Spent winter 1981/2 working a few miles south of Hamburg. Consequently poured scorn on every example of cold weather in the UK until ... December 2010. Whole generations have gone without experiencing what most of us outside of the SE corner enjoyed around the shortest day that year. 

Sunrise at the Solstice, Blackdown Hills:

En route to Blagdon Hill Post Office for supplies on Christmas Eve:

Christmas morning:

I don't remember a warm-up in these parts. My worry was that we just wouldn't get any snow and one of he best cold spells in years would end up snowless. It was especially frustrating given the exceptionally deep snow in certain parts of the country (IIRC, wasn't NE England one of the best places?)

The MO came up with a few scenarios just a couple of days out that would very likely bring snow to MBY, but these never came off. When the snow finally did come, it was on the 17th December - a frigid area of low pressure (looking like a chunk of PV) sank southwards down the North Sea before filling over the UK. Within the low, an increasingly active front moved SSE'wards down the UK, bringing snow on a NW'ly for many.

Look at the evolution of this:

I'll never forget the drive home from work. It was dry when I left Manchester, heading west on the M62. The first flakes appeared around halfway home and, by the time I got to where the motorway lighting begins again near Warrington, the snow was coming down steadily, brilliantly illuminated by the motorway lights. I remember grinning and thinking to myself "Finally! I just hope it snows long enough to put a few cm's down to give a covering."

Given the cold ground, it began sticking quickly, and was already a cm deep by the time I pulled up outside our house. We had our tea, the snow continuing to fall heavily, then decided to go out in the snow for a walk as a family. It was brilliant. Being just a week before Xmas, most houses on our estate had outside lights on; it was really festive. We called in on some friends of ours, had a drink. The snow was coming down even heavier - big, chunky flakes. Not powdery, but also not wet. In fact, perfect snow. We walked back home, the snow still coming down.

I think it stopped around 11pm - about 5 hours of heavy snow had left a covering of around 15cm. And, as the icy grip continued, the snow wasn't going anywhere. Over each of the next few nights, the temp dipped below -10c, the coldest being -17c. We went out for a meal on the evening of Xmas Eve, to a rural pub heading out a few miles towards Southport. Remarkably, the snow was even deeper here - well past 20cm. Sat in the pub, a roaring fire to one side, views out onto a pristine white garden on the other... just perfect.

Xmas Day itself was cold & dry - with, of course, half a foot of snow still lying on the ground.

Yes, here in Kent we did wonder what all the fuss was about

Stats for the month

I just had a look on Flickr and it seems I haven't uploaded most of my pics from that winter yet. There are a few from December 19 2010 when I was at the Winchester Christmas market. There is a bit of snow on the roofs but the thaw was in full effect down there, with virtually none on the ground.

Even at just 5 years my memory has faded. Main thing I recall is that there was some snow and very cold weather at the end of November, and that some of this stayed on the ground in shaded areas for an age (I did a 5 mile race about a week after it had snowed and there was still some there, and the ground was frozen rock hard). Then the snow on the friday night/sat morning (17th/18th). We are on the SW of Warminster and had more snow than in the middle of the town, a mile away. The woods next to us seemed to have had even more. In town on the saturday you could hardly tell it had snowed, but back home there was around 5 cm. I went for a lovely long run in the woods on the sunday and it was far deeper there (up to 10 cm) and glorious.

Then on the monday a period of snow developed and doubled what we had lying at home, and this snow then stayed, with very little thawing, until the 27th.

Because we had little snow before the 17th, it doesn't stick in my mind as a classic month, yet I know that the CET was spectacular. I think in this case location was everything.

The best snow had been in the Feb of 2009 - a week of snow everyday leading to work being closed (Bath Uni) on the thursday and friday and a superb walk across Claverton Down and the golf course in as deep a snow as I can recall. The following jan we had the red MET warning of snow over us in Warminster for the first and only time - unfortunately the result was around 40-50 miles east (hence Reading etc getting the totals others have mentioned). Still good, but not quite as good as it could have been.

I hadn't realised this spell wasn't universal across all parts of the country  

I know some places did better than others (I think MBY was about average), but didn't know some places - esp the SE - missed a lot of the sustained intensity of the cold (and much of the snow).

