My recollection of late 2009 is that in the early days of that December, the models were indicating with pretty solid consistency that a major pattern change was likely to take place as we moved towards mid-month. The early days of that December were unsettled and still relatively mild, continuing the pattern that had dominated that November. When the zonality finally abated, we had about a week or so of predominantly dry weather here with temperatures gradually falling, and some rather dense fog at times as well.

The first snow in Glasgow came late on the afternoon of Thursday 17th December. I remember it well as it was about 4:30pm when I was finishing work and was heading out of Glasgow on the train, and remember seeing a flurry of snow on as my train left Glasgow Queen St station. When I got home (I live in Lenzie which is about 10 minutes away from the centre of Glasgow by train), there was a light covering of snow on the ground so it must have lasted for a few minutes at least. We didn't have any snow the next day as far as I recall, but it started with a vengeance on the afternoon of Sat 19th Dec and that was to set the tone for much of the following four weeks. It was also the first two successive white Christmases, the only instance of this I can recall happening in my lifetime. December 2009 apparently was, at the time, Scotland's coldest December since the famous freezer of 1981. Little did we know though what was to come in the same month the following year!

Even Winter 2011-12 was better than last Winter's pathetic dusting on 11th Feb - had a snow fall in mid December 2011 - woke up to that covering, but wasn't a lot. Then we had a good dumping on 4th Feb 2012. Was great to see it fall during the afternoon and then evening. Had a few ice days in February too with a biting east wind. It was a funny month because I remember people further west and in Ireland were like "what cold & snow???" it seemed like the cold just didn't penetrate a long way west as seen here http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/NWS-NOAA_Europe_Extreme_minimum_temperature_FEB_5_-_FEB_11%2C_2012.gif

Winter 2012-13 was better but like GW says it got off to a slow start and Christmas was damp and miserable - had to wait until mid January to see a decent fall of snow and I remember some people in here worried about it being a rubbish Winter, then we had a number of falls from then into late March. Decent accumulations non the less. Better than some of the Winters in the early to mid 2000's for sure.

That winter was one where NW England for once struck a bit lucky. I think I remember 4 snowfalls (2 Jan, 2 Mar) that put down a decent covering.

25th Jan:

This is the M62 near j8, about 2 miles south of my house:

M6, near J26, a big snarl-up and drivers trapped in the jam for hours apparently:

On the closed section of the M6 (I think a bit to the south of the above pic). Note the way the car is facing

This is from one of the March falls. It's about a mile from my house, and that is actually a flat grass verge next to a road. I remember the wind being strong and it must have whipped the snow across the farmer's field the other side of that hedge, to leave that weird overhanging drift (which was about 3' deep). General depth from that fall was about 10cm.

Aye - ive always had to go along with how god 2010 was etc.  but in terms of regular snowfall - 2012--13 was one of the best ive ever seen.  I remember going into wales, not on that much high ground and seeing snow drifts easily over 10ft.  Roads calved into the snow.  as you say from winds whipping across the snowfields and dropping the ice on the other side of the hedge.

In one week i remember snow fell on every day, albiet on one or two days very ligghlty snizzle like.  Incredible year that.

Funny you should mention Wales. We went to Wrexham about a week after the heavier March fall, and there was still a lot of snow about. This was obviously where there carpark had been cleared, but it was still huge.

Reminded me of January 2010 when we had the deepest snow fall in years IMBY (got to 17cm). The local Morrisons cleared the car park snow into huge piles, which were still there over 4 weeks later (albeit very dirty snow!)

Corrected. ;)

Was an odd one for the North West. Great in western parts of the region, brilliant in the far east of it (Buxton etc), but very disappointing for a tiny slice in the middle.

IIRC, the snow came on an easterly flow. Presumably the Pennines created a bit of a rain/snow shadow just to the west of them, before the PPN band reorganised a bit further west.

