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Billy Hicks

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Everything posted by Billy Hicks

  1. After the horror shows of 2007 and 8 this one started really well and there did seem to be a brief feeling in late June that we were finally going to get another scorcher, that weather at the end of the month was fantastic in London. Unfortunately that mostly was as good as it got as much of July was wet as already stated, and my early August photos mostly show grey cloud before brightening up at the very end of the month in time for the Notting Hill Carnival. Luckily we had a really nice September which arrived just in time for me to turn 21, starting back at uni that month on the right track! Not the long hot summer it could have been, but it’s a beautiful blur of youthful house parties, nights out and ‘I Gotta Feeling’ by the Black Eyed Peas playing at every opportunity, so I’ll always be fond of this one.
  2. I was in a lucky situation during this time where most of my friends and family remained very sociable, so I spent much of this time travelling on mostly empty tube trains to visit people and having long walks with pals across quiet parts of central London, chuckling at how bizarre everything had got. There was a park near my flat at the time I spent sunbathing in that incredible weather, and a local Tesco which had many of its products on heavy discount as no one other than me was buying them, so I was regularly paying for food and drink approximately what they would have cost in the 1980s! With an huge amount of hindsight it was a good Spring, but of course at the time I was regularly worried my furlough would come to an end and I’d lose my job (which luckily I never did), anyone I knew was suddenly going to become unwell and/or die (they didn’t) or just lockdowns now being life forever and nothing was ever going to reopen again. I am really glad the season was as sunny as it was as it would have all been too immensely depressing otherwise, and my personal least favourite week of that era was in February 2021, when temperatures were below freezing for a few days so we couldn’t even leave home if we wanted to, and there seemed to be absolutely no end in sight at the time. April 2021 being a cold one was also rather annoying as for a month during that time we could only eat or drink outdoors!
  3. Yep, I count 2012 in the underrated club as well. Lots of warm days in that second half in London and the South East but many had given up on it after that terrible June, it was the summer I graduated and it was nice that the hot weather arrived just in time for me to enjoy it. I’d add 2010 as a reverse of this in that the first half of it was really quite nice, though admittedly it did fall apart a bit by August. Probably my favourite of the 2007-11 run.
  4. I worked as a steward at the Royal Albert Hall at the time and we'd just started the BBC Proms season. The previous year while the building was closed we'd completely upgraded the air cooling of the building (after summer 2018 and July 2019 had been quite uncomfortable for some customers) and to everyone's huge relief it worked perfectly on this day, lots of happy customers thanking us for what could have been a difficult evening otherwise. 2022 is one of those wonderful years where I remember both a hot summer and a heavy snowfall in the winter, along with 1995, 2003, 2013 and 2018. Pity the summers of 2009 and 10 weren't better!
  5. This was a really big one in the South East and does seem a bit forgotten now, it came after a completely snowless 2011 here (although that wasn't seen as too much of a problem given how unforgettable 2010 was!) and crucially fell on a Saturday night, causing some very long delays home as trains and buses came to a standstill. I was stuck in central London for hours waiting for buses and my dad was equally stuck on the motorway between Birmingham and London, we both ended up getting home about 5-6am Sunday morning. Along with January 2013 and those big years of 2009-10 it did start to feel like snow was going to be back every year again, until the wet winter of 2013-14 heralded a change in winters to mostly snowless ones again until later in the decade.
  6. Yeah I really think 2012 gets far too poor a reputation, and it's mostly based on that infamous Jubilee weekend along with April and the rest of June. I look at photographs from that era and there's a lot of me and friends in hot sunny weather, mostly from late May around the time of the Eurovision Song Contest (Loreen's 'Euphoria' reminding me of a heatwave as I travelled to and from uni for my final year exams!) and the opening weekend of the Olympics, along with some festivals in the August having some nice blue skies too. And earlier on in that year we'd had that almost record-breaking sunny end of March so it really wasn't the disastrous year in London at least that it seems to have become known for, I'd even call it an underrated summer. 2007 though? Every photo I have is dark, grey, miserable skies and from memory that utterly deserves its miserable reputation. As does 2008 which gets a bit forgotten for a horrible August, and some brief but not particularly long lasting sunnier spells earlier in the season.
