Christmas weather memories

[damianslaw]

I did a thread last year called favourite christmas weather 24-31 Dec.

This year I'm opening a thread to share weather memories of christmas from yesteryear. This could be memories of cold and snow, heavy rain and wind.

I use 'christmas' loosely, some may wish to comment on weather in the run up to christmas, or just the day itself, or in the period between christmas and new year.

My most memorable christmas period weather sway to cold and snow variety, given its rarity..

Christmas 93, a cold 23-28 period with a bit of snow on the ground for christmas Day and a heavy fall 27-28th

Christmas 95 was a freeze up, a run of ice days from christmas eve to new year eve, not much snow, but severe frost that penetrated everything.

Christmas 96, a less colder version of 1995, frosty between 24th and 31st, New Years Eve blizzards

Christmas 97, severe storm christmas eve, power cut christmas day 

Christmas 98 Boxing Day storm

Christmas 00 a cold christmas week 24-31, severe frost, ice days, heavy snow 28-29 and also New Years Eve

Christmas 01, cold again, a bit of snow around more so near to New Year

Christmas 04, a white christmas couple of inches

Christmas 09, 7 inches snow on ground christmas day, no white christmas, stayed cold through to new year

Christmas 10, severe cold 24-27th, white christmas 1.5 inch fall, further snow 27th

Largely nothing memorable since!

The 80s christmas periods were largely mild, snowless, and too young to remember 1981. 

Please share memories, a nice thread to dip into in the run up to christmas... still 2 weeks away mind!

[A Face like Thunder]

Christmas Day 1970 - snow started to fall (unexpectedly) whilst we were at Midnight Mass and was thick on the ground by the time we came out. I had walked to church but those in cars had big problems getting home. A true White Christmas in Surrey.

CD 1981 - the coldest December of the 20th century and snow lay deep and crisp and even on the ground under blue skies in Surrey, although because not a flake of snow fell on CD, it was not counted as a White Christmas. Ridiculous!

CD 1987 - sunny and warm in Surrey, with cricket on the lawn with the kids after Christmas lunch.

CD 1993 - I was interested in hearing how cold it was, as I was basking in the heat of Perth (Western Australia rather than Scotland) that Christmas. 

Christmas Eve 1997 - the awful gales in Lancashire put paid to many Christmas dinners as the power went off and stayed off over Christmas. I was glad to be heading south on Christmas morning away from the chaos in my home village near Lancaster.

[StretfordEnd1996]

Great thread, was going to start something similar, noting a pleasant number of years from around 1993 to 2014 actually had a wintry blast (of varying degree) during or just after the festive week, but since 2014 it's suddenly become very rare.

My memories, most if not all involve cold weather. I naturally tend to forget other types around this period.

Earliest is 2003 for me, 7 years old (though both 2000 and 2001 from research also brought some very cold weather for me). NYE 2003, heavy snow showers eve, some accumulation, some thundersnow and a large power cut in the area.

2004 - one of the true White Xmases I've seen. NWly blast brought heavy snow overnight to a covering of around 5-10cm on the day. Gone by 27th if I recall correctly. 

2008 - very dry but chilly at times, slight covering NYD (I think) 

2009 - extremely severely wintry prior to 25th. The day itself, around 15-25cm lying widely, drifts in placss but the thaw set in at the eve on Xmas Day tho huge massive flakes fell prior to rain. Most of it thawed aside from hills, but by early NY it was all back.

2010 - very dry but decent snow cover.

2014 - snowy Boxing Day (eve) with some accumulation, stuck around for couple of days. Only boxing day I can think of with snow (of note) falling.

2017 - cold but dry. Some patchy snow cover local hills

2020 - depressing Xmas for reasons we all remember, it therefore seems about right that it did at least give me my third Xmas Day with snow falling, even if it was just a flurry. 

 

Thanks for the thread damianslaw.

