On Aug 27, 10:49*pm, Adam Lea wrote:
On 27/08/11 18:53, Dave Cornwell wrote:





Tudor Hughes wrote:
On Aug 27, 1:31 pm, Dave Cornwell wrote:
Mine a-

1962/63 winter
1987 "Great Storm"
1976 Hot long summer.

Although these are obvious for my region I wondered what other regional
perceptions would be.

The only others really are a couple of notable blizzards, the record
minimum low temps of 1982, the high max of Aug 2003 close to me and a
T/S in the fifties that flooded our road so deep that people were
canoeing along it!

Dave, S.Essex

Colossal thunderstorm starting at 7 pm Friday 5 Sept 1958
with lightning of a frequency and type (rocket lightning) that I have
not seen since. About 60 mm rain in less than an hour. This was the
continuation of the Horsham Hailstorm. Spoilt for life at the age of
15.
London smog, Sat 6 Dec 1952. So dirty that indoors, in a
hall in central London it looked as if someone had set fire to all the
waste paper bins. Minimum visibility (outside) was about 10 yards,
which is less than it sounds. Much brake-stamping as the bus inched
its way through Hyde Park Corner. No fog above 350 ft.
Cold day, 12 Jan 1987. ( I had the day off work to take my Mum
to hospital for a "1500-mile service" on her new hip.) I could
scarcely believe it as the thermometer failed to get above -9.2°C
despite sunshine. A temperature of about -7°C in sunny central
Croydon at about 2 pm felt positively eerie. In the next 48 hours the
snow depth (at home) increased from about 8 cm to 39 cm, the deepest
level depth I have seen.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey
------------
......... ah the memories come flooding back.
"Cold day, 12 Jan 1987. ( I had the day off work to take my Mum
to hospital for a "1500-mile service" on her new hip.) I could
scarcely believe it as the thermometer failed to get above -9.2°C
despite sunshine. A temperature of about -7°C in sunny central
Croydon at about 2 pm felt positively eerie. In the next 48 hours the
snow depth (at home) increased from about 8 cm to 39 cm, the deepest
level depth I have seen."

That was the day the sewage froze on the way into the Sewage Treatment
plant I was working at.

Dave

Sheesh what were the overnight minimums? Were local records set?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The overnight min here prior to the -9.2° max was -12.4°, not
my lowest, which was -12.9° on 10 Feb 86. The minimum after the low
max was only -10.0° due to cloud and snow, lots of it. The max's each
side of the 12th were -5.4° and -5.5°.
When I set up my screen in Sept 1982 I thought that the lowest
maximum I would ever record would be -6° , possibly -7° and that
anything lower (as a max) in this part of the country would be
confined to valley bottoms where fog had formed overnight and the sun
had failed to warm out the intense inversion. But this, far from
being an inversion, showed a dry-adiabatic lapse rate from the surface
and the maximum at the top of the North Downs (877 ft, 267 m) may well
have been -10°C. An extraordinary situation.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey. 556 ft.

On Aug 27, 6:50*pm, Dave Cornwell wrote:
Tudor Hughes wrote:
On Aug 27, 1:31 pm, Dave Cornwell wrote:
Mine a-

1962/63 winter
1987 "Great Storm"
1976 Hot long summer.

Although these are obvious for my region I wondered what other regional
perceptions would be.

The only others really are a couple of notable blizzards, the record
minimum low temps of 1982, the high max of Aug 2003 close to me *and a
T/S in the fifties that flooded our road so deep that people were
canoeing along it!

