Major snow event in Devon

Back to the weather again on this blog because that subject has provided the major talking point here in the Westcountry today. Precipitation moved up from the south yesterday evening and mixing with the cold air already over the region rain readily turned to snow - lots of it. Not that we had it here although this morning there was some unpleasant sleetiness in the cold wind but it was other parts of the region, notably Haldon Hill and Telegraph Hill, where the snow had some of its greatest effect.

For anyone reading this (someone must be surely!) and not familiar with the local geography I'll try and put the Haldon area into context. Haldon is the ridge of relatively high land just to the south west of Exeter but before you reach the Dartmoor foothills. Its highest point is just over 800 feet above sea level and the A38 Trunk Road almost attains this contour up by the breezy racecourse. Coming off the M5 motorway south of Exeter the road ahead changes to the A38 and in a mile or two reaches the foot of the Haldon massif where it splits. The left fork becomes the A380 and heads up Telegraph Hill on its way to Newton Abbot and Torquay. Get into the right hand lane at the split and the driver follows the A38 up Haldon Hill, down the other side and then on to Plymouth, the Tamar Bridge and Cornwall.

What happened Thursday evening then was a fairly intense snowstorm which brought traffic slithering to a standstill on the aforementioned hills. We are told that some 200 drivers were caught up in this bad weather. Fortunately the police in their 4x4 vehicles were able to ferry the vehicle occupants to some quickly prepared rest centres, one of these was at the racecourse and another in Chudleigh Village Hall reports say. I don't think it was just the police, it seems as if the army and the Dartmoor Rescue Group made their contributions. As is the way with these situations local folk rallied around to assist those who had suffered the snarl up, the warming welcome in the rest centres being in marked contrast to the bitter cold outside. Conditions have been improving during the day and both the police and the Highways Agency were keen for drivers to be reunited with their cars and lorries so that the road could be cleared.

And It wasn't just these 200 or so vehicles but the A30 spine road through my two counties also suffered to the extent that its length from Exeter to Bodmin had to be closed, partly it seems because of a jackknifed lorry near Whiddon Down. Lots of snow at such places as Okehampton, Holsworthy and nearer me the A386 was blocked at Mary Tavy. I'm told that it was quite bad in Callington as well.

Local weather forecaster David Braine had reckoned on some of our region seeing snow but he admitted lunchtime that he hadn't foreseen that it would be quite so much (it was 12 inches of level snow in places) or that it would come so far west. He had thought that it would be East Devon that would take the brunt with the west of the county - apart from Dartmoor - and Cornwall escaping unscathed.

I had commented on an earlier entry about the rapid build up in snow levels and this might be another manifestation of climate change. It seems to me, and I've remarked on this before, that our precipitation is coming in shorter but more intense bursts. Where it is exposed on the moors you would expect to find huge drifts but what we have here is a very rapid increase in depth of level snow. It's difficult to remember sometimes just what some earlier snowstorms were like but I can't recall a foot of snow accumulating so quickly and it seems as if it was the speed of events that caught people on the hop.

Just another comment about those people who helped to feed, water and generally help those in need yesterday. The upside of these happenings is that they seem to bring out the best of the British character - selfishness and insularity go out of the window and we see selflessness, generosity and community spirit. That's a real positive.

A little snow yesterday, now gone

Following on from my last post it decided to snow here on the following day i.e. yesterday. Nothing to get very excited about I must say but in the early morning there was a heavy shower and, as always, I'm fascinated by the rapidity of build up of snow thickness. I recall being told by it must have been my geography teacher that one foot of snow is equivalent to an inch of rain. Things have warmed up a little and I was surprised very early this morning to hear the sound of gentle rain whilst I was still under the duvet. So our little bit of snow has now washed away and it seems we may be somewhat too near to the south coast for the next lot of precipitation to be the white stuff.

Although obviously the recent weather has been colder than we have experienced through most of the last few winters I don't reckon it has been anything like as chilly as in decades past. With the predominance of easterly winds I would have expected much lower temperatures. A point that has to be made is that many of us now have the luxury of a softer lifestyle - think central heating, think double glazing, think car heaters that are efficient, think the waterproof clothing now available and compare the way we lived 20, 30, 40 years ago. In other words our routine day to day activities don't involve us really confronting the cold in the way they once did. I can readily recall winters with burst pipes, ice on the inside of the bedroom windows and a rug to cover the knees when sat in the back of a car! And of course we wore short trousers until we got into our teens and the schoolgirls would be in skirts, it was almost unknown too for adult women to be seen in trousers (or "slacks" as my mother would say). Yes we were a hardy lot but I mustn't drift into nostalgia!

