[summer '85]

We are now going to look back at some cold winters that were not too severe overall but did have notable cold spells

 We are going to look at winter 1995-96

December 1995 was the coldest December since 1981 with a CET of 2.3.

The month began mild and unsettled with rain and temperatures in double figures.
High pressure over Europe prevented the Atlantic systems from making much progress.
The weather changed on the 3rd as the high moved into Scandinavia and this allowed
an easterly flow to develop across Europe and the UK bringing with it colder weather with frosts,
low maxima and snow showers.

 

High pressure over Scandinavia then ridged across the UK on the 9th bringing with it settled weather with frosts at night although it was not quite as cold as during
the first week.

 

The high drifted to the north of Scotland on the 14th allowing the easterly to return to the south,
 where it was very bleak under the leaden skies and a bitter wind.

 

Gradually the high migrated towards Greenland and Atlantic systems began to move up to the SW but these engaged a cold Arctic airmass that was moving southwards at the same time.

 

 

The first sytem brought rain to central and southern parts but as the Arctic airmass moved southwards it turned the rain to snow over the Midlands before the system cleared southwards on the 20th.
The next system pushed up from the south and this brought snowfalls to many parts of England and Wales before turning milder.
This system moved further north than it's predecessor and so the milder weather also got into Scotland.
In the south, it was wet but mild with temperatures into double figures but by the 23rd, the colder weather was returning to Scotland as the Arctic airmass plunged southwards to reach all parts by Xmas Eve.

 

During Xmas Eve night, a polar low approached northern Scotland and this gave the severest weather for the month.
There were severe blizzards and gales with drifting snow. The Shetlands was worst hit with depth of level snow at 35cm
and drifts well in excess of this. A state of emergency was declared on the Islands.
On the mainland, conditions were not quite as severe but there were power cuts across the far north.
A number of places had a White Xmas that year. With high pressure over the UK by Boxing Day, conditions became calm and clear but this would cause it's own problems. With deep snow cover, intense cooling occurred and very low minima were recorded.
Many parts of Scotland had minima down to below -20C and daytime maxima were very low, -10C was recorded at Glasgow.
At Altnaharra, a record equalling low of -27.2C was recorded on the morning of the 30th. Frosts were very severe and freezing fog added to the complications.
By the 30th, a low in the Atlantic slowly pushed up a front from the SW.

 

This front brought freezing rain to many parts of the south bringing with it travel chaos as sheet ice formed on roads and rails.
The progress of the front was very slow as it overcame the very cold air over the UK but by the 31st it had reached Scotland.
There was a slow thaw on the last day of the year with cloudy, misty conditons across many parts.

The first two thirds of January 1996 was dominated by largely mild southerly winds and lots of cloud.
This was due a large block over eastern Europe and a large low pressure over the Atlantic.
Maximum temperatures were in double figures and frosts were non existent.

 

A change in the weather pattern occured when the block began to ridge westwards into Scandinavia and the low pressures over the Atlantic began to sink southwards. An increasingly cold easterly flow became established over the UK.
By the 24th, maxima were close to freezing and there were severe penetrating frosts at night in the strong easterly wind.

 

Snow showers became heavier and more frequent in the east and these spread westwards by the 26th as a very cold pool air from the continent moved into the UK. On the evening of the 26th, very heavy snow showers and longer periods of snow moved into northern England bringing appreciable falls of several inches in places and drifting in the wind and bringing the usual transport problems.

 

Further south, the snowfalls were not as heavy and the snow cover disappeared overnight as a pool of
slightly warmer air moved across England. For the rest of the month, the winds were still in the east with frosts at night but the intense cold had disappeared and maxima were about 2 to 4C

 

The cold weather from late January 1996 continued into February as high pressure sat over the UK.
On the 6th, an occlusion system approached the west of the UK threatening a change to much milder
 weather across the UK.

