This is an in-depth Met Office UK Weather forecast for the next week and beyond, dated 28/11/2023.
It’s turning colder this week with widespread frosts and temperatures well below average. Ice and snow are likely to cause some parts of the UK problems but where and when could we see a covering of snow and just why is snow so tricky to forecast.
Bringing you this deep dive is Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin.
It’s turning colder this week with widespread frosts and temperatures well below average. Ice and snow are likely to cause some parts of the UK problems but where and when could we see a covering of snow and just why is snow so tricky to forecast.
Bringing you this deep dive is Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Snow in the UK this week.
00:03 But where?
00:05 How long will this cold spell last?
00:07 And just why is snow so tricky to forecast?
00:11 I'll try and answer all of those questions in this week's Met Office Deep Dive.
00:17 Welcome along. My name's Alex Deakin.
00:19 I'm a meteorologist and weather presenter here at Met Office HQ in Exeter in Devon.
00:25 This is the Deep Dive.
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01:08 There is plenty to discuss.
01:10 There has been plenty of chat on social media about this cold spell and whether we're going to see any snow.
01:17 So we'll be looking at that in a fair bit of detail over the next 20 or so minutes.
01:23 First of all, though, let's take a look at the view from space.
01:26 It's a good a place as any to start, and it's full of swirls and curls, as usual, as beautiful as ever.
01:32 What we've seen is a series of low pressure systems heading south across the UK.
01:38 We saw one through the course of the weekend and we're seeing another one slipping south now.
01:42 So there's low pressure down to the southwest, but it's actually this one that sank its way across the UK during the weekend.
01:49 It's now developing across mainland Europe and providing further heavy snow here.
01:54 It's followed by another low down across the North Sea.
01:56 And if we just pause it there, you can see in here now that's where we are now.
02:01 Time of recording this morning, at least.
02:03 Let's take it to the end.
02:05 We've got a nice little swirl in there.
02:07 Let's zoom in a little bit and show you that.
02:09 That is an area of low pressure just been intensifying going through cyclogenesis as it picks up and spreads down through the North Sea.
02:17 That's doing a couple of things.
02:19 It's bringing stronger winds up into this zone.
02:22 And you'll have noticed that if you're in Aberdeenshire today, a strong wind.
02:26 You'll notice the drop in temperatures as well.
02:29 And you'll also start to notice a little bit more in the way of showers.
02:33 Let's put the radar on.
02:36 This is where we're at at the moment.
02:37 The showers coming around the low pressure being drawn down, mostly the bit of rain at two dates.
02:42 But we can put the mixed precipitation radar on.
02:46 This is showing blues for rain and a bit of white for snow.
02:49 It's probably overdoing it a little bit.
02:51 But notice over the hills of Scotland, we are starting to see a little bit of snow.
02:55 And in recent times, a bit more in the way of snow coming in here into the northeast of Scotland.
03:01 That is because the air is turning colder.
03:04 So around that area of low pressure here that we have in the North Sea.
03:08 Let's take the jet stream off.
03:09 Let's just look at the temperatures.
03:11 And you can see that the really cold air is tucked in here.
03:15 And over the next 24 hours or so, it all drives its way southwards.
03:20 The low pressure heads down through the North Sea, bringing some wet weather to the Netherlands, parts of Germany and Denmark.
03:27 The colder air is going around it.
03:29 The winds going around low pressure anti-clockwise.
03:33 So drawing down that colder air, which is spreading more widely across the UK.
03:37 So if you think it was cold today, well, beware.
03:40 The next few days will be colder still with widespread nighttime frosts.
03:44 While we're here, let's take a look at what's going on across Europe because it's turned a lot colder here also.
03:50 Significant cold plunge.
03:52 And keep your eye on this area of low pressure.
03:54 Let's take the temperatures off, but put the rain and snow mix on because that is heading northwards.
04:00 And look at all that snow associated with that.
04:02 We've already seen some significant snow over the weekend.
04:05 Crazy scenes coming out of Romania.
04:07 We've seen some heavy snowfall in Ukraine as well.
04:10 And this snow is now heading its way northwards into parts of Poland over the next 24 hours and then spreading its way up towards the Baltic states, Lithuania, Estonia.
04:20 Going to see some heavy snowfall as that moves north.
04:22 The ice bars close together as well.
04:24 So windy. So blizzards heading in.
