Ledbury Lad

I had not long left school and started work when 1956 dawned (I was 17 by the time this year rolled round - I turned 18 on 07 April 1956). In my job I had to undergo an in-house training course lasting from early January to early March 1956, this taking place in a large and fairly isolated mansion type house close to Chalfont St Peter, in Buckinghamshire. I had to travel there by train from Herefordshire, and at that particular time in January heavy snowfalls and freezing temperatures affected many areas of the UK. As a matter of interest, the area around Boston, Lincolnshire, was very badly affected by very deep snow, with level depths in excess of two to three feet or more after a very prolonged snowstorm in that locality. I travelled from Ledbury direct to Paddington on the same through train (the old steam locos of very fond memory) and through countryside blanketed with snow, and the closer to London we got the lying snow became thicker. I had to then go from Paddington to Marylebone train station to catch the train to a small station called Denham Golf Club Halt, where we were to be met by a mini bus type thing to take us to the training college. In London there was a yellowish sort of smog hanging over the city which looked really eerie and you could hardly see one end of a street from the other, and I remember seeing the piles of dirty snow lying in the gutters all discoloured grey and yellowish - it looked horrible. At Denham Gold Club Halt the snow was about 4 or 5 inches deep, from memory, and as several of us trainees had arrived on the same train we all stood and chatted in the freezing cold on the snowy platform until the transport arrived, and we all piled into it and then slithered and slid our way along the rutted snowy country lanes until we got to The Lodge, as it was called. As it happened, one of the guys on the course actually came from Boston, Lincs., and I remember him describing the very snowy conditions up there. Yet he still managed to travel from there to London by train in spite of the heavy snows, so I reckon it was testimony to those powerful old steam locomotives of the time that the very snowy conditions didn't prevenmt the trains from operating, even if they were delayed now and again - as far as I recall my train arrived more or less on time at Paddington, but as it was now so long ago I can't be sure about that. All I know is that all the trains ran without much in the way of disruption, as in those days they actually fitted snowploughs to the front of the engines, as winter snow was more or less expected at some stage as a matter of course in the average winter back then. No way did the trains give up the ghost over the "wrong kind of snow" or cease functioning because of a snow drift measuring all of 1cm as happens nowadays! I particular remember the magnificent snow cornices overhanging the railway lines from the top of the embankments in the winters back then, as well as seeing snow plastered right across the outside of the windows so that you could see nothing from inside. It's strange how some things stick in your memory. A couple of days or so later the weather changed to milder conditions, but towards the end of January 1956 the weather turned a whole lot colder again, with very low temperatures and the snow returned. Our course was all in house as it was all administration and lecture room based, but they had also arranged PE and outdoor sporting events as we were all young lads c. 17 to 25 or so, with me being at the younger end. I enjoyed the cross country running very much, across all the meadows and through woods around the Chalfont and Gerrards Cross areas (in 1956 the area was very much different to what it is today - none of the modern day development so it was still quite rural on the whole). The 1st February 1956 was intensely cold, and snow once more blanketed the scene entirely, but that didn't stop us trudging through the snow on our cross country runs to keep us fit (the food on this course was great as I remember). On 01 February 1956 temperatures remained well below freezing in most inland areas, and maximum temperatures of about -5C that day were widespread. My record book shows Pershore, Worcestershire, as registering the lowest max temp that day with -7C as the high for the day. This very cold weather persisted for much of February 1956, and with snow being plentiful with fairly frequent falls every so often it was a decidedly wintry month, so we got used to slogging away across snowy fields and along snowy lanes and by-ways and crunching over snow buried twigs and undergrowth in the woods, and in spite of the daytime frosts we kept moving and kept as warm as toast - at least I did as I remember. WE did it all in just shorts and a top of some kind in spite of the very cold weather. They bred us hardy back then! I thoroughly enjoyed that training course as it was the first time I had ever been away from home. The next time I was away from home was exactly a year later - February 1957 - and this time it was for two years on National Service in the RAF, spent mostly in Norfolk, where we had a couple of quite notable snowy and very cold spells in early 1958 and 1959. Yes, February 1956 was a mostly very cold and snowy month, but by the time I got back home by the time March arrived it had turned a lot milder - with rain instead of snow. As a matter of interest, Christmas Day 1956 was very much a White Christmas - heavy snow fell for much of the day and roads became blocked by tea time and power cuts meant candle light and roaring log fires from mid afternoon. Quite Dickensian..... Funnily enough, exactly 30 years later, in February 1986, very cold and snowy conditions also lasted for much of the month. That was the month when redwings invaded all the gardens in this area and stripped the average cotoneaster shrubs of all their berries in about 10 minutes flat! They couldn't feed in the open fields as normal because they remained continuouslky snow covered for much of the month. Less than 7 years after February 1956 came the Winter to beat all Winters....the most severe for almost 300 years - but that is an entirely separate story all of its own! One thing was for sure - I didn't do any cross country running then in just shorts and a top as I had done seven years earlier in spite of the cold and the snow....

