This was the coldest mid- November day that I can remember. The easterly
wind was blowing at almost gale force, whistling round the office building
where I worked, the temperature hovered around freezing point all day and
occasional snow flurries descended from an overcast sky. A few days later
,on 22 November, snow fell heavily in the afternoon for about 2 hours,
producing a good snowcover - a rare event for November in this part of
England. The winter which followed was fairly uneventful apart from a
freezing rain event on 20 January 1966.
All this would have produced plenty of comment on the NG if it had occurred
now.

Peter Clarke
Ewell, Epsom 55m

Peter Clarke wrote:

This was the coldest mid- November day that I can remember. The easterly
wind was blowing at almost gale force, whistling round the office building
where I worked, the temperature hovered around freezing point all day and
occasional snow flurries descended from an overcast sky. A few days later
,on 22 November, snow fell heavily in the afternoon for about 2 hours,
producing a good snowcover - a rare event for November in this part of
England. The winter which followed was fairly uneventful apart from a
freezing rain event on 20 January 1966.
All this would have produced plenty of comment on the NG if it had
occurred now.

Peter Clarke
Ewell, Epsom 55m


It may have been uneventful in southern England but northern England and
Scotland had a hard winter. Southern Norway suffered one of their worst
winters on record with thirty-feet-high ridges in the ice along the SE
coast. This ice was driven up the beaches by gale-force east winds,
resulting in the demolition of beach-front properties. There was an early
start to the winter with severe cold air first moving into the northern
Baltic from northern Russia in late October. A Scandinavian high dominated
the weather for most of the winter but its influence weakened in the south
so that the southern Baltic just remained ice-free.

--
Graham Davis
Bracknell

"Peter Clarke" wrote in message
...
This was the coldest mid- November day that I can remember. The easterly
wind was blowing at almost gale force, whistling round the office building
where I worked, the temperature hovered around freezing point all day and
occasional snow flurries descended from an overcast sky. A few days later
,on 22 November, snow fell heavily in the afternoon for about 2 hours,
producing a good snowcover - a rare event for November in this part of
England. The winter which followed was fairly uneventful apart from a
freezing rain event on 20 January 1966.
All this would have produced plenty of comment on the NG if it had
occurred now.

Peter Clarke
Ewell, Epsom 55m

Peter I remember parts of that snowfall well. My dad had a Morris Minor
(split windscreen version ) and the battery had gone flat - we tend to
forget how unreliable cars were those days. Anyhow the car had broken down
about a mile away from the house so my job was to go and collect the battery
and then take it back when charged.
My over riding memories are how exciting it was to have snow before
Christmas, how bloody cold it was with my hands becoming numb very readily,
the slate grey sky on a freezing cold day and finally my Dad cursing as he
kept dropping his spanner into the snow. Those batteries not only had to
turn the engine but the fan as well, add to that the old style distributors
it was a miracle the car started under such conditions. In fact, once
started it would take twenty minutes with the choke out just the warm the
thing up whilst crossing your fingers in hope.

A few days later
on 22 November, snow fell heavily in the afternoon for about 2 hours,
producing a good snowcover - a rare event for November in this part of
England

At a guess we must be currently in a spell of about two weeks where the
temperature has never, in any year, exceeded 20C, nor has there been
serious snow (enough to produce a good cover) in southern England. From
earlier comments on the warm spell this would appear to last from about
Bonfire Night through to around November 20th. The most equable time of
the year, so it can only be uphill from now on.....

Contrast with spring when both can occur, sometimes within the same
week....

Nick

Peter Clarke wrote:
This was the coldest mid- November day that I can remember. The easterly
wind was blowing at almost gale force, whistling round the office building
where I worked, the temperature hovered around freezing point all day and
occasional snow flurries descended from an overcast sky. A few days later
,on 22 November, snow fell heavily in the afternoon for about 2 hours,
producing a good snowcover - a rare event for November in this part of
England. The winter which followed was fairly uneventful apart from a
freezing rain event on 20 January 1966.
All this would have produced plenty of comment on the NG if it had occurred
now.

Peter Clarke
Ewell, Epsom 55m

There was a maximum temperature of -0.8°C with snow showers
and a fresh easterly here on 19 Nov 1985, the lowest for November in
my 22-year record. There were also two max's below zero in November
1993, on the 22nd and 28th, neither with snow.
I remember the freezing rain in January 1966, being at the Met
Office in Bracknell. I went a-over-t in the car park. Very
undignified for a civil servant, of course, even a 23-yr-old one. :-)

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey 556 ft.

"Tudor Hughes" wrote in message
oups.com...

Peter Clarke wrote:
This was the coldest mid- November day that I can remember. The easterly
wind was blowing at almost gale force, whistling round the office building
where I worked, the temperature hovered around freezing point all day.



