February 1978 - Historic blizzards & freezing cold.

[LetItSnow!]

February 1978 was a cold and snowy month that featured one of the most intense blizzards in recorded history.

 

The month started with temperatures close to average - westerly winds dominated until the 6th. Gales on the 1st/2nd sent ships adrift.

Changes began on the 7th as winds started to blow in from the continent. Freezing fog becamee difficult to clear and temperatures started to plummet. The 9th began a four day streak of temperatures remaining below zero. The C.E.T. from the 8th to the 21st averaged -0.4.

Snowfall totals during this period included 15cm across Kent from snow showers on the 9th, 20-25cm at Dundee and Edinburgh by the 12th (the heaviest snowfall there since 1955) and undrifted snowfall totals between 50-80cm in NE England/SE Scotland by the 13th.

 

The largest totals were yet to come - the Atlantic began advancing forward on the 15th allowing weather fronts to track across southern England, instantly turning to snow as they hit the frigid air. Unusually, the cold block held the mild air at bay. It was as the block held the Atlantic low pressure systems at bay when the lowest temperatures occured. Across deep snow cover, the temperature fell to -21degC at Braemar on the 15th; -17degC was also achieved in the city of Edinburgh on the 17th. However, it would get colder.

The second advancement of low pressure in the Atlantic lead to perhaps the most intense blizzards in UK history on the 18th/19th. The block allowed low pressure to undercut and draw in gale force easterly winds filled with moisture. This lead to apocalyptic blizzards across the southwest, a place usually sheltered from cold and snow. Level snow accumulated to depths of around 60cm at Dartmoor and Exmoor and 85cm at Nettlecomb in Somerset, though drifts of up to 6 metres were reported widely across Somerset & Dorset. Elsewhere, Cardiff saw 34cm with 8 metre drifts. Many lives were sadly lost in the exceptional blizzard.

The coldest temperature came on the final day of the freeze; -22degC at Keith (Grampian Region) on the 20th. Also on the 20th came heavy freezing rain in the south, adding to an already wintry scene.

After this the cold relented and the low pressures in the Atlantic could finally pass through. In a complete twist, the rest of February 1978 was very mild and 15degC was recorded in London on the 23rd. The rapid thaw caused a great deal of flooding. However, some remote parts of the SW remained cut off from civilization until the 24th. The rest of the month featured a mixture of mild, cloudy and foggy weather and occaisonal thunderstorms brought in on southerly winds.

Overall, February 1978 has a C.E.T. of 2.8, the coldest February since 1969. A very mild final week meant the month wasn't overall that cold in the record books, similar to January 1982.

The U.K. wasn't alone this month as a ferocious Nor'easter gave a historic dumping of snow across the east coast of the USA from the 5th to the 7th (similar to the recent Nor'easter across Boston, January 2022); the second in a trio cluster of extremely cold winters across NA from 1976-77 to 1978-1979; you can read about that extensively elsewhere.

 

Share your memories of this month!

Edited February 1, 2022 by LetItSnow!

[damianslaw]

Ah not quite born.. an interesting February by all accounts. 

[cheeky_monkey]

2 hours ago, LetItSnow! said:

the Atlantic began advancing forward on the 15th allowing weather fronts to track across southern England, instantly turning to snow as they hit the frigid air.

This part is incorrect..i remember this day very well..it was a Wednesday and the day before my brothers birthday...i was at junior school at the time..it had been very cold with snow showers the few days before..but the 15th it rained all day and was heavy rain..and only started to turn to sleet then snow  after 5pm in the evening..i still remember the weather forecast after the news that evening stating it would rain all night but may be cold enough for some sleet on the moors..but outside it was already snowing..by morning there was a good 6 inches of snow and the day was cold and crisp so we bunked of school and went sledging instead 

[LetItSnow!]