04:26 We could see maybe 20, possibly 30 centimeters of snow in some locations and temperatures across central Europe significantly below average, five to 10 degrees in many places because of this cold spell.
04:38 And then this little low that's heading south coming in from the UK, that will bring some snowfall to parts of Germany and the low countries over the next 24 to 48 hours.
04:50 And then this next low down to the south.
04:52 Look at this, bringing some more fresh heavy snow to the Alps in here.
04:57 So more fresh snow coming into the Alps.
04:59 So quite a bit of wintry weather from the Alps up to Germany and the Netherlands and then the other system heading its way up further east.
05:07 So quite a bit of snow to come across Europe in the next few days.
05:10 But the big question is, what about for the UK?
05:15 Well, some question marks still about this low heading up from the south later this week.
05:21 But more on that in a minute. Let's bring it back to more closer to home and more recent times as that low pressure heads its way down towards Denmark and Germany.
05:33 It will leave these showers coming in and that's what we're looking at for the next couple of days.
05:37 So let's put it on the closer zoom here.
05:40 So there's the low pressure. We're back to the here and now there's the low drifting south.
05:44 The winds are picking up significant wind chill across the northeast of Scotland, but increasingly down the eastern side of England.
05:51 And as we play through the next 24 hours or so. Notice how the showers continue to come in and they will turn more and more wintry over northeast Scotland.
06:05 A mixture of rain, sleet and snow, but it's rain mostly on the coast.
06:09 By the time we get to tonight, it's mostly snow showers to be coming in now.
06:13 Important to point out that it showers. So it's one of the situations where you could see a covering of snow a centimetre or so in one location five miles away.
06:23 You may not get much at all, but these wintry showers will come in in this zone with those winds coming in from the north or the northeast for the next couple of days.
06:31 So we are concerned about the snow, but also ice as temperatures fall away as these showers come in, whether they're rain, sleet or snow.
06:40 They're going to moisten up the ground with the ground getting cold and frosty. That could lead to icy conditions.
06:45 So that's why we've got a couple of warnings in place. Let's take a look at those issued.
06:52 Today, snow and ice warning for tonight's basically covering northern half of Scotland, Aberdeenshire northwards and the northern isles and parts of southeast Scotland and northeast England,
07:03 because the winds coming in here, bringing some of those snow showers in.
07:07 Zoom in a little bit so you can see now notice the coasts not quite involved in that, because on the coast, it's more likely to be rain that we see because of the influence of the sea.
07:15 More on that later. But fast forward 24 hours and another warning in place for Wednesday night and into Thursday covering similar areas,
07:23 but a slight subtle shift in wind direction means we're less likely to see snow showers over the western isles.
07:28 But again, snow showers coming into this part of the world.
07:31 So from northeast Scotland down into northeast England, likely to cause ice, I think is the biggest risk.
07:37 But we could easily see a covering of snow in places. And where we see the most frequent snow showers in northern Scotland on the hills,
07:43 we could see five to maybe 10 centimetres of snow. But I think at low levels, you're unlikely to get much more than a covering, a dusting a centimetre at most.
07:53 And as I said, they are going to be hit and miss because it's going to be showers.
07:56 So one location could see that centimetre five miles away. It may not.
08:01 It may be completely dry, may not see much at all. But they're the warnings that we have in place for the wintry weather that's coming in over the next couple of days,
08:09 because that low pressure continues to drift its way away.
08:13 Let's put the pressure chart on. And.
08:19 We've got these wintry showers, even by Thursday, they're still coming in now down to the south.
08:24 Things are getting messy. Look at that. We've got another low pressure system coming up and that could still provide a little bit of snow in parts of the south.
08:33 More on that in a second. First of all, let's look at how the temperatures are changing.
08:38 We talked about that low coming down. It is bringing down the colder air.
08:42 Now, this is the height above sea level at which you get to zero Celsius.
08:47 So the temperatures on the ground over the next few days or in the air, the surface temperatures are going to be four or five degrees for most of us over the next few days.
08:55 But we are seeing colder air coming in from the north. This is the freezing level.
08:59 So basically how high up you have to go before you hit freezing, before you hit zero Celsius.
09:05 And at time of recording, Tuesday afternoon, it's a bit tricky to see.
09:09 But most of the UK is in here in this blue zone, which is four to six hundred metres.
09:15 So you have to go up through the atmosphere four to six hundred metres before you get to zero degrees Celsius.
09:22 This dark grey colour in here is the zero height.
