That was more focused over Kent - it went below -14C here, and as low as -17C over the higher parts of the Isle.
Brogdale, a few miles away on the mainland, was the coldest place in the UK that winter, at -14.2C. (Of course, in 2003 it was the hottest place in the UK!)
What was interesting about that BFTE cold spell was how well forecast it was by UKV, the Met Office model. I remember the night before seeing something like -11C forecast for the morning and just laughing out loud: it hadn't even been an especially cold day, several degrees above freezing. Those sort of night time temperatures here hadn't been seen since 1987, and that was much colder air aloft. That said, 850s and thicknesses were at record lows for the end of Feb.
When I got up in the morning it was -8C and the forecast was -13. Maybe, just maybe, I thought, and yes - it actually happened. I made it to work that day (through the snow, didn't go above 20mph even on the dual carriageway), found it closed, went to Tesco (where I was gawped at!), drove home, turned on the news and read about the chaos and how nobody could go anywhere. Whoops!
Here's my station on that day:
https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/ILEYSDOW1/graph/2018-02-28/2018-02-28/daily
No chance of anything so exciting any time soon, of course, it seems like another world. It just goes to show though that you can't write off winter right until the end!
Originally Posted by: Retron