Ron Button wrote:
Just noticed on the historical charts pages the remarkable similarity
between this week and the same in1965,
My eldest son was born on march 2nd accompanied by a remarkable snowstorm
,which lay many inches deep for several days ,with some very low temps at
night I seem to remember .Its events like that that helps one remember
birthdays and wedding aniversaries of course .
RonB

PS 4 weeks later by the by, there was a record March heatwave,followed by a
lousy summer......

Hi, Ron,

I'm replying to you for the second successive day, must be something in
the air!

I remember that time very well. I was young and daft in those days (now
I'm just young) and we set off to do the 42 mile Lyke Wake Walk across
the North York Moors from Osmotherly to Ravenscar during that
snowstorm. There were no weather warnings that anyone took any notice
of, anyway we were a group of 17 year old lads, so we were young and
tough enough to know the lot!

Needless to say, we didn't make it! The best time to start the Lyke
Wake Walk is late evening, for those who don't know, so that the most
difficult part of the walk is made in daylight. It has to be completed
in 24 hours for the walker to become a "dirger" as the successful folk
are called! After we came out of the pub at Osmotherley at 10pm, we
were slightly disorientated and walked for a few hours on the hills,
apparently in circles. We couldn't see much because of the blinding
snow.

To cut a long story short, we arrived back in Osmotherly at some
unearthly hour, walked the ten miles to Thirsk along the A19 and got an
early morning bus back home to Scarborough. The bus then became stuck
in the Sutton Bank area. A tractor pulled the bus out and the bus
returned to Thirsk. Next we got a train to York where the money ran
out. The rest is history as they say, and way off topic!

The Durham record shows day maxima of 1C for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd March
1965 and night minima of -2C, -10C, -12C and -7C for the first four
days. Snow depth was 11in(28cm) on 1st. On the moors it could well have
been double that depth with, I recall, huge drifts and much lower
maxima.

As you say, a heat wave ended the month with 22C on 29th!

We did the walk several times before and after that event btw!

This morning's snow depth is 5cm slushy horrible stuff and a
temperature of 0C after a min of -1C. No doubt there are severe weather
warnings out but we're surviving!

Best wishes,

Ken
Copley 253metres asl, nr Barnard Castle, County Durham
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/copley