Fifty four years ago today I experienced the 'darkest' daytime that I can
remember.
The December of 1950 was one of the coldest of the 20th century with several
northerly spells which produced a snowcover even in the south. Shortly
before Christmas the wind turned easterly continuing the cold weather but as
the New Year approached the weather became more cyclonic with spells of rain
and snow.
New Year's Day 1951 dawned reluctantly. It had snowed overnight and I cycled
to work ( there was no New Year Bank Holiday in England in 1951) with rain
and sleet falling and along slushy roads. It was dark and gloomy. During
the morning the light deteriorated further and by about 10.30 it was
completely dark.
Office work came to a standstill as everyone was staring out of the windows
at the blackness. The streetlights didn't come on because in those days they
were operated by clocks with a timing mechanism. I was trying to find out
what was coming out of the clouds by opening the office windows but it was
so dark you couldn't see anything. Only by sticking my hand out as far as I
could did I discover that the air was full of small snowflakes.
The total darkness lasted maybe a quarter of an hour and as it became
slowly lighter the rate of snowfall increased. The ground was freshly
covered in snow and had a depth of about 5 - 6 cms by lunchtime. By this
time the light had returned and the snow had ceased.
I'm sure that this event was caused by the accumulation of the smoke from
domestic and industrial smoke fires trapped under the low cloud and there
had been very little wind for a day or two.A breeze developed on the morning
of the 1st which then cleared the murk . We are unlikely to see a repeat of
this sort of daytime darkness.
Peter Clarke
Ewell.

"Peter Clarke" wrote in message
...
Fifty four years ago today I experienced the 'darkest' daytime that I can
remember.
The December of 1950 was one of the coldest of the 20th century with
several northerly spells which produced a snowcover even in the south.
Shortly before Christmas the wind turned easterly continuing the cold
weather but as the New...

A very good read, Peter. It sounds very bizarre and an experience to be
remembered.
Thank you for sharing and a happy new year to you.

Joe

"Peter Clarke" wrote in message
...
Fifty four years ago today I experienced the 'darkest' daytime that I can
remember.

Peter, thanks for this. I don't believe this one was written up at
the time, not extensively anyway, unlike a similar occurrence in
mid-January 1955 which has consequently become the best-known
example of daytime darkness. I guess there must have been many
instances over the years which can now only be traced by
painstaking trawling through the "remarks" column in archived
climatological records.

Philip Eden

Thanks for the comments. The 1955 incident was on Sunday, 16 January when a
cold front moved south across the London area soon after midday. It had
rained continuously all morning with hardly any wind whlch presumably
prevented smoke dispersing from domestic and industrial coal fires. When the
front arrived,
the north wind picked up, and a concentration of smoke swept south. It did
get dark, but not as much as in 1951.
"Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote in message
...

"Peter Clarke" wrote in message
...
Fifty four years ago today I experienced the 'darkest' daytime that I can
remember.

Peter, thanks for this. I don't believe this one was written up at
the time, not extensively anyway, unlike a similar occurrence in
mid-January 1955 which has consequently become the best-known
example of daytime darkness. I guess there must have been many
instances over the years which can now only be traced by
painstaking trawling through the "remarks" column in archived
climatological records.

Philip Eden

Interesting post.
A summer time occurence I remember well is 6 August 1981-Maidstone and the North Downs shrouded in
gloom.IIRC a thundery depression from the south,I believe it was written up in a number of articles,

--
regards,
david
(add 17 to waghorne to reply)

Waghorn wrote:

Interesting post.
A summer time occurence I remember well is 6 August 1981-Maidstone and the
North Downs shrouded in gloom.IIRC a thundery depression from the south,I
believe it was written up in a number of articles,


Sounds like the one I was thinking of soon after I started reading this
thread. I got to work at Bracknell about 08:30 when the first few drops of
rain started falling. About an hour later, I made remarked that if it got
much darker the street lights would come on, whereupon one of them came on.
Shortly afterwards, they were all on and stayed on for about a couple of
hours.

The other remarkable thing about this storm was that the embedded cells were
stationary for several hours. I could see three locations that were being
repeatedly hit by strikes and no sign of the activity moving away.

Graham

Rodney Blackall wrote:

snip
I remember that event! I had an office looking out onto the 'Met. Office
Roundabout'. I had cycled in from Woodley and just managed it dry. I seem
to recall there nothing outstanding in the way of lightning or rainfall in
Bracknell itself though I bet the underpass from the Office to Bracknell
town centre was flooded.


Knowing that underpass well, I think your money's safe!


Graham