The two Novembers I personally well remember for cold spells, even without looking back at my own reports and observations, were both in the 1960s - right in the middle of the "Mini Ice Age" (c.1940 - 1970). The first one was November 1962, which came as a real foretaste of the extremely severe three months' winter that was to start little more than 4 weeks later. Of course, none of us was aware at the time what was just around the corner so to speak! As with all the real classical severe winters of the past it came right from the east, under the exact conditons and synoptic situation which more or less guaranteed a reasonably lengthy spell of very cold weather - an area of very high pressure moving WESTWARDS out of Northern Russia to become centred over northern Scandinavia. Northern Europe had been intensely cold for some time, and this cold blast from the Continent came in on very cold easterly winds towards Britain around the 9th, and that Remembrance Weekend saw many people shivering at the parades in biting easterly winds. The cold persisted and the weekend after that - 16th/18th November saw the heavy snowfalls which badly disrupted traffic from the north of Scotland all the way down to Cornwall (people were trapped in their cars on Bodmin Moor). Many areas saw their heaviest November snowfalls for many years. The cold finally relented around the 20th. The infamous winter proper that year commenced in exactly the same way just before Christmas 1962, but the conditions of snow and ice were, of course, much more severe and lasted very much longer than those of November. The snows and frosts and icebound conditions we had all grown so weary of that winter finally melted in the strengthening power of the March sunshine and the long forgotten Atlantic winds replacing the Siberian variety. The other November - in 1965 - again saw a similar bitterly cold spell, again coming in right from the east under very similar conditions - an anticyclone moving westwards out of Russia. This was mid November and for several days temperatures failed ro rise above feezing day or night in many areas, especially in southern and eastern areas as well as most of the Midlands. My own records mention a lot of icing, and ice forming on power cables brought widespread power cuts. Snow was far less prominent than the very cold spell three years earlier which I mention, but snow showers did affect many areas, even as far south as the south coast of England. As road traffic was very much lighter than it is now, with far fewer vehicles on the roads and with local authorities routinely prepared for snow and ice in winter as a matter of course, I don't think traffic was disrupted to any degree, certainly nothing like the conditions of 1962/63, with even fewer vehicles at that time. The most crucial feature in both of these Novembers, I think, was the synoptic situation - the most significant being the westward movement of high pressure from European Russia towards Scandinavia. Always a sign of real wintry weather at that time of the year onwards through the winter. Every single severe winter in Britain we see mentioned in all the record books saw this scenario at the onset of the very cold and prolonged spells - Continental Arctic or Continental Polar, the coldest air masses to reach these islands. It's very debatable whether such situations will occur again with any regularity as they once did - or if ever they will again. As for November warmth - well, I think that this has now become more of a feature of more recent Novembers, but even so some extraordinary high November temperatures actually occurred in Novembers preceding very severe winters - one such was the very warm spell in early November 1946, when temperatures reach 21C in some areas. WE all know what followed later on that winter. The same thing happened in November 1938, when many areas basked in temperatures reaching 21C, this being followed by the intense cold and severe snowstorms of Christmas 1938 which, again, came in on very cold easterly winds straight off an icy Continent following, yet again, a westwards movement of high pressure out of Russia. The strength of the easterly winds accompanied by temperatures well below freezing on that occasion saw some of the highest windchill factors of the entire 20th century. Christmas 1961 very nearly came close to it for very high windchills, again under the same synoptic conditions. I shall never forget the bitterly cold wind cutting through me like knife through butter as I came out of my office at around 1300hrs on Saturday 23 December 1961. The Saturday after that 29/30 December 1961 a blizzard deposited over a foot of snow on us.

