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20 years since this Arctic plunge: April 1995


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Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam

Good Friday 1995 was absolutely lovely and warm but the forecasters were warning of winter returning next week and it did. I remember snow showers falling Tuesday morning and a snow shower in the evening. Wednesday was largely dry. I notice snow had fallen overnight with some snow on cars Thursday morning.

18th April

19th April

20th April

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Posted
  • Location: North York Moors
  • Location: North York Moors

It's hard to believe when April can be relatively warm like this year, but wintry spells are common at any stage in the month.
There was one year early 80s (probably 84) which had about a foot of snow quite widely - including on The Wolds - on or around the 25th and there had been a good warm spell shortly before.
Oilseed rape was in full bloom but squashed flat by the weight of it.
Roads over the moors were closed by drifts and need full scale winter clearance tackle like JCB diggers.

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Posted
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

It's hard to believe when April can be relatively warm like this year, but wintry spells are common at any stage in the month.

There was one year early 80s (probably 84) which had about a foot of snow quite widely - including on The Wolds - on or around the 25th and there had been a good warm spell shortly before.

Oilseed rape was in full bloom but squashed flat by the weight of it.

Roads over the moors were closed by drifts and need full scale winter clearance tackle like JCB diggers.

1981 I think that was.

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Posted
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District South Pennines Middleton & Smerrill Tops 305m (1001ft) asl.
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District South Pennines Middleton & Smerrill Tops 305m (1001ft) asl.

What a great presentor Rob was, He had such carisma ☺

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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl

Have vague recollections of April 1995 northerly. I also think we saw a similar northerly sometime in April 1996 as well, that one brought snow cover overnight.

 

April is our most fickle month, some years it can be early summer like think 1987, 2007 and 2011, others a definite wintry feel. It is prone to major switcharounds. Some years like this year it cane be very dry (we await to see how the end of the month pans out though...)

 

April 1981 was preety exceptional, late April snowstorms for many.. highly unusual.

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

The April 1995 northerly ranks highly among my most fondly-remembered spring northerlies.  I remember going on a trip to Hexham during the warm and sunny Good Friday, but then Saturday and Sunday in Tyneside were cool, cloudy and mostly dry and Monday was dull and wet.  

 

On the Tuesday morning (18th) the northerly started up, and I saw some quite heavy snow showers, although no significant accumulations on the ground.  It was a memorable event mainly because it was my first sighting of April snow since I started taking weather records in 1993 (the Tyneside coast dodged the snow showers in early April 1994).  Showers from midday onwards fell mostly as sleet and hail rather than snow, and there were some impressive cumulonimbus cells about.  The 19th started off dry and sunny but sleet and hail showers arrived after midday, fewer than on the 18th though.  Unlike the 18th, 20th and 21st, I have no specific recollections of what happened on the 19th, other than notes from my old weather diaries.

 

The 20th was the most memorable day of the spell.  I didn't report any sleet or snow that day but after a dry bright morning there were frequent hail showers and one hail shower, around mid-afternoon, deposited a couple of centimetres of hail and I remember that the weather turned somewhat misty for about 15 minutes afterwards.  Surprisingly no thunder though.  I even vaguely recall watching that weather forecast and hearing the "many places escaped with a virtually dry day" comment.  The 21st saw the same pattern as the previous two days, dry and sunny until around 1pm and then frequent showers, but they fell as rain that day.  In the evening the winds switched direction, with the generally north-westerly flow replaced with a south-westerly, giving the first hints of a marked change in the weather.

 

A few other April northerlies were more memorable for their snow (1998, 1999, 2006, 2008) but for good convective skyscapes this one was pretty hard to beat and as you can see above, I still have a lot of vivid memories from that spell.  As far as April convective polar/arctic maritime spells go, I think only the 6-15 April 2008 spell that I experienced in Norwich topped it.

Edited by Thundery wintry showers
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Posted
  • Location: halifax 125m
  • Weather Preferences: extremes the unusual and interesting facts
  • Location: halifax 125m

Yes we had snow here in 1995 and 1996 as well as 1999 but a longer wintery spell came in 1986 giving many days but no major disruption unlike the 3rd week of april 1981 which gave enormous amounts that had no right to exist in April.Wall to wall snow with major disruption for 2 days then rain to melt it all within the week giving some of the worst floods in a generation.