[Tommytomtom]

Christmas 1981. I was at boarding school. The carol concert went ahead with no parents as we were snowed in. Afterwards we had a massive staff vs pupil snowball fight...we slaughtered the staff as we had been out earlier and made a stash of snowballs... and we built a long ice slide across the school yard which we kept making bigger and better each day with more snow.  When term finished mum collected us in her mini, weighed down with a bag of sand to try to keep us on the road. The inside of the car was as frozen solid as the outside. We Had to keep stopping to clear the ice off the inside of the front screen. Christmas was quiet. We lived in a village and no one could get over to see us, but we had a blast playing on the ice and snow

[damianslaw]

 A Face like Thunder Yes Christmas 97 was quite awful, the storm on Christmas Eve caused major blackouts and power outages here well into christmas Day. The fact we had an equally bad storm on Boxing Day a year later was a stroke of bad luck. We did though experience a run of memorable christmas weather for right or wrong reasons between 1995 and 2001, far more varied than the run we've had since 2010 which by and large has been silly mild dull and often very wet and windy, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 especially so, what a woeful run, only 2014, 2017 and 2020 have brought some cold weather and a bit of snow at times. 

Edited December 10, 2024 by damianslaw

[Metwatch]

Given I am younger than most on here, I only have decent memories from 2017. Though I experienced Christmas 2009/2010, I don't recall those Christmas's specifically but instead some vague memories from earlier in December 2010 and also days in January 2010.

2011-2016: Nothing much going on it seems.

2017: Nothing on Christmas but there was some snow on the days after Boxing Day; a few cm near Rugby.

2018: Looks like it was dull, don't remember anything.

2019: Unbroken sunshine most of the day, was lovely.

2020: Think it was chilly and I remember some nice colours for sunset ahead of a front. Frost managed to survive all day in the shade (fairly common on clear chilly days).

2021: Nothing of note

2022 and 2023: Low 20s and sunny down in the Canarias. Underrated type of weather to experience during Christmas, which hundreds of millions around the world are used to every year!

[Harry's House]

Christmas Day 1968 - Living in Essex at the time, I remember snow on that day as well as 1970.

Christmas Day 1990 - I working at Herstmonceux all day and an active frontal system was approaching from the west. I saw the sunrise at 8am. A few minutes after 8am, it started raining and a rainbow appeared with the sun acquiring a watery appearance. Sun and rainbow soon disappeared as the rain got going which became heavy with a burst of small hail on the cold front. Also a gale occurred with the rain. The weather cleared in late afternoon. 

Christmas Day 1993 - I was living in east Devon. Our local church was a short walk from where we lived and we walked to midnight service on Christmas Eve in the rain. After we came out of the church, it was Christmas morning and snowing and settling, with the snow lying all day.

Christmas Day 2010 - I was living in Wiltshire and although there was no falling snow that day, it was lying deeply all day as it was exceptionally cold.

Christmas Days 2019 and 2020 - At Pagham, they were two successive sunny Christmas days.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Christmas 1995 was my most memorable one, in Cleadon in South Tyneside a polar low on Christmas Eve brought a spell of snow which brought about a centimetre, then on Christmas Day there were frequent heavy snow showers which took the depth to about 5cm. It was quite localised - nearby weather stations at Newcastle Weather Centre and at Sunderland stayed on just 1 to 2cm. Boxing Day also had a few snow showers. Then it turned dry, sunny and exceptionally cold, down to near -10C on the 28th. Freezing fog on the 29th saw the temperature get no higher than -4C. The breakdown on 31st produced just rain, but the Tyneside coast rarely gets much from those sort of frontal events.

Next up was Christmas 2010 when I had 11cm of snow on the ground that morning. There had been sunshine and snow showers on most days from the 19th to 24th, and the 20th had a max of -3.3C despite a fair amount of sunshine and a minimum of -9.3C. A thaw set in from the 27th though.

Christmas 2009 was also a white one, there was about 2cm although it was rather icy because of some freeze-thaw action between the 22nd and 24th. There had been snow cover from the evening of the 17th onwards. It was milder from Boxing Day, but lying snow resumed from New Year's Eve.

Christmas Day 1993 had snow showers and a dusting on the ground for much of the day, and a full covering by around 6pm, although it was marginal and consequently near the Tyne and Wear coast it melted the following night as a NE wind picked up. Further inland, e.g. at Newcastle and Durham, it stuck around for a few days.

