December 1997 easterly: a poor effort.

[Weather-history]

I remember getting excited about the prospects of this easterly during mid December 1997. The previous two Decembers had easterly spells, the 1995 one was near the start of the month and the 1996 one was at the end of the month and I saw snow on both occasions. The December 1997 easterly was a disappointment though, there were a few snow flurries in the air and even the breakdown was nothing special. Not sure how others thought of this easterly but for easterly fans, I don't think it was one of the best.

Infact Manchester Airport never even got below freezing at any stage.

Forecasts from this period, the sound is low unfortunately

[I remember Atlantic 252]

breakdown was quite good here, Wed 17th, soon thawed though mild air moved in on 18th

[Snowyowl9]

That gave here odd light snow flurries on the 16th and east gales.

Then 2.5 inches of snow following day with strong east winds and drifting it didn`t get above freezing then a big thaw that night.

[JOPRO]

From what I remember we got a light dusting here, and got very excited as a young lad expecting a white Xmas, only for our maths teacher to tell us with a big beaming smile that it would be all gone in the morning. Never liked maths anyway.

[cheeky_monkey]

had quite a bit of snow in the south west out of this one...was temporarily snowed in for a few hours before the mild weather arrived...was followed by a particularly wet and mild Xmas period if i remember rightly

[MP-R]

Remember this day well. It was the day I broke up for Christmas that year and we all had a carol service in the church local to the primary school. It was certainly very festive with at least 5-7cm of snow out of it. I don't remember what followed as I was very young at the time but it happens to have coincided with an event that I remember.

 

I also recall the Christmas being particular unsettled as was the New Year period. 

[Thundery wintry showers]

That easterly was not particularly cold but it delivered widespread snow in southern England, probably because of the relatively short track over the North Sea plus a frontal system that moved northwards during the 17th.  St. Mawgan, in one of the milder parts of SW England, reported one morning with lying snow. 

 

In Tyneside it was close to a non-event- the 15th and 16th were dull with rain showers and even many inland parts of the region held up at 4 or 5C, while the frontal system gave mainly rain and sleet when it moved up from the south late on the 17th.