  7. I've started this from 2002/03 as I don't remember much about previous years, with the exception of 1995-6 in my childhood and very hazy memories of February 1991. I have a photo from December 2000 of a very snowy view from out my window so that must have been a big one here too. 1. 2009/10 as many have said already. Huge snowfalls in December and January and being in my second year of uni reminds me of many cold but ultimately nostalgic nights out. Highlight was seeing the Pet Shop Boys live at the O2 that December, them introducing their new song called 'It Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas' and everyone bursting into laughter. 2. 2010/11 for that unforgettable white Christmas, even in the south west of England with snowmen on the beach. Nothing much outside of that month but December was so memorable it deserves a high place. 3. 2017/18 for a noticeable December flurry and of course the Beast from the East being the first significant snow London had seen since early 2013, which even then felt like a lifetime ago and a relief after a run of horrible wet and stormy winters. 4. 2008/9 entirely for that very famous 2nd February, the biggest snow London had seen since 1991 and heavily reported on at the time. I went around Wembley with my then new digital camera and the photos still look astonishing today, especially the one with a petrol sign showing just over 80p a litre! 5. 2022/23 for that big snowfall in December which almost got as far as Christmas but didn't quite match 2010, and more early in the new year making it one of the most spectacular of recent years. 6. 2012/13, a major snow event in January which heralded the start of the Never Ending Winter that year to the point where listening to Now That's What I Call Music 84 (released Spring that year) reminds me heavily of shivering across London on Overground trains. 7. 2020/21 for the two snowfalls in January and February which were a rather wonderful distraction from all the lockdowns going on at the time, I lived in the centre of London then and walking around it in that weather - with very few crowds - is an incredibly powerful memory. 8. 2002/3 as captured at the time on the first digital camera we ever owned, the end of January was a major surprise with the snow lasting for a few days afterwards. 9. 2011/12 solely for the one big snow event that year in early February, which turned what should have been a quick journey home into one lasting all night, no night tube then and buses and taxis (crammed full of Saturday night crowds) blocked from making their journeys. 10. 2018/19 for a small snow event at the start of February and that incredible heatwave at the end of it, one of the biggest weather shifts in one month I can remember! 11. 2013/14 which for once was completely snowless here but definitely memorable, huge winds meaning walking to and from work became a challenge and a very difficult journey to Devon on Christmas Eve, taking many hours longer than usual due to almost the entire train network shutting down. 12. 2006/7 for one of the biggest snow events of that decade so far in February (until 2009 completely obliterated it) and otherwise a nicely frosty winter. 13. 2003/4 which I don't remember too much of but there were some snowfalls in January here according to an old diary of mine. And I really can't remember much about any of the others, the rest of the 2000s were just the occasional small snow or sleety day with not much else, and the other 2010s winters were more stormy then snowy, none on the scale of 2013-14 which was at least memorably so. 2015/16 I spent completely out of the country so missed that one (although from posts above it looks like that was a very good thing) and the winter just gone I mostly just got rained on with no obvious hot or cold extremes!
  8. How funny, September 24th is my birthday too! I remember 2021’s being incredible in London - felt like a peak summer day with bright sunshine throughout, whereas in contrast in 2010 it was very unseasonably cold and a preview of what that winter would bring. Hope this one is good as it’s nice to have it on a weekend.
  9. These are two of my photos from Wembley, NW London on that very notable 06/04/2008, the new stadium only a year old at the time. April 2013 and 2021 also brought snow showers here but I don’t think they settled like this one.
  10. For cold/snow (all in NW London unless stated otherwise): Late Nov to Christmas 2010 Last few days of 1995 (in Aberdeen!) Early to Mid January 2010 Late January 2003 Early February 2009 Mid Feb 2021 Late Feb/Early March 2018 March 2013 Early April 2008 (and then a sudden switch to a lovely 2011/2018 style April please!)
