The winter of 1995-96

[Weather-history]

December 1995 was the coldest December since 1981 with a CET of 2.3.

The month began mild and unsettled with rain and temperatures in double figures.

High pressure over Europe prevented the Atlantic systems from making much progress.

The weather changed on the 3rd as the high moved into Scandinavia and this allowed

an easterly flow to develop across Europe and the UK bringing with it colder weather with frosts,

low maxima and snow showers.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951204.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951206.gif

High pressure over Scandinavia then ridged across the UK on the 9th

bringing with it settled weather with frosts at night although it was not quite as cold as during

the first week.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951206.gif

The high drifted to the north of Scotland on the 14th allowing the easterly to return to the south,

where it was very bleak under the leaden skies and bitter wind.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951214.gif

Gradually the high migrated towards Greenland and Atlantic systems began to move up to the SW but these engaged a cold Arctic airmass that was moving southwards at the same time.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951219.gif

The first sytem brought rain to central and southern parts but as the Arctic airmass moved southwards it turned the rain to snow over the Midlands before the system cleared southwards on the 20th.

The next system pushed up from the south and this brought snowfalls to many parts of England and Wales before turning milder.

This system moved further north than it's predecessor and so the milder weather also got into Scotland.

In the south, it was wet but mild with temperatures into double figures but by the 23rd, the colder weather was returning to Scotland

as the Arctic airmass plunged southwards to reach all parts by Xmas Eve.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951224.gif

During Xmas Eve night, a polar low approached northern Scotland and this gave the severest weather for the month.

There were severe blizzards and gales with drifting snow. The Shetlands was worst hit with depth of level snow at 35cm and drifts well in excess of this. A state of emergency was declared on the Islands.

On the mainland, conditions were not quite as severe but there were power cuts across the far north.

A number of places had a White Xmas that year. With high pressure over the UK by Boxing Day, conditions became calm and clear but this would cause it's own problems. With deep snow cover, intense cooling occurred and very low minima were recorded.

Many parts of Scotland had minima down to below -20C and daytime maxima were very low, -10C was recorded at Glasgow.

At Altnaharra, a record equalling low of -27.2C was recorded on the morning of the 30th. Frosts were very severe and freezing fog added to the complications.

By the 30th, a low in the Atlantic slowly pushed up a front from the SW.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951230.gif

This front brought freezing rain to many parts of the south bringing with it travel chaos as sheet ice formed on roads and rails.

The progress of the front was very slow as it overcame the very cold air over the UK but by the 31st it had reached Scotland.

There was a slow thaw on the last day of the year with cloudy, misty conditons across many parts.

The first two thirds of January 1996 was dominated by largely mild southerly winds and lots of cloud.

This was due a large block over eastern Europe and a large low pressure over the Atlantic.

Maximum temperatures were in double figures and frosts were non existent.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960111.gif

A change in the weather pattern occured when the block began to ridge westwards into Scandinavia and the low pressures over the Atlantic began to sink southwards. An increasingly cold easterly flow became established over the UK.

By the 24th, maxima were close to freezing and there were severe penetrating frosts at night in the strong easterly wind.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960124.gif

Snow showers became heavier and more frequent in the east and these spread westwards by the 26th as a very cold pool air from the continent moved into the UK. On the evening of the 26th, very heavy snow showers and longer periods of snow moved into northern England bringing appreciable falls of several inches in places and drifting in the wind and bringing the usual transport problems.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960126.gif

Further south, the snowfalls were not as heavy and the snow cover disappeared overnight as a pool of

slightly warmer air moved across England. For the rest of the month, the winds were still in the east with frosts at night

but the intense cold had disappeared and maxima were about 2 to 4C

The cold weather from late January 1996 continued into February as high pressure sat over the UK.

On the 6th, an occlusion system approached the west of the UK threatening a change to much milder

weather across the UK.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960206.gif

However, pressure began to increase to the east of the UK and this prevented the occlusion advancing and the system became stalled over the west of the UK on the evening of the 6th.

