November 1985: Cold And Wintry

[Weather-history]

I remember this November very well, overall cold and towards the end, decidely wintry. It had a CET of 4.1 and was the coldest November for 60 years.

Bonfire night was a cold one here in Manchester. Recall, letting off fireworks whilst wrapped up well, looking out for any wintry showers that were forecast.

The one thing that has stuck in my memory with this month was that Wednesday the 28th of November, when winds turned NWly and snow showers came in from the Irish Sea. The snow cover didn't stick during the day, so no snowball fights whilst at school but came evening the snow and hail showers really rattled in and there was soon a covering. Can remember lamp post watching and seeing the snow really coming down around 9pm. The next morning we had a good covering but there was no more snow and it was cloudy which prevented the thaw.

That Friday morning, it become really mild and I woke up to find the snowcover had melted and that was it for snow until after Christmas. It had become really mild.

Some data

Heathrow

Mean max: 8.1C

Mean min: 1.2C

3 days of sleet/snow

Birmingham Elmdon

Mean max: 6.8C

Mean min: 0.7C

8 days of sleet/snow

2 days of snow cover

Manchester Airport

Mean max: 6.8C

Mean min: 1.4C

4 days of sleet/snow

2 days of snow cover

Abbotsinch

Mean max: 7.0C

Mean min: -1.7C

8 days of sleet/snow

Edited October 30, 2010 by Mr_Data

[damianslaw]

I vaguely recall Bonfire Night 1985 probably my earliest recollection of the day itself I was 7 at the time. I remember a particularly cold bonfire night during the mid 80's and looking at the analogues it must have been 1985.

The month was quite a rarity - with lots of cold weather throughout, it is very difficult to see cold sustain itself from the outset of Nov through to the end of the month without at least some temporary mild weather. However, the cold came to an abrupt end with a notably mild start to December and a very mild Dec as a whole. When colder conditions have set in during the second half of Nov such as occured during 1993, 1996, 2005 and 2008 it has tended to last into Dec to some degree or at least only temporarily dissapear as the case in 1993 and a lesser extent 2005(well for the north anyway).

Edited October 30, 2010 by damianslaw

[Terminal Moraine]

November 1985 was the coldest since I began keeping records and is rivalled only by 1965 and 1993. The mean max' was 4.4c and the mean min', 0.0c. There were 15 air frosts, a record for the month, 13 days with sleet and snow falling and 8 mornings with snow lying. There was never any great depth of snow here, the largest single fall was just 5cm on the 27th and the accumulated depth for the month was only 8.2cm.

Contrast with Nov' 1996 which was less cold but had an accumulated snowfall of 48.5cm including a single fall of 30 cm on the 19th.

[cheeky_monkey]

wasnt there an easterly mid month too?..i seem to remember one..also do remember it turning very mild at the end of the month

[Terminal Moraine]

You've got a good memory, CM. Just looked through my records and the wind was between E and N from the 17th-26th.

And yest, it did turn mild at the very end of the month. After a 5cm of snow here early on the 30th the max' eventually reached 10.5c, by Dec' 2nd it had reached 12.2c, not far short of the December record.

[Thundery wintry showers]

November 1985 was one of those months with no individual dominant "cold" setup, but rather oscillation between different cold patterns. Looking over the synoptic archives, the first week was cyclonic/north-westerly, the second week was northerly, then a cold anticyclonic interlude was followed by easterlies for most of the second half, and then a northerly plunge starting on the 26th as the Scandinavian high responsible for the easterlies retrogressed towards the Greenland/Iceland area.

The 10th-12th will no doubt have seen many wintry showers down the eastern side of England, particularly Norfolk, in that northerly airstream:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1985/Rrea00119851112.gif

Snow was reported on two of the days at Lancaster also (surprising, since Lancaster usually stays bone dry during that kind of northerly), though no significant accumulations.

According to Philip Eden's "Weatherwise", the easterly around the 18th brought snow even to central London for a time:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/1985/Rrea00119851119.gif

and he noted that snow was lying on 4 mornings in Norwich that month, possibly aided both by that easterly and the northerly on the 10th-12th. It was also a notably sunny month in parts of northern England, although the Met Office regional series suggest that it wasn't outstanding sunshine wise in Scotland or in southern England.

[AderynCoch]

However, the cold came to an abrupt end with a notably mild start to December and a very mild Dec as a whole.

One quite extraordinary aspect of this change is how 1985 holds both the record daily minimum for 30th November (-20.9C) and the record daily maximum for 1st December (16.0C). As far as I know these still stand today.

Edited November 2, 2010 by AderynCoch

[damianslaw]

One quite extraordinary aspect of this change is how 1985 holds both the record daily minimum for 30th November (-20.9C) and the record daily maximum for 1st December (16.0C). As far as I know these still stand today.

Hadn't realised just how quickly things warmed up during the 1st Dec - quite remarkable, temp changes you would not expect in a maritime location more indicative of a continental location.

[stewfox]

One quite extraordinary aspect of this change is how 1985 holds both the record daily minimum for 30th November (-20.9C) and the record daily maximum for 1st December (16.0C). As far as I know these still stand today.

October 1985 was very warm (the start anyway). As a student I remember we all had tee shirts on as we watched the Boy Cott Barclays (South Africa) lot.

Then the market turn to colder weather with the month long cold of Feb 86 (my 21st birthday celebrations in the snow !)

[damianslaw]

October 1985 was very warm (the start anyway). As a student I remember we all had tee shirts on as we watched the Boy Cott Barclays (South Africa) lot.

Then the market turn to colder weather with the month long cold of Feb 86 (my 21st birthday celebrations in the snow !)

1985 as a whole saw some quite contrasting months weatherwise but in overview was a particularly cold year. Jan and Feb were very cold, the summer was very cold and wet, a mild Oct, a very cold Nov and then a very mild Dec - quite an odd combination.

The cold conditions continued through much of 1986 - Feb, Mar, Apr, Aug and Sept of that year were notably cold, indeed Feb, Aug and Sept 1986 were very cold indeed relative to average. A swift change to mild weather occured in Oct 1986. The 12 month period between Oct 1985 - Sept 1986 must go down as one of the coldest 12 month periods of the 20th century.

T