14Th-16Th April 1966

[Terminal Moraine]

Three notably cold and,at times, snowy days occurred in this part of the country in mid-April 1966. Although where I was living at the time was much lower than where I am now the max' temp' on both the 14th and 15th was only 2c and several inches of snow fell later on the 14th and into the 15th. The cold and snow was accompanied by a f4 E wind which caused drifting on the higher ground and there was further lying snow on the 18th above 250mts. It eventually warmed up by the 21st with maxima climbing above 10c for the first time since the 10th.

Maximum temp's of 2c at 160m would imply maxima around 0c at my current location, certainly a noteworthy event so late in the season.

[Metwatch]

A brutal looking reanalysis chart just 2 months away from the summer solstice and when temperatures well into the mid 20s can be possible in other Aprils.

Trevor Harley's summary of this month:

Quote

Cold, dull, and wet. Very wet in southwest England, where it was one of the wettest Aprils of the century: there was about three times the average rainfall. There was a notable snowdall in some places in the north on the 1st; parts of Lancashire saw at least six inches, and some sites might have had a foot of snow. It was warm around Easter (10th). The snow fell as a shallow low moved across the Midlands on the 1st-2nd. There was a significant late snowfall in the south on the night of 13-14th, and throughtout the following day, which was also very cold in an northeasterly wind. Brighton had a couple of inches of snow; snow cover was 15 cm deep on the high ground from Kent to Hampshire. In some places it snowed continuously for 48 hours.  It was dull and cold until the the 27th. The cold, snowy month had a damaging effect on breeding birds.

Some of the maximum temperatures 14-16th, would be notable even in mid winter these days!

[Harry's House]

I think of the mid-April 1966 period as the worst for April weather that I can remember. I was living in Essex at the time, and I remember one day when snow was lying even in the afternoon as there was no April sun to melt it. If it wasn't snowing during that time, it was just cold and rainy.

Later, I noticed that Cardington recorded sunshine on only one day from 11th to 20th April that year. 

Dreadful weather!

[LetItSnow!]

 Metwatch Back in the days when weather used to be real weather!  

[Summer8906]

It looks like April 1966 would have been unremittingly foul in the south.

As the above chart shows, the south was frequently close to the low pressure, rather than within the easterlies, so consequently very wet and very dull weather would have been the theme, with little snow.

Perhaps the worst April since the war, in fact - though 1998 was probably close.

Edited May 7 by Summer8906