Dave, S.Essex

* * * * * Colossal thunderstorm starting at 7 pm Friday 5 Sept 1958
with lightning of a frequency and type (rocket lightning) that I have
not seen since. *About 60 mm rain in less than an hour. * This was the
continuation of the Horsham Hailstorm. *Spoilt for life at the age of
15.
* * * * *London smog, Sat 6 Dec 1952. *So dirty that indoors, in a
hall in central London it looked as if someone had set fire to all the
waste paper bins. *Minimum visibility (outside) was about 10 yards,
which is less than it sounds. *Much brake-stamping as the bus inched
its way through Hyde Park Corner. *No fog above 350 ft.
* * * * Cold day, 12 Jan 1987. ( I had the day off work to take my Mum
to hospital for a "1500-mile service" on her new hip.) *I could
scarcely believe it as the thermometer failed to get above -9.2°C
despite sunshine. *A temperature of about -7°C in sunny central
Croydon at about 2 pm felt positively eerie. *In the next 48 hours the
snow depth (at home) increased from about 8 cm to 39 cm, the deepest
level depth I have seen.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey

----------------
I don't know how I could've forgotten to mention the smog Tudor! When
dense fog meant dense fog. I remember struggling to find my own home (on
foot)from just a couple of hundreds of metres away.
Also did that 1958 storm affect Essex? Perhaps that is the one I
referred to?
Dave- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The storm certainly affected Essex, at least the
southern parts. Totals of over 3 inches (76 mm) occurred in a number
of places, probably starting about 8 pm. The most intense rainfall
seems to have been at Swanley, Kent, where 2.50" (63 mm) fell in 20
minutes. The comedian Mark Steele, who comes from that place, would
say "serve it right" though I think he'd yet to be born.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

"Dave Cornwell" wrote in message
...
Mine a-

1962/63 winter
1987 "Great Storm"
1976 Hot long summer.

Although these are obvious for my region I wondered what other regional
perceptions would be.

The only others really are a couple of notable blizzards, the record
minimum low temps of 1982, the high max of Aug 2003 close to me and a T/S
in the fifties that flooded our road so deep that people were canoeing
along it!

Dave, S.Essex

I have lived all over the place.

Manchester - Summer 1959 (first time noticed that I tanned easily, out in
park all day at 7 years old)
Ashbourne - New Year 1963 - massive snowdrifts (driving to visit relatives
from Manchester)
Manchester 1 July 1968 thunderstorm all day, widespread pluvial flooding.
Bracknell - Summers 1975 and 1976 and drought images
Binfield (near Bracknell) Dec 1981 - heavy snow on M4 returning from night
shift followed by -20degC in garden and ice needles next day.
Crowthorne - various thunderstorms (cannot remember dates).
Crowthorne - 16/10/87 - The Great Storm (three trees down and chaos getting
to work)
Crowthorne - 1990s (frustratingly mild winters and very hot and dry summers)
Haytor - Fantastic cloudscapes in most months, deep snow with Haytor cut-off
for a while on 5 Feb 2009

Will
--

At least 6" rain(150mm+)over 2/3 days in Surrey mid September
1968.Occasional thunder and lightning accompanied the most intense rainfall.
First two weeks of August 1975 in Southern England ,lots of thundery
weather,high humidity high temperatures and that true tropical feel.None
of the thunderstorms appeared to clear the air.At the end, 14? August
watching the spectacular cloud structure over the Hampstead area as I
walked from the City to London Bridge station.

On 28/08/2011 08:15, shoehorn collector wrote:
At least 6" rain(150mm+)over 2/3 days in Surrey mid September
1968.Occasional thunder and lightning accompanied the most intense
rainfall.
First two weeks of August 1975 in Southern England ,lots of thundery
weather,high humidity high temperatures and that true tropical feel.None
of the thunderstorms appeared to clear the air.At the end, 14? August
watching the spectacular cloud structure over the Hampstead area as I
walked from the City to London Bridge station.



http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/pd...ugust_1975.pdf

In article ,
Dave Cornwell writes:
John Hall wrote:
In article ,
Dave Cornwell writes:
Mine a-

1962/63 winter
1987 "Great Storm"
1976 Hot long summer.

