thirdcrank wrote:It's snowed here (Gildersome, South Leeds) without let-up all day. Judging by the neighbours' cars gone to work, it didn't start much before 6am. Last week's snow had gone so today's is all new. It's not the typical large snowflakes which float down and settle but very fine. There's no wind so no drifts but I just measured it as 4" deep. By the standards of round here, that's a lot of snow.
There is saying in Welsh:-
"Eira mawr Eira bach,
Eira bach Eira mawr"
Which means;
" big snow little snow,
Little snow big snow"
It is often very true.
When the flakes are small and fine the actual snowfall is often large.
And when really big flakes fall, large accumulations are rare.
The really big falls in my lifetime have nearly always been from fine snow often associated with Easterly flows. It's then the drifting snow that really makes "life" difficult.
In 1947 the drifts on the Denbigh Moors were 30' deep. Though winter didn't start until the very end of January but then lasted until the end of March, almost without any thaw.
Cattle starved to death in the hills of Wales. It was a terrible hard winter that went on and on and is still in the memories of old folks.
Things have warmed up globally since then though.
Maybe the UK will never see such weather for millennia, though weather and climate are rather different phenomena!!
).