 

However, pressure began to increase to the east of the UK and this prevented the occlusion advancing and the system became stalled over the west of the UK on the evening of the 6th.
Heavy snowfalls fell right across western and central parts of the mainland but conditions were particularly severe in SW Scotland and parts of Cumbria, where depths of snow were approaching 50cm. A state of emergency was declared in SW Scotland and many drivers stranded on the A74 had to be rescued. Whitehaven in Cumbria was virtually cut off and workers at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant had to spent the night as they were stranded. Conditions elsewhere were less severe but the inenvitable travel chaos ensued. By the evening of the 7th, the snow finally died out and it remained cold and snowbound
 until the 9th with further snowfalls at times before a vigorous depression finally brough a thaw and milder temperatures.

 

The snowfalls of 6th/7th February turned out to be some of the heaviest in the west since the winter of 1947, whilst the far east largely missed out.

On the 18th February 1996, a low pressure near the NW of Scotland swung down into the southern North Sea and dragged down very cold NEly winds across the UK.

 

The airflow was very unstable and heavy snow showers broke out across many parts of the UK bringing temporary blizzards and whiteout conditions. In the SE, there was a lull during the afternoon but heavy snow showers moved into this region during the evening and there were blizzards across east Anglia during the night, where depths of snow reached 4". The strong winds caused coastal flooding in parts of the SE.
 By the 20th, conditons had eased somewhat but there were snow showers still falling albeit lighter especially across the Midlands.
 By the 21st, high pressure toppled down from the NW and most places were cold and fairly sunny.

 

Data for winter 1995-96

December 1995: 2.3 (-2.3)
January  1996: 4.3 (+0.5)
February 1996: 2.5 (-1.3)

Coldest spells of the winter

6th-11th December: 0.4
25th-31st December: -1.6
23rd January-9th February: -0.2
19th-22nd February: 0.8

Mildest CET maximum day: 11.4 3rd December
Coldest CET maximum day: -3.0 28th December
Coldest CET minimum night: -7.9C 29th December

HEATHROW

Mean Max
Dec: 5.8
Jan: 7.2
Feb: 6.7

Air frosts
Dec: 13
Jan: 5
Feb: 17

Lying snow and falling snow respectively
Dec: 3, 7
Jan: 1, 3
Feb: 5, 9

ELMDON

Mean Max
Dec: 4.4
Jan: 5.4
Feb: 5.4

Air frosts
Dec: 16
Jan: 9
Feb: 19

Lying and falling snow respectively
Dec: 4,  12
Jan:  5,   7
Feb: 6,  14

MANCHESTER

Mean Max
Dec: 5.0
Jan: 6.4
Feb: 5.9

Air frosts
Dec: 15
Jan: 6
Feb: 20

Lying and falling snow respectively
Dec: 2,  9
Jan:  3,  5
Feb:  6,  12

ABBOTSINCH

Mean Max
Dec: 4.0
Jan: 7.0
Feb: 6.6

Air frosts
Dec: 16
Jan: 3
Feb: 18

Lying and falling snow repsectively
Dec: 9,  4
Jan: 2,  4
Feb: 5,  10

[Andy Mayhew]

It was the freezing rain I remember most from that winter - only time I've experienced it to such a degree. Sat in the pub (my pub btw ;) ) watching the rain fall and the ground become covered in a sheet of ice .... That was at Sytonehouse, Glos. Can't remember the exact date though.

It was also the last winter I experienced sufficent snow for decent sledging.

[summer '85]

Quote

Andy Mayhew - 14/11/2006 10:16 It was the freezing rain I remember most from that winter - only time I've experienced it to such a degree. Sat in the pub (my pub btw ;) ) watching the rain fall and the ground become covered in a sheet of ice .... That was at Sytonehouse, Glos. Can't remember the exact date though. It was also the last winter I experienced sufficent snow for decent sledging.

