Mike Tullett wrote:
On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 18:35:21 +0000, John Hall wrote in



In article ,
Graham P Davis writes:

My memory of March '63 is of the 6th (I think - it may have been the
5th) when the temperature reached about 6 DegC. The other observer at
RAE Bedford Met Office pointed out that it was the first day since
Boxing Day that we'd had a temperature above zero DegC. That was
counting temperatures in whole degrees so our highest max would only
have been 0.4 DegC.

Even for 1962-3, that's fairly remarkable. At Cranleigh, we had quite a
few days - mostly in February - that reached about 2C, and on one day -
the abortive thaw (in late January IIRC) - I think we reached the dizzy
heights of 5C.


I agree that would be remarkable, John. You'll be familar with the link
below to the Monthly Summary for February 1963. Of those listed, the
lowest mean maximum is 1.1C at Gorleston, followed closely by Boscombe Down
and Eskdalemuir with 1.2C.

http://www.mtullett.plus.com/1962-63/february_1963.htm


More of a problem for me is the reading from the other side of Bedford -
Cardington's highest max of 5.4 on the 28th. If what I've said is
incorrect, it could only be a misunderstanding of what was said at the
time, as my memory of that March day is still pretty clear. I remember
in the early afternoon, walking the couple of miles from the base to the
bus stop, enjoying the warm Spring sunshine though the temperature was
still four or five degrees below normal. The surrounding fields were
still mostly snow-covered. Any exposed areas of grass were scorched
brown as though at the and of a long Summer drought. I can't think why
this day would have stuck in my mind if the temperature had been as high
only a week before.

I remember at least one occasion that winter when there was a
short-lived thaw - a couple of hours or so - but that was when I was at
RAF Wyton and, as far as I know, that did not occur at Bedford. I was
only at Bedford from the 18th of February but don't remember any thaws
preceding that March day. When the thaw arrived, I recall the forecaster
reminding people that at the beginning of the freeze they'd asked when
the thaw would come and he'd said "March!" It was the only forecast of a
thaw that was correct. We'd seen many forecasts of thaws come from
Bracknell - they were always good for a laugh. Later we'd watch the wind
come round to the southwest - as forecast - and the warm front go
through - as forecast - and the temperature stay at zero - not as
forecast - and within a day the north-easterlies would be back.

We remarked that it was as though we'd got our own private air-mass
which nothing would shift. Any warm air just flew straight over the top
and had no effect on us. The main problems for getting a thaw was the
state of the surface. The ground was frozen below 18 inches and the
surrounding countryside was covered in snow. At RAE Bedford we were well
away from the effect of major towns - perhaps why we might have differed
from Cardington. Anyway, the only way of proving this recollection of
mine one way or the other is for someone to look at the old records.

At Bedford, before the thaw, walking to work late in the evening, and
battling against Easterly gales and sub-zero temperatures was no joke,
but I think preferable to my previous journeys to and from Wyton sitting
for hours in unheated buses.

The winter did have its lighter moments though. I'd heard that birds
could have trouble landing in snow as they couldn't judge their height
above ground and one day I saw it for myself. I was walking back to the
control tower at Bedford after lunch and saw a crow* coming in to land.
It made a perfect approach, lowered its undercarriage, throttled back,
and stopped - a couple of feet above the snow. It then bellyflopped into
the snow whilst wondering who'd taken the ground away. The cold weather
didn't seem to dampen the hares' ardour as, given a fair day, they'd be
out staging boxing matches in the snow.

* I'm basing my identification of the bird on the following old country
saying -
If you see two crows in a field, them be rooks.
If you see one rook in a field, he be a crow.


Graham