  11. This heavily stands out in NW London as one of the few major snow events across that entire decade, and seems either forgotten now or completely eclipsed in memory by the colossal amount we had in February 2009. Certainly was the biggest here for some time, here’s a photo I took from that day (aged 18) just off Neasden Lane.
  12. An absolutely unforgettable year, probably the best in terms of variety of that whole decade - almost every possible extreme was seen in my NW London home at the time, from intense cold to scorching heat to mega wind and rainfalls. The first half of the year was horrendously cold as mentioned and it felt like the winter that wouldn’t end, a big snowfall in January that wouldn’t be seen again for about five years and that infamously cold March with snow seen well into April. I was 24 at the time having recently graduated from uni, and so many songs from around this time remind me of the cold weather - Pink’s Just Give Me A Reason, Disclosure’s White Noise and most other tracks on Now That’s What I Call Music 84. As late as June I remember people joking about what they’re doing for Christmas as the cold spell dragged on that long… …and then came that astonishing July and early August. First genuinely strong summer spell since 2006 which felt like a lifetime ago by then. So many days of sitting in the park with an iPod Nano, the summer of Get Lucky, Blurred Lines, Wake Me Up etc. Shame it didn’t last through August but it stands out so much in a long run of average to poor summers and wouldn’t be seen again until 2018. I’m surprised people have commented the second half wasn’t as memorable because the St Jude storm in October was very heavily reported at the time to the point where it was hailed as a “new 1987”, but it didn’t cause as much damage compared to then and isn’t remembered much at all now. I do have plenty of photos from the following morning of fallen trees around my neighbourhood so it did have a visual aftermath. While no snow to end the year it still brought a significant amount of wind and rain and just before Christmas I remember barely being able to walk home from the windstorm taking place. Christmas Eve was complete chaos with tons of cancelled and delayed trains and my journey from London to Devon took most of the day, eventually finally getting an Exeter train from Reading in one of the most uncomfortable and squashed environments I’ve ever been in. To end the year was a very wet New Years Eve, the BBC broadcast of the fireworks surreally being the highest rated programme of the whole year as so few went out that night! Fantastic year with lots to recall.
  13. December 2022 becomes just the seventh December month with snow I remember in my lifetime (1988 onwards) after 1995, 1996, 2000, 2009, 2010 and 2017. Absolutely tons here in Caterham. I recall the Christmasses of 2001 and 2004 being quite white in many places but they completely missed where I was living at the time!
  14. I’d forgotten this one and was about to suggest it missed NW London, but in fact I’ve found an entry in my diary revealing there was a significant amount by the morning of the 4th, after some sleet days earlier that week. I don’t think it lasted long but it stood out for the time how late in the year it was - the even more unexpected Spring snowfalls of 2008 and 2013 were yet to come!
  15. 28th(?) December 1995 - Arriving in Aberdeen to a colossal amount of snow, the most I’d ever seen. Big memory for 7 year old me at the time and a winter all have been compared to since. 7th December 2006 - Waking up to torrential rain and banging windows, turning on the news soon after to find a tornado(!) had destroyed houses in nearby Kensal Rise. Very locally contained but memorable for those around the area. 24th-25th December 2010 - Not just a white Christmas but a white Christmas in East Devon of all places. Snowmen on the beach and it all generally feeling like I was in a Hollywood festive film. Took me right back to being a kid again. 1st October 2011 - Surreal day and night out as I started my final year of uni in that astonishing record heatwave. Being out at 1am and it still feeling a hot summer day! 7th July 2018 - The most memorable of that amazing summer 2018 run. England win a crucial World Cup match on the same afternoon as that year’s Pride festival in London - rest of the day and night are football lads celebrating together with drag and LGBT acts in scorching capital heat. Felt a bit like world peace had been declared that day.
