Jump to content
Snow?
Local
Radar
Cold?
IGNORED

Cold January/very mild February 1945


Weather-history

Recommended Posts

Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam

January and February 1945 could not be any more different. January was cold and snowy, whilst February was exceptionally mild

Early January 1945 began with a northerly across the UK and this gave snow and frosts.

Rslp19450104.gif

An easterly flow developed across the south and this was not especially cold but it did give wintry showers in the flow

Rslp19450112.gif

A vigorous low swung across the UK on the 18th bringing severe gales to the south and as it pulled away to the east it dragged a very cold Arctic flow across the UK and the start of the coldest spell of the winter.

Rslp19450118.gif

With cold air entrenched and low pressure across the UK, snowfalls were widespread. Frosts became very severe with minima below -10C at times.

Rslp19450123.gif

At the end of the month, Atlantic systems pushed through and it became milder.

Rslp19450130.gif

The weather was then mild with a zonal flow with maxima into double digits into February

Rslp19450207.gif

The weather became exceptionally mild as tropical maritime air flooded NEwards with maxima widely getting into the teens and high as 18.3C on the 18th

Rslp19450218.gif

The rest of the month was mild

Data

January 1945: 0.4 (-3. :D

February 1945: 7.1 (+2. :nonono:

February 1945 is joint 6th mildest on record.

Jan mean max: 3.0

Feb mean max: 10.2

Jan mean min: -2.2

Feb mean min: 4.0

Coldest CET minimum: -10.6 (26th Jan)

Mildest CET maximum: 15.0 (18th Feb)

Second half of January: -0.8

First half of February: 7.0

20th-29th January: -3.5

18th-28th February: 8.1

February was heralding an exceptionally mild spring, the 2nd mildest on record with 10.1

The period February-May 1945 had a CET of 9.5

Feb: 7.1 (+2. :blush:

Mar: 7.9 (+2.2)

Apr: 10.1 +2.3)

May: 12.2 (+0.7)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine and 15-25c
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)

The sudden thaw of early feb 1945...brought the red armies advance on berlin to a shuddering halt..and prolonged the war in europe by anotha 3 months..and thus strengthed the allied position in europe during the cold war and possible prevented a later world war 3 had the russians reached the rhine in 1945..dont you know!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 12 years later...
Posted
  • Location: Atlanta
  • Location: Atlanta

Hi!  I'm a documentary filmmaker and would like to know more about the weather in February/March/April 1945, but at this moment I am particularly interested in the weather on February 4, 1945.   Do you know how I would find the temperature for that morning and the following days?  

Many thanks,

 

Stacey Fitzgerald 

www.rememberravensbruck.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam
4 hours ago, Sfitz said:

Hi!  I'm a documentary filmmaker and would like to know more about the weather in February/March/April 1945, but at this moment I am particularly interested in the weather on February 4, 1945.   Do you know how I would find the temperature for that morning and the following days?  

Many thanks,

 

Stacey Fitzgerald 

www.rememberravensbruck.com

Hi Stacey. For the UK, it was an exceptionally mild period.

You could try the Met Office digital library

https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/deliverableUnit_bc9ee38f-94dd-4923-977a-8619d32c2f2b/

 

https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/digitalFile_3b68dfae-db40-4c08-81c6-849be7f8e05e/

 

Edited by Weather-history
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: halifax 125m
  • Weather Preferences: extremes the unusual and interesting facts
  • Location: halifax 125m
On 04/12/2006 at 22:06, cheeky_monkey said:

The sudden thaw of early feb 1945...brought the red armies advance on berlin to a shuddering halt..and prolonged the war in europe by anotha 3 months..and thus strengthed the allied position in europe during the cold war and possible prevented a later world war 3 had the russians reached the rhine in 1945..dont you know!

The carving up of Europe after WW2 was decided by a series of Summits,in fact the Yalta summit was taking place at this exact time.I don't think this weather had any bearing on the outcome of any border.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine and 15-25c
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
On 21/07/2019 at 11:48, hillbilly said:

The carving up of Europe after WW2 was decided by a series of Summits,in fact the Yalta summit was taking place at this exact time.I don't think this weather had any bearing on the outcome of any border.

actually it did if you know your history..solely because Stalin decided to interpret the results of the Tehran and Yalta summit to which ever way suited his agenda and of course where the allied armies eventually ended up....for instance the current Oder/Neisse border between current day Poland and Germany was supposed to be the eastern Neisse river boundary not the current Western Niesse river..also the city of Stettin was to remain part of Germany but is now in Poland and called Szczecin..another interesting fact that is weather related to this is that the Russians brought forward their winter offensive from Jan 20th to Jan 12th to get as far west as possible before the thaw set in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Posted
  • Location: Rossland BC Canada
  • Location: Rossland BC Canada

The same sequence of temperatures was observed in eastern North America also. January 1945 at Toronto had an average of -9.4, and it was particularly cold around the 25th (minimum -25 C). There was no rain during the month and a total of 46 cms snow. Then February had a much more normal -3.3 C average, and roughly equal amounts of rain and snow (in liquid equivalent terms) which for Toronto is a normal outcome in either January or February. March 1945 and the first half of April were record breaking warm, with readings as high as 90 F in New York City at the end of March, then after mid-April it turned quite cold and stayed that way through May 1945 into early June 1945 which had the only recorded trace of snow for June in station history at Toronto's downtown location. Those are all similar trends although the cooling towards May/June was less pronounced in the CET. After several record highs in mid-April (CET) there was a record low at the end of April. 