09:27 So that's when the freezing level is basically at the surface.
09:31 The paler grey is 200 metres. And if we go through. So this is the time of recording.
09:36 These greens are much milder air down to the south. We've got to go up to a thousand feet before you see zero Celsius line.
09:43 If we run through the sequence steadily, notice how the colder air is coming in.
09:48 So there's Aberdeen. The colder air is just pushing south and south.
09:52 We're into Newcastle Hull and Manchester into that 200 metre zone and then the zero zone.
09:58 And it's all just steadily pushing its way southwards, just indicating that it's getting colder and colder.
10:04 Now, this is a useful bit of information, how high you have to go before you get to zero,
10:09 because it's really helpful in telling us where the snow level is going to be.
10:13 So obviously, temperatures below freezing, much more likely to see freezing precipitation.
10:18 So snow. So that is really important for telling us where the cold air is and where we could see snow.
10:25 Now, that's just telling us how cold the air is. Now, for snow, you need two things.
10:29 You need the cold, but you also need the moisture, the precipitation.
10:33 And most places aren't going to see those showers.
10:35 But as we've seen, those showers will keep coming into those eastern areas.
10:38 And as the freezing level drops, as the air gets colder, we are more and more likely through the night
10:44 and through tomorrow to see those showers coming down as snow, even to low levels.
10:48 Still hit and miss, still not huge amounts, but that's why we are starting to see more and more of that wintry weather.
10:56 Down to the south, down here, you'll notice the cold air takes much longer to get in.
11:02 So what time is that? That's Wednesday morning. It's still pretty mild.
11:05 It's still got to go a thousand feet in the southwest before you get to the colder air.
11:09 It does push further south into parts of southern England, south Wales,
11:13 by the time we get into Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.
11:18 So it is getting colder even across the south, but it kind of then grinds to a halt,
11:23 doesn't make much more progress. There's a bit of a scrap going on between the milder air down here.
11:29 This is the channel, the milder air down here and that colder air pushing in across the mainland of England and Wales.
11:36 And that's a bit of a battleground. And that is the zone that's giving us the headache,
11:41 or has been giving us the headache for the past few days about whether we're going to see any snow across the south.
11:47 Let's take a look at the bigger picture because this will help explain what's going on.
11:53 Just take the jet stream off for now, because whilst we've been focused on this low that's drifting down through the North Sea,
11:59 it's actually this low to the southwest that has been giving us the headaches.
12:03 Fast forward to Wednesday and notice that low is kind of merging into a couple of low pressure systems
12:10 and they're all kind of just pushing their way up northwards towards the UK, but also into parts of France.
12:16 Now, remember what we said, you need the cold air, but you need the moisture.
12:23 Now, this is providing the moisture because that's an area of low pressure that's been sitting out in the Atlantic.
12:28 It's picked up the moisture and it is moving up towards southern parts of England.
12:32 It's bumping up against the cold air, but it's where that boundary sits as to whether we see how much sleet and snow.
12:39 My watch is going off. It's getting so excited. It's where that boundary sits as to exactly where we see the snow.
12:45 And crucially, where this low pressure sits.
12:48 And the computer models have not really been agreeing about where this low is going to sit by the time we get to Thursday.
12:56 Let's put the jet stream back on. Let's zoom out and put the jet stream back on, because this is the crucial bit of the jet stream.
13:04 This dip, we call this a trough out in the Atlantic that's forming over the next 24 hours.
13:09 24 hours rewind to the here and now the jet streams in a bit of a mess, pretty active across Europe, hence picking up those lows, bringing the snow here.
13:18 Bit of a mess close to the UK, but it is just dipping south here.
13:21 And it's this dip in here, the intensification of the jet stream here, this trough that's picking up and exactly how it interacts with the low pressure down to the southwest.
13:32 Determines where the low pressure sits, how far north, how far south it gets.
13:38 As I said, that's been giving us a bit of a headache all through the past four or five days because we've known this low has been close to the southwest.
13:46 But how close it gets, how it interacts with the cold air determines how much snow we are going to see.
13:52 And the computer models haven't been agreeing.
13:55 Just bear that in mind when I show you.
14:00 This now, so this is when we take a couple of the computer models and compare and contrast.
14:07 You basically take one away from the other.
14:09 Now, this is the map of the whole, pretty much the whole of the northern hemisphere looking down on the North Pole.
14:15 And this is comparing the Met Office model with the European model ECMWF model.
