The Great April 1981 Wet Snowstorm

[Weather-history]

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

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

[Pennine Ten Foot Drifts]

I don't know if it's just me, but the charts associated with that snowstorm don't look like a chart that would be cold enough for widespread snow. Or am I just looking at it from current weather perspectives ???

[johnholmes]

I tried to drive from south Manchester to Chesterfield that evening and was stopped by a police road block on the outskirts of Disley, the main A6 was blocked.

The following morning I managed to eventually get to Chesterfield but only after taking various diversions.

The snow depth was enormous but melting very rapidly so there was 1-2ft of snow at the roadside and water 8-9 inches deep running down the centre of the road, this at around 1,000ft.

the only other occasion when I saw so much wet snow was an October sowstorm that affected the Chesterfield area and into the Peak District, I had a mini at the time and in less than 3 hours it looked like a small igloo with about 10 inches of snow on it. Scores of abandoned cars and other vehicles on the main Chesterfield to Chapel-en-leFrith road but the mini just chugged through it all with no problem. I cannot remember what the date or year was, late 60's sometime?

Edited April 18, 2008 by johnholmes

[stewfox]

I don't know if it's just me, but the charts associated with that snowstorm don't look like a chart that would be cold enough for widespread snow. Or am I just looking at it from current weather perspectives ???

Me to ?

where did the cold come from ?

Looks like a slow moving low out of Germany but further East a High

would any slow moving tracts from the east in late April bring such an event ? (ie8c in Moscow today and 11c tomorrow)

I thought (maybe wrong) by late april its from the North to get the cold (or is that relative ?)

[Weather-history]

I don't know if it's just me, but the charts associated with that snowstorm don't look like a chart that would be cold enough for widespread snow. Or am I just looking at it from current weather perspectives ???

On the face of it doesn't but the key fact is that the cold air was already in place. Note how cold the air is over northern plains of Europe.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00219810424.gif

[cheeky_monkey]

remember it well..i was in germany the week before on a school trip..lovely sunny and warm tshirts etc..by the end of the week it had become much colder jumpers and coats..came back to england on friday..sunday before went back to school caned it down with snow all day..had games first thing monday morning was very cold and windy (no snow)..not very pleasent tho.

[Terminal Moraine]

the only other occasion when I saw so much wet snow was an October sowstorm that affected the Chesterfield area and into the Peak District, I had a mini at the time and in less than 3 hours it looked like a small igloo with about 10 inches of snow on it. Scores of abandoned cars and other vehicles on the main Chesterfield to Chapel-en-leFrith road but the mini just chugged through it all with no problem. I cannot remember what the date or year was, late 60's sometime?

That's an intriguing one, John. Although I wasn't living where I am now in the late 60s (150m lower and 10 miles further south ) I can't find anything in my records for that time when there would have been such a large amount of snow in October, could it possibly have been Oct' 30th 1974? On that date there was lying snow by late afternoon to low levels, even between Ashbourne and Derby.

Withe regard to the late April 1981 event, it was 'dry snow' here and one of the most severe and long lasting blizzards I can remember. It equalled anything in February 1979 although the temperature wasn't as low, generally between 0 and -2c as opposed to around -3 to -5c. By early on the Monday morning we had 60cm of level snow and enormous drifts, I was working near Derby at the time and remember the reaction when I rang to say I couldn't get in; there was no lying snow at all below about 120m and to say they thought I was 'aving a larf' was the understatement.

[johnholmes]

it has to be late 60's as I had a car, mini, I think it was the first one, so after 1964 and before 1968. We also had a beagle dog, which arrived late 1965 perhaps 66, so it ties it down pretty well. It could be early Novemember but I'm sure it was October. I did once have a letter taken from a Weather magazine but have long since lost it.

[Terminal Moraine]

I have to go to work in a few minutes but I'll have a look through some old copies of various met' magazines tonight to see if we can pin it down.

[briany_lane@tiscali.co.uk]

it has to be late 60's as I had a car, mini, I think it was the first one, so after 1964 and before 1968. We also had a beagle dog, which arrived late 1965 perhaps 66, so it ties it down pretty well. It could be early Novemember but I'm sure it was October. I did once have a letter taken from a Weather magazine but have long since lost it.

i remember this event well. on that saturday morning there was about 3-4 inches of snow lying. most had gone by mid afternoon.