Although these are obvious for my region I wondered what other
regional perceptions would be.
Mine here in Surrey would be the same, with these additions:
The extended summer of 1959, when to me as a child it seemed
as though
we had unbroken sun and warmth from early May to early October.
The downpour and flooding of September, 1968.
The remarkable spell of extreme cold and the heavy snowfall in January,
1987.
The blistering heat of 10th August, 2003, when I felt quite unwell
though my aged parents seemed to cope just fine.
------------------
I think it was a Sunday

It was.

and I was playing cricket. I remember us lying under the wheeled
covers for shade while we watching our innings. ( I should hasten
to add that this was the only club I know that had covers at our
level - I wasn't playing first class cricket at 53!)
Dave



Incidentally, I'm surprised that I don't have any memory of the 1958
thunderstorm that Tudor mentioned. I would have been nearly ten at the
time, and was living only about 10 miles NW of Horsham.
--
John Hall
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick
themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."
Winston S Churchill (1874-1965)

On Aug 27, 1:31*pm, Dave Cornwell wrote:
Mine a-

1962/63 winter
1987 "Great Storm"
1976 Hot long summer.

Although these are obvious for my region I wondered what other regional
perceptions would be.

The only others really are a couple of notable blizzards, the record
minimum low temps of 1982, the high max of Aug 2003 close to me *and a
T/S in the fifties that flooded our road so deep that people were
canoeing along it!

Dave, S.Essex

Pretty much the same here Dave, but I would also add a couple more of
subjective memories. The pre Christmas London fog in 1962 when as a
ten year old I can still recall vivid memories off the old double
Decker RT's and RM buses being slowly lead by the conductor inching
their way up to the top of Grove Lane in Camberwell.
I can still see vividly the street light illuminated yellowy green
glow wall of smog as you opened your street door. Yep know it caused
untold respiratory health problems but I loved it . But as your thread
is about memorable events I'll carry on to the first snowfall of that
62/63 winter. Just weeks after the fog came the real cold, as if the
fog wasn't damp and freezing enough, but I lapped it up.

Yep boxing day 1962.Bitterly cold day and all of those old enough to
remember will recall how cold our homes were then, I've probably said
before but we lived in a large , draughty Victorian semi, with no CH,
no insulation and single glazed sash cord windows, The only source of
heat being the kitchen oven, a paraffin heater and a two bar electric
fire and blimey it was cold.

So on Boxing Day afternoon around 1pm as my mother, me and my sister
waited my dad to return from the pub in his Morris Van, so we could go
for our traditional Boxing day dinner at my nan and granddads, I sat
staring out of the kitchen window all fully clothed up. Its funny but
one of the most deeply etched memories of that day was how bitterly
cold it was and being fascinated looking at the increasingly leaden
grey sky and then getting so excited as it started to snow, To be
honest at that age of ten living London I had only ever seen a couple
of snowfalls so this was very eagerly welcomed being Christmas and
that.

When my dad finally arrived (no drink driving laws then) we drove
through the very deserted cold, snowy Boxing day streets to my
grandparents place. It was eerily quiet and those days there wasn't
many than many private car to be found. Also no shop ever opened on a
Sunday let alone Christmas day and Boxing day. It was so quiet you
could literally hear the snow fall. At my grandparents which was
the downstairs rooms of another old Victorian terraced house at the
top Lordship Lane it was also bleedin' cold, but wonderfully warm in
their lounge where they had a roaring coal fire but as their lounge
wasn't exactly spacious there was only enough chairs for the adults
and me and my sister finished up playing with some of our new
Christmas presents on that cold lino that passed for flooring in those
days., Oh how we forget how we lived, not that long ago really.

Anyhow the snow lasted a couple of hours and now with hindsight of
wetterzentral's archives you can see what took place that day, but
anyhow once the snow stopped everything really started to freeze. Just
to add hypothermia to misery my grandparents had an outside loo and I
can still picture what was slightly slushy snow now freezing hard, I
mean if you needed the toilet you couldn't help *but* notice the
bloody weather; believe me you didn't hang around too long out there.
Last memories of that day were watching the early evening ITN
television news-just two channels then, around sixish and the snow
fall was a main item. The news presenter showed either a rushed film
shot of the snow in which I believe was Kensington Park. The item
ended with the presenter saying that weather experts didn't expect the
cold snap to last that long. It's funny I can remember those events
but they are only vague memories to my sister and mother. I can't
recall if I was disappointed hearing the snow would soon be gone, but
I have no further recollections of that day and little did I know of
what was to come.

