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Snow patches in England and Wales during spring 2011Iain CameronChelmsford, Essex

In 2010, the first comprehensive note on English and Welsh snow patches that last into spring was published in Weather (Cameron, 2010). This note builds on that start, and I hope it will stimulate further interest and additional observers for forth-coming years.

MethodsAs with the longer-established annual paper on Scottish snow patches (e.g. Watson et al., 2010), field work by enthusiastic amateurs is the basis for most of this report. Photographs by unattributed others also proved useful in assessing snow cover where visits were not possible.

Winter 2010/2011The last week in November 2010 saw low temperatures and heavy snowfall over large parts of northern England. These conditions continued into December, when the mean temperature for the United Kingdom was the lowest for over 100 years (National Climate Information Centre, 2011). January and February, however, signalled a change to milder weather generally, with little appreciable snow reported on the Pennines, Peak District or Snowdonia.

Snow patches in winter and springEnglandIn contrast to 2010, when snow persisted until the first week of May in the Peak District, only isolated patches lasted into February on that range. No reports were received of any enduring into March, even in shaded hollows.

On The Cheviot, J. Mobberly found numer ous patches persisting on north and east aspects on 26 March. The largest of these, on Bellyside Crags, was approxi-mately 40 metres long. A further visit on 17 April revealed snow volumes much reduced, but a 10 × 3 × 0.5 metres patch endured at 730 metres (NT903211) near the

head of Bizzle Burn. I estimate that this would have disappeared by 25 April.

Very warm weather in early April, when temperatures rose above 20°C in England, stripped much of the existing snow from the Lake District. By 11 April, fewer patches remained than normal, but some were noted on Helvellyn, Raise, Scafell Pike, Fairfield, Esk Pike and Great End. Amongst the largest of these was a wreath 25 × 10 × 1.5 metres on Helvellyn, just below the summit on cliffs facing northeast. This patch vanished on 29 April. At Great End, a wreath 30 metres long was observed in Central Gully on 21 April (M. Johnson). It eventually melted on 8 May during heavy rain (T. Mullens, see Figure 1), and was probably the last snow to melt in England this spring.

The crags on the northeast side of Cross Fell again carried the longest-lying snow in the Pennines. Despite no substantial depos-its of fresh snow since January, the final patch lasted until 6 May (P. Crabtree).

WalesIn 2010, snow at Y Ffoes Ddyfn (The Deep Cut) on Carnedd Llewelyn persisted until

28 June, an exceptional date for recent dec-ades. From a photograph given to IC, taken on 3 March 2011, this location seemed to already be clear of snow. Confirmation was received to verify this on 9 April (D. Perkins).

The start of April saw only a few patches remaining in Wales, all of which were to be found on Carnedd Lewellyn. These were observed on 2 April, but had disappeared by the afternoon of the 3rd (D. Perkins). Even by the standards of recent decades, this was an early final melt-date (Watson and Cameron, 2010).

ConclusionsAfter a very snowy start to the winter, including a depth of 44 centimetres at Kielder Forest, Northumberland, in November 2010, January and February 2011 had little fresh snow with temperatures often above average. As a result, the early snow melted steadily and not much of it lasted into the spring. Only a few patches survived into early May and all had gone by the 8th.

AcknowledgementsFor notes on England, I thank Paul Crabtree, Tim Mullens, Jonathan Mobberly, Mark Johnson and Andy Beck. For Wales, Donald Perkins provided comprehensive notes, which can be found on his website at http:// www.llansadwrn-wx.co.uk

Figure 1. Probably the last remaining snow patch in England in spring 2011. The patches visible in this picture, taken on 7 May in Central Gully, Great End, Cumbria, disappeared the following day in heavy rain. (© Tim Mullens.)

ReferencesCameron I. 2010. Weather news: Surviving snowfields south of the England/Scotland border. Weather 65: 202.

National Climate Information Centre. 2011. UK seasonal weather summary: win-ter 2010/2011. Weather 66: 99.

Watson A, Cameron I. 2010. Cool Britannia. Paragon Publishing: Northampton, UK.

Watson A, Cameron I, Duncan D, Pottie J. 2010. Six Scottish snow patches survive until winter 2009/2010. Weather 65: 196–198.

Correspondence to: Iain Cameron

iainjamescameron@hotmail.com

© Royal Meteorological Society, 2011

DOI: 10.1002/wea.840