If you could travel back in time to relive a memorable weather event

[damianslaw]

Most recently in terms of snow, I would say Monday 21 December 2009. I travelled from Newcastle to Kendal, leaving Newcastle it was very cold about -3 degrees with a hard frost and snow cover.. I visited Sunderland in the morning, and then travelled over the A66, as I reached around Kirkby Stephen there was fresh snowfall on the road, only light.. moving further westwards the snow became more notable, I only just managed to arrive in Kendal on time before local roads were blocked - heavy snow was falling, and it continued into the early hours with thundersnow. The intensity of the snow was something else.

Overall snow amounts , 6 February 1996.

Cold temperature wise, the run up to Christmas 2010 was quite special, sub freezing for days, and the Lake District took on an Alpine glow.. there was a big full moon I think on the 22 Dec and under the clear starry skies and temps around -10 degrees just after dusk - it felt magical.

Edited October 24, 2021 by damianslaw

[Summer18]

The Christmas period in 2010, honestly felt like the Arctic Circle that week.

May-July 2018 was lovely, hot sun and clear blue sky.

The completely random huge thunderstorm on the 24th September last year was unbelievable. Never seen the roads so white-over with hail before. 

[Jamie M]

1683/84 winter definitely.

V cold and severe. Shame there's not many widespread temperature readings to go off then but it was definitely cold!

[A Face like Thunder]

The 'Lorna Doone' winter, yes I would agree 1683/4 with you, Jamie M.

I visited Hampstead at lunchtime on 14th August 1975 but had gone back south by the time of the 'Hampstead Storm'. I would have liked to have been there.

Heat - summer of 1976 (Surrey)

Cold - 1962/3 (including snow and fog/smog) (Surrey)

Snow - 1962/3 (Surrey), 5th/6th Feb 1996 (Blackpool)

Rainfall / flooding - 15th September 1968 (Surrey), 6th August 1981 (Surrey)

Wind - 16th October 1987 (Surrey), 24th December 1997 (Lancs), 18th Jan 2007 (Cheshire)

Thunder / lightning - 6th August 1981 and 31st May/1st June (Surrey / Hants), 14th/15th Sept 2016 (Hants)

All/almost all of the above described on other threads.

Abroad - Singapore, 16th December 1959, immediate mass evacuation of primary school as the rainwater cascaded down the slope and threatened several classrooms

Anti-climax - 10th August 2003, I was willing the mercury to pass 100F in N Yorkshire, but the cloud rolled in and the opportunity to join Kent in the record books passed. Would we have got there? Probably not but we shall never know!  

 

 

 

[emmett garland]

Personally in Dublin it would be the 8 hr thunderstorms overnight early morning 25/26July1985 .             The february  9th gale of 1988 which lasted throughout the whole day with continuous 40pmh and severe gusts, boulders and rocks were washed up onto the fields in western Ireland and the whole country was affected.                January 1987 on my way to school in virtually calm weather it snowed gigantic flakes that resembled big toblerone triangles ( truly memorable ). Hurricane Charley August 25th 1986.. All in the space of 4 years no wonder I became an obsessed weather geek in my teenage years..

[BruenSryan]

In terms of my own lifetime, it's easily Nov/Dec 2010 cold spells if anybody knows me. Nothing comes close to the innocence I felt as a kid taking it all for granted and thinking it was normal! The only time there was true Dickensian Christmas scenes around the area probably since 1878 (speaking of 1878..). 

Going back further, I would either go for Winter 1878-79, January 1881 or Winter 1916-17.

1878-79 had a severe December and January with many many snowfalls that would have been streamer galore for the Irish Sea. Christmas was a bitterly cold white one too before it became milder temporarily after similar to 2010-11. 

January 1881 had the godfather of all cold spells for Ireland and was the coldest month on record by far in the nation. Many days mid-month well below freezing consecutively day after day with minus mid-double digits including the national record low of -19.1C which stands to this day. It was also very snowy with again tons of streamers like 1878-79 and featured a great snowstorm for southern England too. December 2010 was Dublin's coldest month since January 1881.

