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White Easters


damianslaw

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

Time to resurrect a white Easter thread.. Easter on account of it varying in timing can bring everything, snow, heat, rain.. 

Please use this thread memories of the white variety. 2008 was very early Easter an we had a couple of inches of snow in the morning. Easter 13 also very early and bitterly cold. Other cold easters with snow falling include 1983, 1998. 

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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset

I've yet to witness snow on the ground at Easter... but I remember some passing snow showers during 2008. There was talk of a third even more mini beast from the east for Easter 2018 but instead it was just grey, very wet and cold. The last time I remember snow associated with an April Easter was 1998.

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

I saw lying snow on Easter Sunday in Cleadon, South Tyneside, on 12 April 1998.  It was caused by east-coast snow showers early that morning.  I also saw some lying snow on Easter Monday (24 March) 2008 including a heavy snow squall at 6pm that evening.  In neither case did the snow stick around for long though.

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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
13 minutes ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

I saw lying snow on Easter Sunday in Cleadon, South Tyneside, on 12 April 1998.  It was caused by east-coast snow showers early that morning.  I also saw some lying snow on Easter Monday (24 March) 2008 including a heavy snow squall at 6pm that evening.  In neither case did the snow stick around for long though.

The snow on Easter Sunday 2008 was in the early hours, I remember going for a walk and it was a good few inches deep on ground above 150m , Troutbeck Village thick with snow, we had about an inch, it melted quickly thanks to the abundant sunshine.

Easter 1998 was very wintry, remember about 5 days in a row with snow showers, nothing stuck, but there were frequent frosts and temps no more than 8 degrees in a bitter NE wind.

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

I was on holiday in Glasgow over the Easter 2008 weekend and nothing lay there although there were snow showers there on all four days.  The band of precipitation that moved down from the north in the early hours of Easter Sunday fell as rain and sleet in Glasgow.  I think it did fall as snow in Cleadon, as the records from my AWS there were giving readings of about 0.5C as the front moved through.

In the case of Easter 1998 I spent the whole weekend in Cleadon, there was persistent sleet on the Friday, and snow and hail showers on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday, with lying snow early on the Sunday as mentioned earlier.   Tuesday and Wednesday were mainly dry and bright, with the Pennines sheltering Tyneside from the polar low that hit the north-west on Tuesday 14th.  There was further snow on the morning of Thursday 16th which didn't lie.

Easter 1995 was a near miss despite being a late Easter, with a warm sunny day on Good Friday, a breakdown over the weekend, a dull wet Easter Monday and snow showers on the following Tuesday.   Tyneside also missed out on the Easter 1994 snow, mainly due to not picking up many showers in the westerly flow due to the shelter from the Pennines, but I'm pretty sure many areas did have a white Easter that year, at least in terms of snow falling.

I may as well drag out some charts.

Easter Monday 1994:

image.thumb.png.68ad0edde6a912c98f06ab223ca2f20a.png

Easter Sunday 1998:

image.thumb.png.71f70ac7e1c6bc66f0c73cad38722a51.png

and Easter Sunday 2008:

NOAA_1_2008032312_1.png

Edited by Thundery wintry showers
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Posted
  • Location: N.E. Scotland South Side Moray Firth 100m asl
  • Location: N.E. Scotland South Side Moray Firth 100m asl

Easter 1968April  for me.I was harrowing a field one evening and watched the cold front  cloud come in across the Firth from the north.Snowing by 9.00pm and had about 6 inches by morning.Sowing spring barley in another field as I was harrowing.

We had snow on the ground for about two weeks topped up usually overnight on several occasions.

They only managed to sow the endriggs of the last field before the snow and two weeks later this barley had emerged under the snow.It was green before they managed to sow the centre of the field.              A vivid memory.

I also have old photos too of new tile drains being laid in snow covered fields in the same fortnight.

Sixties springs were often snowy up here. Its where my mothers saying "Spring doesn"t happen in Scotland summer arrives on the 1st of June" came from. 

She was a Londoner who came to this farm in 1962.

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Posted
  • Location: Stoke Gifford, nr Bristol, SGlos
  • Location: Stoke Gifford, nr Bristol, SGlos

Early/mid 70s; cant remember exact year.

I was about 12 or 13 and mum & dad used to take me and my cuz to Stoke Fleming near Dartmouth most Easters. It was last day or two of March that year. It is right on coast of South Devon and we woke up one morning to snow on the ground. They hadnt had any snow during Winter, and snow on the South Devon coast is rare in any year.