 

30th December 1995? Possibly, that was the major freezing rain event of that winter. Peter Cockcroft said there was a very low chance of freezing rain on his forecast and it turned out to be mostly freezing rain!  [hehe]  After such a cold spell, it was a disappointing breakdown

Those snow showers on that Friday night at the end of January 1996 were something, they were really heavy. Who says Manchester can't get snow on an easterly! [hehe]  

[Andy Mayhew]

Sounds about right [y]

[summer '85]

From CBatHome

The UK had just enjoyed a glorious Summer from the end of June to August 1995 with some very warm if not very hot temperatures easily reaching 90 Fahrenheit (32 centigrade) on several occasions. It had also had a run of four relatively mild winters although the 1993/4 winter did bring more colder than the others. However the winter of 1995/6 brought a continual battle between milder Atlantic air and cooler Arctic air with the cooler air often winning the battle on several occasions. It brought some substantial snowfall to some areas but virtually all areas of the country did have at least one covering during the winter season. Furthermore the first snow of the season fell in November 1995 and the last recorded was at late as early May 1996 which is very unusual.

The Met Office and other weather forecasters had identified that the North Atlantic Oscillation was strongly negative which gave an indication that the coming winter was likely to be very cold and the supply of mild Atlantic air was going to be short supply.

November 1995

The first indication of winter came at the end of the month where the first Northerly brought some snow showers to North Eastern facing coasts in the weekend of 18th/19th to Scotland and North East England, the remainder of the country had some cold but dry and frosty weather. Milder weather did return for the remainder of the month.

December 1995

The month had a very mild start to it with temperatures above 10 centigrade on Fri 1st. However, a massive anticyclone was beginning to form over Scandinavia and it was obvious at this time of year that this means one thing, cold Easterly winds from Siberia. The cold blast reached the UK's shores on Sun 3rd and had covered the whole of the country including Ireland in these bitterly cold winds. Temperatures which were easily climbing into double digits were now struggling to climb above freezing. The warn front that was pushing across the country was pushed back Westwards as a cold front but there was very little rain and sleet in the precipitation.

In the week commencing Mon 4th, the daytime temperatures were remaining below freezing whilst the night time were regularly falling to below minus 10 centigrade. The Easterly winds were also picking up moisture off the North Sea and many areas including those inland did have some heavy snow showers giving some moderate coverings in places but not enough to cause too much disruption.

In the following week, Mon 11th Dec, the high pressure had sunk a little further Southwards and the Easterly winds turned into South Easterlies which did bring some slightly less cold conditions, enough to melt the small amounts of lying snow that remained but even still temperatures widely struggled to climb above 4 centigrade.

The high pressure slipped away in Central Europe but as it did so, allowed another one to form between Greenland and Scandinavia and reintroduced much colder weather again to the Northern half of the country. Temperatures did recover a little in the Southern half but still remained just below average for the time of year.

The classic winter background was starting to become established again with cold air across the Northern half of the country and slightly milder conditions further South. A very active depression formed off the South of Ireland and pushed some very heavy rain into Southern areas on Tues 19th, as this pushed up into the Midlands and East Anglia it started falling as heavy rain (some places had over 40 mm) but the colder air further North between to dig in underneath and turned the rain to snow very rapidly. This leading edge of this front became static as temperature plummeted close to freezing point the snow settled very quickly on the wet ground from the earlier rain. Overall, these areas had a covering of 4 to 6 inches of snow but fortunately the snow was wet, it did not cause too many traffic problems and much of it fell over night. The front cleared away South Eastwards giving a temporary covering as far South as the M4 corridor to the Northern Home counties.

The following day Wed 20th was a cold, dry and sunny day and much of the snow fall from the previous night thawed as temperatures struggled to climb to about 5 centigrade. That night a severe frost returned but this was before the next system pushed in from the Atlantic in the early hours on Thu 21st. The precipitation once again fell as heavy snow as the cold air undercut the leading edge of the approaching frontal system. There was a good 3 to 4 hours of heavy snow which gave a further 4 to 6 inches from the South Midlands Northwards but this system moved further Northwards and bring milder weather, much milder weather lifting temperature up to 12 centigrade. Any precipitation soon turned back to rain and much of the lying snow had disappeared.