Other memorable ones with cold snaps were 1996 (frontal snow event 26th/27th, very wintry New Year's Eve), 2000 (lying snow from Boxing Day onwards, thundersnow from polar low early on 29th). 2001 was very wintry on 22nd/23rd and 30th/31st, and I remember New Year 2002 being very sunny with a snow cover. 2003 had a pre-Christmas cold snap with another bout of thundersnow early on the 22nd. 2005 had a snowy easterly from the 27th to 30th. 2004 was frustrating because I was studying at Lancaster University where they had a white Christmas, with lying snow on the campus from mid-afternoon, but I was in Cleadon that Christmas where it stayed dry.

Christmasses 1997 to 1999 were memorable for having plenty of wind and rain, both 1997 and 1998 had severe gales. 1999 had a bookies' white Christmas when rain showers on Christmas Day briefly turned to wet snow.

In recent years, in the Vale of York I had an unexpected snow event on 29 December 2017. It was forecast to turn to rain, but it stayed as snow throughout because it was one of those where the milder air didn't kick in until after the front cleared. I had a train trip to South Shields that day and there was lying snow all the way up to Newcastle, but just a bit of slush at coastal South Shields. When I got back to North Yorkshire that evening there was still a few centimetres on the ground.

I was also in Yorkshire for Christmas 2020 which had some sleety showers on Christmas Eve but not a real white Christmas. It was generally cold through to the New Year and I had a bit of lying snow around the 28th/29th. I remember 2021 looked for a time like it could have potential for a white Christmas but the pre-Christmas cold got watered down and there was just rain. 2014 had a marginal snow event on Boxing Day, at my parents' house it was just rain but at my sister's, with a bit of extra elevation, it turned to snow and some of it stuck around until New Year's Eve. I had some wet snow showers on the 27th and the 28th to 30th were very sunny with overnight frosts.

But otherwise Decembers post-2010 have generally been mild around Christmas-New Year, in contrast to the ones between 1993 and 2010 where cold snaps at some point during the period were the norm. 2015 was memorable for different reasons with a lot of flooding locally in the Vale of York after a very wet Christmas Day, a large part of Topcliffe was flooded on the morning of Boxing Day.

Edited December 11, 2024 by Thundery wintry showers

[damianslaw]

 Thundery wintry showers A great recollection of memories there. We did well for wintry weather at some stage in the last 10 days of December during most years between 1990 and 2010. The only years here that were predominantly mild and snow free in that time period were 1991, and 1997. 1998 brought a very brief cold snowy spell on the 28th I think, 2006 and 2007 were cold and frosty to start the period. 

We've been drawn a very short straw since 2010, time for 2024 to deliver! 

[A Face like Thunder]

22 hours ago, Harry's House said:

Christmas Day 1990 - I working at Herstmonceux all day and an active frontal system was approaching from the west. I saw the sunrise at 8am. A few minutes after 8am, it started raining and a rainbow appeared with the sun acquiring a watery appearance. Sun and rainbow soon disappeared as the rain got going which became heavy with a burst of small hail on the cold front. Also a gale occurred with the rain. The weather cleared in late afternoon. 

Ah yes, Christmas Day 1990, my first on the Fylde coast and a wild day, with rain, hail and a gale blowing throughout the day. 

[Summer8906]

Most in recent years have been varying degrees of rubbish, of course.

Further back:

2010 - was in the north that year, light snow cover, extremely frosty

2008 - nondescript but, as new year approached, seasonably cold, at least

2005 - mostly cold and frosty until around the 29th, then milder

2004 - again lucky enough to be in the north, got the White Christmas

2003 - very lucky to be in the north that year. Intensely cold period with hard frosts from 27th to 31st though the south was, I believe, milder and extremely wet.

2001 - a Christmas period with frequent frosty, sunny weather and even some snow

2000 - a cold, sometimes intensely cold, and often bright period lasting for the final 10 days of December

1996 - persistently cold or very cold, frequent snow showers albeit no great accumulations

1995 - intensely cold Christmas Day with sparkling blue skies and an extremely clear northerly, and the cold persisted until the 29th.

1992 - an underrated season, it was persistently frosty and often sunny throughout the season though became more foggy with time

1981 - an obvious one but the focus is very much on the immediate pre-Christmas period as it turned milder, and very dull and damp, around the 27th. Following the temporary thaw on the 14th I remember a long period of fairly light snow cover but very icy surfaces in the 10 days or so before Christmas Day. Ironically I can't remember what the snow cover was like on Christmas Day itself, only that it was very sunny.

