11th December 1994: Exceptionally mild and wet

[Weather-history]

December 1994 Exceptional mild spell

On the 10th of December 1994, a pool of very mild tropical maritime air flooded the UK behind a warm front on southwesterly winds from a source near the Azores. Despite the general cloud cover, daytime maxima soared to exceptional levels for the time of the year on the 11th. Penkridge in Staffordshire recorded 17.7C on the 11th, a record maxima for that date. Other notable maxima during that period included,

Worcester, Sheffield: 17.6C

Prestatyn: 16.7C

Tynemouth: 16.4C

Heathrow: 15.4C

Birmingham: 15.2C

Manchester: 15.1C

There were large rainfall totals in the NW due to orthographic lifting. 170mm fell near Loch Lomond, 71.8mm at Glasgow, 54.4mm at Eskdalemuir, all on the 10th. Unsurprisingly, there was extensive flooding in these areas.

A cold front slowly pushing southwards on the 12th, cut off the very mild southwesterly flow and temperatures returned to near normal values. Such is the fickleness of the British weather, that whilst Hereford and Worcestershire recorded maxima between 15-17C on the 11th, some parts of the county had sub-zero maxima on the 23rd.

Edited December 11, 2006 by Mr_Data

[Summer of 95]

December 1994 Exceptional mild spell

On the 10th of December 1994, a pool of very mild tropical maritime air flooded the UK behind a warm front on southwesterly winds from a source near the Azores. Despite the general cloud cover, daytime maxima soared to exceptional levels for the time of the year on the 11th. Penkridge in Staffordshire recorded 17.7C on the 11th, a record maxima for that date. Other notable maxima during that period included,

Worcester, Sheffield: 17.6C

Prestatyn: 16.7C

Tynemouth: 16.4C

Heathrow: 15.4C

Birmingham: 15.2C

Manchester: 15.1C

There were large rainfall totals in the NW due to orthographic lifting. 170mm fell near Loch Lomond, 71.8mm at Glasgow, 54.4mm at Eskdalemuir, all on the 10th. Unsurprisingly, there was extensive flooding in these areas.

A cold front slowly pushing southwards on the 12th, cut off the very mild southwesterly flow and temperatures returned to near normal values. Such is the fickleness of the British weather, that whilst Hereford and Worcestershire recorded maxima between 15-17C on the 11th, some parts of the county had sub-zero maxima on the 23rd.

I can remember this month well: as you say the first half was ridiculously mild, just as November had been. However in the week before Christmas we actually managed 2 ice days here- a few days of anticyclonic weather left freezing fog which struggled to clear.

Late on Christmas Eve the mild dross returned and apart from a few light snowfalls around New Year it was mild and wet almost non-stop till the start of March, with very few dry days.

[Weather-history]

Late on Christmas Eve the mild dross returned and apart from a few light snowfalls around New Year it was mild and wet almost non-stop till the start of March, with very few dry days.

January was a lot more wintrier than you think, look at these figures for days with falling snow and lying snow during January 1995

Stornoway

Falling sleet/snow: 20

Lying snow: 4

Dyce

Falling sleet/snow: 15

Lying snow: 7

Glasgow

Falling sleet/snow: 12

Lying snow: 1

Manchester

Falling sleet/snow:11

Lying snow: 2

Lowestoft

Falling sleet/snow: 5

Lying snow: 2

Belfast

Falling sleet/snow: 10

Lying snow: 1

Not bad considering it was a very mild winter.

[MAF]

and the above table still leaves us with some hope for the rest of the month

[Summer of 95]

January was a lot more wintrier than you think, look at these figures for days with falling snow and lying snow during January 1995

Stornoway

Falling sleet/snow: 20

Lying snow: 4

Dyce

Falling sleet/snow: 15

Lying snow: 7

Glasgow

Falling sleet/snow: 12

Lying snow: 1

Manchester

Falling sleet/snow:11

Lying snow: 2

Lowestoft

Falling sleet/snow: 5

Lying snow: 2

Belfast

Falling sleet/snow: 10

Lying snow: 1

Not bad considering it was a very mild winter.

Snow falling/lying 1994-5 in Shrewsbury:

Dec: 0,0

Jan: 5,3

Feb: 1,0

Mar: 6,3

Apr: 2,0

May: 1,0

Snow lay Jan 2-4 but only 2cm, it did settle for a while on the 27th but only for a few hours before turning back to rain. The month seemed to have a few colder days with insignificant sleet/snow in between long mild wet spells- northerlies behind a low I presume.

February was abysmal, March a decent mix of snow (7cm cover at 0900 on March 3rd) to begin with then some warm sunny days, but then winter seemed to take forever to go away, with frosts and snow returning right up to mid-May. Then towards the end of June of course began THAT summer.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I wrote an article on January 1995 a while ago. I vividly remember a day around New Year where heavy snow fell throughout the afternoon in Tyneside but failed to settle, but come to think of it, it might have been 31 December 1994 (in which case I don't remember 1 January 1995). That would make more sense, as most nearby stations reported maxima of 1C on 1 January 1995; certainly not warm enough for snow not to settle.

I certainly remember some frontal snow events during the last week in the region, the 26th/27th and 29th stick out, and of course West Yorkshire was bombarded on the 25th.

Spring 1995 was actually quite a mix, with some hot spells mixed with the cold ones, e.g. Good Friday had temperatures of 16-20C (I remember it well, I went out to Hexham that day) but just a few days later we had snow. May 1995 also began with an exceptional heatwave, though again, as SO95 mentions, snow then fell quite widely around mid May. I guess that spring would have been extremely unpopular with most of N-W's membership; just as it seems the step-change to homogeneous warmth and sunshine and no more snow until November is in place, along comes another northerly with its associated wintry showers.

As for December 1994 itself, I don't remember the mild spell on the 10th-11th (even though local maxima reached 16C), I didn't notice things like that back then. I remember some east-coast snow flurries on the 21st, but they mostly stayed out over the North Sea; the first snow that came to anything was on the 31st here. Christmas Day was mild, cloudy and forgettable if I remember rightly, coming on the back end of a bright frosty spell.