The 23rd-26th April 1981 will be remembered for the great wet snowstorm that hit many parts of England and Wales.

Some stats for 23rd-26th April 1981
CET: 3.4
England and Wales rainfall: 42.7mm

Depths of snow
Peak District: ~60cm
Cosby: 20cm
Birmingham Hall Green: 10cm

Maxima
Birmingham
23rd: 7C
24th: 5C
25th: 5C
26th: 2C

Bristol Lulsgate
23rd: 11C
24th: 6C
25th: 8C
26th: 2C

Cardiff Airport
23rd: 10C
24th: 8C
25th: 8C
26th: 3C

Manchester Airport
23rd: 7C
24th: 4C
25th: 5C
26th: 4C

Nottingham/Watnall
23rd: 7C
24th: 3C
25th: 2C
26th: 3C

Here is from the Times of the 25th of April 1981

From the 27th of April 1981. Pretty good map.

Cheers for that, Mr Data.

The other thing I can remember about that year was how a massive hailstorm occurred at Kent in August. It lasted for over an hour with frequent lightning and left hail drifts up to two feet in it's wake, in fact remnants were still seen in shaded areas several days later. The reason why this is quite clear to memory even though I was 14 at the time was where I was in a friend's attic playing with mates and we all cowered under the deafening sound of heavy continuous hail rattling on the skylight. It must have been a very slow moving storm cell for that to happen.

Was that the 5th/6th August, or was it the 1st?

There was about a foot lying here, and since it was wet and melting as it came considerably more than that fell.
The oilseed rape fields were in full bloom as there had been some good warm days before, and a lot of it was flattened by the snow but did partly recover later.

Some of the minor roads over the moors were blocked by drifts for 2 or 3 days, and needed full scale tackle like JCBs to re-open - quite freaky for late April.

Thanks Kevin,

I can't remember a huge amount about this but I do remember our village getting cut off and the fruit frame in my grandparents garden collapsed with the weight of snow.

Here's my historic video on this event, BTW;

http://www.gavsweathervids.com/april1981.html

This has been getting quite a lot of renewed interest recently for obvious reasons. 

Remember it well. We had about 10cm of snow in York but it was drip drip drip! 

Still don't remember it, but take your word for it! Ah well, the memories fade and fudge as one gets older...

I remember it well - I was supposed to drive to Kings Heath to fetch my grandmother over to Redditch to have lunch with us on her birthday - but we were snowed in and I could not set off to get her. On the phone, she told me that in all her long life, she had never known it snow on her birthday (26th April) before.

Me neither! And I was 9.

Remember playing cricket with friends on the council sports field in Huntington on 24 or 25 April. There was a thin covering of snow but it was melting quickly in the sun. The real heavy stuff arrived the next day.

The ERA interim with ppn included.

April 1981           http://brunnur.vedur.is/kort/ra/1981/198104/era-i_msl_t850_tp.html

August 1981       http://brunnur.vedur.is/kort/ra/1981/198108/era-i_msl_t850_tp.html

Takes a wee while for them all to load for animation.

Edit to correct the second link - Ta for ponting out Ian.

Remember it well...15cm in Leeds but 30cm up on the high ground (Yeadon) where I lived....couldn't get home sadly so had to stay the night in Leeds! All gone in 48hrs!!

I was to young to remember this event.

I wasn't alive to remember this event.

15cm of snow in Leeds in late April though - now that would be exciting. We wouldn't be guaranteed a snowfall that large every winter let alone when it's almost May.

Thanks Ian. That a very nice satellite pic. I always wanted to know more about the 5/6 August 1981 storms .

Those small bright spots over east Kent looks the type that would have produced a hailstorm, which would just get bigger and bigger as it moves, I think, northwards, due to spreading Cb tops.

But certainly 5/6 August 1981 was the time of severe thunderstorms over central/southern UK, and it was caused by rapid reactivation of the weak cold front, moving erratically SEwards across the weak high pressure into a developing shallow low over northern France, that moved into southern UK. One MCS over central UK produced torrential downpours; 113 mm of rain fell in 24 hours from evening of 5th at Ringway and 132 mm near Tarporley (Cheshire). An another MCS produced severe lightning storms over London area; I think there were flood problems in the underground, and the morning was as dark as very dull rainy day in December and street lights had to be put on.

Yet the rest of August 1981 was generally dry with good deal of warm, sunny weather in the S and E of UK, although rather dull and wet in the far NW (but no thunder). It was very dry in the SW, with only 4.4 mm of rain in Camborne. There was some minor thunder activity in the far south on 1st, and over Wales on 29/30 August.

June and July, however, were quite rubbish summer months; it was largely cool and dull, with July being quite disturbed and thundery in the east, but June was mostly dry.

Going back on topic, I remember late April 1981 being very cold and wet when I was near Lincoln (and it was my 10th birthday), but it was much more of sleet rather than proper snow. It came after a spell of fine weather that dominated early April.

850 temp and prep analysis from ERA 40 for noon, Apr 24, 1981.

That particularly depression started innocuously off the west coast of Ireland but deepened considerably as it moved in over the UK, so was quite rare in that regard. 

I wasn't too far from you at the time, in the Adel area if you know it. I recall about 8 inches there. I remember how wet the snow was and more specifically how the weight of it brought down two large branches that were coming into leaf of an almond tree we had in the front garden and badly damaging it. I remember thinking whether lying snow would last into May and what a novelty that would be but as you say that it all disappeared very quickly and that was never going to happen.

This would certainly rank in my top 5 of most exceptional weather events ever experienced in the UK.

Our school's geography field trip got snowed in at Preston Montfort near Shrewsbury, and had a compulsory extra day of fieldwork before they could get away