Robin Nicholson wrote:

Was 78 the year it seriously snowed about Deecember 8th- loads of
people caught in a Carol service where I work apparently...

Well, in did start off in December with a lot of snow. I remember that
it eventually became impossible to clear the ice of snow (since we over
here enjoy ice-skating). But the real work started in January and things
got really bad in February. The 14th of Febr. still stands clearly in my
mind.
I woke up listening to a fullblown storm. The day before it had rained
cats and dogs but since the lower part of the atmosphere was still below
0C it had all frozen over. Roads and all had been covered with an
ice-layer with sufficient thickness that you could use ice-skates on it!
The frontal system however was pushed back during the night giving way
to a full blown blizzard.
So when I woke up I was listening to the howling wind. I had to go to
school so I woke up (thank God I still had an old fashioned alarmclock
that didn't run on electricity ) only to realize there was no power ..
and no heating .. anyway, I got up and went to school. Outside I saw the
snow was flowing horizontally through the streets. There were these
dunes/piles of snow all around the place. And using a bike or car was
truly impossible because of the ice-layer beneath the snow. So I had to
go on foot.
This was quite an experience and being a 13 year old lad it made an
everlasting impression. I wore two pairs of trousers but even with this
I could feel the cold coming through. Anyway, I got to school to be sent
home again immediately because there were no teachers and almost no
students. This was all on a Tuesday if memory serves me right. The
schools remained closed the rest of the week.
Electricity and gas returned after two days approx. I remember my dad
being really worried since we had central heating and he was afraid all
the pipes were to be frozen over. So he manually had to keep the water
flowing in the pipes which was quite a chore. But since I was only a
young lad, the only thing I did for the rest of the week was .. being in
the streets! It was truly amazing. Snow piling up to 1 or 2 meters in
places (caused by the wind or simply because snow had been cleared
manually from places) and seeing how the Army was deployed to keep
villages reachable. Haven't experienced such a winter again.