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Winter 1990-91 The great December snowstorm/February freeze


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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
Posted
18 hours ago, Weather-history said:

image.thumb.png.6ccf954095800847203cef9ece10433d.png

 

Got to say, I remember nothing of the 5th/6th January 1991 gale. 

 

image.thumb.png.cd3bb1a73726d9fed6bc63d3aa3b22f3.png  image.thumb.png.79512af63512dfdc5946ae7f9ab5683e.png  image.thumb.png.32f4437a698701054eee7a1aa99da59a.png   image.thumb.png.86e77b88471b4832cea5b53e26f197c8.png   image.thumb.png.b83471fe1ce05446f3294e86c8b52594.png  image.thumb.png.c320e10477220f8ed4b2e5a5abb260ed.png

 

 

Gusts  (mph)

Dublin: 82.9

Valentia: 81.6

Blackpool: 79.4

Liverpool Airport: 78.2

RAF Valley: 73.5

Belfast: 69

St Mawgan: 66.8

Cardiff Airport: 65.4

Leeds Airport: 64.3

 

No memories of severe gales, but distinctly remember an evening or two of strong winds and snow showers at some point in first half of Jan 91. 

Posted
  • Location: Longden, Shropshire
  • Location: Longden, Shropshire
Posted

My main memories of January 1991 are some frosts later in the month.

  • 8 months later...
Posted

I lived in St Helen’s and the February 1991 snow was the first we’d had for a few years (maybe early 1987). I didn’t enjoy having to walk to school in it (I was 12) 

  • 3 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Folkestone, Kent 101ft/30m ASL
  • Location: Folkestone, Kent 101ft/30m ASL
Posted

@Day_9 saw your comment in the mod thread and thought this is a good discussion about pre-internet snowfall events

Have a look at some of the YouTube links on page one and two, they’re old bbc forecasts. Used to be glued to those if there was a sniff of snow coming, as it could mean a day off school!

  • Like 2
Posted
  • Location: Cardiff
  • Weather Preferences: Day 10
  • Location: Cardiff
Posted

 lottiekent yes remember this one, but not the forecast- i can remember waking up in 1978 to help my dad try and dig the car (Hilman Imp) out 😂 don’t know why, the road was about 4’ under…….

 

1982 was the best, about to start back to school after xmas, my mother woke me up on the Monday and asked me to open the curtains in the lounge - there was snow halfway up the window.  Absolutely epic, we were off school for another 2 weeks!! 

 

  • Like 2
Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
Posted

Winter 90-91 the only decent winter for snow and cold in my formative years (9 to 14 years old which coincided sadly with the mostly mild snowless period of winter 87-88 to 92-93). 

I don't have many vivid memories of sledging etc hard to remember well before 8 years old, but I do remember many snowy days between ages of 5 and 8 ( winters 83/84 to 86-87). I'd say anyone who was about 13 years old in winter 86-87 will have very strong memories of snowy winters ( 5 years old winter 78-79...., 8 years old winter 81-82... ). 

 

Posted
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine and 15-25c
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
Posted

reading back through this thread and considering it is 19 years old..i never oddly mentioned in this particularly thread the Feb 1991 event although i see i do talk about the Dec 1990 snow..anyway living in Chelmsford back then as i was ..Essex got absolutely slammed in Feb 1991 similar to what had happened in Jan 1987..it was the last time i experienced such heavy prolonged snowfall and low temperatures until i moved to Canada 

Posted
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
Posted

I often wonder did people assume this was the British winter “going back to normal” at the time. This was a very normal winter for the late ‘70s/‘80s standards and after 3 very mild ones I had probably would have thought finally we’re back to normal. Unfortunately it’s really the winter that frequent UK cold bowed its head. I think some spots wouldn’t have a similarly severe snowy spell until February 2009?

  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Warm-by-day sunny thundery summers , short cold snowy winters.
  • Location: Hampshire
Posted (edited)

I don't remember this specific storm, what I do remember is an interlude of somewhat colder (i.e. close to average), bright weather with the odd shower on around the 7th. Also remember a frosty night on I think the 4th.

