Winter Chills : The Great Winters of 1947 and 1963 in the UK

This is archived content that used to be on the Met Office website, but isn’t anymore so I decided to resurrect it for posterity, adding my own comments and adaptions. It’s a page to refer to when people talk about the harsh winters of 1946-47 and 1962-63, the two UK winters that are used as benchmarks for how bad winter …

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County Durham battles Snow and Freezing Winter Weather – January 18th 2018

Snow covers Durham City in January 2018

Gritters and Snowploughs battle to keep County Durham roads open Teams across County Durham have been working hard to ensure life in the county is disrupted as little as possible despite snow, ice and freezing temperatures. Gritters and snowploughs were in action last night on all the county’s priority one routes, in addition to priority two routes in the Pennines. …

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December 2009/January 2010 Diary – Cold and Snowy in the first half

Snow in December 2009

A diary of the weather from late December 2009 and early 2010. It was a very snowy winter and at times also very cold in Durham. December 2009 – January 2010 Really cold weather kicked in around 17th December 2009 and didn’t let up for a month. Some lowland places had over a month of snowcover between mid December 2009 …

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January 1987 Weather – Exceptionally cold and wintry Spell

January 1987. This month saw an exceptional cold spell resulting from an easterly airstream which began in earnest on the 9th, with cold air starting to feed in from the 7th. Before that here was a wet start to the month. Then the maximum at Aviemore was -5C on the 8th and 9th. On the 9th, an anticyclone anchored over …

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Ferocious Cold Front brings a Blizzard – 28th Jan 2004

After several days of speculation, the cold front eventually arrived, revealing the true power of the Arctic airstream we’d been promised. The temperature fell from +1.5 degC at noon to -2.0 degC at 1pm, with a ferocious blizzard of fine powder snow. This is probably the most impressive cold front passage since the mid 80’s, with additions to the lying …

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