At the time us in the SE corner were drowned out by all the excitement elsewhere (understandably), although what was going on down here was no less remarkable in its way. We seemed to be a magnet for spoiler warm sectors which eagerly ate into what snow we did have - it was as if everything conspired to somehow muck things up.

You'll note that even the coldest days where I was, for example, were only a few tenths of a degree below freezing. It's noteable in itself (as ice days are excruciatingly rare here), but compared to the "worry free" ice days of the 90s and especially the 80s it was a bit naff. January 1997 was the last time we had maxima of -2C or below here - and that, coincidentally, was the last time we had a midwinter easterly.

That said, the fact we missed out big time down here doesn't detract from what was a really remarkable spell for the majority of these isles. It gave a taste of the sort of fun and games that were relatively common down here in the 80s and 90s!

One of these days we will get a proper easterly again with maxima a few degrees below zero and a stiff wind. 18 years is a very long time but it's got to end sometime... It'll be very interesting to see the reactions of teenagers and people in their early 20s around here when we do eventually get an easterly, as they'll not have seen that sort of cold before!

I remember December 2010 mainly for the cold up here. There was a moderate amount of snow, but nothing spectacular. The main thing was the length of the cold meant that the snow didn't melt, so we had a long period of snow on the ground. The nighttime cold was phenomenal, but January 2010 beat the spell for proper snowfall.

This was one of the few cold spells in recent years that I didn't miss, and I remember it more for its longevity over snow depth or extreme temps. 

While Crosby across the water reached -18c or something ridiculous, and similar temps were recorded inland around Manc, there was a strong and fairly shallow inversion in place I think, and being on a low ridge I only recorded -10c. Additionally the snow which reached nearly a foot deep around parts of north Liverpool came in the form of heavy showers, and frustratingly the lines of showers were at a fairly westerly angle, meaning the Welsh hills really shielded my location from the worst of it. I think there was about 4 inches max lying after that night, as well as a dusting in early December from dying showers off the North Sea.

It was pretty much as cold as I've seen it around here all the same though, with ice on the beaches and Liverpool docks partially freezing over (impressive as at best they're brackish, not fresh water). I even chucked a stone into one of the docks expecting it to punch straight through but it just sat on the ice . My other memory was the sudden and quite noticeable death/disappearance of all the palms and other semi exotic plants people had been growing for years. 

Yup - very similar to my memories that.  Snow wasnt that severe - the temps were.  even with gritted roads, the snow stayed in place on the main roads like Old Chester Road etc.  

I remember getting the train to London one morning, it was something stupid like -12c and i had the flu... i cut my trip short the next day and headed back in similar conditions.

Here's the scene in Gainsborough I awoke to on the morning of December 1st, 2010.  The level depth of snow was up to 40cm, which made it the deepest snow since January 1987 here (also around 40cm).

Frozen River Aire in late December 2010:

What was also nice about Dec 2010 was the fact that it was much sunnier than normal.. so many days with snow on the ground and a low sun shimmering off the icy landscape, felt very appropriate for 54 degrees North. Although down south it was very cloudy..

1. Economic or political primacy does not define geographical representation


2. There is a latitudinal perspective to my post (that's the most salient bit)


3. I have some geographical knowledge by qualification, experience and publication


4. A look at your quoted city's position on a map shows its distinctive uniqueness near a coastline transitioning from the typically-aligned N-S Western Seaboard to a more E-W alignment, meaning it cannot be considered geographically as representative of the extensive seaboard coast (it has obstructive landmass in respect of westerly-dominated flow)


5. The longitudinal extent of The Pacific at this latitude increases that lack of representation


6. I like your posts, and as a relative newcomer to this site I regret that I offended to the extent of compulsion to be rude, by offering some limited insight from my perspective.

Geography & topography obviously play a huge part in the climate there. The UK is an island with several thousand km's to our west. There's also the Gulf Stream. For our latitude, we couldn't have much worse factors ranged against us for cold winters.

I was enjoying reading this thread until it degenerated into an offshoot of the Climate Forum (which I generally avoid because of the amount of acrimony there). Please could we calm down and refrain from scoring points, especially at the expense of newcomers to TWO?

o/t totally BUT why does the climate forum get so bad