments to travel. Frankly, if it  had clashed with "day job"  commitments it  would rapidly have become a PITA !

 

I'm 40 but still unashamedly a big kid when it comes to snow. I haven't taken the car out in it but I have been riding my bike through the snow and loving it. This morning I rode 4 miles through the woods to the station, found there were no trains (despite checking in advance on the app which assured me there were) and then rode back, via the local ponds to check out the ice. Beautiful.

 

I can't imagine ever getting sick of it. Maybe if I or a family member was ill and needed to get to hospital, but for now, bring it on, the more the merrier.

 

I kind of wish I had some of those insane hedge-filling drifts near me. Never seen anything like that in person in the UK.

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Four ice days, powder snow, a low of -11.7C on Tuesday night, one maximum of -4C and a few shortish icicles. It was a great spell, spoiled by the strength of the sun (even through cloud) and it was relatively short.

Not on a par with a 91, an 87 or a Feb 86, I'm afraid. I think some might be trying to put a gloss on this.

I rate it at 7/10.

But it dragged the winter up from a 1/10 to a 5/10.

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One wonders how much colder things would probably have got had this "Beast from the east" spell occurred a month or a couple of months ago when the sun was lower in the sky. Some pretty low temperatures would have very likely have been recorded in some areas, I reckon.

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On a cold perspective then 8/10 x pretty good. Freezing now. On a snow perspective a 3/10 as loads of flurries and little on the floor apart from Tuesday morning for 4 hours.
Martin

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It's been a great cold spell taking the nation as a whole, but IMBY we had deeper snow twice in December, although that was quite wet stuff and didn't last long. Despite being in the east, my location is quite sheltered from an easterly - a cold northerly is better here.

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Is it really over though? As discussed in the snow reports thread, the northward movement of the current front has stalled - is the Beast fighting back, or will the mild encroach over the weekend?

I don't think this fight is over yet.

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8/10

Positives:
5 days of powdery snowfall blowing like sugar in the wind... snow on snow and lying on all surfaces right up house
3 ice days, 1 with a -3c max
2 near ice days
No drip drip drip (that starts tomorrow)
9cm snow depth


Negatives:
The 9cm wasn’t 30+cm
No clear nights extreme night time temperatures
No sunny crisp days (though that would have ruined the ice days and caused dripping this time of year, so probably just as well!)
Could have lasted another day or so... any longer and i’d have had my fill

In fact, I’ll give this a 9/10 as it slew two weather myths that have become engrained in our psyche for a very long time now! The first being that you can’t get deep cold, powdery snow and ice days after mid Feb at low level south of the midlands. The second being that the Beast was dead, never to return... No he’d just been sleeping for 21/27 (depending if you counted 1997) years.

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8.5/10

Brilliant cold spell, made me feel like a kid again, the hue of the clouds, the cut in the wind, the size of the icicles. The only 2 things that prevented it being a 10 was depth of cold, without the wind there would have been nothing bone chilling and length, looks like Monday is the end which makes it 6 days, not as long as I would have liked

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9/10. Really pretty darn good for this part of the country. Several days of increasing cold, 2 ice days in a row, which on its own is rare. The snow amounted up to about 8cm combined, the only downside being at no stage was it ever impressively heavy. The powdery nature of the snow and the dryness of the air gave it a very Alpine feel, unlike our typical cold snaps.
Not as much snow as Dec 2010 but that truly was exceptional. The main reason I'm giving a high rating is that my 4 year old boy has been waiting for his first experience of snow, and playing outside in it together for the first time is something I'll never forget.

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I'd give it 5/10 here. It was cold, but did not feel remarkably cold (i.e. once in a lifetime cold). We got some snow gradually building up and a bit today, but when I draw a comparison with December 2010 it doesn't get anywhere near as close, for MBY.

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Feel a bit underwhelmed. We missed the streamer on Monday night and we only got a couple of inches max overall. Shame the ssw was too intense that the beast raced across to Greenland and the Iberian low ended the party early. Could have been so much better

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Isn't it a little premature to write the obituary for a Beast which might not yet be dead?

I have a feeling there is some life left in the old Beast after all.

Whatever happens, today has been awesome in Worcestershire.

P.S. looking at the current satellite image, Emma has split in two and the southern circulation is moving into central France south of Bordeaux, much further south than the fax chart predicted - if that moves up towards Holland, it could re-invigorate the Beast.

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A huge disappointment overall. We have been incredibly unlucky given the sheer depth and extent of this event.

Maxes (Sunday onwards) 4.3c, 2.3c, 1.9c, 0.0c, 1.7c, 0.9c

Mins (Sunday onwards) -0.3c, -1.8c, -3.1c, -3.8c, -3.9c, -2.2c

Max snow depth = 2.5 cm (this afternoon) - Now thawing

Getting early snow cover in these events is key to obtaining really low overnight temperatures further down the line. This didn't happen because we never received a snow cover and the wind was always too strong.

The ENE'ly always was going to reduce intensity of convection very locally but was expected. The streamers did form and on Monday and Tuesday evenings became potent enough to deliver some very rapid accumulations. Unfortunately they never aligned favourably dodging us by just 10 miles each side of us.

The depth of cold associated with the continental airmass on Wednesday was massively impressive. Sadly my max of 0.0c on Wednesday meant I didn't even get to record an ice day and the less cold low level air on Thursday evening for a short period with a rise to +1.7c thwarted another ice day opportunity that had seen a temperature of -3c (27f) at 1pm.

With convection failing from the deep cold ENE'ly we then had to rely on the breakdown to supply the goods. Thursday's event occurred too far west and we missed out. Today's breakdown delivered an inch and stopped at 5pm. As soon as it moved away the temps climbed above 0c (32f) and the drip drip drip started just 4 hours later at 9pm.

One massive highlight of this was the freezing rain event..truly staggering. Steady rain at around 9am with a temperature of -2c (28f) and a dewpoint of -4c (25f) is the stuff of Canadian weather books. Despite the disappointment this event will now stick in my mind and be associated with the deep easterly of late Feb 2018.

Despite it all I work at Kings Hill near West Malling. As a result I witnessed 12cm of powder snow, a min temperature of -12c (10f), drifting snow, heavy convective snow events, a freezing rain event, sublimation and the crunch of 0.5cm of ice on a 10cm layer of powder snow today.

3/10 from an IMBY perspective. 

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Isn't it a little premature to write the obituary for a Beast which might not yet be dead?

I have a feeling there is some life left in the old Beast after all.

Whatever happens, today has been awesome in Worcestershire.

P.S. looking at the current satellite image, Emma has split in two and the southern circulation is moving into central France south of Bordeaux, much further south than the fax chart predicted - if that moves up towards Holland, it could re-invigorate the Beast.

perhaps but still a long shot. I’ll keep checking the models but even Steve M has signed off on the other side 

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I can't rate it yet.

There are still clouds of falling snow swirling outside my window, and in the last couple of hours it has put down here more than in the rest of the spell.

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