Sorry, I've gone a bit off topic in my last paragraph. Back on the rails now thinking about the positioning of high and low pressure areas and the direction of wind I still maintain that the temperatures ought to have been lower. So if the planet is warming this might explain why although cold here it is not so cold as one should expect. The other thing I must mention is that 'down under' in the south east of Australia they are experiencing record high temperatures, over 40 degrees centigrade. Phew!

No real snow yet

Whereas certain parts of the country have been getting quite memorable quantities of snow there have been just a few grains swirling in the wind here. It's quite possible though that there might have been noticeable amounts only a mile or two away. Snow showers can be very localised and where I live, tucked well down in the Tamar Valley, often misses the more "exciting" weather that they experience up at the top of the hill. If one went pretty well due west from my cottage for four miles or so (as the crow flies) then our local highest peak would be reached - Kit Hill. This granite eminence just tops the 1000 foot contour so it can be seen that my locality is anything but flat. By the way the Tamar is tidal up to Gunnislake so we are talking about the river being at sea level here. I'm just mentioning these facts to illustrate the point that weather conditions locally can vary markedly depending on the altitude.

Our railway station is 500 feet up and that is high enough to get an eastward view of the western flank of Dartmoor and many a time it's been possible to see snow on the high moor, looking like icing on a cake, whilst there hasn't been a flake in the Tamar Valley.

Interestingly they had a dusting of snow on the Isles of Scilly much earlier today - now that is a rare occurrence! North Devon has been on the receiving end, likewise Haldon Hill for a time apparently. What I really like is snow all night and then waking up to that silent whiteness in the morning. Well provided I don't need to drive anywhere that is! Living in a deep valley with the opposite precipitous hillside clothed in trees can make for a truly spectacular view after snow. But will the snow continue to pass us by: that's the question.

Snow showers in April

As happened over the Easter weekend we are getting something of a repeat performance with the weather with an icy Arctic blast affecting the whole country. Sunshine as I look out of the window now but even here at not much above sea level there have been some short lived snow showers this morning. The clocks having changed to British Summer Time a week ago it might be thought that snow at this time is very extreme. However this is nothing that unusual and any snowfall during April is almost guaranteed to be of a very transient nature.

This cold snap is in stark contrast to the wonderfully warm and sunny April we appreciated in 2007! Of course a lot of people will deride those who believe in man made climate change because of the sort of weather we are experiencing just now. I have read and heard many many arguments on this subject and am still not 100% convinced one way or another but on balance believe that man is affecting the climate. What one has to be so careful about though is not confusing weather and climate. Sure we have and will continue to have many fluctuations in short term weather patterns that will suggest that there is no overall warming of this planet. For myself I think a good guide is to see what nature is doing that is different: trees coming into leaf earlier, normally migrating birds overwintering, tropical sea life turning up in our coastal waters, that sort of thing.

With such variability in the weather it is no wonder that this country is so obsessed by it!

It didn't snow in the Tamar Valley

Whilst much of the country has been covered by the white stuff in the last day or two it didn't snow in the Tamar Valley, or at least not in my part of the valley. As is often the way the wet weather coming from the west didn't readily turn to snow until it either reached our moors or ran into the colder mass of air over the country away from the south west. Thus the top of Dartmoor has seen a fall and I understand that there is about 3 inches of snow on Exmoor today.

It is of course a real nuisance if you have to travel through snow and I am pleased I don't now have to commute. But there is an absolute fascination for me to watch snow falling and to walk on it when it is totally fresh. Perhaps it is that absolute silence you get that appeals so much. And it is great fun for both children and parents pretending to be children.

Par for the course much of the country, from schools on the one hand to airports on the other, was paralysed by the relatively small amount of snowfall. So then one hears the cry "Why can't we be like Canada, they cope with much more snow". Let's look at the differences: Canada is guaranteed snow in the winter, we aren't. In fact with climate change much of the country could become snow free (however if the Gulf Stream were to stop our climate could become like present day Alaska, a perfectly possible event, something to blog about another time perhaps). Add to that we have such variable terrain and many micro-climates in our tiny island so that spending money on infrastructure to deal with such unusual events is a bad way to use the limited funds available. Bear in mind as a nation we do a lot of travelling, just in commuting to work for example. It just isn't sensible to spend wads of money to deal with the very occasional snowstorm when our creaking infrastructure being used 365 days a year is under such pressure and in need of improvement.