Peak District Weather

Today (Monday 17 Dec) was almost a carbon copy of yesterday. The day started off with a frost and some ice. The morning was mostly fine and sunny then, in the afternoon, the sky gradually clouded over. A bank of low stratus developed around dusk. The max temp was 6.7°.

Over the next few days we can expect very unsettled weather with spells of rain and wind alternating with slightly cooler, brighter spells. It’s never going to be particularly mild or cold. Although rain will never be far away, the accumulated total over the next few days looks like being fairly modest as the animation below shows.

Yesterday (Saturday) was an astonishing day of weather in Tideswell. During the afternoon we had 12 mm of rain, all with the temperature between -1° and 0°. The result was extensive glassy-smooth ice. In the surrounding area there were many traffic accidents and some roads were closed for many hours. It was the worst occurrence of freezing rain that I have ever encountered.

A much better day today. After a frosty start, with icy stretches on roads and pavements, the morning was mostly sunny. It clouded over in the afternoon and it has been raining since around 5:30 p.m. A much milder day with the temperature reaching a high of 6°.

In the run up to Christmas it looks as though the weather will be very changeable. Spells of mild, wet and windy weather will alternate with spells of cooler, brighter conditions but there’s no real sign of anything significantly cold. There are some hints that Christmas Day and Boxing Day could be a little colder but a White Christmas looks to be unlikely.

 

A mostly cloudy day in Tideswell with a cold, raw, gusty E-SE wind. The temperature crept just above 3° for a while. The cloud mostly cleared around dusk allowing the temperature to fall close to 0° this evening despite the wind.

Another cold day tomorrow and then the fun starts on Saturday. Milder air from the Atlantic will start to push in during the day on Saturday bringing a spell of wet weather but with cold air still over the country there’s likely to be a spell of snow over the Peak District before the temperature rises later. In Tideswell snow looks likely to start around the middle of the day and could persist into the evening. Just to add to the nasty mix there could also be freezing rain for a while. It’ll be quite a marginal situation so it’s difficult to say how much snow Tideswell may get but I wouldn’t be surprised to see 5-10 cm by dusk on Saturday. Above 450-500m there could well be heavy falls with near blizzard conditions on Saturday afternoon. High level roads are likely to be badly affected.

 

For most of today Tideswell was at the bottom end of a shower stream extending SE from the Cumbrian coast, across Preston and Manchester to the Peak District. The showers weren’t heavy but it ended up a rather dreary, damp day. The shower stream finally fizzled out around dusk.

It looks like we’ll see a gradual cooling down during the remainder of the week and, by Friday, the temperature will struggle to get above 0° in Tideswell. There could be a little snow at the end of the week above about 200-250m but, at present, it looks like amounts will be small.

Today (Thursday) there was a persistent low overcast in the Peak District giving extensive hill fog above about 400m. There were spells of slight rain and drizzle but totals were quite small.

The very unsettled weather looks set to continue through the weekend and into the start of next week. Over the next few days the Peak District will experience some very strong winds with squally showers and, as the temperatures slowly fall, there’ll be some wintry precipitation at the highest levels. Although it will be very unsettled the rainfall totals are not expected to be particularly large, with 35-40 mm predicted to accumulate over the next 5 days, as the animation below shows.

Temperatures are expected to ease downwards during next week and there is a possibility of significant snowfall by the end of the week. That’s far from being a certainty at this stage, only a possibility.

In Tideswell there was a short spell of thick fog just before dawn but before sunrise this had gone. During the morning there was broken cloud and sunny periods but in the afternoon pre-frontal high and middle level cloud spread across the sky.

Over the Peak District as a whole there were very light winds all day. Valley fog persisted all day and there was patchy hill foog for much of the day.

The following photos were taken around 3 p,m. showing the persistent fog in the valley of the River Wye through Miller’s Dale. The photos were taken looking approximately due south from a height of 325 metres a.s.l. just outside Tideswell on the lane to the neighbouring village of Litton. The bottom of the Wye Valley is about 195 metres a.s.l. and is about 1.5 miles from where the photos were taken.

The very unsettled weather looks set to continue over the Peak District for the rest of the week witj spells of very wet weather. There is potential for some very windy conditions during Friday and Saturday.

It’s looking increasingly likely that from the weekend into next week we will see increasingly colder weather. The detail of this remains very uncertain but there is a small probability that it could evolve into a situation that produces significant snowfall over the Peak district.

The morning started very wet across the Peak District. Although the intensity of the rain eased a bit it continued till around midday. What a change in the afternoon. The rain ceased and the cloud broke to give a dry afternoon with sunny spells. It was quite breezy, though.

This evening under clear skies the temperature is falling quite quickly and is currently getting close to 0° in Tideswell. There’s a frosty night to come and a lot of windscreen clearing for early morning drivers tomorrow.

Unsettled weather is expected to persist through the remainder of this week with spells of rain continuing to affect the Peak District. Next week’s weather is still very uncertain but some of the computer models are continuing to hint at a trend towards much colder weather. Watch this space!

There was a low overcast in the Peak District for much of the day with extensive hill fog above 400m. In Tideswell there was slight rain and drizzle for a lot of the day. Some cloud breaks appeared for a time around dusk but too late for any sunshine. Even by Tidewell standards we’re having a remarkably dull spell. In the past 14 days we’ve had a total of only 8.9 hours of sunshine and 4.6 of those came on one day.

Today has been an exceptionally mild day for December. It felt more like October.

Unsettled weather looks like carrying on for much of the coming week though, as the animation below shows, rainfall amounts in the Peak District are expected to be relatively small.

Looking into next weekend and beyond there are some fairly strong hints from some of the computer models that we could be heading for a spell of much colder weather. There’s great uncertainty about this yet but there is the possibility that by the middle of the month the weather could be causing some travel disruption around the Peak District.

There was a low overcast over the Peak District all day giving extensive hill fog above 250-300m. In Tideswell there was almost continuous slight drizzle with some slight rain mixed in from time to time. Overall, a day to forget.

Over the next few days the very unsettled weather will continue withe spells of rain from time to time. It’ll be mostly quite mild and perhaps windy at times, though there is a possibility of some sleet or wet snow temporarily over higher parts on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

There are some early hints of a possible change to colder weather setting in from next weekend onwards but, this far ahead, there’s great uncertainty about that so it’s well short of being a firm forecast.

No time for any graphics this evening!

Friday was a much more pleasant day in the Peak District. Broken cloud allowed sunny periods every where. There were a few showers around but in Tideswell we managed to miss them all. It was a cooler day with a max temp in Tideswell of 7.4° and there was a cool breeze. Nevertheless, it was a splendid day for outdoor activities.

The satellite image below shows the situation in the middle of the day, with the greater part of England almost cloud-free. Skies were mostly cloudy just north of the Peak District but we were fortunate and remained in the sunnier conditions.

Over the next few days the very changeable weather will continue in the Peak District. On Saturday morning there’ll be a spell of wet weather and another on Sunday morning. Outside of these spells there’ll be more broken cloud and showers.

On Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning a low pressure centre is expected to move E or NE across the British Isles. If this low centre passes to the south of the Peak District it is possible that we could have a spell of sleet or snow. This is far from being a certainty and if it does happen the snow would be of the ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ variety.

Looking further ahead, there are some hints from the computer models that we could be in for some rather colder weather towards the middle of December. It’s still too far ahead to have any confidence in the model predictions but the possibility is there.