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

The charts for Easter 1968 don't look at all snowy, with high pressure over Scotland:

image.thumb.png.5ddab3c8eb5c5154cab54733d683e07f.png

However, there was a very potent northerly from 2-7 April 1968 which was consistent with the weather you described, so maybe you're remembering that northerly and it's plausible that some of that snow may still have been lying at Easter.

Edit: re. Bristle boy, Easter (27-31 March) 1975 had widespread snow.

Edited by Thundery wintry showers
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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl

Just reading reports of the very heavy snow in late April 1908, after Easter but noteworthy how much can fall so late in the season, 18 inches Oxford! What caused that event?

There were the remarkable falls in late April 1981..

Can only think deep rooted arctic air which often finds it's way to our shores in April.

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Posted
  • Location: Stoke Gifford, nr Bristol, SGlos
  • Location: Stoke Gifford, nr Bristol, SGlos
24 minutes ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

 

Edit: re. Bristle boy, Easter (27-31 March) 1975 had widespread snow.

Thanks TWS. I reck that must have been the one

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Posted
  • Location: Medlock Valley, Oldham, 103 metres/337 feet ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Cold, snow, thunderstorms, warm summers not too hot.
  • Location: Medlock Valley, Oldham, 103 metres/337 feet ASL

I don't remember Easter 2013 having snow but I woke up to 4 inches on Easter Sunday 2008. Most of it melted away by the end of the day though. Easter 1998 was similar with a good few inches again on the Easter Monday and on the Tuesday so a nice late snow event given this Easter fell in mid April rather than in March.

Edited by Frost HoIIow
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Posted
  • Location: N.E. Scotland South Side Moray Firth 100m asl
  • Location: N.E. Scotland South Side Moray Firth 100m asl
38 minutes ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

The charts for Easter 1968 don't look at all snowy, with high pressure over Scotland:

image.thumb.png.5ddab3c8eb5c5154cab54733d683e07f.png

However, there was a very potent northerly from 2-7 April 1968 which was consistent with the weather you described, so maybe you're remembering that northerly and it's plausible that some of that snow may still have been lying at Easter.

Edit: re. Bristle boy, Easter (27-31 March) 1975 had widespread snow.

Think I must have remembered  the school holidays which were were always around two weeks  long as unlikely to have been on the old Ford Dexta tractor harrowing when at school.Another memory of the evening the snow arrived was a trip to local village shop in the late afternoon  to stock up on sweets for the holidays. Yes just looked up my old Shooters diary  1st April it arrived  late in the evening  and snowed off and on till the 7th of April. Easter being a bit late  that year on the 14th April. Prior to that we had the heaviest fall of snow that winter on the 22nd of March. Springs have nearly always been a bit snowy  up here. It was over two weeks before we got back to sowing again.

Mountains across the Firth  early on in  May  last year had four days of fresh snow which never melted during the day.

 

Edited by Northernlights
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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
56 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

Just reading reports of the very heavy snow in late April 1908, after Easter but noteworthy how much can fall so late in the season, 18 inches Oxford! What caused that event?

There were the remarkable falls in late April 1981..

Can only think deep rooted arctic air which often finds it's way to our shores in April.

Looks like a low formed over southern England with cold air embedded from quite a prolonged northerly that began over the Easter weekend - decent in winter let alone late April. I'd imagine evaporative cooling would've been at play. Quickly swept away by the following Monday.

NOAA_1_1908042012_2.png NOAA_1_1908042312_2.png NOAA_1_1908042400_2.png NOAA_1_1908042506_2.png NOAA_1_1908042712_2.png

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Posted
  • Location: North Leeds
  • Location: North Leeds

Remember snow on good Friday as a kid, that would have been 1998.

2008 was cold with snow showers all day and we woke up to a covering on Easter Sunday.

2013 was freezing with snow on the ground but the day itself was dry.

2018 it snowed all day Easter Monday and Easter Sunday was cold and wet. 
 

I remember 2000 having a thunderstorm but that’s for another thread. 