The very mild air did pushed right across the country bringing a temporary period of well above average temperatures. Another band of very heavy rain pushed up from the South West on Fri 22nd and with the very mild temperatures did not bring any snow as had previously been forecast. However the high to the North of Scotland was intensifying at this point bringing a return to the cold Arctic air initially to Scotland and then the rest of the country. This subsequently pushed this particular front back Southwards again over the weekend of 23rd/24th with some snow on its back edge but precipitation amounts was fairly significant.

What was significant about this cold push of air was that it was to bring the coldest spell of the whole Winter season with some substantial snowfall over the Shetland Isles, North and East Scotland and down the Eastern side of the country. Mon 25th (Christmas Day) brought some severe blizzards to the Shetland Isles where an emergency situation was declared caused by polar lows traversing down the North Sea. Heavy snow became more widespread on Tue 26th (Boxing Day) across the Eastern half of the country although further South these were in the form of showers. Once these cleared away, some very cold air spread down right across the country, so much so that the lowest ever recorded temperature of -27.2 centigrade which was last recorded on 10th January 1982 was equalled again at Altnaharra on Sat 30th. It was also an identical set up to that period as well. However one of the most strangest things happened over the next 24 hours in that this equal record breaking low temperature climbed above freezing the following day.

The reason this happened is that an occluded front which was located off the South coast on Sat 30th began to make its journey Northwards. It had been widely predicted that this was re-introduce milder conditions to all parts of the country by the start of the New Year. It had been originally forecast for a period of heavy snow but as it traversed on its journey, virtually the whole period of precipitation fell as rain. The front was not a particularly very active but the rain was falling onto ground which had been below minus 10 centigrade the day before that it was instantly freezing. This caused major transport problems right across the UK as black ice was forming on roads and railways just as people were making their journeys home after the Christmas break. Many major routes such as the M4 in South Wales had to be closed during to the 'skating rink' like conditions on the road surfaces. The milder weather did eventually ease these problems but the analogy behind this was that there was some exceptionally mild air at high altitude which was sufficient enough to keep the moisture above freezing to prevent to rain from turning to snow as it moved into the colder air. This was the first time that freezing rain conditions across a wide area of the country had fallen since the bitterly cold 1978/9 winter.

January 1996

1996 started off very mild if not very dull with many areas not seeing the sunshine until the second week of January. Mild conditions prevailed for much of the month but the cold air again was never too far away. This lasted until Tues 23rd which was the fore-runner to the next main cold spell of the winter.

Overnight on 23rd/24th January, another Atlantic system was pushing up across the country and the forecasters had highlighted that the Midland would be the battleground for mild air and cold air to clash. It was predicted that rain would arrive by midnight and this would rapidly turn to snow as the cold air dug in. The predictions were correct for the precipitations but for the second time this Winter, rain fell onto frozen surfaces and created treacherous icy conditions on the transport systems. It was once again caused by exceptionally mild air at high altitudes preventing the rain from turning to snow even though temperatures at ground level were below freezing. The glazing effect was more significant this time as for example, it prevented drivers from using their cars because where the rain had fallen on it and frozen, had sealed up the doors. Similarly roads and pavements were like skating rinks and unlike 30th December 1995 when the milder conditions eased the problem, this was the start of another cold period and conditions only improved when the gritters arrived. It seemed strange that 17 years had elapsed since the last significant spell of freezing rain and it happened for the second time in this winter season in less that 4 weeks from each. Furthermore, freezing rain started off this mild spell and brought it to a close.