In article
,
Lawrence13 writes:
Yep boxing day 1962.Bitterly cold day and all of those old enough to
remember will recall how cold our homes were then, I've probably said
before but we lived in a large , draughty Victorian semi, with no CH,
no insulation and single glazed sash cord windows, The only source of
heat being the kitchen oven, a paraffin heater and a two bar electric
fire and blimey it was cold.

So on Boxing Day afternoon around 1pm as my mother, me and my sister
waited my dad to return from the pub in his Morris Van, so we could go
for our traditional Boxing day dinner at my nan and granddads, I sat
staring out of the kitchen window all fully clothed up. Its funny but
one of the most deeply etched memories of that day was how bitterly
cold it was and being fascinated looking at the increasingly leaden
grey sky and then getting so excited as it started to snow, To be
honest at that age of ten living London I had only ever seen a couple
of snowfalls so this was very eagerly welcomed being Christmas and
that.

When my dad finally arrived (no drink driving laws then) we drove
through the very deserted cold, snowy Boxing day streets to my
grandparents place. It was eerily quiet and those days there wasn't
many than many private car to be found. Also no shop ever opened on a
Sunday let alone Christmas day and Boxing day. It was so quiet you
could literally hear the snow fall. At my grandparents which was
the downstairs rooms of another old Victorian terraced house at the
top Lordship Lane it was also bleedin' cold, but wonderfully warm in
their lounge where they had a roaring coal fire but as their lounge
wasn't exactly spacious there was only enough chairs for the adults
and me and my sister finished up playing with some of our new
Christmas presents on that cold lino that passed for flooring in those
days., Oh how we forget how we lived, not that long ago really.

Anyhow the snow lasted a couple of hours and now with hindsight of
wetterzentral's archives you can see what took place that day, but
anyhow once the snow stopped everything really started to freeze. Just
to add hypothermia to misery my grandparents had an outside loo and I
can still picture what was slightly slushy snow now freezing hard, I
mean if you needed the toilet you couldn't help *but* notice the
bloody weather; believe me you didn't hang around too long out there.
Last memories of that day were watching the early evening ITN
television news-just two channels then, around sixish and the snow
fall was a main item. The news presenter showed either a rushed film
shot of the snow in which I believe was Kensington Park. The item
ended with the presenter saying that weather experts didn't expect the
cold snap to last that long. It's funny I can remember those events
but they are only vague memories to my sister and mother. I can't
recall if I was disappointed hearing the snow would soon be gone, but
I have no further recollections of that day and little did I know of
what was to come.

A brilliant evocation, Lawrence. Thanks for taking the trouble to write
it.
--
John Hall
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick
themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."
Winston S Churchill (1874-1965)

On Aug 28, 10:26*am, John Hall wrote:
In article ,
*Dave Cornwell writes:





John Hall wrote:
In article ,
*Dave Cornwell writes:
Mine a-

1962/63 winter
1987 "Great Storm"
1976 Hot long summer.

Although these are obvious for my region I wondered what other
regional perceptions would be.
*Mine here in Surrey would be the same, with these additions:
*The extended summer of 1959, when to me as a child it seemed
as though
we had unbroken sun and warmth from early May to early October.
The downpour and flooding of September, 1968.
The remarkable spell of extreme cold and the heavy snowfall in January,
1987.
The blistering heat of 10th August, 2003, when I felt quite unwell
though my aged parents seemed to cope just fine.
------------------
I think it was a Sunday

It was.

and I was playing cricket. I remember us lying under the wheeled
covers for shade while we watching our innings. ( I should hasten
to add that this was the only club I know that had covers at our
level - I wasn't playing first class cricket at 53!)
Dave



Incidentally, I'm surprised that I don't have any memory of the 1958
thunderstorm that Tudor mentioned. I would have been nearly ten at the
time, and was living only about 10 miles NW of Horsham.
--
John Hall
* * * * * * "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick
* * * * * * *themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Winston S Churchill (1874-1965)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That ten miles may have been enough for you to miss most of the
fun but it would certainly have got dark, gloomy and greenish about
6.30 pm.
During the Hampstead storm (14/8/75) I was in someone's house in
Croydon and had no idea of the mayhem being created about 10 miles
north though I did notice it had got rather dark. There was very
little rain even immediately south of the Thames, let alone in
Croydon.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

Lawrence13 wrote:
On Aug 27, 1:31 pm, Dave Cornwell wrote:
Mine a-

1962/63 winter
1987 "Great Storm"
1976 Hot long summer.

