Could this possible heavy snow from Monday, be due to it still being
WINTER, perchance here in the UK?
The forecast is for conditions more severe than typically experienced in a UK winter. It is unusual in the south of England to have days where the temperature stays below freezing all day, and this is what is forecast on Wednesday and Thursday, with days either side forecast to be 1C max. Any precipitation will fall as snow down to sea level, with the precipitation initially in the form of showers as the cold easterly wind passing over the warmer North sea destabilises, leading to lake-effect snow showers. Any disruption will depend on how much snow falls, but with the showery nature of the snow some areas could get a lot whilst other areas see none, and it is impossible to predict where every single snow shower will dump snow. Hence the more widespread advisory to expect disruption due to snow and ice next week. In addition, there is the possibility later in the week of low pressure systems moving up against the very cold air over the UK. These are the setups which historically have given some of the biggest snowfalls across the southern counties. The nature of the south east, being of high population, and the busiest and most congested commuter routes in the UK, will likely suffer disruption even with a modest amount of snow, because the transport networks are near saturation, there is no slack in the system, so any deviation from normal conditions results in transport disruption.
It is not about what season it is, it is about how severe the conditions are relative to normal. A large enough deviation from normal conditions will cause problems, in winter, spring, summer or autumn. That is why in autumn 2000, there was major disruption due to flooding. It is irrelevant that we should expect it to rain in the autumn, it was the quantity of rain well above normal falling over the season which overwhelmed the catchment areas and resulted the flooding.
