January 1978

[Weather-history]

January 1978 was a month with a great variety ranging from tornadoes, thunderstorms, freezing fog, severe gales, storm surges and blizzards.

On the 3rd of January, Newmarket in Suffolk was hit by a tornado which caused extensive damage.

On the 12th, severe gales swept southwards as a low deepened causing a storm surge and flooding to many east coastal areas. There were snowfalls further north

There was a short lived settled spell before another cold pool of air sank southwards bringing snowfalls and under the clear skies, freezing fog patches

On the 19th, Atlantic systems pushed in from the west and this engaged with the colder air producing extensive snowfalls which were prolong in the north, Glasgow airport recorded 17cm of lying snow.

There was then a short period of cold zonality as Atlantic systems pushed in from the west intermingled with colder air in the airstream.

On the 28th, a depression deepened over the UK producing a severe blizzard across the far north of Scotland causing widespread chaos, trapping motorists, train travellers and cutting off villages.

The CET for this month was 3.5

Number of days with falling sleet/snow for January 1978

Stornoway: 19

Glasgow Airport: 18

Belfast: 13

Manchester: 13

Nottingham: 10

Heathrow: 7

Edgbaston: 8

Plymouth: 4

Manston: 2

RAF Lakenheath: 5

Usually a good indicator of a cold zonal month, when you see this sort of configuration with the far NW having the highest number of days falling sleet/snow than the far SE