12th December 2017
The early hours of Sunday 10th saw Penallt residents waking to near-zero temperatures, and snow which continued to fall steadily for the duration of the day. Some 20cm fell higher up whilst the depth at river level was considerably less at 3 to 4 cm.
The temperature in Monmouth was about 1°C warmer than in Penallt during this period, probably explaining the smaller depth of snow in the valley and this continued for much of the 11th also: above zero in Monmouth, but below zero in Penallt for all but about an hour.
This changed massively overnight on the 11th/12th when a notable temperature inversion gave an overnight minimum of -8.9°C in Monmouth. At the same time the low was -3.4°C in Penallt, the coldest since January 2016 (-4.0°C).
This was the heaviest snow in Penallt since January 2013.
Travel was hazardous especially because weight of snow brought down many trees and branches onto the roads and which also affected footpaths throughout the village.
Falling trees brought down power lines as well, resulting in frequent power cuts between Sunday and Tuesday, some lasting an hour or more and many (irritatingly) only a few seconds.
It appears that the fibre cable bringing broadband to cabinet 20 was also damaged meaning that many residents were without an internet connection. At the same time, the microwave link to Monmouth from cabinet 20 was unaffected so Spectrum customers had could benefit from an internet connection (provided there was no power cut …).
Slide show of Penallt scenes – December 2017
