The Incredible Cold of December 1890

[charlton north-downs]

Just found my old Weather book in the loft called London Weather which has all the data for Greenwich and Kew from 1841-1964. December 1890 caught my eye and I'm sure Mr Data has covered this but here are the stats for Kew . Other parts of the country would probably have been much colder.

Mean (-1.6C) Diff from average (-6.8C) Mean Max 0.8c Diff from aver. (-6.7c) High Max 6.6c Lowest Max (-5.8c) High Min 2.3c Low Min (-11.8c) Rainall 0.55ins Average 27% Sunshine 0.03hours

The daily minimum temp was below (-6.7c) on six nights at Greenwich and 16 days below freezing . Frosty nights at Norwood 26 .Continous frosts 10 days at Greenwich . Snow & Sleet fell on 12 days at Brixton. December was completely sunless at Westminster.

What a month with no sunshine, freezing temps and some snow. The 1890/91 winter had 45 cold days below 2c and a memorable snow event on March 9th which led to snow drifts of 11ft even in Central London.

[shuggee]

Popping this into the Historic Weather Section