The transition to settled and generally colder happened rather suddenly around the 11th and the long spell of settled, dry conditions leading up to the Feb event then began. It was initially sunny and frosty, then mild and dry, and then we had a long spell of dull, dry and fairly cold weather from about the 20th or so until the really cold weather arrived.

With 7.3C mean max at Heathrow Jan 1991 was just a shade above the 61-90 average, doubtless due to the mostly mild first 10 days and lack of any extreme cold after that, though it was consistently coldish for weeks with only a brief mild interlude over the weekend of the 18th/19th.

Heathrow also racked up 69.7mm of rain in Jan 1991, presumably all of that in the first 10 days, illustrating how extremely wet the relatively short spell of unsettled weather between around 20 Dec and 10 Jan was.

I would echo @LetItSnow here. It definitely felt at the time like a return to "proper" winters again following three very mild ones, two of them freakishly mild. Sadly not to last, though 91/92 and 96/97 were OK and 95/96 was good.

Edited by Summer8906
Posted
  • Location: Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Warm-by-day sunny thundery summers , short cold snowy winters.
  • Location: Hampshire
Posted (edited)

 LetItSnow I'd say 95/96 provided similar amounts of snow to Feb 2009, though Feb 1991 was arguably the last really severe cold and snowy spell until January 2010. Given that before 1991 we had five years with severe spells from 1979-87, that was a seriously big gap.

Edited by Summer8906
Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
Posted

 Summer8906 91-92 was woeful.on the snow front, very anticyclonic and dry. A decent cold frosty first half to Dec, and a good cold 2 week frosty spell in Jan but no snow out of them for most. A winter that overall left little impression on me. 

Posted
  • Location: Longden, Shropshire
  • Location: Longden, Shropshire
Posted
6 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

I'd say 95/96 provided similar amounts of snow to Feb 2009

Nowhere near the amount of snow compared to what I got in February 2009.  Never got more than around a cm or two at a time during 95/96, whereas had almost 10 inches of snow on the 2nd February 2009!

Posted
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
  • Weather Preferences: All 4 seasons and a good mixture of everything and anything!
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
Posted

This Winter before my time but I have seen pictures from my local area of December 1990, which had a cold and snowy period, but more substantially, February 1991 - there's a picture I've seen online (can't find it at the moment) of drifts in February 1991 near me as high and deep as you'll ever see, up there with all previous cold Winters.

I wrongly assumed February 1991 was cold throughout most of the month - in fact, looking at the charts it looks as though it was confined to the 1st half of the month mostly although someone may wish to correct me there.

Posted
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: cold and snowy. Summer: hot and sunny
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
Posted

Feb 1991 was the last time we had properly deep, Siberian cold. Nothing has come close since. Feb/March 2018 possibly, but that was so late in the season. Highs of -5c with heavy, drifting, foot deep powdery snow in the SE of England. I wonder if we'll ever see something like that again with CC. 

  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
  • Weather Preferences: All 4 seasons and a good mixture of everything and anything!
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
Posted

 danm Were the various cold spells of 09-10 and 10-11 not considered "Siberian cold" then as such - with cold from a different source maybe? 

Both those Winters probably matched 90-91 here no doubt

Posted
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: cold and snowy. Summer: hot and sunny
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
Posted (edited)
57 minutes ago, StretfordEnd1996 said:

Were the various cold spells of 09-10 and 10-11 not considered "Siberian cold" then as such - with cold from a different source maybe? 

Both those Winters probably matched 90-91 here no doubt

December 2010 was historic for the length of cold, but I mean the depth of cold from an 850's perspective. Northerlies don't compare to proper easterlies in that sense. 

 

We also hade a lot of snow in 2009-2010 but it wasn't the holy grail that 1991 was, even though the '91 spell was shorter than December 2010.

Edited by danm
  • Like 2
Posted
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
  • Weather Preferences: All 4 seasons and a good mixture of everything and anything!
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
Posted

 danm Yes I understand what you mean now. 

