In article ,
Nick G writes:
Being only 9 years old at the time, the winter of 81/82 was my first taste
of 'real' snow, it was amazing as all the snowfalls experienced before
amounted to nothing more than a slight dusting.

Was the 14th of January a Saturday? If so, I think I remember that day very
well, it was sunny with a cloudless sky but bitterly cold. The next day
warnings were issued on the television (just before Space 1999) for people
to stay indoors as severe weather was expected, that Sunday afternoon I
remember a complete whiteout as strong winds and blizzards set in. That
evening it started to thaw and the next day there was snow, slush & water
everywhere.

That sounds more like Sunday 13th December, 1981.
--
John Hall

You can divide people into two categories:
those who divide people into two categories and those who don't

In article ,
Steve Jackson writes:
In message , John Hall
writes
I believe you are thinking of 1987 rather than 1982.

sorry, it *was* 1982 - I have the Met Office diary and data sheet I
wrote at the time in front of me now!

I was well aware that you were talking about 1982. My remark was
addressed to Succorso, who seemed to be describing events in January,
1987. That should have been clear from the fact that in my post my
comments followed quoted text by him.
--
John Hall

You can divide people into two categories:
those who divide people into two categories and those who don't

"Nick G" wrote in message
...
Being only 9 years old at the time, the winter of 81/82 was my first taste
of 'real' snow, it was amazing as all the snowfalls experienced before
amounted to nothing more than a slight dusting.

Was the 14th of January a Saturday? If so, I think I remember that day
very well, it was sunny with a cloudless sky but bitterly cold. The next
day warnings were issued on the television (just before Space 1999) for
people to stay indoors as severe weather was expected, that Sunday
afternoon I remember a complete whiteout as strong winds and blizzards set
in. That evening it started to thaw and the next day there was snow, slush
& water everywhere.

Nick, I think you're remembering Saturday 12th December 1981. The
day before the blizzard the Queen got stuck in and had to spend the
night in a pub in the Cotswolds. That snowstorm was followed by a
thaw, but the January blizzard (8th-10th) was followed by an intensification
of the cold. Memories are right buggers, aren't they?

Philip Eden

- And on Fri, 14 Jan 2005 10:39:33 +0000, it was spake thus in said in message John Hall :

I believe you are thinking of 1987 rather than 1982.

I know it was 82 as it was thankfully the winter before I joined the
railways !

I seem to recall most of the country grinding to a standstill and people
on a cross country HST complaining because it'd taken 18 hours to get
from Newcastle to Bristol.
The fact that it was the only transport to do anywhere near that sort of
distance didn't seem to matter, it'd taken much longer than the
timetable had said

Seem to recall something like -20 being reported in Oxford ?
I know, I bet I'm wrong !
--
Nick in Northallerton
www.whelan.me.uk
Also nickw7coc on
Yahoo Messenger
& on MSN Messenger

In article ,
Nick writes:
- And on Fri, 14 Jan 2005 10:39:33 +0000, it was spake thus in
said in message John Hall
:

I believe you are thinking of 1987 rather than 1982.

I know it was 82 as it was thankfully the winter before I joined the
railways !

But you aren't the "you" to whom I was replying in that post (unless you
are posting here under two different identities). The day that Succurso
referred to, when it never got above -9C where he was, can only have
been the coldest day of the 20th century, in January, 1987. There were
some very cold days in January, 1982, but none of them were quite that
cold.
--
John Hall

You can divide people into two categories:
those who divide people into two categories and those who don't

wrote in message
oups.com...
Yes. I was a Met Office observer at Cardiff Airport (Rhoose) in Jan 82
and the snow started just before the beginning of my night shift at
2100 on the Thursday and did not cease until mid-afternoon on the
Saturday, most of it moderate or heavy and with an easterly gale and a
temperature well below zero.
Cardiff was almost cut off, and in the SW Wales Valleys where
conditions were even worse, most home-owners were trapped in their
houses as the snow had drifted up to the bedroom windows.
My car was trapped at the airport for over a week as the snow was so
deep but fortunately walking to work was not too bad because I only
lived a mile away. The difficult thing was trying to avoid the deep
level snow which was waist high and difficult to get out of if you
stepped onto it by mistake.
The amazing thing was how close the warm air came to the South Wales
coast, as at one time we had minus 3C with a 30 knot northeasterly,
while Chivenor had a 20 knot southwesterly and a temperature of plus
6C. Talk about convergence....


