Past christmas weather

[damianslaw]

I created this thread before, but I still like to have one featured in the forum in the immediate run up to christmas. Please use this thread to post your memories of christmas weather past, and by that I generally mean the christmas week from 24-31 December.

Memorable cold and/or snowy christmas weeks include the following:

1992 - no snow, but a cold frosty spell, freezing fog by the 28th, temps only just above freezing maxes much of the time. Rating cold - 6, snow - 0

1993 - a white christmas, with a dusting of snow thanks to light snow showers, the snow stayed on the ground over Boxing Day, a fresh snowfall on the 27th, but then a thaw. Rating cold -5, snow - 5

1995 - we had 7 ice days in a row from 25-31 Dec, with a bit of snow on the ground and temps falling to around -15 degrees overnight 28/29 December. Rating cold - 10, snow - 5

1996 - not quite as cold as 1995, but again a 7/8 day run of temperatures hovering around 0 degree max, with again a dusting of snow on the ground on christmas day, a light snowfall on the 27th, heavy snow showers New Years Eve, indeed a notable snowy new years eve in a bitter easterly wind. Unlike 1995 the cold continued through the first part of January. Rating cold - 8, snow - 7

2000 - after a very mild wet first part to December, it became cold just in time for christmas, like 1996 we had a week of temps hovering close to the 0 degree max mark, but no snow on the ground on christmas day, the snow came with avengance overnight 27/28, 5 inches, very cold 28-31 Dec, then a rapid thaw, similiar to 1995. Rating cold - 9, snow - 8 

2001 - a white christmas, only just, a few snow showers, a cold christmas week, but not a par with those mentioned above, still very frosty and seasonal, some snow showers around 28th, and the 30th, the cold held on through the first few days of January. Rating cold - 5, snow - 6

2004 - a true white christmas, snow on a northerly for the bid day, only a couple of inches, but good to see, it hung around on Boxing Day, though temps were not especially cold, quickly turned mild and wet thereafter. Rating cold - 3, snow - 7

2008 - no white christmas, but it became chilly just in time for christmas week, thanks to high pressure, the cold grew through the week, with severe frosts by the 28th and temps struggling to get to freezing, excellent winter walking conditions. Some snow in time for new year. Cold rating - 6, snow - 2

2009 - snow crisp and deep and even to greet christmas day, about 7 inches on the ground but not an official white christmas, as no snow fell. Boxing Day was an oddity we had a slight thaw with temps close to 6 degrees, it became cold and dry on the 27th, and everything became icy once again, but no fresh snow over the whole christmas week, still a very seasonal one. Rating cold - 7, snow - 6

2010-  a true white christmas, sub freezing, with an inch or two on the ground, then a surprise 1 and hour light snowfall late morning, superb, came out of nowhere and wasn't forecast. Boxing Day equally as cold, heavy snow overnight 26/27, but then a rapid thaw, with most of the snow gone by the 29th unfortunately, after a promising start it went downhill. Rating cold - 6, snow - 5

I can't remember christmas 1981, nor those pre 1986 more generally. The 1987-1991 period coinciding with most vivid childhood memories unfortunately also coincided with snowless mild fests..

Memorable for the wrong reasons:

The less said about the last 5 christmas periods the better, 2013 the worst of recent past, with a storm on the 23rd and 27th. 2015 nearly as bad, though less windy, but excessively mild. 2012 also preety terrible with rain and wind and mild throughout, same 2011. 2014 the best of a bad bunch, a shortlived cold spell 26-29, decent snow on the fells, managed a good winters walk. Going further back, 2006 and 2007 dire for cold, though 2006 produced a cold foggy christmas and boxing day. Just dreary damp mild wet weather in the main though. 2002 ditto. 

1997 - a power cut on christmas day, after severe gales on christmas eve, it was an awful night with heavy rain. Rest of it just wet and windy. 1998- almost carbon copy, with a storm on Boxing Day, equally as bad, not quite as wet and mild though overall.

Where will christmas 2016 fall - probably in the unmemorable ones, but perhaps something a bit more settled than recent ones, despite what looks like an unsettled christmas day. Little cold or snow on the horizon though. Always christmas 2017...