32 minutes ago, cheeky_monkey said:

This part is incorrect..i remember this day very well..it was a Wednesday and the day before my brothers birthday...i was at junior school at the time..it had been very cold with snow showers the few days before..but the 15th it rained all day and was heavy rain..and only started to turn to sleet then snow  after 5pm in the evening..i still remember the weather forecast after the news that evening stating it would rain all night but may be cold enough for some sleet on the moors..but outside it was already snowing..by morning there was a good 6 inches of snow and the day was cold and crisp so we bunked of school and went sledging instead 

It must have been a rain-to-snow event. Cold sub minus-5 air was well established across the country, depends where you were at the time.

[A Face like Thunder]

Philip Eden refers to exceptional snowfall on 9th to 13th Feb affecting Eastern Scotland and NE England, and 18th to 20th Feb in the West Country. These followed the 'great Highland blizzard' of 25th to 29th January 1978 in which four people lost their lives. I believe the fatalities included 1-2 on a train going north from Inverness towards Wick which became stuck in the snow and could not be reached in time to save them. After that, trains in the Highlands in winter were required to carry emergency food supplies in the guard's van in case they got stuck, but I'm not sure whether that is still the practice.  

[mountain shadow]

This Winter is my first memory as a five year old.

I remember walking home in a blizzard with my two brothers from school and my Mum having us warm our freezing feet with the full THREE bars in the electric heater.

I lived in Dundee back then.

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by mountain shadow

[Chesil View]

The great southwest Blizzard of 18/19th Feb 1978 is the outstanding weather event of my life'

My brother and i climbed up on top of huge snowdrifts on the Isle of Purbeck and were walking over the tops of telegraph poles.!!

[MP-R]

Would love to experience an event like this some time. A classic set up for the southwest given it's first in line for snowy breakdowns. Easterlies with hit and miss showers don't quite cut it sadly, unless there's a more organised area of snow involved.

[Mark wheeler]

It was the year I was born so I have no recollections, however my Mum and Dad have always said that year and 1987 was the worst/best they have ever encountered in there life times . 63 aside of course.

[MarkM]

I was 16 and ended up with about a 15 mile walk to deliver a birthday card to my girlfriend because in Sheffield the gritters were on strike, this resulted in several inches of compressed snow/ice on all the roads and public transport had been withdrawn, the only vehicles moving were the occasional 4wd and back then there weren't very many of those. The snow depth outside my parents house was level with the window sill. For those that know the area I walked from Rosa Rd , Crookes, to Woodseats and back. 

[78/79]

Remember it well, I was  almost 18 .  I t started on a Saturday evening if I remember rightly.  by about Tuesday it was  on it's way out .

[February1978]

On 24/10/2022 at 15:14, Chesil View said:

The great southwest Blizzard of 18/19th Feb 1978 is the outstanding weather event of my life'

My brother and i climbed up on top of huge snowdrifts on the Isle of Purbeck and were walking over the tops of telegraph poles.!!

As you might guess from my ‘name’ it is for me too. I was a 9 year old in Taunton, and it was not well forecast if I remember correctly. It started Saturday lunchtime, continued all day and by the morning there was level snow probably 40-50cm and drifts the same height of the garden fence. 

Because it was not expected, people were stuck visiting friends, in pubs and so on.  There was a story that people stuck in the local pub only dug themselves out when the beer and food ran out a few days later

An extraordinary few days, but mild set in pretty quickly and much of the snow had gone by the following weekend.

[LetItSnow!]

46 years ago the great SW blizzard was raging on

[Weather-history]

 

[Rob 79812010]

Cant recall whether Manchester had snow from this. Maybe, but it was the following year I remember. Best snow event in my lifetime. 17cm in manc. 

[damianslaw]

 Mark wheeler Same year as me. Feb 78 was quite unusual as a broad swathe most populated part of UK from Liverpool - Manchester to Birmingham to London saw little snow. Either side was very snowy.

Edited February 19 by damianslaw