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The winter of 1962/63 was the coldest over England and Wales since 1740. As in 1947, anticyclones to the north and east of the British Isles brought bitterly cold winds from the east day after day. As in 1947, depressions followed tracks to southward of the British Isles and their fronts brought snow to England, Wales and the southernmost parts of Scotland.Mean maximum temperatures for January 1963 were more than 5 °C below average over most of Wales, the Midlands and southern England and in some places more than 7 °C below average. Mean minimum temperatures over this area were equally far below average. The story was much the same in February.The winter began abruptly, just before Christmas 1962. The weather in the first three weeks of December was changeable and sometimes stormy. From the 4th to the 6th, London experienced its worst spell of fog since the Great Smog of 1952.Ten days later, the weather was particularly wet and stormy, with a gust of 88 knots recorded at Blackpool during the night of 15/16 December, the strongest since records began in 1946. The weather situation changed markedly on 22 December. On the 23rd, high pressure extended all the way from the southern Baltic to Cornwall, bringing cold easterly winds to much of England and Wales.A belt of rain over northern Scotland on 24 December turned to snow as it moved south, giving Glasgow its first white Christmas since 1938. The snow belt reached southern England on Boxing Day and became almost stationary. The following day, snow lay five centimetres deep in the Channel Islands and 30 cm deep in much of southern England.A blizzard over south-west England and south Wales on 29 and 30 December brought snowdrifts 6 m deep. Villages were cut off, some for several days. Roads and railways were blocked. Telephone wires were brought down. Stocks of food ran low. Farmers couldn't reach their livestock. Thousands of sheep, ponies and cattle starved to death.Cold FrontFrom Boxing Day 1962 to early March 1963, much of England was continuously under snow. Unlike the winter of 1947, however, 1962/63 was sunnier than average in most parts of the area affected, considerably so in some places.Manchester's sunshine total for January was more than twice the average. Even in the south of England, where snow fell frequently, sunshine totals were above average in most places.The most remarkable feature of the 1962/63 winter was not so much its snowiness as its coldness. The winter of 1947 was snowier than 1962/63, but not as cold.
There was no need to keep your coat and hats on inside the school at all, it wasn't cold inside the school, not the one I went to. Why should it be? Why should a snowfall affect the heating inside a building.
As for remembering a single incident and comparing every year to it then I must remind you that I mentioned the whole decade of the sixties, not just one year or a single incident.
I still chuckle at the effect of the smattering of snow these days, trains run to a halt, traffic becomes chaotic, wrong kind of snow?? I mean, whats all that about??
I remember when I was a child during the sixties, snow was very much a part of winter here in the UK. Although the temperature in winter these days is around the same, if not cooler than it was forty years ago, the sight of snow in winter is becoming a rare thing. When I tell the kids today how we used to go sledging, make slides and snowmen and have snowball fights every winter, they wish it would snow like that today. I get asked why it doesn't snow anymore, I think global warming has a lot to do with it but the temperature in the UK in winter is about the same as it used to be. I cant answer their questions properly, and it puzzles me too. I don't know if this question has been asked before and I apologise if it has, but I cant find any answers to this question.Thanks
Technically, and by definition, we are still in an Ice Age. "intervals during which glaciers advance and retreat" because of the ice sheets of greenland and antarctica. Although we are actually in an newbielink:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interglacials [nonactive]; the newbielink:http://://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene [nonactive].According to the newbielink:http://http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn9717&feedId=online-news_rss20 [nonactive] the The world's second largest ice cap )greenland)may be melting three times faster than indicated by previous measurements, according to newly released gravity data collected by satellites..And according to the newbielink:http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/ [nonactive]; newbielink:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4228411.stm [nonactive].Interestingly, it is never too cold to snow. It can snow even in temperatures of -40, although at this temperature the snow / ice crystals are too small to be seen.