>29 March, 2010: Sleet and Snow now mixing with rain, Hills are White and about to get even whiter!

Written by on March 29, 2010 in Rest of Europe with 0 Comments

>It’s March 29th and the snowflakes are falling through the rain and appears as though snows will try to hold winter across much of the UK for the first few days of April. The month of April is going to roar in like a lion and certainly March has been a month where the lion roared on both ends of the month…. This is a testament to the kind of winter we have just endured.

It just seems to be one of those winters that doesn’t wanna quit and we could see ourselves with a few days of snow which is pretty interesting to see down here at low levels at this point in the season, not unheard of but simply doesn’t happen all that often.

Highs the next few days are going to run 10 below normal with a struggle to get out of the 30s and perhaps even to climb above 35 to 37 degrees. Our normal now is 48 for the high and 38 for the low.

What interesting is tha we saw 6 below normal for the first 12 days of the month, then we warmed up and that departure from normal was only -1.3, it will hold at -1 or even creep to -2F to the departure from normal for March 2010 at the Glasgow site because of the cold end. I did say that March would be another below normal month temperaturewise and this has occured and if it hadn’t been for the cold end, we may have averaged normal or even slightly above normal but spring doesn’t want to get going this ear so far. Wait for it. April will be above normal by 1 or 2 degrees!! It would be about time as Dec ran 6.5 below normal, Jan 4.7 below normal and Feb 5.2 below normal and March appears that it will end between 1-2 below normal.

Though April will open perhaps 5-10 below normal for the first few days, the unsettled pattern will persist but the deviation from normal will shrink back to normal by mid-month and then flip to above normal beyond the 20th where I believe we may enjoy 60-degree days and possibly sneek our first 70 before we enter May….

For the Glasgow site, March 2009 displayed no highs in the 30s (all 40s and 50s) during the month and 10 nights below freezing with the coldest being 25.

March 2010 has seen 12 nights at or below freezing with the coldest being 19 degrees. Though this month also hasn’t seen any highs under 40 like March 09, the closing days of this month will likely fail to reach 40 with today perhaps squeezing 40 but the 30th and 31st may only top out at 37 or 38 degrees which would be a solid 10 below the normal for the date.

The last two days of March 2009 saw highs of 55 and 58! The last two days of March 2010 will run 20 degrees colder!

Last April saw 1.5 degrees above normal with the warmest reaching 64 degrees. There was 4 nights at or below freezing with the latest being on the 19th with a low of 30 degrees.

Stats for previous years:

March 08

Warmest: 54
9 nights below freezing, coldest being 28.
Dept from normal -1.1F

April 08

Warmest: 63
5 nights below freezing, coldest being 28.

March 07

Warmest: 57
4 nights below freezing, coldest being 27.

April 07

Warmest: 70.
1 night below freezing, Coldest being 30.
Dept from normal +4.1F

Similarities between 2006 and 2010?

March 06
Warmest: 55.
11 nights below freezing, coldest being 21. (3 straight mornings at 21 and first 5 mornings of the month saw lows in the 20s.
Dept from normal -3.1F

During April of 2006, there was as many as 8 sub-freezing nights with the lowest reading being 27 degrees, a pretty cold night for the 10th of April. April also ended 2.3 below normal. The following month saw a high of 73 degrees but May also ended some 1.1 below normal.

It will be interesting to see what April brings, whether it sees many more sub-freezing nights, lets hope it doesn’t repeat 2006, if so, we’re in for another week’s worth of lows down to freezing.

April 2010 prediction: 1-2 above normal for the month 3-5 nights at or below freezing.
Warmest: 68-70 degrees. Coldest 28-30 degrees.

Certainly the heart of winter 2006 doesn’t resemble anything close to 2010. Jan 06 ran 1.1F above normal, 2 days remained below freezing with the coldest high, 30 degrees, warm compared with a high of 21 degrees in Jan 2010. That’s amazingly just 1 degree warmer than the coldest LOW of 2006. Jan 06 also saw a very warm high of 54 degrees, whilst the warmest of Jan 2010 only 2 degrees lower, there was 14 days in the 30s and even 3 days that remained in the 20s! Only 7 days saw 30s and no 20s in Jan 06. The lowest of 06 was 20 degrees, whereas the lowest in 2010 was 10 degrees lower with a low of 10 degrees in 2010. No day in Feb 06 saw at or below freezing and only 13 nights fell below freezing, whereas Feb 2010 saw 21 nights at or below freezing. The lowest also doesn’t compare as 2006’s coldest was a seemingly balmy 21 compared to 2010’s lowest of 16 degrees! Feb 06 also saw a high of 52 degrees and ran +0.1 above normal compared to -5.2 BELOW normal in 2010.

The closest comparison between 2010 and 2006 is March with this year, seeing 13 nights below freezing verses 2006’s 11 nights, yet March 2010 will end milder than in 2006. The lowest for March 06 is also milder than March 2010 but it was colder throughout the month in 06 than 2010 with more 50s showing than 06.

Why 2006? It was the last warmer, drier summer here in the Glasgow area!

April 05 saw no sub-freezing nights.

Thanks for reading.
-Mark

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