March 1987

[damianslaw]

Don't have the exact figure but I do believe that March 1987 was a cold one and not bettered in the cold CET stakes since.

Would like to know of people's memories regarding that particular month and if there is a view of some of the synoptics for that month all the better, I think it had plenty of northerlies and easterlies but not sure.

I remember it being quite snowy at some stage, I think around mid month... recall lots of snow in the school playing fields. Always wanted to try and hazard a guess to the day that lingers in my memory, think it was a wednesday mid month perhaps the 18th when we had alot of snow overnight 17/18th- if I had the synoptics I would possibly be able to work out when it was - I was in Windermere at the time.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I wasn't old enough to appreciate what happened in March 1987 but I can give an outline of the month's synoptics. It started with a couple of frontal battlegrounds (12th March 2006-style) between Atlantic and continental air in the first week, giving signficant snowfalls in places. A week of cold easterly winds followed, though the uppers were no lower than -5C and with a strong anticyclonic bias, so I guess that the week was probably mainly dry and cloudy. Then towards the 20th the winds swung around to the north, bringing many snow showers especially to northern and western areas- I'm guessing you are remembering snowfalls from the northerly winds around then. Westerly winds and near average temperatures ended the month.

If I remember rightly the CET was 4.1C, the lowest since 1970 and a figure only subsequently approached in 1996- although it has to be said that March 2006 was at least as cold until the 25th when an exceptionally warm southerly regime became established.

[Terminal Moraine]

March 1987 was the coldest since 1970 here, although 1996 was almost as cold. The warmest day was the 1st with a max' of 10.2c and there were 3 ice days and 8 days with a mean temperature below 0c during the month.

29cm of snow fell on the 6th, the largest single fall in March since I started keeping records in the early 60s and snow lay at 0900 ( met office definition ) on 14 mornings.

As TWS said, the first two thirds of March 2006 was rivalling 1987 for cold but was spoiled by the very mild spell at the end of the month.

[stewfox]

I wasn't old enough to appreciate what happened in March 1987 but I can give an outline of the month's synoptics. It started with a couple of frontal battlegrounds (12th March 2006-style) between Atlantic and continental air in the first week, giving signficant snowfalls in places. A week of cold easterly winds followed, though the uppers were no lower than -5C and with a strong anticyclonic bias, so I guess that the week was probably mainly dry and cloudy. Then towards the 20th the winds swung around to the north, bringing many snow showers especially to northern and western areas- I'm guessing you are remembering snowfalls from the northerly winds around then. Westerly winds and near average temperatures ended the month.

If I remember rightly the CET was 4.1C, the lowest since 1970 and a figure only subsequently approached in 1996- although it has to be said that March 2006 was at least as cold until the 25th when an exceptionally warm southerly regime became established.

I was in my final year at Portsmouth Poly and use to keep diaries back then (see seperate 1979 thread)

I dont have anything re snowfall so maybe down south nothing remarkable happened

Although a max of -5c for 14 Jan 1987 etc Jan 1987 a very different story.

[Snowyowl9]

It was the coldest snowiest March I can remember,can remember strong drifting from the east for a time, then there was freezing drizzle fog overnight one morning still with snowcover and ice on the trees,then once the N/NW-ly`s came can remember a period of heavy snow, and it didn`t thaw that afternoon when the sun came out later in the month,exact dates I havn`t looked.

Edited March 1, 2009 by Snowyowl9

[damianslaw]

Thanks for your posts in response to this thread. I think the 20th was a Friday, my memory may be playing tricks as I thought it was a midweek day when the heavy snow fell, however I was only 8 at the time so could easily have been the Friday. The 6th was also a Friday so again my mind may be playing tricks. Also without knowing just how many days we had total snow cover, it could easily have been a day that hadn't followed a night of snowfall. Wish I could remember exactly.. it can't have been too troublesome a morning for getting into Windermere as we had an exchange on this particular day with children from a school in Preston. Guess I'll never be able to tell exactly when it was.

[Summer of 95]

I wasn't very old then (7 and a half), but I do remember some snow around mid-month, perhaps a bit later where I was living in South Wales (it was my last year there before moving to Shrewsbury). I remember it was a weekday afternoon (BTW just realised 1987 had the same calendar as this year; it was in the period 16-20th then) when it started snowing as I was in school; it settled straight away (2-3 inches or so) and it was the only time in the first 15 years of my life that I can definitely remember seeing lying snow in March, anywhere. It wasn't as spectacular as January that year but it sticks in my mind as being the only March snow I recall from the 80s/early 90s.

April 1987 I also remember being nearly as good as 2007.

[damianslaw]

I wasn't very old then (7 and a half), but I do remember some snow around mid-month, perhaps a bit later where I was living in South Wales (it was my last year there before moving to Shrewsbury). I remember it was a weekday afternoon (BTW just realised 1987 had the same calendar as this year; it was in the period 16-20th then) when it started snowing as I was in school; it settled straight away (2-3 inches or so) and it was the only time in the first 15 years of my life that I can definitely remember seeing lying snow in March, anywhere. It wasn't as spectacular as January that year but it sticks in my mind as being the only March snow I recall from the 80s/early 90s.

April 1987 I also remember being nearly as good as 2007.

period 16th-20th would fit my memory.

[Thundery wintry showers]

It might not have been the 20th exactly- the previous two or three days had cold northerly and north-westerly winds, so your memory of midweek might be right.

[TonyH]

I remember a significant snowfall in the Spring of 1987 in the Midlands, I was working in Leamington Spa, and did a nice walk in it at Bosworth, Leicestershire at the weekend (3 inches or so). Can't remember if it was March or April, I have the weather diaries somewhere though!

Edited March 2, 2009 by Tonyh