1916-17 was a super interesting winter season for Ireland, featured two of our worst snowstorms on record in January and April 1917. December 1916 featured a cold spell too and February 1917 featured frosts of unusual severity with the deep snow from the late January snowstorm still there in places up to mid-February. Then there was the April 1917 snowstorm which is crazy to hear the (limited) stories about how impactful and severe it was. Blacksod at sea level in the northwest had drifts of 8-10 ft after an hour and a half of commencement! Seskin, Co. Waterford had 9 days of snow lying in April 1917 alone. There was also exceptional low temperatures such as -7C at Phoenix Park, Co. Dublin and -15C in Cumbria. Then if things weren't bad enough, once the cold weather left the nation, there was drought conditions going into May which turned out to be much warmer than average; although the summer of 1917 was very poor! 

An honourable mention also goes out to November 1919 for such an extreme cold and snowy spell for the time of year. -11.1C at Markree Castle on 14th November was the nation's record low for November until 2010. Braemar achieved -23C on the same day, only 2 years in the last 30 have achieved -23C or lower in any month in the UK (Dec 1995 and Feb 2021) yet a November 102 years ago managed it.. there was widespread snow to sea level too. I just find it all so fascinating how this happened in November and it shows the potential of November as a winter month, shame it rarely does fulfill it. 

[Summer8906]

Winter 1963 as long as I could 'quit' the experience at any time, as even though I like snowy winters that one might have been a little too much to live all the way through!

Summer 1976. Was alive then but don't remember it.

The June 1975 snow followed by hot. Again alive then but too young to remember.

Winter 1979. Actually have some memories of this but no real memory of the winter as a whole and how it progressed.

April 26th 1981, in a different part of the UK to which I was living (the rainy - on that day - southeast....)

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by Summer8906

[Summer Snow]

In Southeast Ireland my favourite memories are:

1976 - The long hot summer. Was only a baby but am told it was incredible.... lawns totally burnt and brown in colour 

1979 - Several snowfalls in Jan, Feb and March. Too young to remember but am told the St. Patrick's Day parades on 17th March had to be cancelled due to snow.

1982 - January Blizzard and the big freeze which followed with schools closed for over a week. Great memories 

1984 - January. Several snowfalls that month from North Westerlies which was very unusual (cold zonality). Some really good snowfalls here in southeast Ireland so can only imagine the depth of snow the North and west of Ireland and Scotland received. 

1985 - January and February several snowfalls. Favourite event that winter was when it rained heavily all day one Thursday in Feb. Just before we left school, the rain suddenly turned to heavy snow with huge flakes and despite all the rain that had fallen the ground turned white within minutes. Ended up with about 8 inches of snow which stayed on the ground for 7 or 8 days in the hard freeze which followed. 

1986 August hurricane Charlie with trees uprooted everywhere. 

1987 January The Beast from the East and the week of bone chillingly cold winds with heavy snowfalls with large drifts....memorable 

1991 February and the classic easterly spell which brought heavy snow and ice here over several days 

1995 The glorious long hot summer which seemed to last forever 

1996 January and December snowfalls from easterlies. Brilliant snowfall in late January and particularly heavy snowfall on New Year's Eve 1996 with the snow remaining on ground for first 10 or 11 days of January 1997

1997 December.Storm on Christmas Eve. Scary walking through Waterford city centre for last of the Crimbo shopping with slates flying everywhere. Huge trees upended in the countryside over a large area.

1999 December. Coming out of the local pub Christmas Eve and it was snowing with a covering on surfaces ....First White Christmas for me....melted quickly enough Christmas Day as showers turned back to sleet and rain....

2000 December. Snowfall just after Christmas (27th I think) which lasted until New Years Day

2004 White Christmas. Snow showers on a North westerly Christmas Eve and Christmas day with a light covering.

2005 February. First snowy easterly since early 1997 which lasted about a week....

2009 February another snowy easterly and first time I learned about Sudden Strat Warming which apparently caused the easterly to happen.

