"Gavin Staples" wrote in message
...
Who can remember this one ?

The Countryfile Weather Forecast, with Ian McCaskill

Sunday, February 3rd, 1991.

"Good morning. We're heading for the coldest spell of weather for four
years, since January 1987 infact with bitingly cold easterlies setting in
by
Monday with a very high risk of very severe weather for southern and
eastern
areas - and yes I mean VERY severe indeed with some very nasty conditions
for the end of the week . In fact, if I run you a little sequence of our
pressure charts, you can see that today's weather is fairly cold with that
strong high pressure of 1045mb well to the north of us with a fairly light
easterly breeze. But it doesn't stay that way as you can see, the winds
strengthen, and low pressure from the Atlantic gets trapped under the
influence of Siberian air, with some very nasty weather likely for the
southern half of the country from Wednesday onwards.
Now temperature wise, that is something else which will have a great
influence on our weather for the foreseeable future. Looking at this
sequence, you can see that by Wednesday and particularly Thursday and
Friday, most of the country could well be below freezing with the small
chance of parts of the southeast climbing no higher than -5C by Thursday.
So, today will continue to be rather sunny and cold, with temperatures
staying around freezing in the north, 2C or 3C in the south. Monday
continues the cold and settled them with temperatures only a couple of
degrees above freezing as does Tuesday's weather, but Wednesday really
does
signal the beginning of what is likely to be a very severe spell of wintry
weather for the south. You can see that temperatures are already down
to -1C
at best in the southeast with heavy snow showers here, but with that wind,
it is likely to feel more like -10C possibly even -15C so my advice to you
is wear at least two coats this week because this will be a bitter one.
Now ... here is Thursday - outbreaks of more persistent, heavy snow and
blizzards in the south. Temperatures well below freezing in the south with
piercing easterly or north-easterly winds. Nighttime temperatures will be
very cold with -10C in favoured spots on Wednesday night, Thursday night
and
possibly Friday night as well. Friday - virtually the same, more heavy
snow
from time to time, perhaps working its way into northern England and
southern Scotland by this time. And next weekend - staying cold and very
wintry. By this time, the snow will drift significantly and be very deep
in
the east, so my advice to you is stay at home and do not travel unless
absolutely necessary".

Source: TWO forum section.

My Comment:

This was the last deep snowfall that I have
experienced here in Cambridgeshire. We had a level depth of 8 inches
and -13C 3 days later. That frost is also the last time I experienced
anything below -10C.

Regards, Gavin.

Yes, I remember it and IIRC, even at that stage the forecast was almost
exactly as it later happened. I was living in the West of Scotland
(Kilmarnock) at the time and they escaped lightly (1cm or so), much to my
annoyance when I heard about what was happening elsewhere. Much better out
towards East Kilbride where I later moved to.

So many have reported though that it was the last major snow incident in the
Midlands southwards and I certainly have not seen anything worthy of a
decent fall since I came back south in 1998, first to Rugby, now Malvern.

Still see some decent snow sometimes (eg 45cm level depth! near EK at
Christmas 2000) when I visit friends in Scotland though.

--
Pete

Please take my dog out twice to e-mail

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