BTW, I know you're too young to remember Jan 1987, Joe (), but the western half of NW England must have been the few snow-free areas of the UK. Kev Data assures me that Manchester got some decent snow cover, but the snow never got further west than that. I'll claim 2013 as payback

Yes, the Manchester snow shadow was in full working order (due to a wave generated by the Pennines), snow on the Pennines eg Glossop, little in Manchester, snow again to the west of Warrington

Indeed, February 2005 sticks in my mind when we had consecutive days with light snowfalls that culminated in a more notable snow event here at the end of that month. It snowed all day...can't remember the exact date but it was the 20 something, but what a fantastic spell of weather considering it was part of the "bad old days". 

For work I was based in Salford but that morning I couldn't get my car out the drive and the lane wasn't treated, so I called in work and they didn't believe me as there only the tiniest of dustings in Salford yet the difference in height between here and there isn't huge. It snowed all day here and gave about 15cm, I remember looking at the old met office radar and the snow band that stretched from the north sea got about a couple miles west of here and that was it. I told a colleague to drive up here in their 4x4 and they were astonished by the time they got near the Oldham borough boundary. Was certainly a case of one of those marginal easterly type spells that we can do well here in the eastern part of NW England. Experienced it many times over the years.

I remember Snowfall Grand Finale to that year - the great snowfall of the 23rd March.  Parts of Greasby and Westkirby (coastal) had the snow ploughs out the fall was so deep.  Whereas on the other side of the wirral and further in land - it was sleet, with patchy wet snow on the ground.  I remember seeing the BBC forecast the night before and seeing white snow everywhere and the base of the mersey being blue and wondering if it was an annomally.  I rememeber driving from birkenead (snow) down the a41.  The white landscape turned into a horrible wet mess, then once through ellesmere port and onto chester (~2miles) back to 5" snow and blizzards.  It was a very local affair where it was wet, and if i lived there, would have found that very hard to deal with. 

I was onto a Prince2 foundation exam which i didnt think would go ahead - it did and i passed.

Im trying to find some photos of the snow drifts, I videod a journey around Landegla and the drifts where up as high as the trees in some places.... just incredible... and was repeated every other week.

Every time we approach winter, many of us like to think back to some of our favourite spells of winter weather, be they cold and snowy, wet and windy, clear and frosty or some other combination of characteristics.

So here's the usual thread for that very purpose.

There will be an influx of posts being moved over from the winter 2014/15 thread starting in just a moment, which should get the ball rolling  

Here's a piece I wrote about winter 2009/10 at the time:

http://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twoother/twocontent.aspx?type=bg&id=1749

TBH I'm very poor at matching up snow events and years. The best ones I can recall are:

1) January 1987 in York
2) February 1991 in York / Sunderland (this was the only time I saw proper snow in the 6 years I lived there)
3) Xmas 1995 in Humanby near Filey, North Yorkshire. The level snow depth must have been about 30cms but 18 miles inland at Malton there was nothing
4) December 2009 in Berkhamsted
5) December 2010 in Berkhamsted

1979/81/85 etc all fade into the sands of time. I can remember big snow events but can't match the years.

Fair enough - but perhaps you could rename it "General Winter Chat & Reminiscing" so it's more of a catch-all.

Oh, and maybe sticky it - because if it drops off the first page, you'll just get the same problem of people chatting & reminiscing in the 'Winter 2014/15' thread that's more designed to discuss forecasts, etc for this specific winter.

Just a thought 

For depth of snow '81 was superb here, Banbury was cut off for a short period of time if I remember rightly we had 2 or 3 snow events in quick succession .

'87 was absolutely bitter, not the depth of '81 but the cold was severe.

'91 was also good for this area .

Out of the last 5 years 4 have been fairly good for snowfall, last year being the duff year of course, my biggest regret was not making the most of 2010 we had 20cm of snow and temps were very low, just wish I had got out more with the camera.

Last winter produced nothing in the way of snow for me, which I would have said was pretty much the norm here.  However, the previous three winters have been real snow fests and pretty unusual in recent decades. 

2009/10 was memorable for its snow around Christmas and New Year.  It wasn't particularly cold and the snow thawed and then fell again, so although we had snow cover for many days, it didn't accumulate to any great depth.

