After the winter of 1963 I spent a lot of time looking out for similar
events. In those days it was observation plus the 17.55pm Home Service
weather forecast, the late BBC TV forecast and occasional glimpses of
synoptics in the Daily Telegraph. No models then to confuse. What kept
happening (as well as some good snowy events) were frequent long cold spells
,clear dry days with night frosts. I was forever peering out to the East for
clouds and like the computer models of today I saw greyness on the horizon
only for it to frequently fade away by nightfall.
The few short cold snaps in recent years seem much keener to deliver snow,
although these were probably the events in between the long cold dry spells
of what I guess were Scandanavian Highs or other now rare Continental
air.This latter type of weather seems all but non-existent these days.

Dave.