Snow storm covers town during UK heatwave

SWNS Reporter
Small World News Service
Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:39 UTC

These incredible pictures show that while the rest of the country basked in a heatwave one Leicestershire village was actually covered - in SNOW.

Residents living in Birstall, Leics., were stunned when a huge snow and hail shower swept overhead on an otherwise cloudless day.

The 20-minute mini-blizzard at 5pm on Saturday afternoon left cars and roads under 3ins of snow and ice while just a mile away temperatures soared to 27.2C (81F).

Shocked Sian Colver, 28, captured the storm, which battered the village with ice balls the size of large marbles, on camera from her bedroom window.

The RSPCA volunteer said: "It was fascinating. I was having a lie down and heard this odd sound.

"I looked outside and hail stones were bouncing all over the road.

"I went outside afterwards and paint had chipped off the windows. The stones were the size of your thumbnail and really hard like bullets."

Mum Janice, 58, added: "We had hail smashing against the patio door like someone was hurling stones at the house."

Met Office forecaster Andy Bodenham said hail and snow storms on hot days were unusual.

He said: "On Saturday, we did hear of some reports of hail in Sheffield, too.

"These big hail stones are formed at the top of cumulonimbus clouds where it's freezing cold.

"They come down from about 30,000ft - the height aeroplanes fly - and it's the big difference in temperatures between high up and lower down that causes the thunder storms that can turn into hail showers and cause such damage."

Reader Comments

Marctavius · 2011-04-28T07:57:40Z

Thunder storms....

and hail may be a little strange ( and I don't know if they are or not ) in this part of the UK, but the reporter seems overly excited and more than a little confused.
Living in the midwest US we get a lot of hail. They even occasionally have to get the snow plows out to clear the roads. Hail and thunderstorms occur most often in hot weather and they are most certainly NOT snowstorms.
I'm just sayin.....

gdpetti · 2011-04-28T12:02:39Z

Yes, but...

This hail was accompanied with snow, thus the white look to the scene, and which in my thinking, is not normal given the apparent temperatures in the surrounding area.

Maybe someone go there wish for a white wedding?

Marctavius · 2011-04-28T13:05:53Z

There is no snow in that picture, just hail. Hence the "white look". It's really not that hard to tell the difference. Snowflakes look like snow and hail looks like, well, hail. There's enough weird stuff going on without people trying to make something abnormal out of perfectly normal weather.
I'm just surprised it hasn't been spun in to a "terrorist" attack on that stupid royal wedding.

Joe · 2011-04-30T07:30:12Z

I think

what may be of interest here is the localized nature of the event and the extremes of temperatures between the location of the storm and just one mile away.

The same type of thing occurred in Lisbon, Portugal, yesterday (29th April).]

[Link]
although they seem to have received a large quantity of rain mixed in. But the same type of temperature differences are seen there.