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14 metres. Unfortunately there aren't any hills that near to me, so unlike living at 106 metres in North London I am expecting to lose out completely in any marginal snow/ice-day events.
York and the surrounding area fared quite badly last winter - while we in West Yorkshire got heavy snow, the Vale of York would often have sleet or wet, non-settling snow, as a lot of the events in January were marginal and the slightest change in elevation made all the difference.
In general though, I don't think York does too badly despite the lackluster elevation. The valley position means more severe frosts are possible which works well with regards to preserving snow packs.
York and the surrounding area fared quite badly last winter - while we in West Yorkshire got heavy snow, the Vale of York would often have sleet or wet, non-settling snow, as a lot of the events in January were marginal and the slightest change in elevation made all the difference.
In general though, I don't think York does too badly despite the lackluster elevation. The valley position means more severe frosts are possible which works well with regards to preserving snow packs.
I am looking forward to extra (freezing) fog and the occasional minus double-digit overnight low, but I think it's best to have low expectations with regards marginal snowfalls. I couldn't find any weather records on lying snow days for York, but as far as ice days are concerned, the weather station at the university (though a rooftop site, i.e. semi-waste of time IMO) had one day scrape a high below freezing last year, but three days which got up to 0.0 or 0.1C and so just missed out.
I'm wondering how the effect of a change in altitude differs between varying climate types. In my part of the world in a cool maritime climate, small increases in altitude can make a big difference.
Example: go 28 miles east along the 54th parallel, and from 3 metres at Morecambe by the coast to 391 metres at Malham Tarn, and you get the predictable 2-3C temperature drop, but the rainfall increases 50%, you get 2.5 times more frosts and your sunshine decreases by a quarter. It's a shame they don't give snow-lying days, because with the temperatures so close to zero it will probably be a difference between no more than five at Morecambe and 30+ at Malham. Add increased windiness and increased low cloud/hill fog into the equation and the feel of the two places would be quite different with only a change of 1200 feet in altitude. Malham doesn't quite make it as subarctic, but it's getting there. I know topography plays a big part as well, but is the effect of relatively small changes in altitude felt more acutely in climates like this?
Last edited by ben86; 06-29-2013 at 04:03 AM..
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