By Fri 26th, the cold Arctic air from a feed of Northerly winds from a high pressure off the North East coast of Scotland was established right across the country again and this fed in some very heavy snow showers right across, even inland areas which had several inches during the day. Overnight on 26th/27th, a more significant band of snow moved in off the North Sea across the East and West Midlands bringing a more substantial covering of 6 to 10 inches, even in Leicester, Coventry and Birmingham. Further South on the morning of Sat 27th, a heavy snow shower across North Hertfordshire and South Cambridgeshire gave a good covering to these areas, Stevenage had 6 inches of snow from this one shower alone which lasted about 3 hours.

In the week commencing Mon 29th, the snow showers eases well but temperatures widely remained below freezing throughout that week and very little of the snow that had fallen had failed to melt. High pressure was still established to the East of the country feeding in bitterly cold North Easterly winds with one or two light showers to East coastal areas.

February 1996

The cold spell from the end of January continued into February and there was no let up in the fury of the winter grip. The weekend of 3rd/4th brought some very cold and frosty conditions but it was the precursor of an occluded front which tried to make its way in from the West.

This occluded front moved quite swiftly across Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic bring a brief period of snow before milder weather followed in behind. As it reached the mainland in the early hours of Mon 5th, as expected heavy snow fell on its leading edge but the influence of the high pressure in the North Sea slowed down its progress. By late on 5th, the leading edge of the precipitation had got as far East as Birmingham and anywhere West of that was under the influence of the wintry breakdown. Even in Dorset, Somerset and Devon in the South, heavy snow fell causing widespread disruption. It was very unusual for a front to come in off the Atlantic and the whole system to be giving snow as its predipitation as temperatures struggled to climb above freezing.

Overnight on Mon 5th/Tues 6th, the front stalled across the Western half and as a result snow depths continued to mount. All of Wales away from the West coast, Lancashire, Cumbria and South West Scotland were reporting snow depths approaching 24 inches and even the centre of Birmingham was approaching 12 inches by daybreak on the 6th. The was widespread chaos on the M6 and A74 as motorist became stranded in their vehicles. However further East, the cold and dry conditions prevailed although the front did advance a little further Eastwards during the day before eventually dying out that evening.

On Wed 7th, another small depression tracked across Devon and Cornwall which gave a brief period of heavy snow to these areas and the following day, a band of heavy snow showers progressed Eastwards on Thu 8th giving many areas another inch or two in places.

On Fri 9th, a further but much more active front approached from the West which rapidly spread right across the country but much of the precipitation of this was in the form of rain so many Eastern areas of the country did not really see much snow in this cold spell. It did bring slightly less cold conditions and lifted temperatures to about 7 or 8 centigrade but the cold air continued to plunge Southwards as each system traversed across the country.

The weekend on 10th/11th was relatively mild but a further cold front pushed Southwards on Mon 12th giving a further temporary covering of snow to some areas on its back edge. The remainder of that week overall was slightly less cold with the occasional rain and sleet showers.

The colder weather was set to return again at the end of the weekend 17th/18th as another Atlantic system, this time traversing South Eastwards across the country. Again on its back edge as it cleared Southwards in the early hours on Mon 19th gave a further covering of snow mainly to Eastern hours as far South as London. This particular system dragged in some very bitterly cold North Easterly winds with the low pressure becoming stationary just of the North coast of Norfolk. During the day on 19th, heavy snow showers began to form over the North Sea and these traversed inland South Westwards roughly South East of a line from the Humber to the Isle of Wight. As the day went on, these showers intensified significantly into more prolonged periods of snow and caused widespread chaos to the evening rush-hour. Eastern coastal counties including Kent and Essex were very badly affected with 8 to 10 inches of snow falling but even further inland, 4 to 6 inches was widely recorded as the snow showers continued through the night. These areas which had missed the heavy snow on 6th were certainly getting their fair share this time round. The low pressure did eventually ease away and so did the snow showers on Tues 20th.