14:21 And it's a projection from today for Thursday.
14:25 And the patches, the blotches that you can see are where the models don't agree.
14:31 So you can see there's quite a bit of agreements where the map's just a normal shade of green.
14:36 But these red and purple blobs are where there's a bigger discrepancy between the two computer models.
14:43 Now, took a look at the whole area of the northern hemisphere.
14:45 The biggest error or the biggest disparity in the computer models is down to the southwest of the UK, down here, where that trough is developing, where that low pressure is developing.
14:56 So that's why there's been quite a bit of uncertainty, because that is the area where these two models are not really agreeing very much.
15:03 And that's why it's been giving us a bit of a headache.
15:06 Let's compare and contrast. Now, that's looking higher at the jet stream.
15:11 Now we're comparing the pressure pattern again between those two main computer models, basically taking one away from the other.
15:18 You can see the UK in here. And again, it's in this area where we've got the biggest, the darkest patches of blue.
15:23 That's where the biggest disparity is. Now, this was from yesterday.
15:27 If we fast forward to today's comparison, and whilst there is still not complete agreement, there is still that disparity.
15:35 It's not as dark. The blues are not as dark here as they were yesterday.
15:40 So what's that's telling us is that the computer models are now more in agreement as we get closer to the time, as we get closer to Thursday.
15:48 So that's good news. The models are converging, as we say.
15:51 So there's less disparity between those two main computer models.
15:56 But just give you another example of, well, let's compare and contrast now with the European model here, with the Met Office model here.
16:06 Now, this is, hopefully you can see that the pressure chart, just about those black lines there.
16:10 Maybe we can zoom fully into this. And you can see that the Met Office model on the left there, pretty similar to the European model on the right.
16:17 They've both got the cold air in place, the blue colours, with that green hanging on down to the southwest.
16:22 But notice on the European model, the EC model on the right there, that the low pressure is just off the bottom of the screen.
16:29 Whereas in the Met Office model, it's just that little bit higher.
16:33 And it's that subtle difference, what's that? Probably less than 100 miles in the position of the low, that could just push that snow a little bit further north, or the risk of snow more into southern parts.
16:44 The European model has always had that low pressure a little further south.
16:48 Again, just showing that disparity. And the Met Office model has become more in line with the European model.
16:55 This is the Met Office model for Thursday from a couple of days ago, where it had precipitation, mixture of rain, sleet and snow, as far as the Midlands, South Wales.
17:04 The more recent computer model runs just keeping that rain down towards the southwest.
17:09 So we're seeing those models converging, and the Met Office model in particular, just taking that risk of rain further south.
17:15 What does that mean in terms of where we are likely to see rainfall?
17:19 Well, the risk, rain and snow, the risk of snow in the south has diminished over the past couple of days.
17:26 It was a possibility. Now it's looking less likely.
17:29 Not completely ruling it out because there's still that discrepancy in what the models are doing.
17:34 There's still that trough and that low pressure.
17:36 But the main risk for snow over the next few days will be down the eastern side of England and northern and eastern parts of Scotland.
17:44 A centimetre or two, maybe a little bit more, particularly on the hills.
17:48 Five to 10 centimetres possible on the mountains of Scotland, whereas down to the south, it's more likely we're just going to see a mixture of rain, perhaps a little bit of sleet for a time.
17:58 And over the hills, the moors in the southwest, perhaps we could see a bit of a covering.
18:02 But that that risk of wetter weather in the south over the past couple of days has just drifted further south.
18:09 So we're now a little less concerned about seeing much snowfall across the south compared to a couple of days ago.
18:17 What happens after that? Well, basically low pressure.
18:21 Let's take the jet stream off. We fast forward to Thursday.
18:26 There's that low just trying to get into the southwest.
18:30 By the time we get to Friday, it's starting to push away and it's likely to continue to drift away to the south, bringing some damp conditions,
18:38 maybe to the southeast on Friday. Into the weekend, put the winds on because the low pressure is like that.
18:45 The winds are still coming in from the east. So notice the winds still coming from the east during Friday and into Saturday.
18:52 So it's still going to stay pretty chilly. These winds will be picking up moisture from the North Sea.
18:56 So there's still a potential for snow showers to come into the east during the course of Friday.
19:02 And I'm going to fast forward to Saturday. By the time we get to Saturday, if we just pause it there,
19:07 the winds are now starting to shift. So the lows moved away and now the winds are switching around.
