March began with the Beast from the East’s date with Storm
Emma. Subsequently, they got in bed and spawned a mini-Beast during the third
weekend of the month.
Meaning, two cold snaps bringing snow to large parts of
Britain, including our part of the Soft South. Though unexceptional, they were
notable for being late in the year – during the meteorological spring – and the
transport disruption they caused. These are my edited journal notes from the
time (south Hampshire):
Thursday March 1st -
Woke up to a dusting of snow. More forecast for this afternoon. Art Group’s AGM
cancelled. The Chief Chartered Engineer, along with most of his colleagues
working at home.
Dire and news reports and weather
warnings. Red warnings now in both central Scotland, including Edinburgh and in
the far SW of England / South Wales, including Cardiff. The latter due to the
snow-bearing weather fronts coming in from south emanating from Storm Emma
which is now in the Bay of Biscay. We’re just on the border of the amber
warning zone for wind and snow today as the fronts are now forecast to travel
more SSW-wards towards Devon and Cornwall. Glad we don’t have to go anywhere as
transport system thrown into chaos. Worst in Scotland where red warning. People
stuck on motorways there, no trains running north of Carlisle. Troops called
into some areas such as Lincolnshire. Warnings, too about gas supply shortfalls
today because demand is so high in Britain and on the continent; less gas
storage in Britain now. Charities providing shelters, but rough sleepers on our
streets is socially unacceptable in a so-called first world country in any sort
of weather, let alone sub-freezing temperatures. It got down to about -4oC
here last night. Inland it’s been lower, nearly -9oC in Farnborough
on Monday night. Double figure low temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday in
France, too. Even sub-freezing in Corsica. Cold wave all the more notable that
far south considering the sun is climbing higher in the sky now. The picture
here for the weekend less reassuring now, too. For now, Sunday still looks OK;
and no snow forecast round our way after tomorrow; but the forecast
temperatures have been revised downwards by the Met.Office over the weekend,
with highs of about 5oC or 6oC over the weekend; and
still a yellow warning on Saturday for ice. Storm Emma down to 969 millibars by
tomorrow and forecast to spawn several small areas of low pressure centred in
the Bay of Biscay / off SW England. Needs to be at least 5oC to be
sure of roads and pavements not being icy. Here the snow fell more heavily,
blowing around from the afternoon onwards, with several centimetres of cover by
dusk.
In other news, minor earth tremor
yesterday (magnitude 3.2) up Derwent’s way near Cockermouth and Keswick.
Friday 2nd March – Happy
Snow Day!
The Met.Office have now taken
down their really dire warnings (red and amber), though still a yellow one in
the south for today and tomorrow. As of 3.45pm, not as much snow I’d expected
from the forecast during the day, just one shower as I was walking back, but
could still change.
They have now revised the
temperatures for the weekend back upwards to a high of 5oC on
Saturday and 8oC Sunday, 6oC at 9.00am Sunday which will
hopefully be enough to melt ice. There are no weather warnings for Sunday morning
here now. I’m more hopeful now about Sunday, though there is more snow forecast
for tonight.
We’ve both been wary of snow and
ice in our immediate neighbourhood, ever since the cold, icy spells of 2009/10,
our first winter here. Then it had been a while, after a run of largely mild
winters since the early 1990s, punctuated by only short cold snaps. Like
everyone else, we’d forgotten what to do – eg are we supposed to put grit down
outside the house ourselves, or does the council do it. Since then, everyone
has been better prepared – Britain’s weather this decade has shown we all need
to be prepared for everything. The issue in our immediate neighbourhood is, we
live in a dip; and though none of the slopes are steep, they’re all around,
including at the foot scale. This made getting out of the house, on foot or by
car during that first January dicey and icy. The main roads were clear and
moving, but not us in the cul-de-sac. The other thing about our local
topography is, not being able to see round the corner or far up the hill,
staying too long in the house can quickly shrink perspective. Worse than
cancelling events for everyone because of the weather, is it being no-go just
for me because of the quirks of our n’hood in icy weather while everywhere else
is running normally. One way round it was crampons to wear beneath boots /
wellies, which have at least given me more confidence.
After more snow overnight - about
10cm of snow by daylight – my Chief Engineer in lockdown mode. I didn’t like
that mode or the shrunken perspective coming from being stuck in the house,
glued to online news reports and Met. Office weather warnings. Worsened by
windows being closed 24/7 to keep the heat in. I wrapped up, put on wellies
plus crampons and, leaving him to it, I headed out to break this bad vibe.
At Warsash, the vibe was
Christmas / New Year snowy family day out; with children sledging in the dip in
Dibbles Road and Strawberry Field – “Happy Snow Day”! someone called out as I
passed them on the way out of the park. All very unusual for the first Friday
in March. Some upstart daffs along the path nearer the Hamble buried in snow.
Tide in on the Hamble, so don’t know if there was any ice along the shore
beneath the high water mark (there was in February 2012), Snowy yachts in
sailing club near Rising Sun.
Last night we were just on the
edge of the amber warning zone, which stopped at about the IOW / Southampton
Water. Westwards of that, heavier snow. People stuck on the A31 through the New
Forest and a train from Christchurch stuck, too. Still bad in the north. Also
today and yesterday, a few tidal flood warnings in NE England, including
Whitley Bay, Whitby and Tynemouth; and a few in the SW, including Swanage Bay.
Tides in these areas raised by strong winds. The French have them out along
most of the estuaries on the west coast, including the Aulne, the Odet, the
Loire below Nantes and a vigilance orange along the Gironde / tidal Dordogne
where they were forecasting a 60cm surge. Storm Emma seemingly slow to move out
of the Bay of Biscay. The big loop in the jetstream bringing in the Beast from
the East has now detached from the main stream, forming an oxbow lake. Main
stream running over Spain and north Africa.
Here. the snow began melting on Saturday morning, and
melting quickly as the temperature rose above freezing and stayed above
freezing. Carl did a bit of shovelling outside to help speed it along. Walked
down the Hamble to Warsash, wearing my crampons under my boots to start with,
but quickly found I didn’t need them. The snow was getting very slushy as it
melted. More the usual problem of big puddles everywhere. A few sledgers in
Strawberry Field trying to catch the last of it, but it was getting desperate.
It felt relatively warm.
I made it, then to Red Hot Press
on Sunday morning (4th March).
