Peak District Weather

Overcast in Tideswell all day. Spells of slight rain and sleet for much of the day, turning to snow after 1500z. The snow is just starting to settle on the grass.

Slight rain started to fall in Tideswell at 0745z this morning. That’s the first rain here since 16th March, an unusually long dry spell for here.

Some of the local newcomers around Tideswell this afternoon.

There was dense fog early on this morning in Tideswell with a frost on the grass. The fog is now (0745z) burning off and the sun is breaking through.

After a mostly cloudy morning the afternoon turned out to be sunny and warm again in Tideswell. Last day of this early summer spell, though. We could see some snow by Thursday.

The past few days have brought an early taste of summer to the Peak District. In Tideswell, the temperature reached 18.9C on Friday 25th. Today (28th) is the last of the warm days as winter looks set to surge back later in the week, bringing night frosts and probably some snow to many parts of the Peak District. It’ll be into May before we can be reasonably confident that winter is behind us.

It’s been a long time since I posted on here but, hopefully, postings will become more regular in future and the other parts of the site will be brought up to date.

Weather in the Peak District has turned a bit autumnal in the past couple of days with cooler temperatures and an increasing trend towards unsettled conditions. Some people are suggesting that summer may be at an end but it’s a bit to early to be at all sure about that. The next 7-10 days look likely to produce spells of coolish, unsettled conditions but it would be somewhat unusual to go right through September without at least one spell of more summery conditions.

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.