January 1987
January 1987 was a cold wintry month with a spell of exceptionally
cold weather around mid-month. The CET for the month was 0.8C

Unsettled, mild zonal weather had dominated the previous three months
but the change in the year marked a major change in the type of weather. The
New Year started unsettled as a low moved across the UK into Europe dragging
down northerlies in its wake. The cold snap was brief as a new low brought
unsettled weather again on the 4th. The weather turned colder on the 5th and
high pressure built across the UK bringing frosts and freezing fog.
On the 11th, high pressure was moving out of northern Siberia into
Scandinavia whilst an active low pressure developed over Italy and a strong
easterly developed across Europe. This easterly brought an exceptionally
cold air mass across Europe into the UK. Temperatures were below freezing
and as the very cold air mass came into contact with the "warm" North Sea,
very strong convection developed and this produced heavy snow showers for
the east. By the 12th, virtually everywhere was below freezing with very low
maxima. -7C to -9C was widely reported in the south accompanied with a
strong easterly made for an exceptional wind chill. Heavy snow showers
continued to pepper eastern areas bringing blizzards, heavy snowfalls and
drifting snow. The worst hit areas for snow was around the Thames Estuary
and East Anglia where depths of level snow were approaching half a metre
bringing widespread transport chaos. On the 14th, a trough moved through
England and Wales bringing a more general snowfall to many areas causing
further disruption. The intense cold pool of air had moved through the UK
and temperatures started to climb back to near freezing.
The high over Scandinavia began to lose its intensity and began to
sink into central Europe sufficiently enough to allow a milder SWly flow to
come into the NW of the UK on the 18th. By the 20th, Atlantic air had
finally broken through to all parts with higher temperatures and a slow
thaw. The old Scandinavian high then began to drift back over the UK and
this brought a lot of cloud to many parts. It wasn't until the last couple
days of the month that the sun managed to break through the cloud.
The cold spell of January 1987 was exceptional and was probably one of
the coldest spells since 1740. The intense cold and heavy snowfalls hit the
SE the hardest. Transport was gridlocked and the cold even affected Big
Ben's chiming hammer.



Source: TWO.

My Comments:
Apologies for popping this up again. I'll never
forget this one. Its the only time that I have had ice on the INSIDE of my
car windows in the MIDDLE of the afternoon. A real classic this was.
From what I have gathered since, this was the coldest 48 hour period
since 1740. In January 1740 I believe that East Anglia and the London area
had daytime maximums below -10C. This is unlikely to be repeated in any of
our lifetimes. Perhaps thats no bad thing.
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Gavin Staples.

Horseheath. Cambridge, UK. 93m ASL.
www.gavinstaples.com
site regularly updated

"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between
the disastrous and the unpalatable". ~ John Kenneth Galbraith. American
economist.


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