Height Above Sea Level And Snow?

[19jacobob93]

It's always fascinated me seeing a white, snow covered field, and then the field a few metres below completely green!

I know it varies with conditions, but what would you say the approx snow line is?

I've done a bit of research for my area:

When there's wet snow in Brighouse (90m asl) I've found that it starts to settle just up the road at about 150m asl, and when there's sleet in Brighouse, snow settles at about 240m asl

[I remember Atlantic 252]

comes up every year this, main weakness for snow here is my onionsty elevation, but I have known snow here (103m asl) and just rain in town (80m asl)

200m generally classed as high ground, most areas especially the north will see snow next week above 200m, more at 250m and snowfest at 300m

[19jacobob93]

comes up every year this, main weakness for snow here is my onionsty elevation, but I have known snow here (103m asl) and just rain in town (80m asl)

200m generally classed as high ground, most areas especially the north will see snow next week above 200m, more at 250m and snowfest at 300m

I was looking for a previous one but couldn't find one so started one!

The BBC class high ground as over 150m which I think is usually the point where sleet turns to snow!

You can see a hill which tops out at 180m which is always white when there's just sleet in Brighouse

[ZONE 51]

Box Hill is one of the best-known summits of the North Downs, a prominent 193m (634ft) in height

I remember in the 80s/90s having not got the snowfall in Surrey at low ground only to go off to Boxhill and play in deep snowfall.

It was always a place where we knew was reliable for snow if it would not settle down low.

Edited December 9, 2011 by ElectricSnowStorm

[Alex95]

Towns such as Consett and Stanley which are approx. 200m asl get quite a bit more snow than Newcastle which varies from 10-100m asl, so the snowline here on marginal situations is often just under 200m. However, it depends on how marginal it is - the snowline is different every time, but obviously the higher up you go the more snow you get.

I also spend a lot of time in Cumbria; Penrith in Cumbria is 150m asl in the town centre and 230m asl at the top end of town, and that sometimes makes the difference when a wintry mix of showers are in the forecast, or if wet snow is falling which struggles to settle in the town centre, but just 10 minutes walk away you can have a dusting. Shap is 300m asl, and they usually have much more snow than Penrith. On the 1st Feb 2008, for example, Penrith had about an inch of wet snow, whereas Shap reportedly had over 6 inches despite only being 70m higher than the top end of Penrith.

Alston in the North Pennines is over 300m asl and they get something silly like 90 snow days a year! Then again, they pay for that by being regularly cut off by road - in January 2010 the town was cut off for 2 weeks, bar one or two afternoons when the road was able to be plowed.

Edited December 9, 2011 by alza

[stewfox]

I remember in the 80s/90s having not got the snowfall in Surrey at low ground only to go off to Boxhill and play in deep snowfall.

It was always a place where we knew was reliable for snow if it would not settle down low.

I remember one year going up box hill (about 650ft ?) wth heavy snow on the ground at top nothing at the bottom, late 70s

Best for me was driving from slough (70ft) rain to heavy lying snow Stoken church (about 550ft). Got pictures of that amazing journey about 2001 ??

[johnholmes]

I was looking for a previous one but couldn't find one so started one!

The BBC class high ground as over 150m which I think is usually the point where sleet turns to snow!

You can see a hill which tops out at 180m which is always white when there's just sleet in Brighouse

I'm not sure where you get the above remarks from?

150m I suppose is roughly around 500ft so that could be right.

As to where sleet usually turns to snow then there is no hard and fast rule.

The temperature ROUGHLY decreases 3C for every 1000ft, that is for an unstable airmass, showery type. With a frontal type then it will be nearer 3C for 1200-1500ft, sometimes a greater height than I've just quoted. So it does vary.

[ZONE 51]

I remember one year going up box hill (about 650ft ?) wth heavy snow on the ground at top nothing at the bottom, late 70s

Best for me was driving from slough (70ft) rain to heavy lying snow Stoken church (about 550ft). Got pictures of that amazing journey about 2001 ??

it is up to 634ft and thats from a reliable source(very high for these areas), thats the top peak of the it.

all photos are on prints but maybe i could get some scanned at some point. cant forget the time a skier went down the slope and into the trees below!(1991)

Edited December 9, 2011 by ElectricSnowStorm

[damianslaw]

Every set up is different but roughly speaking sleet at 100m usually means snow at 200m in these parts, however, wet snow at 50m can mean snow at 100m - I two and fro between Kendal at 50m and Windermere at 120m and quite often windermere sees snow when kendal has sleet - Monday being a case in point.

