It went something like this.

Sometime, just after mid-day (25th?) the sky to the north turned black and very soon, there was heavy rain. This continued for about 10 minutes, when the odd hailstone began to fall. Over the next 5-10 minutes all the heavy rain slowly turned to hail and this continued for another 5-10 minutes when..... the odd snowflake was seen in the hail. The snow increased slowly as the hail diminished - whilst the total intensity remained high. Soon it was all snow and very heavy - that heavy, before long everything turned white and within another half an hour there was 2inches.

It didn't stop - all afternoon and all night. Next day it continued but not so heavy. Next day too.

These are the rain gauge readings in Derby for the three days -

Date 26th Jan    1.32 inches

       27th Jan     0.89inches

       28th Jan     0.41inches

A good storm - a minimum of 18inches of snow and two feet over the higher areas.

Four foot deep, I believe in Sheffield and in the Peak.

Here is the chart for Jan 27th 1940 from the archive at wetterzentrale -

i was about 11 at the time so this would have been about 1994 - thats about how specific i can be - date wise sorry.

I was playing football at my mates house on the wirral.  It was light rain, then the rain go heavier.  Large puddles everywhere i remember....then one by one each of us noticed a snowflake.. in the rain.... corner of our eyes type of thing.  Then it became a game of spot the snowflake...

Then from off in the distance what looked like mist was approaching.   And then like someone drawing a curtain over us a line of snow wafted over us and replaced the rain. 

The landscape then slowly turned that lovely grey colour where ice starts to collect...despite the wet ground.

At the time becuase i was playing footy - i didnt notice the cold.  We all got very excited, as it continue for another several hours.  leaving in its wake about 2-3inches.  Enough for a good sledge the following day.

Snow stayed around for about 2-3 days.

I'm not sure all of these count as true rain to snow events. Often on a warm front the lighter precipatation starts of as rain and then turns to snow fairly soon after due to evap cooling. However far more impressive, is a rain snow change accompined by a roughly linear decline in temperature. These events are much rarer, and tend to only happen on the most well defined, of cold or occluded fronts. 

December 8th 1990 is a classic here.

Poared with rain all through the Friday night 7th/8th, then around 5am it began to turn a little sleety. Gradually over the next hour the rain turned more and more to sleet and eventually snow. By 6am it was snowing heavily and this heavy, wet snow contiued until around 1pm giving eventually 15cm of cover.

[quote=KevBrads1;542067]March 11th 1996, rain spread eastwards, colder air was advancing westwards and it turned to snow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-QeEG9xD7U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo60366s5MU

A month later, it happened again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYZXFLD4fKM[/quote]

That may be the event im talking about.  So perhaps im out by 2-3 years... which would still work.  The friends i used to play with i knew up until i was about 14-15. 

Though by how it panned out - it seems probably the latter event as its more CEntral and northwest england that got it.

I only have to go back to mid-February 2013 for a noteable rain-to-snow event that affected the Chiltern area (and possibly others)....  Heavy rain fell for most of the day, the temperature started at around 4c but steadily dropped....  By mid-afternoon, when it got to around 2c, sleet appeared in the rain.  The precipiation gradually became more wintry over the next our hour or so until it was fully snow as darkness fell.... Another hour or so of snow falling but not settling, until gradually it settled, on gress first and then on almost all surfaces, and I woke up to a 10cm cover that lasted a good few days.

Andrew

PS If only it had been a couple of degrees colder then it would have been a serious foot+ fall!

Rain to snow events usually only occur in smallish localities. Compared to where it happens, to one direction it may have been an all rain event, whilst in the other direction it may have been an all snow event. So there's no doubt that there are plenty of these, but one that affected all or most places? Probably not.

In this area, the most notable of recent years was 21st December 2009. Heavy rain in the morning turned into snow at lunchtime, but the snow was only producing a wet, slushy cover, melting as it fell. In the afternoon the snow finally got the better of the situation, and started settling quite rapidly around dark. Eventually we had 12cm of snow on the ground. This was the event when Reading and Basingstoke were gridlocked, people abandoned their cars, etc. and my wife took 6 hours to get home from her office in Eton. This was an evaporative cooling event, and nothing more than "sleet and wet snow" was forecast; but it was a totally unforgettable afternoon and evening.

The best rain to snow event I remember was in February 1985 when I was at college in Ormskirk.

Amazing one that was. Rain in the morning - sleet for about 3 hours and then snow falling late afternoon and then settling at about 5.00pm.

By the following morning there was at least 6 inches of snow blowing about in a stron NE wind.

This cold spell lasted about 2 weeks or more.

Cheers Ian. That was an amazing one that was. It was countrywide. I was in Lancashire on the west coast and it was a spectacular rain to snow event there. When you consider you were in Kent well over 200 miles to the South East and you saw the same things as me - it was sure impressive and I reckon one of the 3 of 4 best rain to snow events of the whole century when you consider the synoptics needed for such a situation to take place.

I've yet to see a more dramatic rain to snow event than the January 14th, 1980 event.   Persistent heavy rain had set in around 10am, then very suddenly around 12.30pm it virtually stopped, and within a minute was replaced by very heavy wet snow which dumped 3 inches of snow on the ground by mid-afternoon.   

I think it was caused by a very shallow Low that slowly moved down from the NNW, with possibly an evaporative cooling event associated with this.  I believe some parts of the Midlands got much more than 3 inches that day, so it was quite a severe event in a number of places.

Has anyone seen any video footage of dramatic rain to snow events? 

sorry - don't have link

Yes Gavin

Forget about that - that was a great event here as well

I remember it well.

A dull wet cold Friday afternoon and evening

Through the early hours of Sat the rain turned to heavy snow

Several inches by morning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXKBcV8VJpo

a surprising number of clips of this sort.

This one isnt bad atcapturing the cold air moving in.

and this also

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cpatpCxmUs

One I just remember was December 29th 1978 

I lived in the now defunct Cleveland at the time, mild westerly winds were replaced by a very cold easterly over a few hours. Heavy rain was replaced by snow with a very large temperature drop. By the evening there were heavy snow showers which gave decent accumulations.

I think most of England experienced this, Scotland was already cold and snowy.

Two stand out in my mind. First, in Feb. '83, I woke up to rain falling on snow covered ground on a Sunday morning. As the morning went on, the rain turned back to snow, with heavy snow falling for a time with a couple of inches lying at least. By the afternoon, the snow stopped and it got dryer for a short time before the rain returned - just long enough to give me time to make a small snowman - I was ten years old . The next thing I remember is going to school the next morning. It was pouring with rain as the rain had barely stopped all night. All that remained of the snow was a small pile where the snowman had been. The whole event was very marginal. I remember that a relatively short distance away from us, but about 250 feet lower down(and urban), saw little or no lying snow at all.

The other event was a classic rain to snow event in March '85. Heavy rain for most of the morning, which began to turn sleety soon after lunch and to snow soon after. By 4.00(going home time from school), we had lying snow. I seem to remember that the base of the snow was extremely slushy so much so that water seemed to splash up every time I took a step - memory playing tricks, most probably! The snow dies out that evening leaving a couple of inches lying. I recall my disappointment the following day - nearly all the snow was gone by lunchtime the next day - snow tends to have a limited shelf life here, especially in March!

Those are the two rain/snow events that stand out. Unfortunately, it's the snow to rain events that tend to be far more common.