+7.7C

Actual figures here for DECEMBER 2006 Milder than the average The warmest December here since 1988 Not quite as mild as the December of 1974 which was the warmest December in my own personal records South westerly winds predominated apart from the pre-Christmas intense anticyclonic spell which was characterised by persistent fog and a couple of slight overnight air frosts Average minimum temperature: +4.2C Average maximum temperature: +9.0C MEAN TEMPERATURE FOR DECEMBER: +6.6C Lowest temperature recorded: -2.0C 22 December Highest temperature recorded: +13.6C reached at 01.06hrs 29 December! Number of air frosts: 6 Snowfall was completely absent The month was completely in line with current winter temperature trends Indeed, my record for 2006 show that the year as a whole was the warmest ever in my own records going back to 1952! The mean temperature for 2006 was +11.2C This compares with the previous warmest year ever - +11.1C in 2004 The march of Global Warming now seems relentless The prospects for January / February 2007 apparently show no real sign of change

I was in Chester over the New Year period 29 Dec 1978 to 03 January 1979, and during that period I was driving back to Chester from Mold, just over the border in Wales. It was New Year's Day 01 January 1979 - evening - and I left Mold at about 7pm. It was a nightmare journey through a raging snowstorm and it took three times longer than normal to cover the journey as the whirling snowflakes (the dry powdery stuff) cut visibility to practically zero at times. I had to make a detour from the way I intended as I preferred to keep to the main road and I had to go through Chester City Centre. It was practically deserted in the snowstorm but the huge Christmas tree and it's lights looked even more atttractive under the additional decoration of a thick snow cover. And wow! was it cold with it, too! I think we saw maxima well below zero for the following days. The immediate post Christmas period was very wet but the rain turned to wet snow as the colder weather kicked in and then the dry powdery stuff as the cold tightened its grip. Another feature of that very long winter, made worse by terrible industrial strife with strikes all over the place, was the way milder spells tried to move up from the south now and again, and succeeded in the south for a day or two, but then the bitterly cold easterlies soon returned to cover the whole country again with a return of the snowfalls, with blizzard conditions in a lot of places. I remember returning home some time later in January 1979, at about 11pm one evening, to an unheated flat. All the windows were thickly frosted over with spectacular frost feathers. I turned all heating devices on full blast and half an hour later all the windows were clear again.

It's always at this time of the year, and especially after reading all the speculatory forecasts on threads such as this, that I love to look back through all my weather records and scrapbooks which bring all the memories of Winters Past come flooding back to me, the first in my memory bank was that of exactly 60 years ago now...... I was a snow loving 9 year old, and all my dreams came true in 1946/1947 ..to excess. Sixteen years later as a mature B) 24 year old having to work for a living I went through all the same childish enthusiasm in 1962/1963 That was even colder and we all thought it was going to last forever. Happy Days B)

We are now half way through the three month Autumn season of 2006 and so far it has been the warmest here in Herefordshire since I started keeping records in the early 1950s. September was easily the warmest on record with me, and so far October has been the same. Mid October and I'm still going out in a tee shirt and believe me I'm no spring chicken B) Some of the trees (still very few) are beginning to change colour, but it still has no feel of the season about it all, and I still see myself having to mow the lawns for more than just a few weeks more. I did hear a wireless (see, that's how old I am! ) report on the weather when it was stated that many people in the SW of the UK now mow their lawns all the year round. Overnight 10/11 October the lowest temperature here was +15.4C, and so far I've recorded double figure minima on six nights. Last night the minimum was +12.8C. The screen temp did fall to +4.4C in the early hours of the 4th though, the lowest reading so far this season. The "high" so far this month has been +20.6C on the aforementioned 10th October. Looks set to change from mid week onwards. I bought myself a new wet-weather outfit this wekend......I expect to try it out later this week. B) Whatever the weather - enjoy.

Yet another hot July day here in Herefordshire...today was actually the warmest so far this month and we officially went over the 30C mark in the shade with a maximum of +30.1C at 15:50 this afternoon. The day started quite clear at first light but by 08:00hrs it had become overcast and I thought that was it.....heading for storms but they did not develop. Instead the sun broke through late morning and the rest of the day was mainly sunny and it became oppressively hot. The sky at dusk is now completely clear....still sort of glowing opalescent colour at gone 10pm and the temperature still shows +21.4C so maybe another warm night ahead. Thunderstorem activity may well develop tomorrow instead.....we shall see. I will report this time tomorrow anyway. Pressure now 1023mb steady RH: 70% Rainfall month to date: 17.8mm Rainfall year to date: 255.1mm Slightly above the figure for the same date in that other hot dry year 2003. Goodnight...hope you get some sleep if it's another hot night....