  16. From a London perspective 2nd February 2009 really did feel like a once-in-a-generation event at the time, the most snow in the capital since February 1991 and a time when the weather itself was the headline story of the day. I recently uploaded a photo of Wembley from the day on social media, and from the comments it was striking how many remember this exact day and what they did - it's the extreme opposite of 25th July 2019, which is equally one many will recall for some time for different reasons. The next two winters receiving significant snow flurries of their own was utterly astonishing after a run of comparatively mild winters in the 2000s, to the point where it almost seemed a shame when 2011 bowed out with no snow event at all (to the point I genuinely don't remember seeing a single flake that year). Then from memory an extremely long snowless gap after the infamous arctic winter of early 2013 - winters in the mid-2010s were instead wet and windy, and I can't remember another day of significant snow until December 2017, a precursor to the more widely-remembered BftE a couple months later.
  17. Given two of the three hottest days in UK history have occurred in the last two years, and a genuinely memorable heatwave three years ago, I really wouldn't be too bothered by an average/below-average summer of the kind we regularly got about a decade ago again - indeed remove July/early August 2013 from the equation and you have a massive gap between the 2006 and 2018 heatwave summers, bar the odd one-off day like 01/07/2015. In the last 15 years, I'd rate the summers here in London as the following: Exceptional: 2006, 2013, 2018 Above average: 2019, 2020 Average: 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2017 Below average: 2011, 2012, 2016 Awful: 2007, 2008 I think 2008 especially seems forgotten how bad it was, even more so I think than the infamously flooded 2007 with Rihanna's 'Umbrella' at number 1 in the charts for weeks. A tiny handful of warm days with the only notable heatwave around early May time. Equally I think 2012 gets an unfair reputation as though it did have an awful April and June, there were some significant sunny days in late May and by the time of the Olympics. Regarding the 2009-10 comparisons earlier, I rate 2010 higher just because of the strong first half. I remember some early promise in 2009 just because of how bad the last two years had been but it never really got going here, and it's the snowy start and end of the year I remember the most weatherwise from then. 2011 I didn't mind too much because of those fantastic days in April and late September/early October bookending the summer, although it did feel a bit confusing to have such sunny days at the 'wrong' time of year - see also Autumn 2014 and February 2019 for that. I've put 2016 as below average as I don't remember any notable sunny spells like the (brief) ones in other years between 2014-17, although I did spend a lot of that year outside of the UK so maybe I missed them? Equally the last two years may seem higher than expected as the weeks I was in the country seemed to coincide with the best ones.
  18. One of the more forgotten snowfalls I can remember in the London area was January 30th 2003, a few weeks after the slightly more famous event on the 8th which I missed at the time. It was mostly forecast for the East of England, so for my part of NW London to be absolutely covered in it by the afternoon was a big surprise and it lasted a fair few days on the ground here. Me and my brother took photos from a fancy new digital camera we'd got for Christmas the previous month! It particularly stands out during a long run of mostly snowless winters during the 2000s, although Feb 2007 was fairly significant and then that incredible run when it became a reliable yearly event for a while - Feb 09, Dec 09, Jan 10, Dec 10, Feb 12 and Jan 13 were all memorable there. Then nothing until Dec 17 and Feb 18!
  19. I'm the one who uploaded the main photo to the Winter of 1990-91 in Western Europe article on Wikipedia - actually taken by my parents as I was two years old at the time, in Ware in Hertfordshire. From the above posts I'm guessing it's from the morning of the 8th which would make the photo exactly 30 years old tomorrow! It's a very early memory for me, due to my age it was the first time I'd ever seen snow that significant, not being alive yet for the 1987 and earlier snowfalls. It's fairly iconic for many my age group for that reason, and after spending many of my (fairly snowless) teenage years wondering if I'd ever see anything like that again, the winters of 2008-09 and 2009-10 really were quite astonishing!
  20. The North London tornado of 7th December 2006 for me. Woken up with the rain so heavy the windows were banging, not too far away a lot of homes in Kensal Rise were badly damaged. I’m also told that as a toddler in 1990 I happened to slam a door at the precise moment the Bishop’s Castle earthquake of 2nd April happened, making my parents think I’d caused the building to shake. We were living in the West Midlands then so closer to the epicentre.
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