19:13 Instead of coming from the east, they're now more coming in from the north.
19:16 So it isn't warming up, but that change in wind direction brings a change in where we're likely to see snow showers.
19:23 So we're more likely to see snow showers as we go into the weekend with the winds coming down from the north,
19:30 down these northern parts or the northwest. Whereas rewind to where we are now, the winds coming in from the east,
19:38 more likely to see snow showers in the east. Hence why I've got those warnings for the next couple of days.
19:42 Into the weekend, uncertainty about how much we're going to see. But the winds are switching direction.
19:49 We're more likely to see some wintry showers coming in from this direction as we go towards the weekend.
19:56 So still the potential for some sleet and snow, and it is staying cold, certainly into the weekend.
20:03 Temperature is not likely to rise too much at all. What we've got here are the maps for the next four days and four nights.
20:10 The nights are along the top. The days are along the bottom. And these are the temperature anomaly maps.
20:17 So how different from average we are talking. And they're all blue.
20:22 So they're all in this kind of six to eight degrees below average range or four to four to eight degrees below average range
20:29 for the next several nights and for the next several days. Signs there by Sunday that from the west it may be turning a little milder.
20:37 And there are more signs as we go through into next week that we could start to see temperatures rising a little bit
20:45 and we'll start to see the Atlantic influencing our weather a little bit more.
20:49 The jet stream may get a little bit more agitated and we'll start to see our weather coming in from the Atlantic a bit more.
20:55 Some signs of that, but again, quite a bit of uncertainty, as you would imagine.
20:58 And we will have more on that in our 10 day trend forecast tomorrow.
21:03 So, again, another reason to hit subscribe. Then you won't miss out 10 day trend tomorrow.
21:08 So that's the kind of outlook and that's where we're looking at in terms of snowfall risk over the next few days.
21:15 But snow, as I say, has been giving us a headache. We're almost into meteorological winter.
21:20 That starts on Friday, the 1st of December. You can measure winter however you want.
21:25 But meteorologically and climatologically, winter starts on the 1st of December.
21:30 We have our seasons in three month bursts. So December, January, February is classed as winter.
21:36 So the 1st of December starts meteorological winter for us.
21:40 So we may see a little bit more in the way of snowfall in the coming months, just because we're going into winter.
21:47 As we've seen, there could be a little bit over the next few days, but it's always a bit of a headache.
21:53 Snow. Why is snow so tricky? Most meteorologists have a kind of love hate relationship with snow.
21:59 We love it in the same way that many people love it because it changes landscapes.
22:03 It makes things very pretty. It's quite rare and it challenges us.
22:07 But that's also one of the reasons why we're not so keen on it. It is very difficult to nail down snow.
22:13 It's very difficult to get the forecast exactly right.
22:16 And of course, there's a bit more interest in weather forecasts whenever there is a hint of snow.
22:21 So why is snow so tricky? I just wanted to go through a few points about why it is tricky to forecast snow particularly accurately.
22:30 Temperature is obviously one of the main features of whether we see snow or not.
22:35 One of the main features of the atmosphere. If you think about it on a fine summer's day,
22:40 if we're forecasting a high of 22 degrees Celsius, if it only gets to 20 Celsius, nobody really minds.
22:46 Can you tell the difference outside between 22 and 20? Probably not.
22:50 But a difference of two degrees can mean the difference on a snow day of whether you get a complete whiteout or whether you just see rain.
22:59 So it's really crucial to get the temperature bang on, but not just the temperature at the surface.
23:06 You have to think about the temperature all the way up through the atmosphere and different layers are at different temperatures.
23:13 Not unusual for the for the layer of atmosphere above the surface to be warmer than the temperature at the surface and therefore warmer than the than the cloud base.
23:23 I'm going to try and draw something now, put my drawing skills to the test again.
23:27 We love this in a deep dive, don't we? Let's watch Alex draw things badly.
23:32 So let's draw a cloud first of all. Should be able to do that, he says.
23:38 Hopefully there's a pretty cloud. It's gone a bit weird.
23:42 There we go. There's a pretty cloud and that cloud is producing snow.
23:51 Now, most precipitation, even if even if we see it as rain, starts off as snow because it's coming from clouds up above the freezing level.
23:59 So most precipitation we see starts off as snow as it gets warmer as you get down to the surface.
24:08 That's the surface. By the time it gets down to the ground, it has turned to rain.
24:13 But sometimes you can get a layer in here where the temperatures are warmer.