Heavy snowfalls fell right across western and central parts of the mainland but conditions were particularly severe in SW Scotland and parts of Cumbria, where depths of snow were approaching 50cm. A state of emergency was declared in SW Scotland and many drivers stranded on the A74 had to be rescued. Whitehaven in Cumbria was virtually cut off and workers at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant had to spent the night as they were stranded. Conditions elsewhere were less severe but the inenvitable travel chaos ensued. By the evening of the 7th, the snow finally died out and it remained cold and snowbound until the 9th with further snowfalls at times before a vigorous depression finally brough a thaw and milder temperatures.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960209.gif

The snowfalls turned out to be some of the heaviest in the west since the winter of 1947, whilst the far east largely missed out.

On the 18th February 1996, a low pressure near the NW of Scotland swung down into the southern North Sea and dragged down very cold NEly winds across the UK.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960219.gif

The airflow was very unstable and heavy snow showers broke out across many parts of the UK bringing temporary blizzards and whiteout conditions. In the SE, there was a lull during the afternoon but heavy snow showers moved into this region during the evening and there were blizzards across east Anglia during the night, where depths of snow reached 4". The strong winds caused coastal flooding in parts of the SE.

By the 20th, conditons had eased somewhat but there were snow showers still falling albeit lighter especially across the Midlands.

By the 21st, high pressure toppled down from the NW and most places were cold and fairly sunny.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960221.gif

Data for winter 1995-96

December 1995: 2.3 (-2.3)

January 1996: 4.3 (+0.5)

February 1996: 2.5 (-1.3)

January 1996 is the dullest January in the Areal series on record

Coldest spells of the winter

6th-11th December: 0.4

25th-31st December: -1.6

23rd January-9th February: -0.2

19th-22nd February: 0.8

Mildest CET maximum day: 11.4 3rd December

Coldest CET maximum day: -3.0 28th December

Coldest CET minimum night: -7.9C 29th December

HEATHROW

Mean Max

Dec: 5.8

Jan: 7.2

Feb: 6.7

Air frosts

Dec: 13

Jan: 5

Feb: 17

Lying snow and falling snow respectively

Dec: 3, 7

Jan: 1, 3

Feb: 5, 9

ELMDON

Mean Max

Dec: 4.4

Jan: 5.4

Feb: 5.4

Air frosts

Dec: 16

Jan: 9

Feb: 19

Lying and falling snow respectively

Dec: 4, 12

Jan: 5, 7

Feb: 6, 14

MANCHESTER

Mean Max

Dec: 5.0

Jan: 6.4

Feb: 5.9

Air frosts

Dec: 15

Jan: 6

Feb: 20

Lying and falling snow respectively

Dec: 2, 9

Jan: 3, 5

Feb: 6, 12

ABBOTSINCH

Mean Max

Dec: 4.0

Jan: 7.0

Feb: 6.6

Air frosts

Dec: 16

Jan: 3

Feb: 18

Lying and falling snow repsectively

Dec: 9, 4

Jan: 2, 4

Feb: 5, 10

Edited November 14, 2006 by Mr_Data

[Weather-history]

I remember the Sun having an article during November 1995 saying the Met Office were predicting this to be a bad winter compared to recent ones

They certainly went for a cold winter.

[Weather-history]

In the Areal series for England and Wales, January 1996 is the dullest January on record

Just looking at some of the sunshine totals for that January

Tynemouth: 5 hours and 3 hours of that occurred on the 13th!!

Durham: 8 hours

Elmdon: 13 hours

Manchester: 21 hours

Heathrow: 25 hours

Cardiff: 21 hours

[Thundery wintry showers]

I remember that winter very well; particularly the Christmas Day. In Cleadon, there was a prolonged snow shower on Christmas Eve that delivered a few centimetres, then on Christmas Day, heavy east-coast snow showers, driven by a strong northerly, created a very festive scene indeed.

I remember the showers creeping inland during the afternoon; the morning had the showers largely hug the coast, but at around 3pm I remember seeing shower clouds covering the western horizon. Then after sunset the showers died out and drifted along the North Sea; there were also a few flurries on Boxing Day.

As for January 1996, I was at school in Tynemouth for much of that month- the absence of sunshine was remarkable. I don't think it was quite as dull in Cleadon (might just have managed 10-15 hours of sun here) but even so, that's only about 25% of the average.

