January 2013 snowfall – the facts

Snow started to fall on January 13th 2013 with a light dusting, 78 days after the first, and only, snowfall of the winter season on October 27th 2012.

The 13th January snowfall was to prove to be only a taster as on the following day, five centimetres fell. With day time temperatures only a fraction above freezing, the snow had little time to thaw before the main event.

Frost spikes in silhouette taken on January 16th 2013.

On the six days between January 17th and 22nd, 15.2 centimetres fell. A lull of two days offered hope that the end of the snow was near, but with high pressure dominating the British Isles, any low pressure system trying to make headway from the west was bound to result in snowfall on its leading edge.

This scenario was to materialise on the night of the 25th / 26th when nine centimetres of snow fell at Bracken House, leading to a maximum snow depth of 16 centimetres. This heralded the arrival of the milder weather and temperatures started to rise during the 26th, continuing to rise overnight, reaching a peak of 9.0°C at 05:18 on the morning of the 27th.

Blues skies over Bracken House with ice on the pond. Taken on January 16th 2013.

On the morning of the 26th, the temperature dropped to -0.1°C for just a couple of minutes, which was enough to set a new record of 17 consecutive frost days. The lowest temperature recorded in this period was -6.3°C on the 16th at 07:28.

Despite predictions by some so-called experts in the press of the worst winter for many years, the winter of 2010 / 2011 was much worse. The lowest temperature in this period was a station record -11.6°C on December 7th 2010 at 03:26 and the unofficial snow depth recorded was 13 inches (32.5 centimetres).