Winter weather in the 70's South East

[charlton north-downs]

Hi Folks

Just wondering if my memory is playing tricks but could anyone confirm that in the Southeast/London apart from the hilly parts there was no snow or very little from Mid-Jan 1970 to December 31st 1978 .The very sudden change happened on the 31st December 1978 and I remember playing football in the afternoon of that day and the temp was a barmy 8c which by the end of the match had fallen to zero or it felt like it and a raging north-eastly had set it. This was the start of a period of cold winters which finished after the Oct Storm of 1987. What I would like to know what were the CET for Oct/Nov/Dec 1978. Its strange that we had a long period of mild winters and a very abrupt change to cold winters and back again to mild in the last 35 years. Could this happen again as is long overdue.

Regards charlton-north-downs

[Weather-history]

Hi Folks

Just wondering if my memory is playing tricks but could anyone confirm that in the Southeast/London apart from the hilly parts there was no snow or very little from Mid-Jan 1970 to December 31st 1978 .The very sudden change happened on the 31st December 1978 and I remember playing football in the afternoon of that day and the temp was a barmy 8c which by the end of the match had fallen to zero or it felt like it and a raging north-eastly had set it. This was the start of a period of cold winters which finished after the Oct Storm of 1987. What I would like to know what were the CET for Oct/Nov/Dec 1978. Its strange that we had a long period of mild winters and a very abrupt change to cold winters and back again to mild in the last 35 years. Could this happen again as is long overdue.

Regards charlton-north-downs

October '78 CET: 11.9

November '78 CET: 8.5

December '78 CET: 3.9

It was on course to be the mildest Autumn and November on record but then came that last week.

There was snow around Xmas 1970 in the SE, it was a white Xmas down there.

There was a fairly notable snowfall during Jan '77 in the south so I would say between Xmas '70 and Jan '77, there was not much snow in that region

Edited October 11, 2006 by Mr_Data

[Thundery wintry showers]

Not sure if the SE had much during 1977/78; January 1978 had some snow on NW winds that penetrated to some southern areas, and February 1978 was an easterly month; normally a good setup for snow in the SE.

Late December 1970 had some snow in parts of the SE, but the winters of 1971-1976 were largely snowless. There may still have been some events though- there was a very cold ENE'ly in late January 1972 for example, and the months of November 1972, February 1973 and November 1973 also had fairly widespread events.

[senior ridge]

I remember quite a lot of wet snow events in the mid/lateish 70's.

The real fun began at the end of 1978!

[Summer of 95]

Looking at weather-uk records for Hampstead, the 70s certainly do seem to have been poor. 5cm was lying there on 27 March 1975, 3cm on 25 Jan 1976, 5cm on 28 Dec that year and also on 11 April 1978.

Those were the only falls above 2cm between 1970/1 and 1978/9, and three of the 4 occurred in spring.

[acbrixton]

Certainly the 4" snow in Oxshott and Weybridge Surrey (at low level) on Christmas Day (heaven for a 10 year old) and the 2" snow in Surrey at Easter in 1975 shoud be mentioned...

Regards

ACB

[Thundery wintry showers]

Interesting that Hampstead received a lot of snow from northerly setups in 1967/68, 1968/69 and 1969/70- traditionally an unfavourable location for snow from northerlies. Another white Christmas, too, in 1968.