Edited December 20, 2016 by damianslaw

[MP-R]

I think the Christmasses that stick out the most for me are:

2015 - excessively mild

2010 - deepest snow I've seen at Christmas (other than skiing). Very seasonal!

2009 - snow still lying from snow in the days prior

2004 - lots of snow showers with generally light accumulations. Great snowy walk no the Mendips on the 26th

2002 - ridiculously mild, but sunny and calm - felt like spring!

1999 - stormy with hail, sleet and snow showers accompanied by thunder and lightning

 

[Weather-history]

Michael Fish on Christmas Eve 1977 doing the forecast

And from Christmas Day 1984

And from 1985 with Bill Giles starts around 9.00. Remember the Christmas to New Year cold spell of that year.

 

[Don]

4 hours ago, Weather-history said:

Michael Fish on Christmas Eve 1977 doing the forecast

And from Christmas Day 1984

And from 1985 with Bill Giles starts around 9.00. Remember the Christmas to New Year cold spell of that year.

 

Hmm, we don't get cold westerly winds like that these days!

 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

6 minutes ago, Don said:

Hmm, we don't get cold westerly winds like that these days!

 

certainly don't, all part of the change

[Don]

2 minutes ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

certainly don't, all part of the change

Those were the days!

 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Maybe we'll look back on Xmas 2016 as the warmest Xmas on record? possibility in some areas maybe? bbc going for 13-14° in many parts

Hate TMW

[cheese]

38 minutes ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

Maybe we'll look back on Xmas 2016 as the warmest Xmas on record? possibility in some areas maybe? bbc going for 13-14° in many parts

Hate TMW

That's not record breaking though.

Personally, I'm looking forward to it - as I'm sure most people in the real world are. No scraping ice, no snow chaos, saving on heating bills - perfecto! ;-)

Maybe in 50 years we'll have year-round citrus production in the UK!!

Edited December 21, 2016 by cheese

[I remember Atlantic 252]

1 minute ago, cheese said:

That's not record breaking though.

Personally, I'm looking forward to it - as I'm sure most people in the real world are. No scraping ice, no snow chaos, saving on heating bills - perfecto! ;-)

No it's not but could exceed that never know, certain weather stations could be close, huge mild sector timed for the big day, where Xmas Eve and boxing day looking cooler

[Planesailing]

It's interesting to read met office December reports from 1880 onwards. Our weather appears to have changed little with snow at Christmas even then a rarity. We are essentially a very mild island .

 

dec1884.pdf

Edited December 21, 2016 by Planesailing

[sundog]

Xmas day 84 I was 11 and during that Xmas we had stayed in a rented cottage in West Ireland right beside the Atlantic coast in County clare. It was the first Xmas day I had seen snow falling,there had been some wet snow showers there during the day more especially during the first half. 

The next and last time i saw snow falling on Xmas day was 20yrs later in 2004. The closest I came to have falling snow on Xmas day between 84 -04 was 2000, with any showers that day becoming more of a wintry nature as the evening arrived.

Edited December 22, 2016 by sundog

[Weather-history]

9 hours ago, Don said:

Hmm, we don't get cold westerly winds like that these days!

 

You mean like the 2nd March 2015?

 

[Weather-history]

Christmas Day 1987

 

Christmas Day 1989

Christmas Eve 1990

 

[Carl46Wrexham]

Most memorable Christmas (for the right reasons)

2004 : Heavy snow showers which settled - last true White Christmas we had.

2010 : Clear blue sky with loads of sunshine but temperature was well below freezing all day thus no melting of the deep snow cover.

Most memorable for the wrong reasons

1997 : Big windstorm on Christmas Eve caused widespread damage and left tens of thousands without power between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. More stormy weather on the big day itself. Horrible.

[Weather-history]

Christmas Day 1991

Christmas Day 1992

Penny Tranter, seems to always get tongue tied from Christmas 1993

 

[Weather-history]

14 hours ago, Carl46Wrexham said:

Most memorable Christmas (for the right reasons)

2004 : Heavy snow showers which settled - last true White Christmas we had.

