Shaun Pudwell wrote:
Richard, Jan 1997 was cold both day and night with 5 or 6 inches of snow,
however, it pails into complete and utter insignificance compared to Jan
1987, where we had some of the lowest temperatures since 1740. In the

Oh absolutely. I quite distinctly remember that year since that was the
year I was a freshman at the local university. And since that was in the
northern part of the Netherlands one tends to get slightly extremer
weather there. I remember a huge blizzard, clumps of ice hanging from
trees, sagged powerlines. But even '87 pales in comparison to the winter
of '78/79. I was only 13 then but that winter is my *great winter*.
Snow, snow and lots of more snow. Blizzards causing villages to be cut
off from the rest of the world w/o power and or gas. Now *that* was a
winter. In '97 I already had moved to the Hague and winters here on the
coast are rather more .. erm .. lame. So when the winter of '97 came
by and surprised me a bit. It absolutely wasn't of the same magnitude of
the winters of the 80's (also '86 was quite a winter and I also remember
lost of snow in '81). But it did give me the last opportunity to use my
ice-skates. Up to this year I haven't had an opportunity to use 'em
again. Such a shame!