Having been brought up in North London in the 1950s/early 1960s I cannot remember any real serious snow event until 1962/3. Boxing Day 1962 was really cold and the snow arrived as it was getting dark, blowing around and not immediately settling. However, by the end of the night there must have been 5 to 6 inches. Since then I have been a snow fanatic. After Boxing Day my memory of that winter is of very cold clear days with a good top up of snow whenever it was needed taking us through until March. After that the highlights for me were New Years Eve 1969, Jan 1979 and the December of 1981, which was quite fantastic as the BBC forecast rain which turned out to be heavy snow which then lasted for 3 weeks! We did not have the 1970 "White Christmas" - I've never seen one. In 1985 I moved to Tunbridge Wells and to start off with I was spoilt - 1986, 1987 and 1991 all producing really snowy cold spells. I thought it would be like this all the time here - three heavy snowfalls in 6 years - 1987 being the greatest ever! Looking back this seems to have been a golden period. Since then we have had sthe odd good snowfalls in, I think, 1996 (very localised) and 1997, but after that just little bits that have gone quite quickly, more often in Feb/Mar unless my memory is playing tricks. All we really need here is a really cold ENE wind over a warmish north sea (not cold!). It can (and will) happen again (I hope!). It just needs patience. Perhaps this year? I look forward to waking up at 3 am (having been promised snow by the "forecasters") looking out of the window and actually seeing it snowing - instead of the usual rain or.....just nothing!