Yet another beautiful July day here in Herefordshire. It was warm and a bit uncomfortable again last night when the temperature did not fall below +16.1C and the day dawned quite clear and lovely. Clear blue skies have predominated all day with just a few Cu clouds in small clusters blocking out the sunshine now and again but nothing serious. The maximum screen temperature touched +28.3C at 14:56hrs this afternoon in the strong sunshine. Not quite as hot as yesterday. No hint of any of the showers some areas seem to have had today. The sky has now gone into advanced twilight mode but the slight patches of cloud still visible in the pale blue and pinkish tinge of the western horizon. Pressure slipped a little to 1028mb. RH now: 74% Current shade temperature: +20.4C Calm but during day airflow NNE light. This is really lovely Summer weather. I look forward to a golden August! When fine that month is glorious! Goodnight all.

What a perfect Summer's day it's been here in East Herefordshire. More or less wall to wall sunshine all day. Only the occasional small build up of cloud but nothing serious and it quickly dispersed. Throughout it's been very warm, and this afternoon actually HOT! The sun has now set, and earlier the little cloud there was in the north west was a salmon pink colour against the pale blue.....quite nice. Now the sun has dipped completely and the little trails of cloud are a smoky grey. Darkness now falling over this wee Green Acre called Herefordshire! It looks set mainy fair and warm or very warm for the rest of the week, certainly here in the South West Midlands. Statistics: Last night saw a minimum temperature here of +16.6C at 05:07hrs, so pretty warm. The maximum temperature reached here today was +28.8C at 13:33hrs. No quite reaching the high here yesterday of +29.1C and certainly not reaching the year's high so far of +31.1C on 19 Jun 05. Sun index here been High and Pollution levels Moderate. Pressure: 1032mb steady Currently calm Upper airflow from NNE Relative humidity now risen to 63% after a low of 52% Cloud cover has been 0% much of the time, at a maximum cover of 40% Currently: 5% cover Rainfall 24 hrs to 08:00hrs: NIL Rainfall July to date: 17.8mm Rainfall 2005 to date: 255.1mm Current temperature here at 22:00hrs: +22.7C So maybe an even warmer night down here on the edge of the Wye Walley. I can hear an owl hooting......

I like the way you've set out your stats SizzlingHeat - intersting. You've had less rain that we have even!

Hi Mr Holmes! LTNS! My fault........ It's turning out to be a really lovely June in this neck of the woods. I'm loving it. Just for quick info, here are my daily max temps for the month so far: June 2005 1st 16.3C 2nd 17.1 3rd 20.1 4th 17.7 5th 18.6 6th 16.1 7th 19.4 8th 21.6 9th 21.4 10th 19.8 11th 18.6 12th 15.1 13th 17.3 14th 18.5 15th 21.4 16th 21.3 17th 24.7 18th 28.4 19th 31.1 20th 26.2 21st 22.7 22nd 26.0 Nights between the 17th and 20th were particularly close and warm with minima between 15C and 18C Rainfall has been in very short supply, with measurable rain on 5 days only so far, with one day of measurable rain between the 6th and now and no sign of any in prospect, unless of course we are to be affected by forecast thunderstorms from tomorrow Friday onwards. Rainfall in total for the month to date is 15.5mm Rainfall total for 2005 to date is 209.9mm So far, this Summer is remarkably similar to that of two years ago in 2003. Cheers from a currently HOT 28.3C in the shade. :o

Thanks a lot for those stats, John, and your hard work. It's really great to be able to compare them with mine. I really don't think I would like to go through a winter like that again...must be the age I am now! I could face anything back in 1962....! You deserve to be treated to a pint now! My call! Cheers LL