[johnholmes]

I have to go to work in a few minutes but I'll have a look through some old copies of various met' magazines tonight to see if we can pin it down.

tks TM

[Terminal Moraine]

I haven't given up on this one yet John but I'm struggling to find any reference to a significant snowfall in October around the time you mentioned. I've looked through Richard Wild's catalogue of British Snowfall which is a pretty comprehensive list of dates with snowfalls of about 15cm or more and there's nothing in that, although it is possible it would not be included if it was a localised event restricted to high ground.

I'm awaiting a reply from the chap who keeps the met' record at Buxton, I e-mailed him last night in the hope that he'll find something in their record.

Failing that, the nearest date I can come up with from my own records is Nov' 17th 1965 but that seems a bit far from October to be comfortable.

[johnholmes]

it could be my memory in terms of month, the years are near enough mid-late 60's, 17 Nov is a bit late. I've trawled through various local papers etc but cannot find anything about it. It certainly was not my imagination.

[Weather-history]

Doesn't ring any bells with me, John. The Octobers of the 1960s were not especially cold with the exception of 1964. Was it around the time of the Aberfan disaster, the back end of October 1966 was cool?

[Terminal Moraine]

I've had a reply from Steve Green who runs the station at Buxton and he says there was no lying snow recorded in October between 1964 and 1967, the nearest date he could come up with was late November 1965 when there was 14cm.

I suppose it's possible that a heavy fall one evening could have thawed by observation time the next morning but the inference from his reply was that there was no lying snow at all in the Octobers of those years. It's also possible that the snow affected only the hills in north east Derbyshire, to the west and north west of Chesterfield, I'll have a look through the DWRs for the period to see if there were any stalled fronts or similar.

[johnholmes]

tk TM, the snow ended in a straight line below Chapel en le Frith at around 6-700ft but was total cover down to 400 ft or so on the Chesterfield side, whatever date it was, tks again.

I've had an e mail from someone and they can't find the date in October either!

maybe it was November but certainly autumn and the mid to late 60's, I'll keep searching

Edited April 23, 2008 by johnholmes

[Phil UK]

I can back up Mr Data's post on the April 1981 snowstorm. (Back up data! ... Ahem! Sorry! ) And maybe help you, TM and John H with your October '60s query.

April 1981 was indeed warm with temperatures of over 20ºc but Winter returned with a vengeance between 20th and 27th of the month with maxima as low as 1ºc in Nottingham.

On 23rd April, (or 27 years ago today to be pedantic!) there was prolonged snow over north east England and at Low Etherly in Co Durham, 23cm (9") of snow accumulated. Above 300 metres, there were up to 5 metre (16') drifts.

On 24th April, Sheffield had 11cm (4") of snow. A daytime thaw followed by 26cm (10") on 25th and a further 11cm (4") on the morning of 26th.

Snow depths for the morning of 25th April 1981 were : (According to data I have in front of me as I type, more on this source lower down in this reply.)

50cm (20") in the Peak District.

35cm (14") over the hills above Leominster.

20cm (8") at Cosby in Leicestershire.

10cm (4") at Hall Green in Birmingham.

8cm (3") at Axbridge, East Devon.

7cm (2.8") at Trowbridge in Wiltshire.

To the east of a line from the Wash to Southampton, there was mostly heavy rain and especially over East Anglia where 90mm (3.5") fell in two days.

-----------------------------------------------

TM and John Holmes...

Only info I can find on that general area and date would be March 1965 where drifts of up to 3 metres (10') fell on Salisbury Plain and the Peak District receiving 35cm (14") on the same day.

Also 15th/16th April 1966 saw widespread powdery snow with 15cm (6") accumulating on the North Downs. That's all the info I can muster at this time. Sorry if I can't be of more help.

But now, as to my vast source of information...

I'd say about 40% is my own knowledge but the other 60% generally comes from a book I borrowed from the local library in Solihull back in September 1989. (And I still have to this day. I'd hate to think what the fine would be now after 18 years and 7 months overdue! :blink: But I got interested in it so... )

The book is entitled : THE WEATHER OF BRITAIN by the now late Robin Stirling. First print was in 1982 but not sure if it still is now. If not then get up a petition to get it put back in print!