One strange quirk of easterly weather in this region is that sunshine and precipitation amounts tend to be positively related when there is no frontal activity, as either the North Sea convection gets trapped under an inversion giving rise to dull dry weather, or there is no inversion and we get sunshine and showers. The easterlies produced very little shower activity here until the 26th, yet the 26th itself, as well as featuring frequent snow showers, also featured the first sunshine for over a week.

[Hairy Celt]

i remember the 30th december well. -26c overnight minimum here; apart from lots of burst pipes, the beer froze in my hand on the porch before i could drink it.

[damianslaw]

December 1995 was the coldest December since 1981 with a CET of 2.3.

The month began mild and unsettled with rain and temperatures in double figures.

High pressure over Europe prevented the Atlantic systems from making much progress.

The weather changed on the 3rd as the high moved into Scandinavia and this allowed

an easterly flow to develop across Europe and the UK bringing with it colder weather with frosts,

low maxima and snow showers.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951204.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951206.gif

High pressure over Scandinavia then ridged across the UK on the 9th

bringing with it settled weather with frosts at night although it was not quite as cold as during

the first week.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951206.gif

The high drifted to the north of Scotland on the 14th allowing the easterly to return to the south,

where it was very bleak under the leaden skies and bitter wind.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951214.gif

Gradually the high migrated towards Greenland and Atlantic systems began to move up to the SW but these engaged a cold Arctic airmass that was moving southwards at the same time.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951219.gif

The first sytem brought rain to central and southern parts but as the Arctic airmass moved southwards it turned the rain to snow over the Midlands before the system cleared southwards on the 20th.

The next system pushed up from the south and this brought snowfalls to many parts of England and Wales before turning milder.

This system moved further north than it's predecessor and so the milder weather also got into Scotland.

In the south, it was wet but mild with temperatures into double figures but by the 23rd, the colder weather was returning to Scotland

as the Arctic airmass plunged southwards to reach all parts by Xmas Eve.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951224.gif

During Xmas Eve night, a polar low approached northern Scotland and this gave the severest weather for the month.

There were severe blizzards and gales with drifting snow. The Shetlands was worst hit with depth of level snow at 35cm and drifts well in excess of this. A state of emergency was declared on the Islands.

On the mainland, conditions were not quite as severe but there were power cuts across the far north.

A number of places had a White Xmas that year. With high pressure over the UK by Boxing Day, conditions became calm and clear but this would cause it's own problems. With deep snow cover, intense cooling occurred and very low minima were recorded.

Many parts of Scotland had minima down to below -20C and daytime maxima were very low, -10C was recorded at Glasgow.

At Altnaharra, a record equalling low of -27.2C was recorded on the morning of the 30th. Frosts were very severe and freezing fog added to the complications.

By the 30th, a low in the Atlantic slowly pushed up a front from the SW.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119951230.gif

This front brought freezing rain to many parts of the south bringing with it travel chaos as sheet ice formed on roads and rails.

The progress of the front was very slow as it overcame the very cold air over the UK but by the 31st it had reached Scotland.

There was a slow thaw on the last day of the year with cloudy, misty conditons across many parts.

The first two thirds of January 1996 was dominated by largely mild southerly winds and lots of cloud.

This was due a large block over eastern Europe and a large low pressure over the Atlantic.

Maximum temperatures were in double figures and frosts were non existent.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960111.gif

A change in the weather pattern occured when the block began to ridge westwards into Scandinavia and the low pressures over the Atlantic began to sink southwards. An increasingly cold easterly flow became established over the UK.

By the 24th, maxima were close to freezing and there were severe penetrating frosts at night in the strong easterly wind.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960124.gif

Snow showers became heavier and more frequent in the east and these spread westwards by the 26th as a very cold pool air from the continent moved into the UK. On the evening of the 26th, very heavy snow showers and longer periods of snow moved into northern England bringing appreciable falls of several inches in places and drifting in the wind and bringing the usual transport problems.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960126.gif

Further south, the snowfalls were not as heavy and the snow cover disappeared overnight as a pool of

slightly warmer air moved across England. For the rest of the month, the winds were still in the east with frosts at night

but the intense cold had disappeared and maxima were about 2 to 4C

The cold weather from late January 1996 continued into February as high pressure sat over the UK.