2010 January. The cold spell which commenced in mid December 2009 with frosts and a few dustings of snow really intensified in January 2010 with heavy snowfalls up to around mid month. ..Icy....

2010 November December. Amazing spell brought heavy snow on 27th November with snow cover lasting for 2 full weeks with several top ups. Then after a brief thaw for 6 days another freeze from 16th to 26th December - although snowfall here was light in this second spell, we had a light covering and about 10 days of perma frost and ice.

2013 March / April. Bitterly cold March with numerous snowfalls including a few decent coverings with the biting cold and snow showers lasting for first third of April 

2015 January / February storms....one after another it was relentlessly wet and stormy 

2017 December. Surprise snowfall from a slider on Sunday 10th December with snow cover remaining for a few days. This despite the fact it rained heavily for all of the previous night, before precipitation turned to snow around 8am and then snowed heavily until mid afternoon before skies cleared and frost set in around dusk....roads and pavements were like ice rinks 

2017 March. Wall to wall sunshine for about 2 weeks and tenperatures in the 20's with people walking around in shorts and t shirts .....typically the summer that followed was crap....and March the following year would bring the opposite in weather extremes.

2018 March. Beast from the East and Storm Emma brought copious amounts of snow here which was memorable. Drifts everywhere and it took weeks for all the snow piles to melt....Mini Beast on 17th and 18th March Brought fresh snowfalls here also. The following summer was a belter...very sunny and warm with numerous trips to the beach 

2020 Summer. Some brilliant spells of sunshine but also some amazing thunder storms and lightning with spectacular light shows 

2021 January. Unexpected heavy snowfall during the second  January cold spell which left a decent covering of snow for several days...the Beast in February also gave dustings of snow but dissapointingly was nothing to write home about here.....

Hopefully many more memorable weather events lie ahead for us all.... 

Edited November 28, 2021 by Summer Snow

[Roger J Smith]

I would go back to 1703 and warn people about the great storm, hopefully they would take it seriously (the spacecraft might help with that).

Hundreds of sailors died and many vessels were destroyed, on land there was probably a fairly large death and injury toll as well. There was also a damaging storm surge around the Severn estuary. Then I would go on to 1839 and do the same thing in Ireland. 

Don't you sometimes wonder, surely in the future they will master time travel, how come nobody ever comes back to our time and warns us about anything? Well maybe it has happened once or twice and we haven't recognized it as such. But it also may mean that nobody ever does master time travel in our future. More likely they have strict rules about it and who can do what, but then teenagers? Free thinkers? They might break those rules and do it anyway. 

Some would say that accurate sounding Biblical or other religious prophecies could be aided by time travel, or at least they suggest that while human beings might never master time travel, some other race that lives elsewhere in the universe has done so.

But if I master it then I promise to take you along to see any weather event you're willing to pay to see.

 

[Summer8906]

21 hours ago, Roger J Smith said:

I would go back to 1703 and warn people about the great storm, hopefully they would take it seriously (the spacecraft might help with that).

Hundreds of sailors died and many vessels were destroyed, on land there was probably a fairly large death and injury toll as well. There was also a damaging storm surge around the Severn estuary. Then I would go on to 1839 and do the same thing in Ireland. 

Don't you sometimes wonder, surely in the future they will master time travel, how come nobody ever comes back to our time and warns us about anything? Well maybe it has happened once or twice and we haven't recognized it as such. But it also may mean that nobody ever does master time travel in our future. More likely they have strict rules about it and who can do what, but then teenagers? Free thinkers? They might break those rules and do it anyway. 

Some would say that accurate sounding Biblical or other religious prophecies could be aided by time travel, or at least they suggest that while human beings might never master time travel, some other race that lives elsewhere in the universe has done so.

But if I master it then I promise to take you along to see any weather event you're willing to pay to see.