However! There is a revised version with a foreword by Ian McCaskill and by the same author and can be brought from, (and which I plan to do in the very near future) I guess all good bookshops, Waterstones et al. Or...

Here at Play.com : THE WEATHER OF BRITAIN : 1997 RELEASE for £19.99 or save £1 by ordering the same from Amazon.

Phil.

[Terminal Moraine]

tk TM, the snow ended in a straight line below Chapel en le Frith at around 6-700ft but was total cover down to 400 ft or so on the Chesterfield side, whatever date it was, tks again.

I've had an e mail from someone and they can't find the date in October either!

maybe it was November but certainly autumn and the mid to late 60's, I'll keep searching

I've had a look through the DWRs for October from 1962 through to 1966 but can't find any likely synoptics for snowfall. I did wonder about October 23rd/24th 1964 when I recorded a max' of 7c with a few light snow flurries but also with a thunderstorm on the 23rd. When I looked at the charts however it showed a brisk northerly flow with showers but no station in the British Isles was reporting the amount of precipitation required for 20-25 cm of wet snow. and the most frequent showers were confined to coastal areas.

Another possible date was Nov' 17th 1965 when there was a depression moving north into a cold easterly air flow but even this isn't ideal as the precipitation was widespread and snowfall was general over the Peak District.

The situation you describe is more typical of a stalled front or very heavy slow moving showers; the intrigue continues.

[johnholmes]

I'm sure we will find it eventually, be it October or November, 1965-1969!

[Terminal Moraine]

Two more possibilities are Nov' 9th and 16th 1969, particularly the latter. On the 9th a secondary low moved east across central England and rain turned to sleet with snow on high ground as it cleared into the North Sea, the main factor against this date is that most of the precipitation had fallen before it turned to snow and, due to the speed of the low, it wouldn't have been conducive to a long lasting fall.

The 16th Nov' 1969 shows a deep low moving east across the Midlands with cold air to its' north. I recorded a max' of 2c that day with persistent heavy rain during the morning, turning to heavy sleet and wet snow by afternoon this at 180m; total rainfall for the day, 27mm. By morning on the 17th there was a thin cover of wet snow but the implication is that heavy snow would have been falling during the afternoon, evening and until the early hours of the 17th above about 300m, the snow line lowering as the cold air dug in during the evening; the band of precipitation slowed a little as it moved east and there was a significant wet snow event over the Peak District.

Richard Wilde's Catalogue of British Snowfall reports 20cm of snow on the Derbyshire moors on the morning of the 17th and this is backed up by W.S Pike article on heavy early seaon snowfalls in Journal of Meteorology Vol 16 no' 159 when he also reports depths of 20cm above 300m in the Derbyshire hills and depths of 10cm to lower levels.

If I were a police officer I'd be arresting this date as a very likely suspect.

Edit; If it helps at all the 16th Nov 1969 was a Sunday.

Edited April 24, 2008 by Terminal Moraine

[johnholmes]

hi TM

You would make a first class detective in weather related cases I reckon. Many thanks for your diligence and patience in trying to unravel my idea of snow, first in October and now November.

Your final comment does, I think, clinch it, yes it was a Sunday as I remember telling all in the office on the Monday afternoon on my 'E' shift of the snowfall. So it would seem mystery solved. A very good example of how our memory can play tricks as well regarding dates. I would have bet a SMALL amount of my pension on it being October but there you go.

again many thanks TM.

I've tried to get the Derbyshire Times to produce any photographs or the Shefield local papers but had no success for either October or November from them so far.

[Terminal Moraine]

Cheers, John, I can sleep easy tonight; I'm like a dog with a bone over things like this!

[damianslaw]

I can back up Mr Data's post on the April 1981 snowstorm. (Back up data! ... Ahem! Sorry! ) And maybe help you, TM and John H with your October '60s query.

April 1981 was indeed warm with temperatures of over 20ºc but Winter returned with a vengeance between 20th and 27th of the month with maxima as low as 1ºc in Nottingham.

