27th March 1975; The Birmingham Maundy Thursday Blizzard

[Penrith Snow]

Yes it was 27th March 1975 when after a snowless winter the West Midlands was hit by heavy snowfalls that brought the City of Birmingham to a standstill.

It was a classic Cheshire GAP streamer that brought the snow as showers that formed over the Irish Sea in the morning were funnelled down the Cheshire Gap merging into long spells of snow across the West Midlands during in afternoon.

In Birmingham City Centre 16cms of snow fell between 1pm and 6pm coinciding with rush hour and getaway Easter traffic, the M6 became chocked by 20 miles of stationary traffic while the airport was closed.

Looking at the Synoptic chart for that day shows a brisk northerly although nothing severe, uppers were around -6c with surface temperatures outside the snow area near 5c, it seems likely that solar heating enhanced the shower activity around midday adding extra energy and moisture to the snow showers coming in from the Irish Sea.

Looking at this mornings GFS, a similar northerly is being modellec for early April.

Andy

[Weather-history]

16 minutes ago, Penrith Snow said:

Yes it was 27th March 1975 when after a snowless winter the West Midlands was hit by heavy snowfalls that brought the City of Birmingham to a standstill.

It was a classic Cheshire GAP streamer that brought the snow as showers that formed over the Irish Sea in the morning were funnelled down the Cheshire Gap merging into long spells of snow across the West Midlands during in afternoon.

In Birmingham City Centre 16cms of snow fell between 1pm and 6pm coinciding with rush hour and getaway Easter traffic, the M6 became chocked by 20 miles of stationary traffic while the airport was closed.

Looking at the Synoptic chart for that day shows a brisk northerly although nothing severe, uppers were around -6c with surface temperatures outside the snow area near 5c, it seems likely that solar heating enhanced the shower activity around midday adding extra energy and moisture to the snow showers coming in from the Irish Sea.

Looking at this mornings GFS, a similar northerly is being modellec for early April.

Andy

I posted a pictorial history of this the other week

 

[A Face like Thunder]

Yes, Easter 1975 was early and the weather nationwide was cold and snowy, quite the worst Easter I ever experienced bar 2008 perhaps, and this was not helped by a bout of flu which kept me in bed for much of the long weekend.

Singer Chamois or Hillman Imp? I owned both in the 1970s. Engine at the back which was a devil to get out if major repairs were needed. The thermo on the Imp was constantly at danger and I ended up ignoring it without any catastrophic results!