I guess the fact that no-one has come back from the future proves that backwards time travel is impossible. Certainly one might think that people might travel back to notable periods in recent history, such as the 1960s. Or, more pressingly, travel back to the 1930s and rid the world of the Nazis.

[cheeky_monkey]

1 hour ago, Summer8906 said:

I guess the fact that no-one has come back from the future proves that backwards time travel is impossible. Certainly one might think that people might travel back to notable periods in recent history, such as the 1960s. Or, more pressingly, travel back to the 1930s and rid the world of the Nazis.

how do you know that they haven't? how do you that the defeat of Nazi Germany etc somehow leads to a future world of prolonged peace and prosperity and if it the rise of Nazi Germany did not happen something far worse may have happened in later history or by now..anyway i would relive the entire year of 1978 just because

[hillbilly]

11 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

I guess the fact that no-one has come back from the future proves that backwards time travel is impossible. Certainly one might think that people might travel back to notable periods in recent history, such as the 1960s. Or, more pressingly, travel back to the 1930s and rid the world of the Nazis.

A little bit off subject here but we are all led to believe the Nazis were mans worst enemy but after the war Rommel stated 'We have defeated the wrong eneny' and Churchill wanted to defeat the Russians'Operation unthinkable',only the Yanks wouldnt back him up!

[toggerob]

I'm in the belief that we can only be observers when it comes to time-travel, maybe some unknown rule of physics would prevent us from interacting with the time we go back to. A good example of this is how we're able to look at stars in the night sky that are millions/billions of years younger than Earth but we won't ever be able to interfere in what happens to them.

But back on Earth i'd go back to the storm of 1987 as I was only 3 at the time and obviously now have no recollection of the event, purely from a standpoint of being able to see in-person what the storm was like to go through. 

[Roger J Smith]

18 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

I guess the fact that no-one has come back from the future proves that backwards time travel is impossible. Certainly one might think that people might travel back to notable periods in recent history, such as the 1960s. Or, more pressingly, travel back to the 1930s and rid the world of the Nazis.

Perhaps in the future the Nazis enjoy a better reputation. I mean look at the Vikings, they aren't seen as one-dimensional psychopathic killers now. But they probably were for much of the three hundred years they were being Vikings. By non-Vikings, that is. 

But your argument is basically the one I would advance, although more generally, as there are plenty of others the world could do without. I am perhaps a bit averse to wiping out Nazis because had there not been a world war two, my parents would not have met (my mother was evacuated from London to a small town near Tamworth where my dad lived -- he was still there because he worked in an aircraft factory in Brum). So there is that. It might increase the resolve of others though. 

[Coopsy]

Jan 1987 - 2.5 feet of snow and a week of snow and sub zero temps and snowed in at home with my brother and parents.

As a  10 year old that never saw his workaholic dad, playing in the garden throwing snowballs and building an igloo with him, it was just perfect. Loved every minute of it 

[trickydicky]

In my lifetime November/December 2010. 
 

From history I’d probably go back to that week in February 1895 when Braemar had a run of nights around -25. 

[baddie]

June 28th 2012, due to that supercell thunderstorm
Also that July 2013 heatwave, including the hail/thunder storm on the 23rd

Edited September 18, 2023 by baddie

[Summer8906]

Don't think I've replied to this yet, but it has to be the two obvious ones.

Summer 1976 - within my lifetime but can't remember it.

Winter 1963 - not within my lifetime.

[Harry's House]

I would like to travel back to 6th August 1981 and experience the day darkness which I have heard quite a bit about. I was in West Sussex at the time and although it was quite dramatic, I don't remember it getting particularly dark.

Also, I would like to experience the 24th June 1994 storm. I was abroad on holiday at the time and I only learnt of it a few days later after I got home. It sounds something really dramatic.

[emmett garland]

I would like to back and see whatever caused the flood that created the Noah and his Ark story.Must have been some deluge..

[Earthshine]

Back to July 2022 and the run up to the 40°C.  Most extraordinary temperature ever seen in the UK and what many people here thought was impossible until recently.