On 23rd April, (or 27 years ago today to be pedantic!) there was prolonged snow over north east England and at Low Etherly in Co Durham, 23cm (9") of snow accumulated. Above 300 metres, there were up to 5 metre (16') drifts.

On 24th April, Sheffield had 11cm (4") of snow. A daytime thaw followed by 26cm (10") on 25th and a further 11cm (4") on the morning of 26th.

Snow depths for the morning of 25th April 1981 were : (According to data I have in front of me as I type, more on this source lower down in this reply.)

50cm (20") in the Peak District.

35cm (14") over the hills above Leominster.

20cm (8") at Cosby in Leicestershire.

10cm (4") at Hall Green in Birmingham.

8cm (3") at Axbridge, East Devon.

7cm (2.8") at Trowbridge in Wiltshire.

To the east of a line from the Wash to Southampton, there was mostly heavy rain and especially over East Anglia where 90mm (3.5") fell in two days.

-----------------------------------------------

TM and John Holmes...

Only info I can find on that general area and date would be March 1965 where drifts of up to 3 metres (10') fell on Salisbury Plain and the Peak District receiving 35cm (14") on the same day.

Also 15th/16th April 1966 saw widespread powdery snow with 15cm (6") accumulating on the North Downs. That's all the info I can muster at this time. Sorry if I can't be of more help.

But now, as to my vast source of information...

I'd say about 40% is my own knowledge but the other 60% generally comes from a book I borrowed from the local library in Solihull back in September 1989. (And I still have to this day. I'd hate to think what the fine would be now after 18 years and 7 months overdue! But I got interested in it so... )

The book is entitled : THE WEATHER OF BRITAIN by the now late Robin Stirling. First print was in 1982 but not sure if it still is now. If not then get up a petition to get it put back in print!

However! There is a revised version with a foreword by Ian McCaskill and by the same author and can be brought from, (and which I plan to do in the very near future) I guess all good bookshops, Waterstones et al. Or...

Here at Play.com : THE WEATHER OF BRITAIN : 1997 RELEASE for £19.99 or save £1 by ordering the same from Amazon.

Phil.

Phil,

I have the 1997 edition and its a great book, I often dip in and out of it. It reads very well and tells things as they happened. In this respect the language is anything but sensationalist and in this regard very refreshing. It is also very informative and has taught me alot about the science behind the weather. It does get quite technical in parts, however, it is worded in a very understandable way. Anyone who loves the weather should get a copy now. Pity Robin is no longer about, any further updates would certainly include the record warmth of August 2003 and July 2006, but I bet easter 2008 would also get a mention.

[Phil UK]

Ordered the book last night, Damienslaw and look forward to reading it. :lol:

I would agree with the record breaking heat of August 2003, the Summer that never was in 2007. (20th July in particular!) But as you say, a shame that Robin Stirling is no longer with us. :lol: His first book issued in 1982 is certainly mesmerising, and as you say, a bit technical but in a sense that it's also easy to understand, even for the novice in understanding weather.

Phil.

[damianslaw]

Ordered the book last night, Damienslaw and look forward to reading it.

I would agree with the record breaking heat of August 2003, the Summer that never was in 2007. (20th July in particular!) But as you say, a shame that Robin Stirling is no longer with us. B) His first book issued in 1982 is certainly mesmerising, and as you say, a bit technical but in a sense that it's also easy to understand, even for the novice in understanding weather.

Phil.

I hope you enjoy reading it and dipping in and out of it. I happened across the first edition in my local library when I was probably about 14. I loved the front cover with the extracts of newspaper articles. I remember trying to fit the stories to the dates when they happened. I'm sure there is an excerpt from an edition of the express during the cold snowy spell of december 1981. It talks about the impending festive period and I think their is a picture of Shakin Stevens who was everywhere in music that year.

I particularly enjoy reading the chapter about snow and sensational days, as I love snow and any extreme in weather. I was particularly pleased on reading the 1997 edition when it came out to see Dec 1995 get a mention in the sensational days chapter, I still think that 5-6 Feb 1996 should have been given a proper paragraph in the snowy days chapter, the amount of snow that fell was the deepest in any part of the country since 1987 excepting perhaps the northern isles during christmas eve 1995.

Away with such minor quibbles, it is a 'unique' book and one every weather fan should have on their bookshelf.