With cold air once again established across the country, the next system to push in from the West came in the early hours of Thu 22nd. This was a cold front which was traversing South Eastwards across the country. The precipitation started off as heavy snow and brought a widespread covering of about 4 to 6 inches but right on its back edge, milder air followed even though it was termed as a cold front. The short period of rain that fell did not do enough to thaw the snow but temperatures rising to about 5 or 6 centigrade did.

The battle between the mild and cold air continued into the following weekend where another front that had a kink in it pushed up across the South East and East Anglia. This predominantly fell as rain but on Sun 25th as it began to progress North Westwards saw some of its precipitation tuned to sleet and wet snow. It did not bring much in the way of snow except to the higher ground.

The remainder of the winter season did bring some slightly less cold conditions but there was a further spell of very heavy snow across the Midlands on the night of Mon 11th/Tues 12th March where once again an Atlantic system was battling it out against some very cold giving typically 2 to 4 inches. However as this frontal system was pushed Westwards, it gave a period of very heavy snow to Northern Ireland. Even this was not the last of the snow as more fell across South East England and East Anglia on Fri 12th April as an advancing front from the West stalled in these areas. Typically 1 to 2 inches fell in these areas but it was the very wet snow and thawed out rapidly the following day. This was not the end of the wintry precipitation as the beginning of May (well into the Spring) had a very cold spell at the start of the month in which it was reported that sleet fell widely across Western areas (snow on the hills) on Thu 9th May as a thundery system moved in. This did not last too long but after this system had cleared, temperatures for the first time in 1996 finally climbed above 20 centigrade and the winter season was finally over

The overall winter season did record a record breaking low temperature in December but overall was very similar to the 1978/9 winter season in which mild spells were continually inter-dispersed with colder spells with the occasional extremely cold periods. It brought a mixed bag of what a UK winter should be like but it was the last winter season for a decade before below average temperatures were fairly commonplace

[summer '85]

[kvet]

That freezing rain episode occurred on a Saturday. A fairly unremarkable day to start with, but with a serious lack of clients. (I ran a small animal vet. practice in Clifton, Bristol). With nothing better to do, I was looking out over the normally busy street to see people inching their way down it and often falling over. During my own practical research into this phenomenon I fell over too. The drive home to the suburbs was OK on gritted bus routes, but impossible on even the gentlest ungritted gradients. I had to climb a six yard long hill just outside my house. The car couldn't make it, and I ennded up doing on all fours!

[summer '85]

Another of my downloads

[summer '85]

Christmas Eve 1995



Christmas Day 1995



Boxing Day 1995

[Cameron85]

Andy Mayhew said:

It was the freezing rain I remember most from that winter - only time I've experienced it to such a degree. Sat in the pub (my pub btw ) watching the rain fall and the ground become covered in a sheet of ice .... That was at Sytonehouse, Glos. Can't remember the exact date though.

It was also the last winter I experienced sufficent snow for decent sledging.

Freezing rain picture taken february 1996.

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[summer '85]

Here's the 25th January 1996 forecast



Here's the 26th January 1996 forecast. Heavy snow showers came across the Pennines that night to affect my region and by morning it was steady snow.

[summer '85]

Piers Corbyn giving his prediction to ITN on the 22nd December 1995

[summer '85]

One of the lowest predicted temperatures ever seen on a weather map for the UK

28th December 1995

[summer '85]

1st December 1995: easterly on the way


2nd December 1995: very mild


6th December 1995: ITN report on the snowfalls

[summer '85]

News reports on the late January 1996 snowfalls

[summer '85]

17th February 1996: another blast of winter on the way

[summer '85]

19th February 1996: a really cold strong NEly blast on the way

[summer '85]

19th February 1996: heavy snow showers. I remember it was a lovely clear cold morning after a snow shower had passed through then about from midday, large cumulonimbus clouds erupted with heavy snow showers giving temporary blizzard like conditions and low visibilities.



ITN on the snow and blizzards

[summer '85]

20th February 1996