Sacha wrote:
This is probably a silly question but what is the temp at which one can
expect snow if clouds are about? Or are there too many variables such as
sea, mountains, high land etc., to make it possible for a straight answer?


Snow in England tends to fall when a warm, moist airflow comes in from
the Atlantic and hits a cold air mass extending across from the
continent. Most commonly in a cold spell the temperature will rise a
couple of degrees before the precipitation actually occurs - hence the
saying "It's too cold for snow". In central continental Europe, the Alps
etc, it merely gets bl**dy cold then snows fine powdery snow. (I believe
that the temperature in the moist air mass does tend to rise as the
water vapor changes state to water then to ice )

Snow in much of Britain is quite an unusual event - there isn't a big
temperature difference between torrential winter rain and a couple of
feet of snow - like we saw on down here in Glos on Monday night. Tuesday
morning i looked out from a snowed-in Forest of Dean, across a green and
flooded Severnside to a thoroughly snowed in Cotswolds.

Nice to have the weather to talk about, innit?

rL