Hi all, well i can see by the way you all talk that im not the only complete weather nut that i used to think. I have great and very vivid memories of the great winter of 1962/63. For a boy of ten it was very exciting,not only for the weather, but because i was off school for six weeks as the boilers froze solid. I live in the Chilterns and remember well that Boxing Day afternoon when it started snowing. It was about 3 or 4 pm. It snowed steadily all night and all next day on the 27th till late in the day. There was very little wind so the snow had not drifted much. But on the 29th it started snowing again and this time we had a howling easterly wind.The snow was very powdery, as i know now, a common characteristic of very cold easterlies.In the 60,s there were no street lamps on after midnight so you could not use the lamps to see if it was still snowing. I could hear that unmistakable sound of clouds of very fine snow grains being blown into the windows of my Prefab. I did manage to get some sleep that night. When i got up in the morning and looked out of the window the snow was level with my windowsil being about 3 ft off the ground. When i got up and walked down my hallway there was a small snowdrift INSIDE by my frontdoor which faced east. The wind had driven the powdery snow through little cracks in the door. I can also remember another snowstrom on 19th-20th of January and this time we had some freezing rain after the snow for a time. The snowdrifts were easily 8 -10ft deep in places. 1969 was also full of memories for me as i was due to leave school in the April,but february was a very snowy month with some good northerly blasts and amazing polar lows. For me though any extreme weather event is exciting especially severe thunderstorms, and had some close shaves with lightning too! good times for me. Regards, Stephan.
