Late January 1972 easterly

[Weather-history]

A short lived easterly blast of late January 1972 gave the coldest spell of the early 1970s  29th Jan-1st Feb CET: -2.2°C   

31st January CET: -4.5°C, the lowest CET daily mean since 19th January 1966

The cold spell collapsed going into the start of February 

 

 

 

                                  

[Thundery wintry showers]

This is another easterly that I remember underestimating when I first joined these forums back in the early 2000s, because I was doing my degree at Lancaster and Lancaster missed out on the snow from it, but taking the country as a whole, it did snow quite widely. Both Durham and Waddington near Lincoln had substantial snow on the ground for four consecutive days, as well as exceptionally low temperatures. As often in these threads, great to see the newspaper articles for extra context.

[reef]

There were some very low minima in this area from this cold spell. Hull recorded -10.0C on the 31st January which was the joint coldest minimum since January 1945 and not beaten again until 1982. Even Bridlington right on the coast recorded -9.0C and York -9.7C.

[Summer8906]

"Eight inches of snow on the Sussex Downs", snow in Brighton and Kent, and the heavy fall on the IoW suggests that this was a fairly general southern snow event.
As a result it looks like it extended the continuous run of winters with a significant southern snow fall to five.

Feb 1973 also looks like it may have delivered, from previous discussions. Even many of the mild winters of the early 70s produced one snow event, it seems. 1974/75 produced snow in March and then colder winters returned in 1976/77 - so it's possible just two extended winters, 1973/74 and 1975/76, were entirely lacking a significant snow event in the south through the entire 70s.

Up to the 1988/89 winter which arguably marks the start of significant UK climate change, it does appear that, even in milder years, the south would be likely to receive one good snow cover in the winter.

Edited January 29 by Summer8906

[A Face like Thunder]

3 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

"Eight inches of snow on the Sussex Downs", snow in Brighton and Kent, and the heavy fall on the IoW suggests that this was a fairly general southern snow event.
As a result it looks like it extended the continuous run of winters with a significant southern snow fall to five.

Strange, I was living close to the North Downs at the time, and I don't have any recollection of any snow, and neither (it seems) did Philip Eden who didn't have anything to say about the winter of 1972. I do recall the 'blackouts' and being grateful that my family home had some gas heaters, but that did not start until mid-February 1972.

[Summer8906]

 A Face like Thunder Maybe it was an event a bit like the 8 Jan event this year, when heavier precipitation closer to the coast caused it to fall as snow?