On Mon, 22 Dec 2003 21:49:14 +0000 (UTC), "lawrence jenkins"
wrote:

Jack my instincts tell me that many a severe cold spell back in my youth
were very cold indeed. Now call me naive and stupid but I also thought the
classic parttern for really heavy snow was a high over europe scandinavia
and an atlantic depression trying to push in creating heavy snow for the
south as it hit the dense cold air..

I still have my record of late-Jan/early-Feb 1954 when this is exactly
what happened. An intense high developed over Scandinavia while a
small depression skirted it's southern edge giving considerable
snowfall over southern England. I was living in Basingstoke, Hampshire
and remember trying to convince my mother that a southerly wind could
result in low temperatures. After the passage of the depression, the
high persisted with very low day and night temperature. We lived at
the bottom of a shallow valley on the eastern side of the town and I
recorded a minimum of -4°F on Feb 4th with a maximum that day of 28°F.

Those were the days...

--
Alan White
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow.
Overlooking Loch Goil and Loch Long in Argyll, Scotland.
http://tinyurl.com/55v3