6th January 1994 unexpected snowfalls

[Weather-history]

Although the prospects of snow was forecast, this snowfall did catch many people by surprise on the 6th January 1994.

A band of rain became slow moving in a line from the Wash to Hampshire, including parts of West London. As the falling preciptation cooled the surrounding air, the rain turned to snow and this process was fastest in the areas where the preciptation was heaviest. By evening, most of the Home Counties to the north and west of London were having heavy snowfalls and this severely affected the major routes in the area especially the M1, M25 and M40 causing travel chaos. Up to 7" of snow fell in parts of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. The situation was further complicated when the skies cleared later in the night to allow the snow and slush to freeze.

Forecast by Penny Tranter

[Don]

I remember this and had snow cover for a couple of days. Can't believe it's 20 years ago!

[80sWeather]

Remember this well, the forecast that morning showed rain/sleet.

Cycled home from work at 17:00 in freezing cold rain, but in the back of my mind was the mornings forecast, so I kept checking the raindrops looking for that slushy splat on car roofs!

Got home, and after dinner at around 18:30 the rain turned to heavy snow, the transition was very fast, like the snow was just switched on!

It eased off by 22:00 but there was a good 6 inches on the ground that froze solid as the frost kicked in.

This is the first time I have seen anything about this event, so well done once again to Weather-History.