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Posted
  • Location: Gilesgate, Durham
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, Heat
  • Location: Gilesgate, Durham
Posted
On 27/09/2019 at 20:50, Thundery wintry showers said:

At one time (back in the early 2000s) I was one of those who dismissed January 1987 as chiefly a south-east event, mainly because I had access to weather stats for Lancaster and they just had a centimetre from it, and because the archive charts show very high pressure across the north. 

But my present-day impression is that most areas had a fair amount of snow, with sheltered western areas tending to be the exception, as the air mass was so cold that it was able to generate plenty of North Sea convection all the way up to eastern Scotland despite the very high pressure.  Another area that was heavily hit was, unusually, southern Cornwall, with massive falls in places like Penzance, as the air mass was so cold that even the far south-west peninsula was cold enough for snow, and it presumably got hit by snow streamers running along the English Channel.

I can vouch for the fact that it wasn't just the south east. Up here on the East Durham Plateau, we got plastered with snow. A good foot of it.

Dave

  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: sheffield
  • Weather Preferences: cold ,snow
  • Location: sheffield
Posted

I remember the run up to this cold spell .I kept daily records for many years and the UK had been quite mild while record breaking cold built to the east.i remember on the we'd being in the park in Sheffield and seeing a flock of geese flying westwards across us which obv got my attention.on the sat we had a damp miserable day and the temps were falling.sunday started bright but bitter then heavy snow showers moved in during the afternoon.monday was one of the coldest days ever in Sheffield and the snow really set in.i lived in a tower block at the time on the 14th floor and just to see how cold it was I threw a cup of boiling water off the balcony and it froze I stantly.i can't remember a colder couple of days in my lifetime but the late 70s were close

  • Like 2
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: NR Worthing SE Coast
  • Location: NR Worthing SE Coast
Posted

The beginning and the end of this cold spell was poorly forecasted.

If you look at the video from jan87 with Ian mckaskill , on the Wednesday he said it would remain very cold throughout the following weekend and probably into the following week,with snow in the SW

But by the weekend temps had risen above freezing and a thaw commenced.

This could have been one of the all-time classic  cold spells in this country if it had persisted longer,but it only was really severe  for about 4 days in a row.

Shame,and nothing remotely  as severe since, though end of feb,beginning of march 2018 would have givien it a run for its money if it had occurred earlier in the season.

  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine and 15-25c
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
Posted
16 minutes ago, SLEETY said:

The beginning and the end of this cold spell was poorly forecasted.

If you look at the video from jan87 with Ian mckaskill , on the Wednesday he said it would remain very cold throughout the following weekend and probably into the following week,with snow in the SW

But by the weekend temps had risen above freezing and a thaw commenced.

This could have been one of the all-time classic  cold spells in this country if it had persisted longer,but it only was really severe  for about 4 days in a row.

Shame,and nothing remotely  as severe since, though end of feb,beginning of march 2018 would have givien it a run for its money if it had occurred earlier in the season.

oh i don't know that spell at the beginning of Feb 1991 was nearly as severe and lasted longer all told where i was in Essex 

  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: NR Worthing SE Coast
  • Location: NR Worthing SE Coast
Posted

I was away on a 3 month tour of Asia so missed Feb1991 ,lol.

I always checked the weather reports though on holiday and remember checking the UK papers,when they arrived a day later and seeing  london with a min of -5 c and max of -3c ,and thinking typical I missed it!

  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: St Neots, previously Billericay & Brentwood
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, gales, all extreme weather really!
  • Location: St Neots, previously Billericay & Brentwood
Posted
On 19/11/2019 at 19:09, cheeky_monkey said:

oh i don't know that spell at the beginning of Feb 1991 was nearly as severe and lasted longer all told where i was in Essex 

I was in Romford for 87 (cant recall depths but was very deep) and Brentwood for 91 (around 12 inches of snow) and it was during my school days for both too so great fun - they still stand out clearly for me as the best snow - as a kid back then I assumed most winters were like those!! Those events and the 87 storm kick started my passion for the weather, really interesting weather times.

  • Like 3
Posted
  • Location: Canmore, AB 4296ft|North Kent 350ft|Killearn 330ft
  • Location: Canmore, AB 4296ft|North Kent 350ft|Killearn 330ft
Posted (edited)

My memory goes back to around 1982.

Jan 1987 was the holy grail by far for me- both in terms of temps and snowfall. We got a direct hit with 2.5 ft of level snow near the top of the north downs.

'91 was second although not as cold and no where near as much snow at around 16 inches.

Then I guess there's been a few 1 foot snow events including last year - though the cold last year was impressive. I remember March 2005 as a very intense 1 foot of snow in about 8 hours. 

