On this day in 1979, the day's maximum temperature was -1.3Cin
Coventry; we had heavy snow with drifting in our region, and with
drifts 1 foot deep,

I had to walk into work to take the morning's weather readings at
Bablake as the city came to a halt, with schools and businesses closed
for a few days- now it only takes an inch of snow, if that!

Expecting 11C today!

Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry UK
www.bablakeweather.co.uk

"Steve J" wrote in message
oups.com...
On this day in 1979, the day's maximum temperature was -1.3Cin
Coventry; we had heavy snow with drifting in our region, and with
drifts 1 foot deep,

I had to walk into work to take the morning's weather readings at
Bablake as the city came to a halt, with schools and businesses closed
for a few days- now it only takes an inch of snow, if that!

It's a good job the weather readings didn't stop just
because of the snow!
--
Col

Bolton, Lancashire
160m asl

On 15 Feb, 11:05, "Col" wrote:

It's a good job the weather readings didn't stop just
because of the snow!

Col, the last, and only ever time, I missed the 0900hr climate
readings was on 25th February 1978, the day my son was born. His
mother went into labour at 0830hr - no wonder she is now ex-wife- she
never did understand my obsession with the weather.

BTW I got to the met enclosure by 11-00am after a luckily swift
labour, and a quick get away:-))

Steve J

On 15 Feb, 10:47, "Steve J" wrote:
On this day in 1979, the day's maximum temperature was -1.3Cin
Coventry; we had heavy snow with drifting in our region, and with
drifts 1 foot deep,

I had to walk into work to take the morning's weather readings at
Bablake as the city came to a halt, with schools and businesses closed
for a few days- now it only takes an inch of snow, if that!

Expecting 11C today!

Is anyone else sick and tired of these smug "We coped much better in
the old days, the country's gone soft" comments that seem to fill this
group?

An inch of snow does not "close schools and businesses for a few
days". Last week 3-4 inches of snow fell over the SE, which rarely
encounters it these days, and I did not see a single business closed.
Trains ran on time, schools were open, life carried on as normal. The
only "disruption" I encountered on my journey to work was a hail of
snowballs as I cycled past a group of schoolkids on their way to
school.

You can hardly hold the 1970s, decade of the three-day week and
constant power cuts, up as an example of how Britain "got on with it"
in the past.

Rob

On 15 Feb, 17:21, wrote:
Is anyone else sick and tired of these smug "We coped much better in
the old days, the country's gone soft" comments that seem to fill this
group?

An inch of snow does not "close schools and businesses for a few
days". Last week 3-4 inches of snow fell over the SE, which rarely
encounters it these days, and I did not see a single business closed.

Well Rob, up here in the West Midlands, we had 6cm of snow; pretty
well every school in Solihull, Birmingham, and Coventry (apart from
Bablake) was shut for two days, some even before a snowflake had
fallen.

Shops closed early on Friday because of the forecast snow on Friday
afternoon, while office staff were let off early to make sure they got
through the snow. My niece who worrks in Birmingham took 3 hours to
get home on the bus, a journey of 5 miles. Roads were gridlocked well
into the evening with local people putting up people overnight in
rural areas because they couldn't get home.

There was no smugness implied in my observation at all, after all I
went to work last week, as I did 28 years ago, but many didn't even
try!

Having said that, I do believe health and safety has gone mad, and yes
I do think peolple today are soft compared to the 70's and 80's, but
that wasn't the point intended.

You southerners down in the SE are obviously not as soft as some
northerners think you are!

Steve J

I've recently been looking at statistics for Exeter, going back to
1973, and discovered that the lowest temperature in the period 1973 to
2007 occured on 2nd January 1979 with Minus 13c.

http://www.tutiempo.net/clima/Exeter...1979/38390.htm

Also, I have produced a rolling annual average temperature based on
daily temperatures. Interesting to note that the coldest year was the
12 months to 27th January 1997.

http://s2.excoboard.com/forums/16030...331/373640.jpg

I will produce more stats / trends for Exeter over the coming weeks,
when I have a little more time.

Also, I have produced a rolling annual average temperature based on
daily temperatures. Interesting to note that the coldest year was the
12 months to 27th January 1997 with +8.9c