Those are the only years I would really rate, note the lack of seasonal weather between 1981 and 1992 and after 2010 !

Edited December 12, 2024 by Summer8906

[Thundery wintry showers]

 damianslaw Yes, 28 December 1998 is easily overlooked, as it was overshadowed by the preceding gales and was brief and only really affected the north, but for example Lancaster University's weather station up at Hazelrigg reported a centimetre of lying snow at 9am. In Cleadon in Tyne & Wear it stayed dry but I remember going on a road trip through County Durham with my parents and encountering some snow flurries and seeing snow lying on the higher ground. I recall also having a bit of snow on the 20th/21st, not much lay but there were a couple of dustings.

Edited December 12, 2024 by Thundery wintry showers

[A Face like Thunder]

4 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

1995 - intensely cold Christmas Day with sparkling blue skies and an extremely clear northerly, and the cold persisted until the 29th.

1992 - an underrated season, it was persistently frosty and often sunny throughout the season though became more foggy with time

1981 - an obvious one but the focus is very much on the immediate pre-Christmas period as it turned milder, and very dull and damp, around the 27th. Following the temporary thaw on the 14th I remember a long period of fairly light snow cover but very icy surfaces in the 10 days or so before Christmas Day. Ironically I can't remember what the snow cover was like on Christmas Day itself, only that it was very sunny.

1995 - the cold in fact persisted until New Year's Eve and my journey back North that day was a nightmare on the A34 and M40 as far as Birmingham, with grit on the roads, frozen wipers and a couple of hail showers creating extremely hazardous conditions on these roads.

1992 - the fog on Christmas Eve (or possibly the 23rd) was dreadful in the North West around Preston.

1981 - snow lay quite thick on the ground on CD in Surrey, but because it was blue skies all day, it didn't apparently count as a White Christmas. Anything to avoid paying out on bets it seems!

[Chesil View]

My best Christmas memories are 1962 1970, 1993 and 2010. Living near the coast in Central southern England means that snow is hard enough to come by at the best of times and  xmas snow even more so.

Hence just 4 occasions in my life when xmas hols and snow have combined.

In 1962 I was very young but remember being bundled up with my even younger brother on my mums lap in our dad's Austin van as we drove home from a Christmas day family gathering I remember dad commenting on how slippy the roads were from the freezing rain that fell and then waking in up on boxing day morning to deep snow in our garden that sealed my lifelong live of snow..

In 1970 I remember my dad telling me after it had got dark on either xmas or boxing day that he had another present for me but that it was in the garden and he pulled back the curtains to reveal the heavy snow that had fallen unbeknownst to me over the couple of hours since sunset.

1993 was my first adult magical xmas as my wife and I walked home down country lanes from a lock in at our local pub I could feel something falling on my head and when a car passed we could see that it was lightly  snowing in the headlight. Magical enough. But by morning it was Christmas card scenes from a totally unexpected fall. Wonderful stuff.

Finally Xmas day 2010 with a deep snow cover under blue skies from a very heavy fall on the 20th  and a morning min temp of minus 10c and xmas day max of minus 3c in a run of seven consecutive ice days.

Now that's winter!

 

 

Edited December 15, 2024 by Chesil View

[A Face like Thunder]

3 hours ago, Chesil View said:

In 1970 I remember my dad telling me after it had got dark on either xmas or boxing day that he had another present for me but that it was in the garden and he pulled back the curtains to reveal the heavy snow that had fallen unbeknownst to me over the couple of hours since sunset.

The snow actually began in 1970 whilst we were at Midnight Mass in Surrey, so your sighting of snow would have been on the morning of Christmas Day itself. Bearing in mind the lack of any warning about snowfall, I imagine it would have come as a shock to many people opening their curtains on Christmas morning that year. 

[Paul]

Actually, for me last year was pretty great. Colder air arrived during the day on Christmas day here in Northern Scotland, with snow starting to fall from late morning. By the evening we had a good covering, and it was quite magical taking the dogs out later in the evening in the snow and seeing families on their holidays out and about, with the kids getting to sledge and play in the snow on Christmas day. Must have been a really special moment for them. 

