This is too funny. The Daily Mail reports:
Build a snowman by order of the GOVERNMENT! Environment Agency urges homeowners to pile up ice and prevent flooding by delaying thaw
- Weather forecasters are predicted a sudden thaw when temperatures swing from -13C to 13C at the weekend
- Concerns homes and businesses could be flooded due to melting snow resulting in large areas of standing water
Spokesman Roy Stokes said:
‘Ideally if everybody built themselves a snowman that will slow the thaw down a bit,’ he said.
‘If you notice when people clear their drive the snow thaws away but the compacted piles stay which will give a balanced thaw, which would be helpful.’
‘We would rather it be a gradual thaw than a really quick one.
The EA later said he was joking.
Read more here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
Digging in the Clay 
Someone’s been watching too much Dr Who.
‘snow joke, I can tell you! The Mail is always quick to add a DailyMail factor to any statistics it quotes. The temperature in the UK generally has never dropped to -13°C this winter – if it had, we’d be in a new “Little Ice Age”. There’s also a rather large fly in the ointment here of course. Typical snow depths currently are around 4-6″, with more on some hills. In metric money that’s 10-15 cm, and with 12 cm snow being equivalent to 1 cm water that would convert to about 8-13 mm water – not a great deal by UK standards, especially during our recent “Barbecue Summer” and monsoon autumn. The EA seems not to know that temperature declines with altitude – the deeper snow on hills will thaw much more slowly. In 1963 (I was there) isolated pockets of snow remained on hills in the Pennines in June.
Still – let’s not let facts stand in the way of a good story. Bear in mind that In the future, children just won’t know what a mild winter is.
I’ve only recently started checking the DM for Climate/weather/science-related stuff. The reason I do is simply its enormous web-based readership. I am interested in seeing, a) what readers are being ‘fed’ by the MSM (good or bad) and b) the comments and reactions to it.
Two issues with snow melt that need to be kept in mind when comparing things to summer:
1) If the ground is frozen, water runs off instead of getting absorbed by the ground.
2) Trees are prodigious ground water suckers – when they have leaves.
Of course, in your “Barbecue Summers” the ground is saturated and the trees can’t keep up. 🙂
The 12::1 ratio is probably high, but I haven’t met British snow. In New England we generally use 10::1, but old snow is usually compacted some, so its ratio is even lower.
BTW, I think snow melts much more quickly when the dew point is above freezing than when it’s below. I assume your 13C air will be moist enough so the dew point will be above freezing. That makes water condense on snow, releasing a lot of latent heat to speed the melt.
Enjoy the thaw. -5.4F for me today, that about -21C
[REPLY OOh Brrr! At least it is a dry cold. I’m off to the East Coast in a few weeks. I hope it stays cold – nothing worse than slush. V.]
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