This was a real classic one. I was living in the centre of Cambridge, low
lying we are here. We ended up with about 9 inches of level snow, no
drifting or any of that stuff. What we got was the most amazing frosts. The
snow started with a temp of -2C and proceeded to FALL as the snow
progressed. I had not seen this before. By the time the snow ceased after
about 36 hours there was around 8 to 9 inches of powder snow and the
temperature had fallen to -7C. This to me was remarkable.
When the sky cleared over this powder snow, didn't it get cold. -10C and
then -6C max the following day and then a freezing fog. Then that cleared
one evening and then, wump -17C, and for the next 4 days maximums at -5C or
lower!! and a fabulous rime frost.
This had the mechanism to be an amazing winter so soon after December
1981 but the rest of the winter bored your socks off and it fell out of any
chance of being severe despite these 2 wonderful cold spells.

Gavin.

In article ,
Gavin Staples writes:
This had the mechanism to be an amazing winter so soon after December
1981 but the rest of the winter bored your socks off and it fell out of any
chance of being severe despite these 2 wonderful cold spells.

You're hard to please.

In spite of the mild end of January and whole of February, I think I
would rate 1981-2 as my second most memorable winter after 1962-3, even
ahead of 1978-9.
--
John Hall

You can divide people into two categories:
those who divide people into two categories and those who don't

"sarah" wrote in message
...


It was 1982. We'd recently arrived from western Canada and were living
in a bedsit in Surrey (large Victorian room with bay window, heated only
by a small 3-bar gas fire; shared bathroom and kitchen were unheated). I
have never been so cold in my life before or since!

regards
sarah




Great point Sarah:-) Did you move from Vancouver? If so I have a freind of
mine there now whose is from Singapore doing a PhD. I bet she feels the cold
as they have just had several days with maximums below 0C She has not
experienced anything below -2C and that was when she was in London doing her
Masters in 1995. She felt the cold then. God knows how she is managing now.


I know what you mean Sarah. I don't know what it is about UK
student accommodation and bedsits etc. They had, and probably still have a
reputation for being unbearably cold.
I was a student at this time and was finishing part of my A levels and
as I lived in Cambridge knew many students and this cold spell as we know
was in a class of its own. Everywhere was freezing indoors. It was no joke,
and I mean that. You could not get warm indoors as at some points it
was -10C by 3.00pm on several days. A lot of places did not have double
glazing then. It is an industry standard now, thank goodness.
This apart from 1987 and 1981 was the only cold spell I have known that
has had ice on the INSIDE of windows DURING THE DAY and I mean ALL DAY. This
was remarkable as it persisted for over a week at a time.
Communal areas in student houses were notorious for being unheated as
when you were a student you paid for your own heating in your own room and
communal areas, well, no'one paid for those so they just froze, literally.
It was dire.
The only thing I can say in its favour is that it taught you to
appreciate things when you were older and then could afford better for
yourself later on in life.
I don't regret this experience at all. However, I really wonder how
today's lot would cope with all this now. I also think sometimes that our
health was at risk in this bitterly cold and inadequately heated
accommodation. I look back on it with a mixture of nostalgia and also
amazement.
If I had kids, would I want them to go through that? I don't think so
somehow.

Regards, Gavin.

