Snow and the Beast from the East

The Beast has arrived and brought a decent snowfall to London :-)  I'm happy.

For the last week or so, the media has been dominated about the arrival of the bad weather coming from Siberia, nicknamed the Beast from the East. The build up was ridiculous and actually became irritating. We were warned of really low temperatures and lots of snow.

This was supposed to arrive on 26th and hit the east side of UK first. London transport even shut down their services during the late evening. There were a few snow showers in London, but plenty of sunny spells in between. And nothing happened that night. There was a clear sky with stars. And surprisingly there was no frost, as the air was so dry.

However 27 Feb the snow arrived. It started properly after lunch and there were several snowfalls during the afternoon. It was about -4 C in London. I was happy.

When I woke up on 28th I was even happier as there had been fresh snow overnight. It was so beautiful. Lovely to see so much snow in London. But surprisingly the west side of England didn't get any, likewise some of the south coast.

Fox tracks made overnight -

 

 Note how the crow holds the bread in place with it's foot. It is the only bird I've seen do this.

My phone app said -5C in London, but a friend's digital thermometer said -7C.

From BBC 28 Feb 2018:
Much of Europe has been blanketed in snow as cold weather spreads as far south as the Mediterranean coast.

The cold spell, nicknamed "the Beast from the East" in the UK, is carrying freezing winds across the continent, and temperatures as low as -30C (-22F).
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As far as I know, the last really heavy snow in London was Dec 2009 / Jan 2010.