Heavy Snow, (18th November, 2004)
Very cold dry air was present to the North and very warm moist air to the
South. Where these air masses met there was very heavy precipitation. Heavy rain followed
by snow was experienced over the Pennies, the Midlands and later East-Anglia. The
rain eased in the evening as the front became less active.
There was a hail shower and locally thunderstorms near Berkshire leading to a plumet
in temperatures over a very short period of time. Around -6'C in 10 minutes. This was a very turbulent
period due to the horizontal variation in temperature causing high vertical wind sheer and hence turbulent eddies.
After the passing of the front there was descending air mass and clear, cold conditions.
Temperatures plumet during the passing of a cold front
The synoptic chart from the MetOffice may be viewed by the following link...
Synoptic Charts from the MetOffice, for 6pm on 18th November 2004