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If you could travel back in time to relive a memorable weather event


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Posted
  • Location: Barling, Essex
  • Location: Barling, Essex
Posted

The Great Storm of October '87. I was 18 months old at the time. My mum ran in my room after hearing a smashing sound to find me still asleep in my cot with a room full of Leaves, Conkers and shards of glass.

 

If we're not restricted to one event, it would be December 2010. Absolutely unbelievable weather. I fear I will not see anything like it again in my life time.

Posted
  • Location: Pollard's Hill, Surrey
  • Location: Pollard's Hill, Surrey
Posted (edited)

Two events spring to my mind. Winter 1962-63 and the Summer of 1976. Both are really quite remarkable events which have not been repeated since and are unlikely to be in my lifetime. But the event I would travel back to would be the White Christmas of 1970. Brings back such good memories of my childhood and my late parents. Was a wonderful time for me.

Edited by Shanice
  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
Posted

They've been plenty of threads on this subject matter, but always good to resurrect them from time to time.. to delve back into happy times.. For me February 6 1996, having enjoyed snow following the previous day since late morning, waking up to a 14 inch level cover was excellent with the snow still falling and not stopping until late afternoon, leaving a level 18 inch cover, not bettered since..

The run up to christmas 2010 was very special, the landscape took on an alpine even arctic appearance, after weeks of sub-freezing temperatures, the ground turned rock hard and covered in snow and hard ice, the sky took on a wonderful polar atmospheric sheen, rivers and lake began to freeze over culminating in a very special evening on the 20 when we had a super moon, it was bright orange and huge in the sky with temperatures dropping sharply to -10 degrees in no time once the sun went down..

Generally wintry conditions evoke and leave sharper etching on my memory and experiences than summer events.I do remember vividly the 4 August 1990 seeing the mercury hit 90f is a rare thing here, the next day we set off on our 2 week summer holiday, thinking we don't need to go abroad for heat.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: London
  • Location: London
Posted

August 5th/6th 1981 supercell thunderstorms over London and southern England. 

I was on my school holidays and remember the daylight fading and it turned completely dark for an hour or more. It was pitch black, so the cloud tops must have been over 40,000 feet. It was also very hot that week.

 

 

Posted
  • Location: Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
  • Location: Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
Posted

The severe thunderstorm of 24th June 1994.  It was a huge, violent MCS which moved NE across much of southern England and developed a strong mesoscale vortex so the whole storm system was visibly rotating as it approached.  The lightning was incredible, the gust front winds were powerful enough to lift a wall of sand as it came in along Clacton beach and it lasted for HOURS once it hit.  Clacton pier was struck numerous times, I was watching from under a beach shelter along the front.

The buildup to the storm was the most dramatic I've ever known with towers stretching so far up into the sky they seriously didn't look real.  The air ahead of the storm was strongly subsiding so there was a complete clearance of cloud as it came in.  Best UK storm I've ever seen.

  • Like 3
  • 4 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Broxbourne, Herts
  • Weather Preferences: Snow snow and snow
  • Location: Broxbourne, Herts
Posted

February 1985. My sunday team had arranged a free sunday as we were travelling up to play against and spend a day with RAF Scampton. It was snowing when the old coach taking us up there picked us up in Herts and we travelled up in virtual white-out conditions.  The lads from the RAF had been all morning clearing the snow from the lines to get the game going ahead. We'd hoped it was going to be called off so we could spend all day in the bar.  but we played and we won a high scoring game with my mate scoring a hat-trick when it was unlike him scoring at all!

The drinks in the bar afterwards were incredibly cheap.
It was so cold on the way back that there was ice on the inside of our coach's windows.
The next weekend we got quite a write up in the local paper so we'd been involved in the only bit of outdoor sport that any team from the area had been involved in.  The report mentioned that my mate had revelled in the snow....something we still refer back to on many an occasion  

Posted
  • Location: Wakefield, West Yorkshire
  • Location: Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Posted

It's got to be the winter of 1978/1979 for me!

I was only 1 year old at the time, but would love to go back as a grown up to experience that winter.