John Hall wrote:
In article ,
Succorso writes:

Steve Jackson wrote:

I was telling my weather helpers this morning about this great day 23
years ago today!
0900hr readings
Dry bulb -14.8C
Ice bulb -15.0C


That was *the best* cold spell I can remember. I was living in Caterham
(Surrey) at the time, and that Monday when the temperature didn't get
above -9c all day, even in the sunshine, was brilliant. I can remember
cleaning ice off the *inside* of the car windscreen at midday! Of
course, by the next day cars were unusable as the snow arrived in vast
quantities.


I believe you are thinking of 1987 rather than 1982.

I know - I realised that nanoseconds after pressing "send".

Doh!

--
Chris
www.ivy-house.net
Swaffham, Norfolk

"Gavin Staples" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
oups.com...
Yes. I was a Met Office observer at Cardiff Airport (Rhoose) in Jan 82
and the snow started just before the beginning of my night shift at
2100 on the Thursday and did not cease until mid-afternoon on the
Saturday, most of it moderate or heavy and with an easterly gale and a
temperature well below zero.
Cardiff was almost cut off, and in the SW Wales Valleys where
conditions were even worse, most home-owners were trapped in their
houses as the snow had drifted up to the bedroom windows.
My car was trapped at the airport for over a week as the snow was so
deep but fortunately walking to work was not too bad because I only
lived a mile away. The difficult thing was trying to avoid the deep
level snow which was waist high and difficult to get out of if you
stepped onto it by mistake.
The amazing thing was how close the warm air came to the South Wales
coast, as at one time we had minus 3C with a 30 knot northeasterly,
while Chivenor had a 20 knot southwesterly and a temperature of plus
6C. Talk about convergence....


This was a real classic one. I was living in the centre of Cambridge, low
lying we are here. We ended up with about 9 inches of level snow, no
drifting or any of that stuff. What we got was the most amazing frosts.
The
snow started with a temp of -2C and proceeded to FALL as the snow
progressed. I had not seen this before. By the time the snow ceased after
about 36 hours there was around 8 to 9 inches of powder snow and the
temperature had fallen to -7C. This to me was remarkable.
When the sky cleared over this powder snow, didn't it get cold. -10C
and
then -6C max the following day and then a freezing fog. Then that cleared
one evening and then, wump -17C, and for the next 4 days maximums at -5C
or
lower!! and a fabulous rime frost.
This had the mechanism to be an amazing winter so soon after December
1981 but the rest of the winter bored your socks off and it fell out of
any
chance of being severe despite these 2 wonderful cold spells.

Gavin.


I remember it well, living in Southampton at the time. Even on that part of
the South coast, the blizzard lasted from Thursday night (7th) to Saturday
afternoon (9th) without any surface appearence of warm air although a short
spell of freezing rain occurred Saturday morning before the snow came back.
This became one of the best snowfalls I have experienced, only a spell
living at 200m ASL near East Kilbride from 1990 to 1998 producing better!
IIRC, the Southampton Evening Echo referred to it as one of the heaviest
snowfalls of the 20th Century along that part of the South Coast. There had
been little snow of the 1981/82 spell previous to that event in Southampton,
although they shared in the very cold weather from early December. The 13th
December snowfall was very wet and did not last on the ground for more than
Sunday evening.

Following the blizzard, the snow lay without any thaw, even on the roads
(around Millbrook/Shirley) until Friday 15th when, initially a slow thaw
commenced, this accelerating over the weekend. The lowest night temperature
of this spell in the city was -11C on (IIRC) the 11th Jan.

I'm not sure how far North the blizzard extended but my parents in
Macclesfield got very little and a very clear evening/night on Saturday in
that part of the Country allowed an uninterrupted view of a Lunar eclipse on
Saturday evening. No chance of seeing that on the South Coast.

Once the snow went, that was the end of that winter and it was to become by
far the most eventful winter event of my 5 years from late 1979 to late 1984
in that area.

--
Pete

Please take my dog out twice to e-mail

---------------------------------------------------------------
The views expressed above are entirely those of the writer and
do not represent the views, policy or understanding of any
other person or official body.
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