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Posted
  • Location: Edinburgh (previously Chelmsford and Birmingham)
  • Weather Preferences: Unseasonably cold weather (at all times of year), wind, and thunderstorms.
  • Location: Edinburgh (previously Chelmsford and Birmingham)

If I recall correctly it took until around Easter Sunday in 2013 (31st March) for all the snow to melt from the previous week's falls (that was down in Chelmsford), so we probably had lying snow on Good Friday. There were certainly extant lumps of snow that had been piled up in our driveway on Easter Sunday, and I remember snow showers on Easter Monday. Can't recall 2008 sadly.

Edited by Relativistic
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Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam
9 hours ago, MP-R said:

I've yet to witness snow on the ground at Easter... but I remember some passing snow showers during 2008. There was talk of a third even more mini beast from the east for Easter 2018 but instead it was just grey, very wet and cold. The last time I remember snow associated with an April Easter was 1998.

Same here

Snow more common at Easter than Christmas? Definitely not from my experience. Christmas Day 2020, I saw falling snow, whilst the last time I saw falling snow on an Easter Sunday was in 2008.

It makes sense that snow at Easter has been rare because Easter falls during April about 75%? of the time on average and cold Aprils have been very rare since 1989. 

 

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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
8 hours ago, Donegal said:

Not quite Easter but Psalm Sunday 1917 a snowstorm hit Ireland. Taken from the Irish met website. I wonder did Britain get hit by this as well?

 

20210323_235722.jpg

Opening days to April 1917 exceptionally cold, bitter n flow, Newton Rigg nr Penrith recorded a low of -15 degrees. 

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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
3 hours ago, Weather-history said:

Same here

Snow more common at Easter than Christmas? Definitely not from my experience. Christmas Day 2020, I saw falling snow, whilst the last time I saw falling snow on an Easter Sunday was in 2008.

It makes sense that snow at Easter has been rare because Easter falls during April about 75%? of the time on average and cold Aprils have been very rare since 1989. 

 

Yes depends on when Easter arrives. April tends to bring major fluctuations from cold to mild in the space of a day or two, a snowy good Friday could be followed by a warm Easter Sunday 

There have been plenty of cold snaps in April over recent years, some have coincided with Easter some have not. 

April is the month of the year that keeps you on your toes the most. 

Edited by damianslaw
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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire

Another early Easter. Paul Simons reports in today's Times on the events of Easter Saturday 70 years ago today on 24th March 1951, when the Oxford boat sank in squally weather in the annual Boat Race on the River Thames. According to Simons, three days later, the southern half of the UK was hit by a blizzard. 

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Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
4 hours ago, Weather-history said:

Same here

Snow more common at Easter than Christmas? Definitely not from my experience. Christmas Day 2020, I saw falling snow, whilst the last time I saw falling snow on an Easter Sunday was in 2008.

It makes sense that snow at Easter has been rare because Easter falls during April about 75%? of the time on average and cold Aprils have been very rare since 1989. 

 

Indeed. It’s rare enough to get snow in April as it is, let alone to coincide with Easter. 

Interestingly, had Easter 2008 been the first weekend in April, the snow would’ve been more noteworthy here. Likewise, had Easter 2006 come a week earlier, some would’ve had a white Easter.

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Posted
  • Location: suffolk
  • Weather Preferences: deep snow/warm sunshine
  • Location: suffolk
11 minutes ago, MP-R said:

Indeed. It’s rare enough to get snow in April as it is, let alone to coincide with Easter. 

Interestingly, had Easter 2008 been the first weekend in April, the snow would’ve been more noteworthy here. Likewise, had Easter 2006 come a week earlier, some would’ve had a white Easter.

I’ve seen two white Easters in my time both with falling snow. 2008 was decent. But I’ve never seen falling snow at Christmas in 40 years. We had snow on the ground 2010 but the thaw was already well set in. 

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

In Tyneside I saw falling snow on Christmas Day in 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999 and 2001, and there was about a centimetre on the ground for a time on Christmas Day 1993, and two to three inches on Christmas Day 1995.  On none of the other occasions did the snow settle.  There was also falling and lying snow there on Boxing Day 2000, which saw lying snow from 26-31 December inclusive.  There was then lying but not falling snow on Christmas Day in 2009 and 2010, with 3cm in 2009 and 11cm in 2010.  In 2020 I was staying in West Yorkshire and saw falling sleety snow for a time on Christmas Eve.  I also saw falling and lying snow when at my sister's house on Boxing Day 2014.  So in my experiences white Christmasses have been more common than white Easters by a fair margin in the last 30 years.

Edited by Thundery wintry showers
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