By 1991, I too thought it was usual to have severe winter spells quite close together - oh how wrong I was lol

Edited by Coopsy
  • Like 3
Posted
  • Location: NR Worthing SE Coast
  • Location: NR Worthing SE Coast
Posted

yeah who should have though the snow would diminish so much after 1991,nearly 30 years now.

pergaos this winter will be different,but highly doubt it

  • 5 years later...
Posted
  • Location: Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Warm-by-day sunny thundery summers , short cold snowy winters.
  • Location: Hampshire
Posted (edited)

 Methuselah Sorry for bringing an old thread back to life, but I guess we are approaching the anniversary of 1987 and it's a cold spell at the moment so it's somewhat relevant.

As for how "good" 1987 was, I'd say not quite up to 85 or 86, or 81/82 or 79, but better than any winter since, for snow at least. True, the real severe cold was only one week, but the snow was very heavy and if I remember right the snow laid here for around 2 weeks, with the thaw in the second week (week of 18th-24th) being very slow indeed due to still below-average temps, cloudy skies and dry air. I don't think it was completely gone until towards the end of that week.

The third in the three memorable mid-80s winters, put it that way. Also helped that the remainder of winter 1986/87 was mostly (IIRC) dry and chilly-ish, and there were further outbreaks of snow in March. Aside from Dec (which from 1982-89 was always a let-down) it was a winter devoid of mild, wet and windy.

Edited by Summer8906
  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
Posted

 Summer8906 To be honest I would have rated the winter of 1984/1985 as far better than 1986/1987. January had a similar depth of cold at times albeit not quite as much, but parts of Kent had silly maximums of like -6C during the '85 spell, and then the cold came back in February. Better than a one week wonder. It was a real wonder yes, but December 1986 and February 1987 strike me as quite boring months. Had February and March switched places then 1986/1987 would have been a better winter.

Posted
  • Location: Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Warm-by-day sunny thundery summers , short cold snowy winters.
  • Location: Hampshire
Posted (edited)

 LetItSnow I always counted 1987 to be longer than one week though as I said above; if I remember right the snow remained on the ground for almost a further week after the really severe cold abated. It always seemed quite a prolonged cold spell. January 1982 was similar if I remember right, in both cases the extreme cold was followed by dry, settled weather which meant less in the way of moist air to hasten the thaw - though it was milder in 1982 following the snow while (IIRC) in 1987 the temp remained below average for the rest of the month.

Agree that 84/85 was better but just saying that I'd consider 1987 as still pretty exceptional - as I said nothing since quite comes up to the standard of 1987 for this location.

 

Edited by Summer8906
  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Warm-by-day sunny thundery summers , short cold snowy winters.
  • Location: Hampshire
Posted (edited)

According to the Monthly Weather Report another remarkable statistic about Jan 1987 was that it had the greatest negative anomaly for mean max in South East and Central Southern England since 1963, with mean max 3.4C below average.

1985 was 0.1C colder by mean temp due to colder nights, and 1979 was equal to 1987 by mean temp anomaly but with days less cold and nights colder.

One issue of course is that 1985 and 1987 are likely to be w.r.t 1951-80 while 1979 is likely to be w.r.t 1941-70, which includes the extremely cold forties in place of the less cold seventies. So perhaps 1979 was still the coldest in absolute terms in SE/Central S England (only anomalies are shown in the MWR).

Edited by Summer8906
  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
Posted

 Summer8906 I have to say some of the model output recently with sliding lows and borderline failure made me wonder if we might be in for a modern redux of January 1979. We’ve spoke before about how that month was always so close to failure but managed just about to be on the right side of the cold air for every area. Very highly doubt this will play out again but would be awesome if it did. The brief mild air tomorrow certainly wouldn’t have been as powerful in 1979 that’s for sure. 

  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire
Posted

I froze my butts off watching Crystal Palace play in the FA Cup on Sunday 11th Jan 1987, and fortunately the home side won. There was a remarkable statistic the following day when the temperature at Warlingham in Surrey never got above 15.6F (-9.2C). Frost was continuous day and night in many parts of Surrey where I lived at the time, and ice floes were seen on the Thames (Ian Currie). I remember walking along the normally busy local high street early evening during that week and there was not a car around. A memorable week.  

  • Like 3
Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Posted

I remember rather downplaying the January 1987 event when I first joined these weather forums around 2002/03, partly because I was at Lancaster University where they only got a centimetre of powder snow from it, and partly because of the intensity of the high pressure just to the north. I erroneously claimed that it only really heavily affected the south-east.