Although these are obvious for my region I wondered what other regional
perceptions would be.

The only others really are a couple of notable blizzards, the record
minimum low temps of 1982, the high max of Aug 2003 close to me and a
T/S in the fifties that flooded our road so deep that people were
canoeing along it!

Dave, S.Essex

Pretty much the same here Dave, but I would also add a couple more of
subjective memories. The pre Christmas London fog in 1962 when as a
ten year old I can still recall vivid memories off the old double
Decker RT's and RM buses being slowly lead by the conductor inching
their way up to the top of Grove Lane in Camberwell.
I can still see vividly the street light illuminated yellowy green
glow wall of smog as you opened your street door. Yep know it caused
untold respiratory health problems but I loved it . But as your thread
is about memorable events I'll carry on to the first snowfall of that
62/63 winter. Just weeks after the fog came the real cold, as if the
fog wasn't damp and freezing enough, but I lapped it up.

Yep boxing day 1962.Bitterly cold day and all of those old enough to
remember will recall how cold our homes were then, I've probably said
before but we lived in a large , draughty Victorian semi, with no CH,
no insulation and single glazed sash cord windows, The only source of
heat being the kitchen oven, a paraffin heater and a two bar electric
fire and blimey it was cold.

So on Boxing Day afternoon around 1pm as my mother, me and my sister
waited my dad to return from the pub in his Morris Van, so we could go
for our traditional Boxing day dinner at my nan and granddads, I sat
staring out of the kitchen window all fully clothed up. Its funny but
one of the most deeply etched memories of that day was how bitterly
cold it was and being fascinated looking at the increasingly leaden
grey sky and then getting so excited as it started to snow, To be
honest at that age of ten living London I had only ever seen a couple
of snowfalls so this was very eagerly welcomed being Christmas and
that.

When my dad finally arrived (no drink driving laws then) we drove
through the very deserted cold, snowy Boxing day streets to my
grandparents place. It was eerily quiet and those days there wasn't
many than many private car to be found. Also no shop ever opened on a
Sunday let alone Christmas day and Boxing day. It was so quiet you
could literally hear the snow fall. At my grandparents which was
the downstairs rooms of another old Victorian terraced house at the
top Lordship Lane it was also bleedin' cold, but wonderfully warm in
their lounge where they had a roaring coal fire but as their lounge
wasn't exactly spacious there was only enough chairs for the adults
and me and my sister finished up playing with some of our new
Christmas presents on that cold lino that passed for flooring in those
days., Oh how we forget how we lived, not that long ago really.

Anyhow the snow lasted a couple of hours and now with hindsight of
wetterzentral's archives you can see what took place that day, but
anyhow once the snow stopped everything really started to freeze. Just
to add hypothermia to misery my grandparents had an outside loo and I
can still picture what was slightly slushy snow now freezing hard, I
mean if you needed the toilet you couldn't help *but* notice the
bloody weather; believe me you didn't hang around too long out there.
Last memories of that day were watching the early evening ITN
television news-just two channels then, around sixish and the snow
fall was a main item. The news presenter showed either a rushed film
shot of the snow in which I believe was Kensington Park. The item
ended with the presenter saying that weather experts didn't expect the
cold snap to last that long. It's funny I can remember those events
but they are only vague memories to my sister and mother. I can't
recall if I was disappointed hearing the snow would soon be gone, but
I have no further recollections of that day and little did I know of
what was to come.
------------------
Vintage stuff and very evocative for us oldies.
"..the early evening ITN television news-just two channels then.."
Bliss, too much bloody information these days!
Dave