The Great Snow 1895

[Verglas]

There has just been an item in a series called The History Man' on the local radio station reporting the events of february 1895, which sounds horrific !.

The History Man

(If that doesn't work, go to www.manxradio.com and then select 'audio vault' and on the sunday section click on 'the history man')

[Verglas]

I found some pictures of 'The Great Snow' of 1895

(I hasten to add I didn't take them )

[Weather-history]

Some photos here I posted on UKweatherworld

http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/foru...=16893&posts=12

[Verglas]

Arrrgggghhhh !

some wicked pictures there !

Brrrrrrrrrrr :-()

just wondering if they shovelled all the snow into the river Thames which made it look even worse than it may have been (as described in the 'history man' item above)

Edited December 13, 2005 by Verglas

[reef]

No suprises that it was a completely blocked month apart from the very end. It all started in the last few days of January with a very nice easterly.

January itself was a cold month aswell (0.2°C) with a northerly start and end.

For anyone worried about this winter, December 1894 was mild (5.1°C) and relatively zonal:

I imagine the River Humber here had ice floes aswell as the Thames, as it did also in 1963. That is certainly something Id love to see!

[Verglas]

I'm amazed that there were people beavering away producing synoptic charts and records in 1895, was it the admiralty that started it all, or who, and when did these records start (I read somewhere it was about 1890) ?

[Weather-history]

The winter of 1894-95 was severe with a CET of 1.2C. Here's a summary of this winter.

DECEMBER 1894

December 1894 was mild for the most part and the first three weeks were dominated by SWlies. It was not until the last week, when the winds veered to the NW that colder weather arrived with frosts and snow showers to exposed areas. 18cm of snow was reported in Norfolk at the end of the month. The month had a CET of 5.1C

JANUARY 1895

January started with cold northerlies and temperatures near freezing. Troughs in the flow gave snow showers to most parts and many places had a snow cover, Oxford had 8cm by the 6th. High pressure to the west moved across the UK and under the clear skies and with a deep snow cover, very low minima were recorded with -11C in parts of Norfolk and -18C in parts of the Highlands. Freezing fog formed and was slow to clear, a maxima of -5C was recorded at Ross-on-Wye in freezing fog.

Milder air tried to push in from the Atlantic with a system and a heavy snowfall resulted across the UK with depths of snow of between 8 to 15cm being widely reported. The Atlantic air finally broke through and there was a thaw resulting in flooding in a number of areas. Temperatures were in double figures in the south, Kew recording 11C. The northerlies returned on the 21st with a low over the near continent and it's active cold front moving across SE England bringing thunderstorms, snow and hail. The northerlies persisted for a few days and conditions were severe over northern Scotland with heavy drifting snow and snow fell elsewhere exposed to the north wind. The month ended with a CET of 0.2C

FEBRUARY 1895

At the end of January, high pressure was intensifying over Scandinavia and reached a pressure of 1049mb. A very cold easterly flowed across the UK and most of Europe and there were severe frosts with minima of -13C at Loughborough and -15C being recorded at Chester. Heavy snow showers came with the easterly with Yorkshire and Lincolnshire getting the brunt of the showers, South Shields was severely affected by 15 hours of continous snowfall forcing the closure of the shipyard. Small polar lows affected the west with snowfalls, Douglas on the Isle of Man recorded 20cm of snow.

As the high over Scandinavia moved over the UK then came a phenomenally cold spell with exceptionally low minima. Temperatures of -20C or less were regularly recorded, -27.2C was recorded at Braemer on the 11th, the lowest ever UK minima, -24C at Buxton also on the 11th, -22.2C at Rutland. -12.7C was the mean average temperature for Wakefield in Yorkshire between the 5th and the 14th. Canals, rivers, lakes and ponds froze in the severe cold, the Manchester Ship canal was iced over, there were ice floes in the Thames and the Thames estuary itself was impassable because of ice.

Many people died of hypothermia, there was mass unemployment as industries were closed by the conditions and coal supplies dwindled as transporting coal by canal or rail became impossible.

As the high began to slip westwards, milder Atlantic air slowly encroached and temperatures crept above freezing for the first time in a couple of weeks, London had its first frost free night on the 21st for three weeks. Maxima temperature were finally returning to normal by the end of the month. The great cold spell finally ended. The CET for that remarkable February was -1.8C

[jennyberki]

I think Lake Windermere froze over in February 1895, and it's on that event that the Arthur Ransome book "Winter Holiday" is based.

[johnholmes]

thanks for that account Mr D

[Paul Sherman]

Also from my fab xmas pressie i have this from the Essex area of 1895.

Here in Essex February 1895 was the coldest of the 19th Century, the weather contributed to Mass Unemployment and the death of many birds resident and migrated, it also severly hit Vegetation. On a thickly iced lake near Ingatestone an eleven a side cricket match took place on the ice with many of the men in July form!!! In the Thames Estuary near Southend ships were welded in by the ribbon ice. Nearly all tributaries had pack ice and all non tidal waters were iced thick.

Paul Sherman