1962/63 WINTER I won't post the March 63 weather as the cold began to lessen during the first week although there were severe frosts on the first four nights. Then it was back to normal at last, and by 06 March 63 the snow that had been on the ground since 26 Dec 62 finally disappeared except for remains of drifts by walls and hedges that took ages to finally melt away altogether. Snow covered the ground for 69 consecutive days. I cut out loads of weather stuff out of the national and local newspapers during the winter. 30 DEC 62: Orpington train station Kent - aerial view: snow drifted up to level of platforms. 28 DEC 62: Postman knee deep in snow delivering mail in Kent 31 DEC 62: Car ploughing its way through churned up snow in Piccadilly Circus 31 DEC 62: AA reports "The Greatest Avalanche of snow since 1881 has blocked thousands of miles of main roads in Britain". 31 DEC 62: A road sign almost completely buried in deep snowdrifts near Plymouth yesterday after the blizzard which brought the worst winter weather in memory in the SW. 01 MAR 63: A man shoveling away at 18 inches of frozen snow blanketing Cheltenham Racecourse on 28 Feb 63 in the hope that the course would be ready for a meeting 11 days later. A picture of optimism! Actually it did clear by then at last. Football Association in the UK suffered worst setbacks in it's history. WALES: 01 MAR 63: Major crisis! No daffodils anywhere apart from hot-house varieties. Trees did not leaf until late May 63. CAMBRIDGE: 18 FEB 63 Students take short cut by walking along the frozen River Cam HEREFORD: "That's not a snow covered street...it's the frozen River Wye near the Old Bridge!" KENT: Ice floes along the coast 31 DEC 62: Part of the main Editorial in the Daily Telegraph: SNOW BLINDNESS With a fine feeling for the just phrase, officials of the Automobile Association described yesterday as a "Siberian Sunday". Unfortunately we are living not in Siberia but in Britain and once again we greet with angry surprise a type of weather which is surely frequent enough to justify the maintenance of equipment to counter it. The chaos, especially in the West Country and in Kent has been grim indeed. Train services have been severely cut, or altogether abandoned. Orpington has distinguished itself for the second time this year - on this occasion, by losing all railway contact with the rest of London and Kent. Drifts of eight, nine and 10 feet have blocked main roads, and in many areas in Britain driving conditions have been described as impossible. There has ben widespread failure of electricity. The severe intensity of the blizzard that has swept Britain may have been quite exceptional. Later it may prove to have justified an early comment that "never in the living history of Southern and Western districts and the Midlands has there been such an avalanche of snow". Snow, if not exactly an avalanche, is to be expected in every English winter." The rest of the editorial just describes the difficulties in being prepared for snow and local authorities acting swiftly enough to mitigate the disruption, but that particular blizzard was just so overwhelming. Interesting that bit about "snow is to be expected in every English winter"! And that "this type of weather is frequent enough to justify..etc..". Definitely no longer the case.... 41 years later in a different climatic scenario. LL

Second attempt.....first one went into orbit somewhere. FEBRUARY 1963 Date Max C Min C Preciptn. mm Weather (*=snow) Fri 01 -0.3 -3.4 1.3* Strong NE wind; snow on and off Sat 02 -2.4 -7.2 0.7* NE gale; heavy drifting snow at times Sun 03 0.5 -6.9 1.8* Snow on and off all day Dull Mon 04 -1.8 -10.3 1.6* Snowfall with drifting windy Tue 05 0.4 -2.8 6.3* Blizzard during night; SE strong Wed 06 1.6 -2.2 2.9* Snow; windy at times E Thu 07 1.3 -2.6 0.3 Snow turning to sleet at times Fri 08 3.3 0.0 Sunny at times Sat 09 1.7 0.1 Tr Slight snow/freezing rain Sun 10 -2.3 -2.8 Heavy snow pm; N Mon 11 -0.1 -3.6 Slight snow/sleet Tue 12 2.8 -1.8 Tr Slight snow/sleet Wed 13 2.2 -5.3 Tr Some snow am Dull Thu 14 1.1 -3.9 Dull and cold Fri 15 2.0 0.6 0.4* Snow and sleet at times Sat 16 0.4 -2.8 Mostly sunny Sun 17 1.4 -1.9 Brilliant sunshine Mon 18 1.7 -5.3 Brilliant sunshine cold SE wind Tue 19 -0.9 -2.6 Sunny and bitterly cold E wind Wed 20 2.1 -4.7 Very cold wind Thu 21 3.9 -3.9 0.6 Foggy at times; snow Fri 22 3.2 -1.7 7.6* Heavy snowstorm overnight Sat 23 0.6 -4.2 Dull and very cold Sun 24 -2.3 -7.8 Bitterly cold; freeezing fog Mon 25 0.1 -10.1 Severe frost; freezing fog; Rime Tue 26 3.2 -7.6 Sunny after fog Wed 27 2.3 -5.5 Sunny at times Thu 28 5.1 -3.3 Milder with sunshine ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Average max temp: 1.1C Average min temp: -4.1C Mean temp: -1.5C Highest max temp: 5.1C 28th Lowest min temp: -10.3C 4th Rainfall total: 26.7mm (snowfall equivalent) Number of air frosts: 25 Days with 100% snow cover: 28 LL