[summer '85]

The first 3 weeks of January 1976 were mild with little frost and snow. The first week was especially stormy with a very severe gale on the 2nd and 3rd (discussed in a separate article).

 

 

The pressure patterns changed on the 22nd as high pressure rose rapidly over Greenland and this linked with the Azores high producing a northerly over the UK by the 24th.

 

 

This was the first real wintry spell for January since 1972 with snow showers and severe frosts. By the 28th, the northerly was gone as low pressure replaced the mid-Atlantic ridge. Pressure rose over Scandinavia and the low to the west of the UK sank southwards producing a cold easterly over the UK, the first winter easterly since January 1972.

 

January 1976
CET: 5.9
Up to 23rd: 7.7

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Great Storm of 1976

When the year 1976 is mentioned whilst talking about the weather nearly everyone talks about the famous summer but there was a weather event that was far more deadly and is now largely forgotten, eclipsed by that remarkable summer.
On the evening of 2nd January of 1976, a deepening depression moved across Scotland and deepened as it moved into the North Sea. The central pressure of the low at midnight was 968mb. On the SW flank of the low, there were severe gales with gusts up to hurricane strength. The severe gales were at their peak from 8pm to 12am and the worst hit areas were a band from Ulster across the Irish Sea to Lancashire down through the Midlands into East Anglia. 100+mph gusts were recorded in this area, places like Wittering, recording a gust of 105mph, Cromer:- 102mph, Norwich:- 100mph and at Middlesborough, 114mph. The highest gust recorded was 134mph at Lowther Hill, Strathclyde.
The severe storm caused an enormous amount of damage, every road out of Norwich was blocked with over 600 trees in the city itself uprooted. Nearly every county there was reported structural damage with fallen roof tiles and collapsed chimney pots, a newly built ferry at Liverpool was sunk and there were massive power failures. 24 people died as a result of the Great Storm of 1976.

[summer '85]

I thought I bring this to the top as this January seems to be following a similiarish path

 

CET trackometer

1.   7.3
2.   7.4
3.   6.6
4.   6.4
5.   6.9
6.   7.2
7.   7.2
8.   7.4
9.   7.5
10. 7.7
11. 7.7
12. 7.9
13. 8.0
14. 8.0
15. 7.9
16. 7.8
17. 7.8
18. 7.8
19. 7.7
20. 7.8
21. 7.8
22. 7.8
23. 7.7
24. 7.4
25. 7.1
26. 6.9
27. 6.7
28. 6.5
29. 6.4
30. 6.1
31. 5.9

[summer '85]

Just looking at some of the highest gusts for the 2nd of January storm

65.4mph: Manchester airport
57.4mph: Heathrow
65mph: Gatwick airport
76mph:  Liverpool
81mph: Birmingham airport
80mph: RAF Lakenheath

[Pogoda]

Hey, compare your 24th Jan 1976 chart with the forecast for 22nd Jan 07!!!!! Similar eh!! :D :D :D

[Thesme]

I was thinking that meself...hehehe BLIZZARDS!

[Nigel Bolton]

The gale of 2nd Jan 1976 was the worst gale I have experienced until October 1987. My part of northern Essex caught the southern flank of this storm, and there was a great deal of damage. Many trees came down, but the main source of damage seemed to be the huge number of large chimneys that fell through the roofs of country houses. All over rural Essex, there were these large old houses with gaping holes in the roof where the chimney had fallen through, or rooves covered in green tarp.

Can remember walking with my father around 10pm that night into the middle of Great Dunmow to pick my sister up. She had been out on a church excursion, and the coach was due back at that time. It arrived, but just before hand, the wind blew the frontage off of a shop, and one could hear slates and tiles crashing around above the roar of the wind. It was also the first time that I witnessed lamp posts swaying in the wind.

The wind was stronger still in Suffolk. The farm where I lodged during the mid 1980's lost its chimney and the green houses lost much of their glass panels. At Wattisham, the highest winds peaked at 56 knots, gusting 84 knots, violent storm force 11, an incredible velocity for an inland site.

Nigel B.

[John Mason]

I recall this night from Solihull, about 8 miles ESE of Brum. The power-flashes that lit up the sky were amazing - SLW gusts I still think! - one was the most vivid green!

Next day I cycled up to my Gran's house and had to manhandle the pushbike over so, so many fallem trees! They had gone down, literally, in rows.

Until the Burns' Day storm (1990) here in Mid-Wales, this was the heaviest gale I remember! 

Don't think there has since been one like the Burns' Day or the 1976 blow, in central England or Wales for that matter!

Cheers - John