It seemed like this might be an opportune moment to start a topic on classic snowstorms of the past. For the first two, I've gone back to the 19th century. The blizzard of 17th-21st January 1881 was for much of southern England, the south Midlands and south Wales arguably the worst during the last 150 years or more. Fortunately, buried deep in the Met Office's online archive is the issue of Symons's Monthly Meteorological Magazine for February that year, which has detailed contemporary accounts of the storm:
https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/file/sdb%3AdigitalFile%7Cbee0b22e-4d58-4ba6-96a8-1a0449625f3f/
The reanalysis chart for the 18th January is here:
http://www.wetterzentrale.de/reanalysis.php?map=1&model=noaa&var=2&jaar=1881&maand=01&dag=18&uur=1200&h=0&tr=360&nmaps=24#mapref
I wouldn't put too much faith in the 850 mb temperatures, as this was I think well before the use of met balloons, or even kites, to get upper air measurements.
In south-west England the blizzard of 9th-10th March 1891 (which affected all of southern England to some degree) was even worse, especially over Dartmoor, with many trains getting trapped by impenetrable drifts. There's an excellent book called "The Blizzard of '91" by Clive Carter, which I can thoroughly recommend. It was published over forty years ago, but second-hand copies are obtainable through Amazon. Here's the relevant issue of Symons's Monthly Meteorological Magazine:
https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/file/sdb%3AdigitalFile%7Ccf47df28-ca37-475f-8695-bc8241dbbcd4/
The reanalysis chart for 9th March is here:
http://www.wetterzentrale.de/reanalysis.php?map=1&model=noaa&var=2&jaar=1891&maand=03&dag=09&uur=1800&h=0&tr=360&nmaps=24#mapref
I rather suspect that it has the 0C 850mb isotherm a bit too far north.
Originally Posted by: jhall