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  • 4 years later...
Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl

Gosh where does time go. Spring 95 was a very interesting season, with lots of twists and turns, It had a number of notable sharp cold northerly shots with snow at times. Early March 95 was cold and very snowy with an unstable NW airstream, mid March I think gave some widespread snow to Wales. The end of the month brought another cold direct northerly shot with snow.

April 95 was very mixed, lots of dry warm sunny weather at times, and then the cold shot above. There was a marked change end of the month to something much warmer dry and sunny and this continued into early May which was very warm and summerlike. Mid May brought a change to cold unsettled conditions with low pressure overhead, then a return to something warmer and drier month end.

Spring 95 was a turning point overall, after a lengthy period of atlantic weather dominating the roost, and very wet condition since around Summer 92. It marked the start of I believe is still the driest 2 year period on record. Atlantic was very quiet and high pressure ruled the roost in the main, with alot of northerly and easterly airstreams.

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Posted
  • Location: halifax 125m
  • Weather Preferences: extremes the unusual and interesting facts
  • Location: halifax 125m
3 hours ago, damianslaw said:

Gosh where does time go. Spring 95 was a very interesting season, with lots of twists and turns, It had a number of notable sharp cold northerly shots with snow at times. Early March 95 was cold and very snowy with an unstable NW airstream, mid March I think gave some widespread snow to Wales. The end of the month brought another cold direct northerly shot with snow.

April 95 was very mixed, lots of dry warm sunny weather at times, and then the cold shot above. There was a marked change end of the month to something much warmer dry and sunny and this continued into early May which was very warm and summerlike. Mid May brought a change to cold unsettled conditions with low pressure overhead, then a return to something warmer and drier month end.

Spring 95 was a turning point overall, after a lengthy period of atlantic weather dominating the roost, and very wet condition since around Summer 92. It marked the start of I believe is still the driest 2 year period on record. Atlantic was very quiet and high pressure ruled the roost in the main, with alot of northerly and easterly airstreams.

It is well known that 1995/1996 were two exceptionally dry years,probably the driest two years as you say but the two years from April 2017 were amazingly not that far behind with 1287mm and 1434mm respectively!

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

I last posted in this thread five years ago but I can confirm that my nostalgic memories of this spell appear to be undimmed.  Still have vivid memories of going out to Hexham on the Good Friday, going onto the garden swing in snow showers early on the 18th, seeing one hailstorm after another on the 20th, and then going to my grandmother's house on the 21st and watching the cumulonimbus cells sprout up by around 1pm.

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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire
On 19/04/2015 at 19:34, hillbilly said:

Yes we had snow here in 1995 and 1996 as well as 1999 but a longer wintery spell came in 1986 giving many days but no major disruption unlike the 3rd week of april 1981 which gave enormous amounts that had no right to exist in April.Wall to wall snow with major disruption for 2 days then rain to melt it all within the week giving some of the worst floods in a generation.

Yes, Philip Eden has confirmed that this was 24th to 26th April 1981, three days of heavy snow which affected large parts of the UK., with snow depths of 30-50cm typical above about 150m above sea level. A rapid thaw then led to flooding in the Midlands and Yorkshire and there were seven weather-related deaths.

Looking further back, 70 years ago in April 1950, there was (according to Philip Eden) an exceptional late snowstorm on 25th - 26th April, with 15-20cm falling, mostly within 6 hours above the 100m contour from Wiltshire to Kent. I had been christened three to four days previously close to our family home near the North Downs on what was the warmest day of April, and although I remember nothing about this event or the snow, I was told that the snow caused widespread damage to trees and plants, along with 600 telegraph poles either felled or snapped in two with the weight of the snow on the wires, as reported by Mark Davison and Ian Currie in their 1990 book on Surrey Weather. The snow storm was apparently caused by a polar depression which crossed Surrey and pulled down Arctic air. 

Now does anybody know the forecast for 25th April seventy years later?!

  

 

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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl

We had a late snowfall as recently as 30 April 2016. Rain turned to snow in the morning and began to stick with temps down to 0 degrees. Surprising how we can achieve this so late in the season. All down to a cold polar air source, an injection of moisture usually a warm front moving in, evaporative cooling induced by slack wind and high lapse rate. The snow quickly turned back to rain.

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