I was misguided - while as always certain areas missed out, the areas that got no more than a centimetre were the exception rather than the rule. At places that I've lived as far apart as South Shields, Leeds, Lincoln and Norwich, there were substantial accumulations of snow as well as maximum temperatures well below freezing. Parts of the Tyne and Wear area were snowed in. Exeter only had one centimetre, but nearby Plymouth had rather more, thanks to snow showers off the English Channel, and normally snowless Penzance had some 30cm. The main culprit was the intensity of the cold air on the 11th/12th and in particular a strong upper cold pool as well as surface cold, which led to many snow showers being triggered over the North Sea despite very high pressure. On the 13th/14th longer spells of snow moved in from the east and south-east.

Nonetheless, I agree with the assessment of 1984/85 being better for snow than 1986/87, because the winter quarter of 1986/87 was a bit of a "one hit wonder", whereas 1984/85 had repeated major snow events, and the same was even more true of 1978/79 and 1981/82, and also 1983/84 in the northern half of Britain.

Posted
  • Location: Longden, Shropshire
  • Location: Longden, Shropshire
Posted

 Thundery wintry showers I too preferred winters 1984/85 and 1985/86 to 1986/87 as those winters had multiple cold spells/snow, whereas like you say January 1987 was a one hit wonder and the rest of the winter was nothing really to write home about.

Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
Posted

 LetItSnow The track of this weekend's low doesn't really emulate anything from 1979 though. Had it happened then, we may be lucky enough to max out at 11 instead of 13, but that's about it.

Posted
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
Posted

 MP-R I didn’t mean how it’s panning out, I said how the models were playing around with different outcomes before we knew the low was going to track north. That’s what I meant at least. 

Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
Posted

 LetItSnow Ah I see. I can only imagine what the lead up to Jan 1979 would’ve been like on this forum! 😬

  • Like 1
Posted
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
Posted

 MP-R The slidergate of December ‘78 would have sent many to the psych ward I think!!

Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
Posted

 LetItSnow There almost needs to be a thread of that title here… 😅

Posted
  • Location: Poole, Dorset
  • Location: Poole, Dorset
Posted

I spent most of this spell in the Austrian mountians. God was it cold. The flight back was diverted from Gatwick to Manchester, I think they said it was due to fog. After a long coach trip back to Dorset that night, the gound there was still frozen and snow covered. There was much talk of frozen pipes etc. Not that i cared, I was only 10.

Posted
  • Location: Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Warm-by-day sunny thundery summers , short cold snowy winters.
  • Location: Hampshire
Posted (edited)
10 hours ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

Nonetheless, I agree with the assessment of 1984/85 being better for snow than 1986/87, because the winter quarter of 1986/87 was a bit of a "one hit wonder", whereas 1984/85 had repeated major snow events, and the same was even more true of 1978/79 and 1981/82, and also 1983/84 in the northern half of Britain.

By contrast 1983/84 was an epic fail for snow down here, the only snow we got in the entire winter being a brief event sometime in the first half of Dec (producing a very thin cover before rapidly thawing) and some wet snow (no settling) on either March 31st or April 1st. The only lasting cold spell was the mid-to-late Feb event, though January had a number of brief but potent Pm interludes lasting a day or two.

Indeed 1983/84 was, with 1979/80, the worst winter for snow in this area during the whole 1976/77 - 1986/87 period (using historical records for 1976/7 to 1978/9 as I didn't live in the south then). Feb 1983 was snowy for a while, and even 1980/81 did better with a decent covering on the morning of 21 Feb 1981, which admittedly thawed in the afternoon.

 

Edited by Summer8906
Posted
  • Location: lizard pen south cornwall
  • Weather Preferences: summer thunderstorms snow snow snow
  • Location: lizard pen south cornwall
Posted

Jan 87 was the holy grail for me here on the lizard peninsula. I was 17 at the time and still talk about it to this day.we had 36hrs of continuous heavy drifting snow which completely cut off the hamlet I lived in for a week.The drifts where right up to the tops of the cornish hedges and I'll never forget seeing a wing mirror of a car appear out of a drift once the thaw started. 

Truly once in a lifetime event and nothing since has come remotely close,apart from 2018 which for a couple of days was pretty epic.

I live in the most snow starved location in the UK,haven't seen a flake since 2018 but 1987 would match any snow event anywhere in the UK I think.So glad I witnessed it and have its memories. 

  • Like 2
Posted
  • Location: Bentley Heath
  • Location: Bentley Heath
Posted

I recall January 10th 1987 as my club, West Bromwich Albion were away at Swansea in the FA Cup 3rd rd. We'd had some frost and then snow overnight from Friday and we thought the game might be off. I was 14, so going with my dad that day. I remember he phoned the club and they said there was no snow in Swansea at all. 

I wish it had been called off as we lost 3-2 with a last minute winner for them. 

And they denied us late on yesterday too!

I think the snow got much worse the over the following days, from memory.

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