On Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:23:38 +0000
John Hall wrote:

In article ,
Scott W writes:
Luke Howard paints an often bleak picture of the climate of
London in his observations from the early 1800s to 1830. Just three
examples include recording a low of 1F (-18C), the River Lea being
'a mile wide' with flood water between Bow and Stratford,
frequent ice floes in the Thames with the recording of the last
Frost Fair in 1814. Even taking into account the urban heat island
effect we've yet to see anything like those extremes

True. Though without the embankment of the Thames and the demolition
of old London Bridge in the 19th century, the river would almost
certainly have frozen over in London in 1962-3.

From what I remember, warm-water outflow from power stations was
responsible for keeping the Thames too warm to freeze in 1962-3.

Other rivers were frozen over, ice occurred along the coast, and sea
temperatures over the Dogger Bank were below 0C.

--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks.
Carlos Seixas, Sonata nº 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXox7vonfEg
And for something completely different, Cumberland Gap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsU-LTwx8Co