On the 6th, an occlusion system approached the west of the UK threatening a change to much milder

weather across the UK.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960206.gif

However, pressure began to increase to the east of the UK and this prevented the occlusion advancing and the system became stalled over the west of the UK on the evening of the 6th.

Heavy snowfalls fell right across western and central parts of the mainland but conditions were particularly severe in SW Scotland and parts of Cumbria, where depths of snow were approaching 50cm. A state of emergency was declared in SW Scotland and many drivers stranded on the A74 had to be rescued. Whitehaven in Cumbria was virtually cut off and workers at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant had to spent the night as they were stranded. Conditions elsewhere were less severe but the inenvitable travel chaos ensued. By the evening of the 7th, the snow finally died out and it remained cold and snowbound until the 9th with further snowfalls at times before a vigorous depression finally brough a thaw and milder temperatures.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960209.gif

The snowfalls turned out to be some of the heaviest in the west since the winter of 1947, whilst the far east largely missed out.

On the 18th February 1996, a low pressure near the NW of Scotland swung down into the southern North Sea and dragged down very cold NEly winds across the UK.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960219.gif

The airflow was very unstable and heavy snow showers broke out across many parts of the UK bringing temporary blizzards and whiteout conditions. In the SE, there was a lull during the afternoon but heavy snow showers moved into this region during the evening and there were blizzards across east Anglia during the night, where depths of snow reached 4". The strong winds caused coastal flooding in parts of the SE.

By the 20th, conditons had eased somewhat but there were snow showers still falling albeit lighter especially across the Midlands.

By the 21st, high pressure toppled down from the NW and most places were cold and fairly sunny.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119960221.gif

Data for winter 1995-96

December 1995: 2.3 (-2.3)

January 1996: 4.3 (+0.5)

February 1996: 2.5 (-1.3)

January 1996 is the dullest January in the Areal series on record

Coldest spells of the winter

6th-11th December: 0.4

25th-31st December: -1.6

23rd January-9th February: -0.2

19th-22nd February: 0.8

Mildest CET maximum day: 11.4 3rd December

Coldest CET maximum day: -3.0 28th December

Coldest CET minimum night: -7.9C 29th December

HEATHROW

Mean Max

Dec: 5.8

Jan: 7.2

Feb: 6.7

Air frosts

Dec: 13

Jan: 5

Feb: 17

Lying snow and falling snow respectively

Dec: 3, 7

Jan: 1, 3

Feb: 5, 9

ELMDON

Mean Max

Dec: 4.4

Jan: 5.4

Feb: 5.4

Air frosts

Dec: 16

Jan: 9

Feb: 19

Lying and falling snow respectively

Dec: 4, 12

Jan: 5, 7

Feb: 6, 14

MANCHESTER

Mean Max

Dec: 5.0

Jan: 6.4

Feb: 5.9

Air frosts

Dec: 15

Jan: 6

Feb: 20

Lying and falling snow respectively

Dec: 2, 9

Jan: 3, 5

Feb: 6, 12

ABBOTSINCH

Mean Max

Dec: 4.0

Jan: 7.0

Feb: 6.6

Air frosts

Dec: 16

Jan: 3

Feb: 18

Lying and falling snow repsectively

Dec: 9, 4

Jan: 2, 4

Feb: 5, 10

Yes the last proper winter in my book. The most notable event as you mention for me being the snowfall of the 5th/6th February. I remember watching the forecsst on the day before I think it was countryfile and they mentioned the chances of heavy snow, but the results were the deepest fall I have any seen in my lifetime yet. The snow started at about 11 o clock and we were all told to go home from school during the afternoon, the snow didn't stop falling until about 4pm the following day. By its end their was about 18 inches of level of snow roughly a foot and half.

My town Windermere was effectively 'cut off ' for 2 days and we had the whole of the week off school. I remember their being the legacy of the snowfall well into March in the form of deep snowdrifts on the local low hills. To just see another event like this would be very special, I am very patient.

[Terminal Moraine]

January 1996 was the foggiest month on record here. There were 26 days with fog at some time and there was fog for about 500 hours out of a possible 744.

T.M

[stormforce 10]

yes my first ever true white xmas, that i can remember. i hope there is more to come.