It is unusual for Toronto and CET temperatures to remain in phase for an extended period, especially when cold is involved as well as warmth. By the winter of 1946-47 the trends were largely out of phase. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...
Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam

Interesting month, January 1945. It had a CET of 0.4

Cold wintry spell with heavy snowfalls at the start of the 2nd week image.thumb.png.f79edf388ee0603b6ce184fd4514b737.png

Guardian report for that period   

jAMNPGz.jpg  CYhNnrt.jpg

 

Photo of skating on Windermere

hYTsvsc.jpg

 

There was a severe gale in the south on the 18th  NOAA_1_1945011812_1.png

Guardian reports of the gale

TLfTZrK.jpg   Ladi0Jr.jpg1lXez6K.jpg

The low pressure as pulled away dragged down very cold from the Arctic and the start of the severest cold spell of that winter  NOAA_1_1945012000_2.png

20th-29th Jan 1945 CET: -3.52

  bRqUgEp.jpg  uYKP856.jpg

 

The cold stops Big Ben  cwnAsce.jpg

 

Photo of snow  HUayghD.jpg

 

Guardian reports on the snow and cold

TsC52lT.jpgaUamfAu.jpg

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire

Not directly relevant, but by a strange co-incidence, Paul Simons in today's Times 'Weather Eye' has a piece on the driest November of them all, November 1945. Fleetwood apparently recorded no rain at all and rainfall across England & Wales was a mere 17mm. Brazell reported that rainfall in London was 12% of average and of the 0.29 ins of rain which fell during the month, 0.17 ins fell on one day (17th). To add to the bizarre weather, temperatures of 17 or 18C were reached quite widely, making the month seem more like summer than late autumn. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam
1 hour ago, A Face like Thunder said:

Not directly relevant, but by a strange co-incidence, Paul Simons in today's Times 'Weather Eye' has a piece on the driest November of them all, November 1945. Fleetwood apparently recorded no rain at all and rainfall across England & Wales was a mere 17mm. Brazell reported that rainfall in London was 12% of average and of the 0.29 ins of rain which fell during the month, 0.17 ins fell on one day (17th). To add to the bizarre weather, temperatures of 17 or 18C were reached quite widely, making the month seem more like summer than late autumn. 

I posted a Guardian article on this in the November CET thread

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
On 17/11/2021 at 05:50, Weather-history said:

Interesting month, January 1945. It had a CET of 0.4

Cold wintry spell with heavy snowfalls at the start of the 2nd week image.thumb.png.f79edf388ee0603b6ce184fd4514b737.png

Guardian report for that period   

jAMNPGz.jpg  CYhNnrt.jpg

 

Photo of skating on Windermere

hYTsvsc.jpg

 

There was a severe gale in the south on the 18th  NOAA_1_1945011812_1.png

Guardian reports of the gale

TLfTZrK.jpg   Ladi0Jr.jpg1lXez6K.jpg

The low pressure as pulled away dragged down very cold from the Arctic and the start of the severest cold spell of that winter  NOAA_1_1945012000_2.png

20th-29th Jan 1945 CET: -3.52

  bRqUgEp.jpg  uYKP856.jpg

 

The cold stops Big Ben  cwnAsce.jpg

 

Photo of snow  HUayghD.jpg

 

Guardian reports on the snow and cold

TsC52lT.jpgaUamfAu.jpg

 

 

More great reading. Not many times since has Lake Windermere froze in parts. 192-63 winter ladt time properly. I think some of the bays froze 81-82 probably last time. Jan 10 partial freeze in bays and most likely Dec 10 but not fully.

Was great seeing Derwent Water frozen complete Jan 10. Didn't venture out far in Dec 10..

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam

Photo montage from January 1945.   Frustrating the war years for research because of the available data, newspaper reporting and photos were withheld/limited for national security reasons for so long.

Newspaper reporting was so restrictive, it is a shame these events were never covered to the extent as they were in the 1930s. This extended into the post war years of the 1940s because of rationing with paper and newsprint. So although the data was freely available to be published there wasn't the space in newspapers to give the coverage that they would have done before WWII

 

Edited by Weather-history
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • UK Storm and Severe Convective Forecast

    UK Severe Convective & Storm Forecast - Issued 2024-03-29 07:13:16 Valid: 29/03/2024 0600 - 30/03/2024 0600 THUNDERSTORM WATCH - FRI 29 MARCH 2024 Click here for the full forecast

    Nick F
    Nick F
    Latest weather updates from Netweather

    Difficult travel conditions as the Easter break begins

    Low Nelson is throwing wind and rain at the UK before it impacts mainland Spain at Easter. Wild condtions in the English Channel, and more rain and lightning here on Thursday. Read the full update here

    Netweather forecasts
    Netweather forecasts
    Latest weather updates from Netweather

    UK Storm and Severe Convective Forecast

    UK Severe Convective & Storm Forecast - Issued 2024-03-28 09:16:06 Valid: 28/03/2024 0800 - 29/03/2024 0600 SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH - THURS 28 MARCH 2024 Click here for the full forecast

    Nick F
    Nick F
    Latest weather updates from Netweather
×
×
  • Create New...