The period from the 10-12th of March 2011 has seen large temperature difference across the north with snow across southern Scotland and N Ireland but much milder air to the south. Something very similar happened almost exactly five years ago when there was disruption due to heavy snow on the 12th March 2006 as Atlantic fronts stalled against a well-established cold block across Scandinavia that extended towards the UK. A very cold air mass moved westward on the 11th to cover all but Ireland and Northern Ireland. On the 12th, the Atlantic fronts stalled across Wales, Northwest England and Southwest Scotland bringing some significant falls of snow to these areas overnight and during the morning of the 12th. A significant contrast in temperature was maintained across the Irish Sea throughout the day; under the persistent cloud and snow some parts of Northern England struggled to rise above freezing, the lowest maxima are outlined in Table 1 below. However, across the Irish Sea in parts of Ireland in the milder Atlantic air mass it was very mild with the temperature peaking at spring-like 13.8°C at Shannon Airport during the afternoon. This was rhe surface analysis for 00Z on 12th March 2006:http://www.wetterzentraleforum.de/archive/2006/brack/bracka20060312.gif

Lowest maxima recorded in the UK on the 12th March 2006

Boltshope Park, (County Durham) –1.2

Fylingdales, (North Yorks) –0.9

Carter Bar (Roxburgh) –0.6

Eskdalemuir (Dumfries) –0.5

Thorncliffe (Staffs) –0.5

The snow fell most heavily across southwest central Scotland (with unofficial reports of 30 to 40cm of lying snow from some locations) in a strong and gusty SE'ly wind, fortunately during the late evening on Saturday and into Sunday when less people needed to travel. However, in Glasgow it left several thousand clubbers stranded during the early hours as the roads quickly became too treacherous and the usual bus and taxi services were suspended. The Garage nightclub and Central Hotel were opened to accommodate those who were stranded waiting for a taxi in the freezing conditions. Glasgow airport was closed for much of the day as the staff fought a losing battle to keep the runways clear of snow, and rail services were decimated across the areas worst affected as the snow continued to fall thick and fast. The M74 linking Scotland and England was closed for several hours during the day to northbound traffic at Johnstonebridge, and countless minor routes across Scotland were closed for the day as they became simply impassable. Once the snow had stopped falling, there were strong winds, which drifted the snow recently cleared off the roads, back onto them. Thousands of homes were left without power at one point because of downed power lines, though these mainly in the more rural and exposed parts of Dumfries and Galloway.

Even as far south as N Wales snow fell around Llandudno and Wrexham, which led to an incident involving a motorcycle and a lorry just outside Chirk. Several other incidents occurred during the day associated with ice or snow on the road making for hazardous travelling conditions. In the south of Wales, the snow wasn't quite as heavy however that did not prevent the National Festival of Music for Youth concert in Cwmbran being postponed. In Cumbria, coastguard volunteers helped to free an ambulance that had become stuck in deep snowdrifts outside Brigham. Several coastguard teams from the region were required to help escort ambulances as they made their way to emergency calls- including one woman who had injured her back sledging! The RAF Sea King helicopter was eventually required to airlift the woman to the hospital in Barrow because of the continuing appalling conditions.

Snow continued to fall through much of the day leading to some large accumulations across southwest Scotland and northwest England. Notably there were several centimetres even at sea level right by the coast in Blackpool, and many areas further inland and slightly higher above sea level had much more. The highest official totals recorded at 09z were 22cm reported at Bishopton (Renfrew), 21cm at Eskdalemuir (Dumfries) and 20cm in Glasgow. The southern extent of the snow appeared to be Manchester where little or none was reported and the extent of the precipitation from the Atlantic fronts was much patchier. Nearer the coast though the precipitation was much heavier, for instance, Liverpool was blanketed by many inches of snow by mid-morning.

During the late afternoon most of the precipitation died out or changed over to ice pellets and light rain as the mild air started to work its way east, at least above the boundary layer. It remained very cold at the surface on the night of the 12th across much of the UK (apart from Northern Ireland and the extreme west coast of Scotland), the lowest temperature recorded was only –4°C at Buxton (Derbyshire) over the snowfields but with a strong S-SE'ly wind it certainly felt like a bitterly cold night This was the surface analysis for 00Z on 13th March 2006 http://www.wetterzentraleforum.de/archive/2006/brack/bracka20060313.gif

The block continued to dominate and exert its influence to the east of the country preventing the mild air from progressing much at the surface. This had the result of tightening the pressure gradient across the UK and drawing gale force S'lies across Scotland, which acted to drift the snow that had fallen during the day. Mild air was beginning to move in aloft on the 13th which led to spells of freezing rain at higher elevations under the inversion coating the snow cover in a frozen glaze, and in Scotland a thaw set in as the mild air raced in at the surface. Temperatures were slightly higher everywhere but still cold for March maxing in the 3 to 6°C range and still with the very cold wind-chill.

The mild air eventually moved east during the rest of the week, though making slow progress and not before another spell of snow, freezing rain and ice pellets ensued across the north and east of England on the 14th. A further 5 – 10 cm fell across northeastern England locally during the morning renewing difficult travel conditions on the roads affected. The heavy snowfall forced the closure of Newcastle airport during the morning causing delays on several flights from the airport, it also forced the closure of many schools in Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear and Teeside. In south Yorkshire the A57 Snake Pass remained closed for several hours because of ice and the A66 in north Yorkshire was also temporarily closed near Scotch Corner following a serious incident. Conditions began to improve though on the 15th as pressure began to build from the east and extend a ridge from the anticyclone across Scandinavia, the south had some long sunny spells where it felt a bit more like spring out of the wind and most of the wintry mix changed back to rain as milder air moved in.