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Will the real avg. annual snowfall for London please stand? https://growingontheedge.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6488 |
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Author: | davidmdzn7 [ Sat Dec 10, 2011 4:23 am ] |
Post subject: | Will the real avg. annual snowfall for London please stand? |
I was looking at the . I saw this astonishing weather statistic: Snowfall cm (inches) [year] 46.7 (18.39) and instantly thought "bullocks". That is a lot of snow. It's more snow than Seattle. It's even more snow than Washington, DC, which is much colder in winter! (average Jan. low of -2.6C vs. 2.3C for London) Media reports of the past couple years have indicated that London is unused to even small amounts of snow (by US standards) and has had its roads paralyzed because there aren't enough snowplows or gritters. A city with 18 inches of snow a year on average, would certainly be expected to be prepared for it! The wiki cites this source: ftp://dossier.ogp.noaa.gov/GCOS/WMO-Nor ... /03776.TXT So, this is curious right from the start, that a US source is having to be cited at all. Yet in my 20-30 minutes of google searches, I could find no 'official' UK snowfall averages. In terms of cm or inches. It's almost as though the figure isn't kept. Days of snow falling? Yes. Days of "Snow on ground" - yes. Actual amounts? No. "Who would want to have to dash outside and stick a ruler in the ghastly stuff" I guess? That being said I'm surprised London even sees 4 days of snow in Jan. & Feb (each). I almost wonder if someone at the "World Meteorological Organization" - the actual source of the data NOAA collated, decided to use a standardized index relating days of snow to snowfall amounts...how else could they have generated such an implausible figure? |
Author: | David Matzdorf [ Sat Dec 10, 2011 10:41 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Will the real avg. annual snowfall for London please sta |
I don't know any figures for average anowfall, but a typical Winter in London might have one or two falls of snow of an inch to 5 inches. It's common for a Winter to pass with no snow at all, or at least none that sticks. Anything more than a few inches at a time is considered most unusual and more than one or two significant falls in a Winter is also exceptional. So I'd conclude that the average you read is nonsense. |
Author: | davidmdzn7 [ Sat Dec 10, 2011 11:14 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Will the real avg. annual snowfall for London please sta |
Thanks for your corroboration. These sporadic inaccuracies in Wikipedia are very annoying. The general overview of London's climate is reasonably correct, but if the figures for snowfall had been given even a modicum of scrutiny by anybody who had both 1) a familiarity w/London's climate from living there (or in my case, merely being over informed!) and 2) a scintilla of common sense...it would have been quickly realized that they were wrong. I also hate when people edit the article to pursue foolish agendas, like the climate subsections for certain zone 7 American cities that had been edited to point out that Trachycarpus can be grown there. The anomalous hardiness of a certain Chinese palm is really not a useful contribution for general readers to what is supposed to a one or two paragraph summary of a climate. Besides in some cases it was only partially true, as such plants would be wiped out by a once every 20-30 year winter. It looks like the Wikipedia ur-editors have cleared some of that up, though. I remember the article about Baltimore used to be infected with that, but no longer is. |
Author: | Tom2006 [ Sat Dec 10, 2011 9:34 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Will the real avg. annual snowfall for London please sta |
Yes, those figures are much much too high! |
Author: | Martin G [ Fri Jan 20, 2012 9:05 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Will the real avg. annual snowfall for London please sta |
Although not showing exactly the same thing - this may help http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/ ... l#sengland It shows the average number of days of snow lying for 1971-2000, and clearly in winter, London enjoys an average of 0-5 days of snow lying. So not a lot The areas in SE England with more snow lying (darker blue) are generally higher ground such as the Chilterns and the South Downs |
Author: | Las Palmas Norte [ Sat Jan 21, 2012 3:28 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Will the real avg. annual snowfall for London please sta |
Author: | Martin G [ Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:50 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Will the real avg. annual snowfall for London please sta |
Just click on the appropriate choice on the menu to the left of the map |
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