20 years since the great Yorkshire dump

[Weather-history]

Low pressure tracking across Midlands, cold air to the north with an area of heavy preciptation, that's what happened on the 25th January 1995 and parts of Yorkshire copped it with a very heavy disruptive snowfall. I remember hearing that thousands of motorists were trapped on the trans-Pennine section of the M62

I think Leeds was in chaos, if I remember rightly

Some photos

http://www.variousstuff.co.uk/photos_04/nr04_011w.JPG

http://www.variousstuff.co.uk/photos_04/nr04_013w.JPG

[cheese]

I remember it, but I was only 7 years old. About 40cm fell I believe. Temperatures recovered quickly but the snow didn't melt for days after due to how deep it was.

 

Here is an Independent article on the storm:

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/four-killed-as-blizzards-sweep-the-north-1569897.html

 

People sought refuge in the West Yorkshire Playhouse - thousands were left stranded all over the North. It caught everyone off guard - I don't think anybody really expected the amount of snow that fell that evening.

 

I want to see it again, and January 1995 was only a little cooler than average, so it shows the potential for major snowfalls even when there is no really cold air.

 

Amazing synoptics:

 

Edited January 20, 2015 by cheese

[iand61]

Interesting read as ever Weather history.

We were very much in the sweet spot for this and recieved a good foot of snow and some impressive drifting although it is something I'd pretty well forgotten about.

Recognise the location of the photographs as well, just over the tops from me in Todmorden West Yorkshire.

[damianslaw]

An often forgotten event - it was very localised and came out of the blue. It was the intensity of the precip which enable evaporative cooling and conditions to stay on the right side of marginal - there was a significant temp gradient profile, southern England was experiencing double digit figures at the time..

 

We missed out here, but we did see some frontal snow 2 days later, giving about 5 inches before rapid transition to rain and a quick thaw. It was a surprise snowfall in an otherwise mainly mild very very wet winter. Things turned colder later in Feb and a wintry start to March then heralded what for me is the best 12 month period weather wise I can remember, a varied spring with an early heatwave in early May, followed by the superb summer of 95 and a gloriously mild dry sunny autumn with a quick descent into a cold wintry December followed by notable snow and cold late Jan and through Feb. Can we have another March 95 - March 96 please!

[iand61]

An often forgotten event - it was very localised and came out of the blue. It was the intensity of the precip which enable evaporative cooling and conditions to stay on the right side of marginal - there was a significant temp gradient profile, southern England was experiencing double digit figures at the time..

 

We missed out here, but we did see some frontal snow 2 days later, giving about 5 inches before rapid transition to rain and a quick thaw. It was a surprise snowfall in an otherwise mainly mild very very wet winter. Things turned colder later in Feb and a wintry start to March then heralded what for me is the best 12 month period weather wise I can remember, a varied spring with an early heatwave in early May, followed by the superb summer of 95 and a gloriously mild dry sunny autumn with a quick descent into a cold wintry December followed by notable snow and cold late Jan and through Feb. Can we have another March 95 - March 96 please!

Agreed, an ideal set, a long hot summer with an amazing drought followed by a cold snowy winter including an entire Christmas with snow on the ground and blizzard conditions on New Years Eve.

[Weather-history]

I remember the rain turning to snow here and it actually started to stick for a short time before it turned back to rain. How close we were to a good fall of snow because the rain that followed was very heavy.

It did snow from the front that Friday and it actually stuck. It thawed away that afternoon. There was no snow to rain transistiion here, it just stopped.

Edited January 20, 2015 by Weather-history

[hillbilly]

Struck us hard here,blizzard like conditions,was living at 340m and worked on a farm at 360m,it froze the diesel in a tractor and landrover and trying to thaw out a water pipe my boss set fire to a building,the fire brigade had to be towed up after we cleared the lane with our tractor snowblower,we even dampened the flames by blowing snow onto it,what a night to remember and huge drifts come morning,a shame it didn't stick around for a couple of weeks !!!

[iand61]

I remember the snow set in heavy at around lunchtime with a bitter easterly wind blowing it horizontally.

At about 2pm work closed and we were told to go home for the day, the only time in my 36 years of work that this has happened.

My usual 20 minute car journey took 3 hours with over an hour of it spent with a gang of us trying to push a double decker bus far enough to allow traffic around it and all the time the snow was filling in deeper.

Surprisingly although helped by living on a main road, I managed to get the car right to the house but by morning the snow was drifted over the bonnet and took a full hour to dig out.

As was usual in this times, I never thought about taking photographs.

[Summer of 95]

Nothing happened here on the 25th but Friday 27th was a really weird day. It started snowing about 11am and gave about 3-4cm in a couple of hours, was looking like a good event, and then it suddenly turned to rain without warning just like that. None of the sleety transition, no wavering between rain and snow (sometimes it goes back to snow after that), it took 2 minutes to turn from all settling snow to all pure rain. All the snow had gone by 6pm and it carried on raining and caused some flooding. That day it was 0C at noon and 10C at midnight, absolutely crazy.

[Snowyowl9]

Really marginal that was this far south.

Snow rain snow rain,did give 2 inches with some drifting early on the 27th that was a brief NWly then a rapid thaw.

Its forgotten in the memory.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/ra/1995/Rrea00119950127.gif

 

[Weather-history]

 

25 years ago this week. 

Interesting to see Countryfile forecast for Wednesday

 

[Weather-history]

Telegraph 

 

 

 

From Huddersfield Advertiser

 

Accrington Observer

Evening Standard

 

Guardian

Cambridge Evening News

Liverpool Echo

[Coopsy]

On 20/01/2015 at 06:46, Weather-history said:

 

 

 

Most things improve over time but strangely I prefer the graphics from nearly 30 years ago 

Edited January 20 by Coopsy

[iand61]

1 hour ago, Weather-history said:

Telegraph 

 

 

 

From Huddersfield Advertiser

 

Accrington Observer

Evening Standard

 

Guardian

Cambridge Evening News

Liverpool Echo

Remember this well and great to see a local perspective from the Accrington paper.

When we closed work at 2pm the easterly wind was blowing snow through the shutters onto the shop floor and we had to park forklift trucks against them to stop the entire things from being blown in.

the  7 mile journey home to Bacup took me until 6 o’clock