Nov/Dec 2010 was the best for depth.  A streamer from The Wash dumped its load right over us, leaving us completely snowed in, while places within a few miles were almost snowless.  We got about 18 inches within a few days and it stuck around for weeks.  It snowed on Christmas Day for the second year running.

2012/13 was probably the best for the number of snow cover and snowing days and it lasted into early Spring, so we probably had more in the way of total overall depth.

Despite having been a snow lover all my life, there have been times in these recent winters that I've felt a bit fed up and hindered by snow, so I didn't really miss it last year.  I never thought I'd say that!   

I am still looking forward to the first flake and I'd love it to snow at Christmas, but I have a feeling there will be very little again this year.

I have a great knack for missing big snowfalls on the rare occasions they happen on the Wirral. The biggest falls usually come from stalling fronts around here. One in 2009 (March I think?) springs to mind when I was living in Edinburgh. I seem to remember Glasgow got a pasting from this (Edinburgh got a few cms and then snizzle), and parts of the Wirral got about 6 inches with nice drifts. Of course once I'd left Edinburgh they then got an absolute hammering for weeks on end the following winter, with relatively little on the Wirral.

As you say though snowfall can be very variable in this part of the world due to the coastal location and rain shadows etc. I remember about 4 inches in the main December 2010 event in west Wirral - when parts of north Wirral and Liverpool got close on a foot according to some reports (followed by -18c in Crosby, right on the coast!). This was due to the Clywd hills blocking much of the PPN coming off the Irish Sea from the WNW.

I was living abroad in 2013 and you can only imagine my distress when my parents sent me the below pics of the March snowfall you mentioned. To make matters worse I was back a week later for a visit and there was just a few measly snowbanks left.

aye this was the a494 just past Mold

http://imgur.com/SG8RdVy

http://imgur.com/oyNTauH
http://imgur.com/qkvyJrM
http://imgur.com/TSmPcdo

It seems to be proving popular already, though emphasising it as place for general chat seems like a good idea 

I figured I would check how well it took off before making it a sticky. Looks like it deserves the honour... 

Of the winters of the last 30 years, 2009-10 tops it for me. Nearly everything seem to go right as regards with snow that winter. Only a couple of real disappointments were between Christmas and New Year when the low coming in from the Atlantic didn't deliver and the easterly of the 10th January was a bit of a dud. Other than that, it seem to snow even when it was marginal, it snowed unexpectedly when not predicted and to amounts greater than anticipated. 

For a single month, December 2010 was amazing, a combination of frigid and snow, snow was on the ground for 19 days here in two separate spells. 

1995-96 was the next best winter, two big snow events within a fortnight, the late January easterly and the stalled front of early February.

1984-85, 1985-86 were pretty decent. 

2000/2001 has a bit of a place in my heart

We'd not had any decent snow for a few years, certainly not during the Xmas period (we had a really pretty dusting in the early hours of Xmas Day in, IIRC, 96 or 97, but it didn't last beyond lunchtime).

It turned colder between Xmas & New Year, and the BBC forecast showed the possibility of snow showers on this particular night (29th?). We were at a family get together at my brother's and, just when we were leaving, a bit after midnight, the snow started. By the time our taxi had got to about a mile of our home, it was settling. I got the taxi to stop half a mile or so short of our house so me and the missus could walk in the snow. She was really pleased at that

The next morning, the depth was around 12cm and we had to go collect my car from my mum & dad's, about 5 miles away. The roads were really difficult, as they were thick with snow, not having been gritted or used that much at that point. The snow stayed down a few days, but the disappointment was NYE, when a front was forecast to move in from the west that evening, bringing a couple hours of snow before turning to rain. We got about 10 mins of sleet before heavy rain set in to wash away all the snow by midnight.

We also had another fall later that season in, I think, the March (technically spring, but you get what I mean). A bit slushy IMBY, but not that far away with only a couple hundred feet altitude and it was a few inches deep of fluffy snow.

For me 78/79 is still the holy grail of winters, consistent heavy falls of snow, huge drifts and some bone chilling cold interspersed with occasional mild spells. Only 2009/10 came close but was let down in the snowfall department, having said that I'll take a winter like that every year.