Peter Clarke
Ewell, Epsom 55m

There was a maximum temperature of -0.8°C with snow showers
and a fresh easterly here on 19 Nov 1985, the lowest for November in
my 22-year record. There were also two max's below zero in November
1993, on the 22nd and 28th, neither with snow.
I remember the freezing rain in January 1966, being at the Met
Office in Bracknell. I went a-over-t in the car park. Very
undignified for a civil servant, of course, even a 23-yr-old one. :-)

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey 556 ft.

Thanks for your comments, Tudor; my max on 22 Nov1993 was 0c and on 19 Nov
1985 it was 1.0c. Your extra height at Warlingham made all the difference.
Thanks also to Graham: I had forgotten how cold the winter was in
Scandinavia in 1965/66 which must have hung on into April because I
remember a cold east wind spell started on Easter Monday that year ( I think
about 11 April) and on the 14th there was a day-long snowfall here as
fronts advanced slowly from the south-west. I remember tuning in to the
"Home Service " radio station that morning and hearing Bert Foord say that
he had a snow warning " not for the Highlands of Scotland, but for southern
England".

Peter Clarke
Ewell, Epsom

"lawrence Jenkins" wrote in message
...



Peter I remember parts of that snowfall well. My dad had a Morris Minor
(split windscreen version ) and the battery had gone flat - we tend to
forget how unreliable cars were those days. Anyhow the car had broken down
about a mile away from the house so my job was to go and collect the
battery and then take it back when charged.
My over riding memories are how exciting it was to have snow before
Christmas, how bloody cold it was with my hands becoming numb very
readily, the slate grey sky on a freezing cold day and finally my Dad
cursing as he kept dropping his spanner into the snow. Those batteries not
only had to turn the engine but the fan as well, add to that the old style
distributors it was a miracle the car started under such conditions. In
fact, once started it would take twenty minutes with the choke out just
the warm the thing up whilst crossing your fingers in hope.
Thanks for this Lawrence; my worst weather related car incident was on New
Year's Day 1961. After a day long snowfall on New Year's Eve and a hard
frost to follow, I struggled to start my Series E Morris 8 on 1 January,
including taking the plugs out and putting them in theoven! In the end I
gave up - it was a working day ( no New Bank Holiday in England) so I was
obliged to use my leave entitlement. When there was a hard frost, it was
quite common for the windscreen to freeze on the inside as you drove
along - no heaters in cars in those days ( well, not in mine, anyway!)
Peter Clarke.

November 1965 had 11 days with snow cover in Aberdeen (15th and
21st-30th) - the highest of any post-war November. The only month to
have as many as 11 days of lying snow, since 1987, has been February
2001 with 13 days.

A max of just 1C was recorded on the 21st, 22nd, 24th, 25th,26th and
29th Nov 1965 and an air frost was recorded on 13 nights during the
month.

February 1966 was a very interesting month because there was a severe
spell in Scotland with the thermometer falling below -20C in
Aberdeenshire. At the same time parts of S.E. England had no air frost
during the month!

Richard Slessor,
Aberdeen.

"Richard Slessor" wrote in message
oups.com...
November 1965 had 11 days with snow cover in Aberdeen (15th and
21st-30th) - the highest of any post-war November. The only month to
have as many as 11 days of lying snow, since 1987, has been February
2001 with 13 days.

A max of just 1C was recorded on the 21st, 22nd, 24th, 25th,26th and
29th Nov 1965 and an air frost was recorded on 13 nights during the
month.

February 1966 was a very interesting month because there was a severe
spell in Scotland with the thermometer falling below -20C in
Aberdeenshire. At the same time parts of S.E. England had no air frost
during the month!

Richard Slessor,
Aberdeen.


Many thanks for this, Richard; I didn't know that November 1965 was such a
severe month in Scotland - do you know how it ranks in the order of coldest
Novembers in your part of the country?

Peter Clarke
Ewell, Epsom

PS Minimum here was -1.5C last night.

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 08:28:35 -0000, "Peter Clarke"
wrote:

This was the coldest mid- November day that I can remember. The easterly
wind was blowing at almost gale force, whistling round the office building
where I worked, the temperature hovered around freezing point all day and
occasional snow flurries descended from an overcast sky. A few days later
,on 22 November, snow fell heavily in the afternoon for about 2 hours,
producing a good snowcover - a rare event for November in this part of
England. The winter which followed was fairly uneventful apart from a
freezing rain event on 20 January 1966.
All this would have produced plenty of comment on the NG if it had occurred
now.


I was at the Met Office Training School at Stanmore doing my
Assistant's course and remember it well, having just joined the Met
Office. We had the pleasure of playing mock met office with real
snow.

Martin


Peter Clarke
Ewell, Epsom 55m