[cheeky_monkey]

looking at the stats there it only proves that the winter 95-96 wasnt all it is cracked up to be...in terms of the 20th century nothing too special no real prolonged cold or widespread snow events...i always think this winter is over hyped in terms of how cold it really was.

[acbrixton]

looking at the stats there it only proves that the winter 95-96 wasnt all it is cracked up to be...in terms of the 20th century nothing too special no real prolonged cold or widespread snow events...i always think this winter is over hyped in terms of how cold it really was.

Up to a point yes. However:

1. Taken as a whole it is the coldest winter since 1986/7 although the severe cold/blizzards of February 1991 surpasses anything in 1995/1996;

2. Although maxima for December were notably below normal it is true that the maxima for January and February were rather closer to normal;

3. Nonetheless what I can recall (and this is backed up by Kevin's data) is that it was a particularly frosty winter and that although in the south amounts of snow were often small, snow fell on a relatively frequent basis (in inner London I never recorded more than 1/2" of snow on any one day but recall that it snowed on 19 days);

4. In the context of the 'even larger teapot' it does stand out. If it was to be repeated NW would collapse into mass hysteria...

regards

ACB

[I remember Atlantic 252]

i remember some of it Xmas day was very cold and frosty but no snow, i think i remember sn0w around 20th, i do remember easterly gales and lots of sn0w on saturday 30th december,

dont remember jan and feb but charts look good and i probably had sn0w

[damianslaw]

looking at the stats there it only proves that the winter 95-96 wasnt all it is cracked up to be...in terms of the 20th century nothing too special no real prolonged cold or widespread snow events...i always think this winter is over hyped in terms of how cold it really was.

Point taken in respect to a widespread snowfall event, as the 2 most potent falls of snow i.e. the christmas eve blizzard that hit shetland and the far north of scotland and the 5/6 feb snowfall that hit sw scotland and cumbria were certainly quite localised, but for those areas hit it was a winter to remember.

[Zerouali lives]

I remember Christmas 1995 very well in Aberdeen and memorable turn in weather conditions in a matter of seconds. During the early hours of the 23rd a cold front from the NW produced a spell of moderate snow with just a light westerly wind and there were a few flurries on Christmas Eve. Then, all of sudden, around 10pm a relatively windless but freezing evening with few cloud and the occasional flurry turned into a gale northerly and this change took seconds and the weather automatically went overcast with frequent heavy snow showers which would last all night and into the following day. I woke up Christmas day and my north facing window was plastered with snow, something I've never seen since! Christmas day itself remained overcast (quite unusual in a Northerly) with heavy prolonged snow showers lasting between 30mins and an hour. This pattern continued over the next few days with showers becoming less frequent. During the early hours of the 27th December, Aberdeen recorded it lowest ever temperature -16°C and my house pipes froze. An unforgetable period of cold weather.

[Thundery wintry showers]

The assessment of the snowiness of 1995/96 varies depending on location. In Tyne & Wear the winter was close to the long-term average snow-wise, and if anything 1993/94 was slightly snowier. However, in Lancaster there appear to have been only two snowier winters since 1965 (1978/79 and 1981/82), and it was one of only two winters when Lancaster had more snow than the Tyneside coast (the other, curiously, being 1994/95).

Each of the three winter months had at least a couple of days of snow cover at a large majority of the Weather Log stations- which didn't happen in any other winter of the 1990s and 2000s.

[J10]

Location certainly made a difference, On low ground on the 5th-6th February there was a lot of heavy rain, where we are at altitude there was heavy sleet and snow for about 24 hours, but the mix meant that its sticking of the snow was patchy and it only really starting sticking after 4pm on the 5th, giving about 4-5 inches of lying snow.

Further inland, the situation was far snowier, with places like Ebbw Vale getting closer to 18 inches.

It was also very cold the week before this with further heavy snow inland with quite a lot of icing on the telephone lines, (I wonder is anyone can confirm this?) but here was much milder with rain and as always we missed out on the worst of the cold.

A seem to recall quite a lot of snow in the North East around Christmas as has been pointed out. There was a forecast of snow just after Christmas at the breakdown time, but we ended up having freezing rain, horrible stuff indeed.

[MP-R]

Yes - that was a great winter - probably the best winter in my lifetime in the southwest. 1996-1997 I remember was also cold, very cold at the start of January but not so much in the way of snow.