  • Thanks 1
Posted
  • Location: Shrewsbury
  • Location: Shrewsbury
Posted

1981-82 in south Wales, I was around as a 2-year old but don't remember it at all. Have heard all sorts of tales about metre-high drifts and the like...

From before my time, the summer of 1959 looks pretty good.

Posted
  • Location: Nr Malton, North Yorkshire 53m
  • Weather Preferences: Snow/Thunderstorms
  • Location: Nr Malton, North Yorkshire 53m
Posted

Feb 1991 in the Yorkshire Wolds, heavy powdery snow blow in on an easterly gale, I was alive but only 7 months old so surprisingly I don't remember.

Posted
  • Location: Harborne, Bham 187m asl
  • Location: Harborne, Bham 187m asl
Posted

Thundersnow January 28 2004. Absolutely unforgettable the rate of snow which fell during that 1-2 hours. Made more memorable by the fact that I was out and didnt know how long it would last

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Posted (edited)

G'day folks, new here but have always been a weather watcher from as far back as I can remember,, I remember bits about 1962/63 and 67/68, and 68/69, but one winter that really stuck in my mind was 79/80 where I surfered real pain from what the British winter can do, 81/82 was a good one too,

If I could go back in time then 62/63 would be the one I'd pick, we were living in Farsley at the time and we had a real tough time of it, Now I am more prepared to deal with that kind of weather I long for it to happen again.

Edited by 1lonewolf
Posted
  • Location: Ponteland
  • Location: Ponteland
Posted

I remember it well,the day you are referring to was a Wednesday and the 8 am temperature was zero with next to no wind,by 9am it was -5c z

and blowing a hoolie from the east and blowing heavy snow,I walked from the uni into town and was frozen stiff and looked somewhat like an abominable snowman when I arrived at my destination!

Posted
  • Location: Penn (by Seven Cornfields) Wolverhampton
  • Weather Preferences: Cold snowy and frosty
  • Location: Penn (by Seven Cornfields) Wolverhampton
Posted

One of the cold snowy winters of old.  I was just over 3 for the winter of 62//63 and have a distant memory of snow piled up against the back door.  The winters of the late 70's I recall would be worth revisiting and of course would love another 2010.  I can also remember some good thunderstorms around these parts in the early 1990's, one in particular that rumbled all night and well into the following morning, we just don't seem to get thunderstorms like that anymore for some reason.  

Posted
  • Location: halifax 125m
  • Weather Preferences: extremes the unusual and interesting facts
  • Location: halifax 125m
Posted
On ‎01‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 09:30, Terminal Moraine said:

A lot to choose from but near the top of my list would be February 16th 1962 to re-live the tremendous gale which caused huge amounts of damage in Sheffield. I can remember it well enough but would love to be there with an anemometer.

 

https://www.chrishobbs.com/sheffieldgale1962.htm

Posted
  • Location: North West of Ireland
  • Location: North West of Ireland
Posted

The blizzard to end all blizzards during April 1917. That or some of the epic frontal snow events from 1947.

  • Like 1
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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Posted (edited)
On 23/12/2017 at 11:55, Larger than average Hobo said:

I think it was Valentines Day 1979. Walking over the Tyne Bridge was horrific. No buses on and couldn’t afford a taxi. I thought I had frostbite by the time I got back. A month later we got buried again by the March 1979 snowstorm. 10ft drifts and villages isolated. Those were the days. 

That date also sprung to my mind as the most likely.  Tynemouth had a midday temp of -3C despite a strong wind coming in off the relatively warm North Sea.

ERA_1_1979021412_1.png

If I had to pick one month it would probably be June 1975, for the out-of-season snowstorm on the 2nd followed by an abrupt switch to hot weather, and then generally an exceptionally sunny month, also with some thundery downpours for some around midmonth. 

Other months that spring to mind are January/February 1955, Januarys 1958 and 1959, Februarys 1969 and 1970, and January 1984.

If we're limiting it to events that I've lived through then probably the period 25 November-26 December 2010.