All about those uppers. 

Feb 07th 91 looks like the -15, maybe even -20 isotherm just brushed the SE.

image.thumb.png.6b7ddc117c4f116098c2b619d2a06d23.png

But Jan 2010 looks like it was mostly confined to the -10 isotherm give or take 

image.thumb.png.829fe1e7d11bbbe9b728095761c7ce84.png

Same for December 2010 (and Feb/Dec 2009)

Feb 2018 closer.

image.thumb.png.e36230e84580c3ddd9c46651f23cc1bf.png

Posted
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: cold and snowy. Summer: hot and sunny
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
Posted

 StretfordEnd1996 yep Feb 2018 is the closest we've come to a Jan '87 or Feb '91 beast from the east, but it was much later in the season, so whilst still excellent not at the level of those two spells.

Posted
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
  • Weather Preferences: All 4 seasons and a good mixture of everything and anything!
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
Posted

 danm There definitely no other occasion since 1991 we've come close to those uppers?

Took a look at Feb 2005 but only found the -10 isotherm. 

Could 95/96 be close? 

As you say, away from these, deeper cold spells since 1991 I think have come from more N'ly/NE'ly winds i.e. 00-01 but as I say, my memory of the 90s is a little sketchy. 

Posted
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: cold and snowy. Summer: hot and sunny
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
Posted (edited)

 StretfordEnd1996 I think 95/96 or the December 1996 easterly may have come a little closer, but I don't think anything has yet matched Feb 1991.

 

December 1996/Jan 1997 had -12c 850's over the S/SE:

image.thumb.png.438547f36641a508dfee852b6844dc0d.pngimage.thumb.png.b400509d4e6e9cd0fb2bcc0e018aba77.png

 

2018 had almost as good depth of cold as 1991, and it was close to a 1987 type event, it was just late in the season so didn't result in quite the same depth of cold at the surface:

image.thumb.png.4b2ebaa4ff63616fc3e3206a6e253538.png

 

Feb 1991 had sub -16c:

image.thumb.png.4c693f827bbe667b1a0ec587f74a0a0b.png

 

Jan 1987 had around -18c/-19c 850's:

image.thumb.png.d314be4c0d07019fc967f302d9089fc8.pngimage.thumb.png.0887b5229b6f81d8efd9f3cb62170e77.png

 

Nothing can beat a proper easterly for depth of cold, but they're so rare. 

Edited by danm
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Posted
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
  • Weather Preferences: All 4 seasons and a good mixture of everything and anything!
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
Posted

 danm Thanks for this.

 

Ah yes, 96-97 escaped my mind actually - this Winter was very strange, pretty front loaded and with the aforementioned severe E'ly spell at/just after New Year but I never hear this Winter as being regarded as particularly notable by most. Perhaps it lacked any serious snowfall away from regional/local coverings(?). Extremely mild beyond that E'ly in Jan/Feb 97.

Posted
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: cold and snowy. Summer: hot and sunny
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
Posted (edited)

 StretfordEnd1996 yep, the second half of December 1996 was cold, as was the first 4 or 5 days of 1997. After that it was pretty mild and boring. 

Edited by danm
Posted
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
  • Weather Preferences: All 4 seasons and a good mixture of everything and anything!
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
Posted

 danm Others that had E'lies are Feb 2005, Feb-Mar 2006, Feb 2009, Feb 2012. 

(is it me or do true E'lies tend to happen in February?)

These listed above had some decent cold and snow for some but not as notable as perhaps the ones you listed.

So getting an E'ly is rare. Getting an insane E'ly like 1987 or 1991 is even more rare(!). 

Posted
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: cold and snowy. Summer: hot and sunny
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
Posted (edited)

 StretfordEnd1996 not sure if they are more common in late Winter or not, but yes agree - easterlies are fairly rare, deep cold easterlies are very rare. 

Edited by danm
Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
Posted

 danm Traditionally and statistically I think easterlies are more likely Feb onwards, more so in the spring, May is renowned for them.

 

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