I realise that 2005 was a little disappointing in your coastal area Retron, but it was quite a prolonged treat further inland/with elevation in Kent with 2+ weeks of happy winter. We had a foot of level snow at its peak, and some significant drifting. True, there was some melting when the sun got going, but frequent snow showers helped to make it quite a memorable spell.

Would be great to see another beasterly come to these western shores of Europe... or any snowcover come to think of it!

Just to clarify, I quoted Joe's post but something seems to have gone wrong when I did it.

FWIW, that wasn't an easterly - the air came from the Arctic Ocean north of Scandinavia, then moved in over the North Sea. In the easterlies of old a cold pool was advected westwards via Scandinavia from the Siberian high - the air originated east of the Urals. It's been a long time since we last saw one of those in midwinter!

Exactly. Any Siberian air within that general flow diverged away from this part of the world into central Russia. I think people make the mistake of following isobars to pinpoint where a particular air mass is coming from. It doesn't work that way.

 on the 2nd there was a marked dump of snow (6 inches)... 

2010 was an absolute disappointment, especially given as pretty much everywhere inland had a truly memorable spell!

I would hardly call a 6 inch fall a disappointment! Here in Berkshire December 2010 failed to provide any more than a dusting at the beginning of the month, and then on about the 18th or whenever it was that places in the South Midlands got a foot of snow, we only had 2 inches.

So 2010 was a disappointment here, but for me the memories of that period were of getting stuck twice in snow in Kent (the other end from you, Tunbridge Wells) when trying to get back home from business day trips, to find no snow here!

 

FWIW, that wasn't an easterly - the air came from the Arctic Ocean north of Scandinavia, then moved in over the North Sea. In the easterlies of old a cold pool was advected westwards via Scandinavia from the Siberian high - the air originated east of the Urals. It's been a long time since we last saw one of those in midwinter!

Yup, much less severe here - no icicles, no drifts, blizzards or anything like it. This was due to the temperature being just a couple of degrees above the "sweet spot" - so those inland wouldn't have noticed much difference, but it ruined it here.

By the 30th Nov there was a snow depth of 6cm of slushy wet stuff - no ice days. It then half-melted on the 1st, then on the 2nd there was a marked dump of snow (6 inches)... it was slushy though as the temperature was above freezing as it fell. There were two ice days on the 3rd and 4th (-0.4C as a high) and then it pee'd down with rain, thawing the snow.

By recent standards that would have been amazing, but even the relatively poor easterly of January 1997 - the last true midwinter easterly - delivered 6 inches of powder and highs of -2C.

2010 was an absolute disappointment, especially given as pretty much everywhere inland had a truly memorable spell!

Jonesy - are you old enough to have seen a proper easterly, those in the 80s and 90s?

Yep, 2010 for me was good and what I think made it all the more better was back to back events before Christmas. I had decent amounts and Icicles, probably helped my garden faces N/NE

I was only young in the 80s  I think it was 1994 was one I remember? Huge icicles the lot!

Proper easterlies deliver typical maxes of -3c to -5c. 

I am old enough to have witnessed such occurrences in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1991 and Dec 1996.

One day...one day. 

http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=snow;sess=

The night of Tue/Wed 3/4 Jan is recommended

Proper easterlies deliver typical maxes of -3c to -5c. 

I am old enough to have witnessed such occurrences in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1991 and Dec 1996.

One day...one day. 

 

Like anyone over 45, you are, I'm afraid, now severely handicapped.

You have experienced the winters of the late 1970s and 1980s in their full glory (as those in the their sixties and seventies can trace back to the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.) meaning you are handicapped by the weight of memory.

You are plagued by knowing what it feels like to walk out into a world of white with a howling wind and drifting powder snow over your head in an easterly of 25mph and an air temperature of -4. Or a cloven sky that darkens at noon as wave upon wave of relentless powder flakes are unleashed by battalions of cumulo-nimbuses as a streamer sets up in a roaring north-easter.

Will we ever see the like again?