Edited by Thundery wintry showers
  • Like 1
Posted

Ooops I got one of my dates wrong, that should read 78/79, Not 79/80, Sorry about that,

 

I was looking forward to all the weather reports before and after Christmas, but here we are and tonight we are facing rain and wind gusts of 80 mph+, I prefer the Cold Icy weather or A good dollop of snow, lol,  I am thinking of moving to a place where it snows a lot more, arrrh Toast made on an open fire and fresh coffee anyone ?. 

Posted
  • Location: Bentley Heath
  • Location: Bentley Heath
Posted

79/80 was bad though. I remember the Friday before Christmas 1979. I am a West Brom supporter, and was 7, almost 8, at the time. I was even let out of school 2 hours or so early, so me and my father could go to see Albion play at Crystal Palace. We left the West Midlands (Tipton) around 1 in the afternoon. In the Midlands it had been cold and frosty for a few days, I recall, but little else. However we had some sleet that morning and it was light snow as we left.We drove via M6 & M1 in those days. By the time we got to the Northampton area or thereabouts, we hit heavier snow and a few miles further on a blizzard ensued all the way into London. No M25 then either, so we drove from M1 at Staples Corner via Kilburn, Cricklewood across Westminster Bridge (I remember seeing Big Ben) and onto Selhurst Park. We got there just after 6.30 (7.30 KO then) and the game had been called off!

I also remember Feb 1994 being bad, for snow and again via football I was in a pub on the A3400 outside Oxford (Albion were due at the old Manor Ground) and we learned the game was off so we stayed on in the pub. 

Dec 7-9th 1990 was another huge event I could go back to. Winter 85/86 (Nov to Dec '85 and Feb 1986) was another very cold and snowy affair.

Also around the October 2000 there were huge storms in the South East(I lived in New Malden at the time) and I recall torrential rain and flooding blocking the A3 into Roehampton. 

 

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Cambourne Cambridge 70M ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Blizzards,Hot Thundery nights.
  • Location: Cambourne Cambridge 70M ASL
Posted (edited)
On 09/07/2017 at 07:29, Spikey M said:

The Great Storm of October '87. I was 18 months old at the time. My mum ran in my room after hearing a smashing sound to find me still asleep in my cot with a room full of Leaves, Conkers and shards of glass.

 

If we're not restricted to one event, it would be December 2010. Absolutely unbelievable weather. I fear I will not see anything like it again in my life time.

Sounds like you had a lucky escape!

Remember this well. As 15 year old boy I spent the night alone at home in Braintree Essex because Mum had gone to my Nan's funeral in London. All I had with me was our German shepherd in the house. Being alone I decided to sleep downstairs on the sofa.

Was woken just after midnight by wind and rain hitting the windows, went back to sleep and woke again at 02:30, the electricity supply was failing and our video recorder clock was flickering on and off. The dog was whining and the wind was vicious outside with the sound of debris crashing all around. Did not sleep anymore and by dawn to my delight was informed by the neighbours that school was closed. Me and friends spent the whole day observing all the damage in the local area. God i wish I had taken pictures that day of the trees that had not just been uprooted, but thick trunks actually twisted in half. You couldn't walk more than two feet without standing on broken roof tiles. Live electric cables hanging and arcing out on the road. The strange thing though was that my Nan was terrified of wind and she had passed away the day before the storm!

Edited by 80sWeather
  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: Cambourne Cambridge 70M ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Blizzards,Hot Thundery nights.
  • Location: Cambourne Cambridge 70M ASL
Posted
On 18/12/2017 at 22:19, high ground birmingham said:

Thundersnow January 28 2004. Absolutely unforgettable the rate of snow which fell during that 1-2 hours. Made more memorable by the fact that I was out and didnt know how long it would last

Yes I remember how the heavy snow was horizontal, was at work and had a South African guy with us who had never seen snow! When we opened the factory door to see the snow his chin literally hit the floor with amazement, then we all got sent home, the traffic was gridlock and I thus parked up on a quiet street and walked the two miles home.

Posted
  • Location: Braintree essex
  • Weather Preferences: Anything exciting.
  • Location: Braintree essex
Posted

Winter of 62/63

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