Today the snowline near kendal was about 200m - sleet in Kendal but snow on benson knott a local hill.

[Gorath]

heavy snow on the ground at top nothing at the bottom, late 70s

There was snow on the ground, there was nothing on the top of the mountain, and everyone was in disco fever at the bottom?

Fascinating weather! :lol:

[Aaron]

The city varies from 15 meters asl to over 300 meters asl.. I am at 86-90 meters asl and when snow settles here, it often will not do so in Leeds city centre.

of course this month, snow settled a bit in north west Leeds (Pennines) but not here..

Edited December 9, 2011 by Aaron

[Mark Neal.]

I live on top of a reasonably big hill to the east of Oxford City Centre, the park which seperates the lower ground and higher ground is South Park. I am at 102m Asl, but the city centre is quite a few metres lower than this, don't know the exact measurement, But we have experienced snow before and in the city centre it was just sleet/rain-snow. Its amazing that in just a short space,albeit a different height range -different conditions can occur.

[jethro]

If you're unsure of your height asl, this is a fantastic site to find out.

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/

[Evening thunder]

The first time I really realised how much difference altitude could make was on Christmas Day 2004. In the early morning we had rain and sleet showers here, but Dad was taking my Nan to see her brother who lived in a village in the Blackdown Hills. As we were going up a local hill a few miles from here a sleet shower turned increasingly to snow and by the time we reached the top (about 245m high) there was about 1cm lying snow. Going down the hill towards the town of Honiton you could see all the hills were white near the top and green nearer the bottom.

On the next hills (north of Honiton) there was an inch or just over of snow.

In February 2009 there was a strange situation where there are two long hills just east of me with a small gap in between, with the hills sort of like this: ------- ------ lying NNE-SSW if that makes sense. and one hill was mainly white while the other one at virtually the same height was green. The precipitation was frontal rather than showery too. I'll see if I can find a picture.

[Terminal Moraine]

Every situation is different but in this area 245m ( roughly 800') is a common snow line, nothing lying below it, white above it.

380m ( roughly 1250') seems to be another. I've known it sleeting here or wet snow falling with nothing lying but above 380m it suddenly turns white.

On a few occasions I've seen the bottom half of a field behind my house green and the top half white with a difference in altitude between the two halves of 20m.

[19jacobob93]

Thanks for all your replies

The snowline here yesterday was 160m, and it was literally like someone had drawn it on it was that sharp! I live at around 330m so we did rather well most of last week! Theres a hill I can see from my back garden which tops out at 320m, and earlier in the week there was about an inch at the top and about 30m below was completely green!

[damianslaw]

Thanks for all your replies

The snowline here yesterday was 160m, and it was literally like someone had drawn it on it was that sharp! I live at around 330m so we did rather well most of last week! Theres a hill I can see from my back garden which tops out at 320m, and earlier in the week there was about an inch at the top and about 30m below was completely green!

Yes it is quite remarkable how so often we see marked lines on our hills from white to green in the space of what 10-20m..

[A Winter's Tale]

My location is frustrating when it comes to lyings snow in some marginal events. Bishopbriggs, a mile down the road and 20-70ft higher than Torrance can sometime have lying snow aswell as Lennoxtown and Kirkintiloch whereas Torrance has nothing. And the hill just behind the village may see snow just 30ft higher up than the village aswell.

[A.J]

I spent most of my life growing up in Brixham, Devon...I think the snow line there was about 20,000 ft

[Paul]

You can derive the snow line by removing around 300m from the 0c isotherm line which is shown on our GFS charts:

http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=nwdc;sess=

The approx rain/snow height is also shown on the snow risk charts

[davehsug]

The topography around helps too. There's plenty of ground above 800ft visible from where I live, & occasionally there will be a covering of snow there, when there is none here some 350 ft lower. Over towards Leek, the snowline in the same situation will be lower as there is plenty of 1,000ft ground around, which seems to lower the temperature & snowline more easily.