24:22 So you've got a layer of the atmosphere between the surface and between the cloud where temperatures have risen before you get a colder zone down at the surface.
24:29 So the snow goes through this warmer layer. It comes out the other side as rain.
24:35 You get rain down here, but actually the temperature of the surface is still close to freezing.
24:40 What you get then is something called freezing rain. So this is super cooled rain.
24:44 It's come through, doesn't have time to refreeze and it hits the surface and it makes things very icy indeed.
24:51 Freezing rain and creates like glass almost, one of the most dangerous types of weather.
24:56 We don't get it very often in the UK, proper freezing rain.
24:59 We did get it during the beast from the east and it freezes everything instantaneously.
25:03 So getting the temperature right at different layers is absolutely crucial.
25:08 And that change by a degree or so could make a difference.
25:11 You can have two, temperature at the surface can be two degrees and you can see snow.
25:16 And equally temperature can be zero, even minus one and you can get rain.
25:20 So it's not just knowing the temperature at the surface.
25:23 You need to know the temperature all the way up through the atmosphere very accurately to where the cloud is.
25:29 That is one factor that determines whether we see snow or not.
25:33 So that's just one complication.
25:35 Lie of the land, talked about it earlier on the map with the warnings on.
25:40 Let's look at that again.
25:45 Zooming in here. So the temperature in the sea out here at the moment is.
25:53 Temperature in the North Sea at the moment, won't feel like it if you put your toes in.
25:57 But just off the coast of Newcastle, the temperature in the North Sea around about nine or ten degrees Celsius.
26:02 So well above freezing. That influences the temperature along the coast on the coastal strip itself.
26:08 It will be a little milder than it will be inland. So you won't have to come too far inland.
26:12 But exactly where you are, how close you are to that warmer source will also influence the weather.
26:19 Because that that warmer sea will just make the land close to the coast a little bit warmer.
26:24 So you see you often see that you see rain on the coast itself or on beaches come inland just a few miles.
26:31 And you get snow cover. Another thing, obviously, also how high up you are.
26:37 So the higher up you are through the atmosphere, as we've already seen, the colder it gets generally.
26:41 So on mountains you get more snow than you do at lower levels.
26:45 And again, a subtle difference of 100 metres or more can make a big difference between whether you see a covering of snow or whether you see not very much.
26:53 And one final thing I want to point out that people often don't think about is the is the intensity.
26:58 You have to know how hard it's going to rain or snow because that influences things.
27:05 Again, I'll try and show you that with some with some drawing, if I can.
27:10 My drawing skills again coming to the fore. Is that online?
27:15 So here you have your cloud. I know, right.
27:21 That's beautiful, isn't it? And then you have maybe this warmer zone.
27:30 Do it like that. So you have a warmer part of the atmosphere here below the cloud.
27:37 So under the cloud, it's the snow. The cloud is the snow.
27:42 It's snowing coming out of the cloud at the surface. It's cold.
27:52 So initially you've got the same set up as before. The snow goes through this warmer zone.
27:56 It kind of melts and it turns to rain by the time we get to the bottom.
28:00 But the process of the snow going through this red zone, going through that warmer zone, melting the snow requires energy.
28:12 And that energy gets sucked out of the atmosphere. So that bit of warmer atmosphere actually becomes cooler.
28:20 So the process of the snow falling through that warmer zone because it takes energy out of the atmosphere to melt the snow and turn it to rain,
28:29 actually then cools that. So it's a developing situation.
28:33 So you have to know how hard the snow is falling into that zone because that will determine how much energy is taken out of that layer.
28:42 Which then, if that disappears, that warmer zone disappears. You're just going to see snow all the way down to the surface.
28:50 So that is also why you need to know how hard it's snowing. And that can change things in the atmosphere.
28:56 It can change the layers below the cloud and the surface due to the intensity of the precipitation at the start.
29:03 So just a few reasons there why. And we sound like excuses, don't we?
29:08 But it's just many of the reasons why snow is so tricky to forecast.
29:12 You've got to know the temperature in detail all the way through the atmosphere.
29:16 The lie of the land makes such a big difference as well. And so does the intensity of the precipitation coming down as well.
29:23 OK, that's about it for me for this week. Please do keep your comments coming.
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29:46 And do keep your questions coming in or suggestions of anything else that you'd like us to cover.
29:51 But from me for this week's deep dive, it's a very good bye.
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