Christmas 1995, there was more than 18cm of snow up on the Mendips apparently, I was very young at the time but I remember sledging there - good times. I keep hoping for a Christmas like that again, not one like 2002!

[Don]

Certainly a very cold Winter by todays standard. It was the same overall temperature wise as 1990/91.

[Weather-history]

Here's from the 18th of November 1995 edition of the Sun saying the Met Office were going for a cold winter

[Guest Viking141]

Actually during the Christmas blizzard of 1995 there were some places in Shetland where the drifts were 30 feet deep and the electric supply was off for 10 days!

[Norrance]

looking at the stats there it only proves that the winter 95-96 wasnt all it is cracked up to be...in terms of the 20th century nothing too special no real prolonged cold or widespread snow events...i always think this winter is over hyped in terms of how cold it really was.

There was maybe no prolongued cold or widespread snow but the temperatures of the last week of December themselves make it memorable. A record equalling low temperature for the UK or if you take fractions into consideration a record breaking low temperature is significant IMO.

The disruption in Scotland from the Christmas Eve/day polar low would have been far greater if it had not been a holiday and also because of the low temperatures inland the snow was so light and powdery it just blew off the roads and was easily cleared.

[Nick F]

TBH I don't really recall winter 1995-6 producing any particularly long-lasting memories for snowfall, I was in Birmingham at the time that winter and I recall a few moderate snow events, more particularly in Jan or Feb '96, the most notable day of the winter I remember was in Jan, I think, when there was freezing rain which ripped whole branches off trees due to ice accumulation. The late december cold spell didn't bring anything of note in the South, though I do remember seeing Scotland on the TV suffering from the severe cold towards New Year. Most cold and snow seemed mainly a Nern event that winter. Though there was a cold Erly spell in December in the South with some snow, I can't really place it. Unlike Feb 1991 which clearly sticks in the mind from 5 years earlier.

[ANYWEATHER]

Thanks Mr Data. I remember that winter very well for various reasons, and the freezing rain event was quite exceptional in our area, as we were all expecting snow and we got that instead! My car was incased in solid ice , up untill then Ive never seen anything like it and the pavements and roads were lethal, my dad was driving a bedford rascal at the time , and that turned over on the icy :lol: roads! luckily he was ok!

Ok, it was not the coldest longest winter on record, but when temperatures get as low as minus 27.2c in the UK it really is something, and I think that was the coldest temperature recorded since the infamous winter of 1890. It was a year of extremes, because that year it was a hot summer as well! :lol:

[Michael Fishermans Friend]

Quite a few incursions of cold air in this winter, 2 in December at the begining around 6th - 9th and one around xmas to the new year and as said large disruption in Northern Scotland and Shetlands and Orkney Islands. 1 in January, in the last week with some particularly cold air in the east with several 'ice days' and several inches of snow. February had several cold snaps with more ice days and some drifting snow, brief incursions of this cold air with mainly east or north easterly winds persisted into March. Apart from the Xmas spell in the north, snowfall was not massive (in the east anyway) but some drifting did occur which is rare now days. I think Dec had an ave temp of 3.2c, Jan around 4c and February 3.3c - where I live, so the winter was generally - 'quite cold'.

[Weather-history]

Here's a couple of weather forecasts from the start of December 1995. Sadly, the quality of the original videotape has faded over time, so it mi ght be a bit jumpy.

http://youtu.be/fUno976LCow

[Thundery wintry showers]

I remember being rather disappointed by the 6th December 1995 in the Tyne and Wear area. The 5th went much as forecast, with showers turning increasingly to snow and hail as the day progressed, but it warmed up on the 6th with cloudy skies and some light rain- I remember the BBC forecast that evening listing Newcastle, with 5C, as one of the warmest places in the country. We did, though, go back to having sunshine and snow showers on the 7th. The second of the two forecasts on the Youtube link hint at this with an "air frost free zone" in NE England extending a fair way inland overnight 5th/6th, in contrast to the hard frosts predicted in most other regions of the country.

Meanwhile accounts in the Weather magazine suggest that south-east England was heavily hit by snowfalls, with Hastings (often a favoured location during these unstable easterly outbreaks) having several inches.