2010 : Clear blue sky with loads of sunshine but temperature was well below freezing all day thus no melting of the deep snow cover.

Most memorable for the wrong reasons

1997 : Big windstorm on Christmas Eve caused widespread damage and left tens of thousands without power between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. More stormy weather on the big day itself. Horrible.

 

Christmas Eve 1997 was bad. Worst gale of the 90s here

 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

2004 was great, amazing timed Arctic NW'ly, very rare in the christmas pudding, other one was Feb 3-5 '03

[Weather-history]

On 21 December 2016 at 11:46, MP-R said:

 

2002 - ridiculously mild, but sunny and calm - felt like spring!

 

 

 

[Weather-history]

 

 

[damianslaw]

Christmas Day 1995 was a very snowy wild one for the N Isles and NE Scotland, thanks to that rare feature a polar low. I think coastal parts of N Ireland, N Wales and NE England also had a white christmas, however, the rest of the country had a dry sunny bitterly cold day.

Lets hope christmas 2017 can deliver something a bit more seasonal compared to this one and the last five.. as I said we are rivalling the christmas 1971-1975 period (6 in a row) in terms of mild christmas days devoid of anything wintry, 2014 came close to producing the goods, but a day too early, similiarly this year looks like doing the same for Scotland and perhaps parts of N Ireland and places with elevation far N England. I remember 1985 did this, a mild christmas day, followed by a cold Boxing Day with snow.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

95-97 were great winters, as were many before then! 97-98 really the last winter here, other than the odd month!

[I remember Atlantic 252]

'97 was a great new year! snowed all day! I miss winters!

[damianslaw]

Going off topic a bit.. however, Winter 97-98 was very mild overall, a very shortlived colder spell mid Dec, more so in the south thanks to easterly winds, but then mild SW/W airstream preety much dominated the rest of the winter, apart from a one day northerly toppler around 18 Jan I think, it turned cold on the last day of the winter with some snow. It coincided with a super el nino. April 98 was snowier than the whole winter, so I certainly wouldn't class it as snowy. I think you meant to say winter 96-97 which was very similiar to winter 81-82 in that the first half was dominated by cold wintry conditions, but the second half was much milder wet and devoid of much wintriness.

Until Dec 09- Jan 10, it was the last winter to deliver a lengthy very cold pattern, one lasting upwards of 10 days or so, roughly about 2 weeks from christmas day until second week of Jan. Late Nov and early Dec were also quite cold. However, the second half of Jan, and more so Feb were very mild. 

I've said before how recently we've had clusters of cold wintry winters interspersed by generally average and more often than not mild wet ones as follows:

Winter 76/77- 78/79 cold snowy

Winter 79/80-80/81 - average

Winter 81-82 - 86-87 - a run of winters that produced at least one month each with cold snowy weather i.e. Dec 81, Jan 82, Feb 83,Jan 84 (more so the north), Jan/Feb 85, Feb 86, Jan 87

Winter 87/88-89/90 - mild

Winter 90/91 -  colder one, a bit of an outsider

Winter 91/92 - 94/95 - average, episodic

Winter 95/96 - 96/97 Cold

Winter 97/98 - 99/00 - mild

Winter 00/01 - 05/06 - generally average, mild bit of cold thrown in at times

Winter 06/07-07/08 - mild

Winter 08/09-10/11 - cold

Winter 11/12- average

Winter 12/13 - cold

Winter 13/14 - ? - mild

[I remember Atlantic 252]

97-98 was snowy here, 17 Dec very snowy day

5th Jan, probably heaviest snow I have ever seen, ended up with around 6cms after morning rain

April was snowy

[Weather-history]

6 hours ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

97-98 was snowy here, 17 Dec very snowy day

5th Jan, probably heaviest snow I have ever seen, ended up with around 6cms after morning rain

April was snowy

There is no way that 1997-98 can be described as snowy. And of those two snowfalls you mentioned that occurred during the winter season, did any last more than a day or two on the ground?