Coldest upper atmosphere recorded in England?

[Village]

Here is a question for all the model watchers amongst us:

Who knows and can show any links to the coldest pool of upper air recorded over England during the winter months giving rise to the shallowest hights of the Tropopause? I say England because Scotland often has much colder upper pools reducing heights to <520.

I seem to remember a few occasions when I saw the 512 dam over England with the 850Hpa temps of about -15C.

Can anyone else remember a time when we here in England experienced even colder upper air and therefore <512 dam values?

[Robbie Garrett]

I think -18C 850hPA in Kent was the coldest, I remember someone mentioned it previously...

[Rob K]

I think -18C 850hPA in Kent was the coldest, I remember someone mentioned it previously...

I'm pretty sure -20C has just clipped the UK on more than one occasion. I think I found a chart in the archives from some time in the 1950s when this question came up before? Will have a look...

Edit: think I was thinking of Feb 1/2 1956. Neither of the charts show the -20C isotherm quite over the UK but I reckon it must have crossed over the SE coast in between the two charts:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1956/Rrea00219560201.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1956/Rrea00219560202.gif

[chionomaniac]

1987 I think comes close to coldest 850's - 12-13 Jan over SE England

[Rob K]

Meteociel has the charts in 12hr steps but still doesn't show the magic -20C:

http://modeles.meteo...56-2-1-12-2.png

11/12 Jan 1987 also got very very close:

http://modeles.meteo...7-1-11-12-2.png

http://modeles.meteo...87-1-12-0-2.png

http://modeles.meteo...7-1-12-12-2.png

So -19C has occurred more than once but maybe not quite -20C?

[Village]

Ah, yes, I lived on the southeast Essex coast at this time in January 1987....we had heavy thundersnow bringing 38 inches of level snow and sea smoke.

Would love to experience that again. The cold upper air set the southern North Sea alight with rampant convection.

[Weather-history]

An event you never hear about when very cold uppers are ever mentioned was the early January 1894 event. If you take the archive maps at face value, some places in England were under -16C air for around 48 hours, centred around the 5th.

[PMPhotography]

1987 I think comes close to coldest 850's - 12-13 Jan over SE England

This event was my first ever memory! 4 years old trudging down the street with snow to my waist!

And with me constantly glued to the charts and MOD thread looking for snow i think I'd be a psychologists dream!!

[Stu_London]

thought I read on here once that the 1987 event saw heights of about 498dam in East Anglia for a period.

[Village]

Wow, 498 would be really something. At that time the internet was not available to me and so I couldnt get data like that. I think I will look back at my old Meto charts and see if I can see the dams on the charts.

[Village]

An event you never hear about when very cold uppers are ever mentioned was the early January 1894 event. If you take the archive maps at face value, some places in England were under -16C air for around 48 hours, centred around the 5th.

Any reports that you know of relating to the weather on the ground during that period of 1894?

[Weather-history]

Any reports that you know of relating to the weather on the ground during that period of 1894?

Some low minima that were recorded

Surrey

Wallington: -13.5C (5th)

Kent

Keston: -13.3C (7th)

Sussex

Ditchling: -12.8C (7th)

Northamptonshire

Sedgebrook: -12.8C (6th)

Essex

Chelmsford: -16.7C (6th

Halstead: -18.6C (6th)

Suffolk

Great Thurlow: -18.1C (6th)

Norfolk

Beccles: -12.8C (6th)

Devon

Buckfastleigh: -13.3C (7th)

Nottinghamshire

Hodsock Priory: -20.2C (6th)

Yorkshire

Wakefield Prison: -17.2C (6th)

Driffield: -18.2C (6th)

Durham

Ushaw: -15.0C (6th)

Cumbria

Windermere: -13.3C (6th)

Perthshire

Stronvar: -18.3C (7th)

Forfar

Coupar Angus: -23.9C (6th)

Aberdeenshire

Braemar: -20.0C (6th)

Cork: -13.3C (7th)

Kilkenny: -13.9C (7th)

Camden Square in London recorded a minimum of -10.5C on the 5th

Some reports

Addington: The 4th was a bitterly cold day with high wind and frost and the 5th was remarkable for its very low max. (-9.4C) and the min. (-11.7C)

Bury St Edmunds: Maximum of the 5th was -7.8C

Langton Herring: -8.3C reading between sunrise and sunset of the 5th

Torquay: Snow on the 4th, 5th and 6th, 12 inches deep.

Woolstaston: -7.5C maximum on the 5th

Haverfordwest: -5.6C maximum on the 5th

A letter by Basil T Rowswell of St Martin's, Guersney

"Systematical meteorological observations have been taken in Guersney during the last 50 years with standard certifed instruments and last Friday's readings broke the record for low temperatures. The mean temperature of that day was 21.9F (-5.6C) which is (excepting Thursday's, the 4th mean) 5.9F lower than the lowest daily mean previously recorded.

.....The coldest day on record previous to this cold snap occurred on February 11th 1870, the daily mean 27.3F (-2.3C)

[Eugene]

It would be great if someone could make a thread up with the lowest and highest thicknesses on record for england and wales for each individual month of the year.