 

By Boxing day it was a proper winter wonderland, especially a bit higher up

 

All the more incredible that at the same time there were record christmas eve temperatures, and one of the warmest Christmas days on record further south as well. 

[MP-R]

 Paul So beautiful! Perfect timing. Lovely dogs too... must've been in their element.

[Paul]

 MP-R Indeed, they absolutely love the snow. 

[Fergpfc]

Christmas Eve 1970. Went to bed as a 10-year-old remember looking out the window and seeing the first few flakes come down got up Christmas morning to a good covering  and still light snow falling. After keeping warm sitting around the coal fire with the family on Christmas Day we then got up on Boxing Day to a full scale Easterly blizzard.those were the days..

 

[In Absence of True Seasons]

 Paul Wow, that's lovely indeed. Quite surprising too considering how utterly mild it was in most of the rest of the country! I think it was 15c and drizzling here in London

[Norrance]

Christmas day 1995 stands out for me by a mile. An all out blizzard with strong winds and temps of around -3C AM followed by a dramatic and sudden clearance around noon with clear skies, no wind and temps plunging. Was up visiting my parents in the Central Highlands. The snow was so dry and fine that it blew straight off the roads and it was impossible to make a snowball, never mind a snowman.
Downside was that after a week of well below zero temps the thaw going into the New Year burst their pipes despite the lagging causing quite a bit of damage, made worse because we were all away at New Year in Aviemore when it happened.

Just to add seeing that this thread is about the whole week being brought up in that part of the Highlands in the sixties to early 80s white Christmases were rare but white New Years were almost guaranteed for some reason. One holiday company used to arrange New Year package tours to our town for New Zealanders, Australians and South Africans living in London so that they could see snow. As a majority of them were female us local lads thought that Christmas had come late. Three local guys I knew actually ended up marrying girls that they met there and ended up in Australia including iirc the brother of the sister-in-law of a fellow member of NW. Can also remember being taught the Hakka at a lock in one local pub about 5AM on the 2nd January one year.

Edited December 17, 2024 by Norrance
Addition.

[Weather-history]

Does anyone remember the model watch in the run up to Christmas 2004? 

I remember looking at every GFS run as Christmas got closer and it kept showing that cold NWly for Christmas Day. It was remarkably consistent. 

 

 

[The Real Snowman]

The Christmas Eve storm of 1997 I remember well. I lived at home and I had got back from work and took the dog for a walk. A large branch had been blown into the road and I remember dragging it back to under the tree to keep it out of the way and lodging it against the trunk so it wouldn't blow away. The wind was so strong the dogs ears were almost constantly by the side of her head!! The chimney howled with the wind and the snow it brought to my grandparents whom lived in the North-West caused power loss so they could not cook.  My nan told me they'd be eating it at 11pm if that was the best they could do. My father was going to pick them up and I'd have gone with him but quite frankly he'd never have made it over the Pennines. So we never set off and they did, eventually, eat their Christmas dinner after power was restored. Apparently, they tucked in around 9pm. It makes me smile to think of them doing that. 

The 1995 Christmas I remember for the low temperatures and ice. We got very little snow but I seem to recall the North-East coast doing ok between Christmas and New Year but I could be mis-remembering. 

In more recent times probably 2009 and 2010 stand out as they were full white Christmases. I had to clear the drive for my disabled mother who came over for dinner in 2010. The ice I broke up was very thick indeed. A fantastic period of weather if you prefer the colder type.

We had good snow cover on both those years although 2010 would be my favourite as an adult. It was great knowing we were primed for snow chances for prolonged periods. 

I hope we get a few more.

 

[snowuse]

I was 6 years old on Christmas Day 1968, and my recollection is of my mother pulling back the curtains on Christmas morning and revealing a thoroughly snow covered front lawn, saying “this is how Christmas should look”. Can anyone confirm that my 6 yr old memory is correct. I lived near Cambridge even then.

Edited December 19, 2024 by snowuse

[Methuselah]

 snowuse

I was 11 and was sitting on my windowsill watching the temperature drop: 38 and the sleet blobs appeared; 35 and the snowflakes were getting lighter, 32---and YESSS---6" deep on Xmas Day!