John, - I probably should have qualified it by meaning a two week, less cold
but with some similarities spell. Also, having not kept accurate records and
being only 13, it may well have been late February, although as you say,
here in Essex I was nearer to the North Sea. It was just really the ease
with which it has been snowing and the greyness rather than the severity
that brought back some memories.
Nothing will compare to that, I guess, but I suppose this spell has given
some youngsters hope!

Dave
"John Hall" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Dave.C writes:
As someone who experienced that winter I have noticed a couple of things
that reminded me of that March. I wonder if this spell had started with a
massive fall of snow what would have happened. For example I'm now
looking
out of my window at yet another reasonable snow shower. That's 13
consecutive days now. This was quite common then, and in March it was
sometimes drizzly and fine snow. The ground was so frozen and with a foot
of
frozen hard packed snow a slight thaw would have no effect. Some of the
grey
murky days with temps around 1C were similar,

That sounds more like February, 1963 than March to me, though of course
a lot depended on just where in the UK you were. In Surrey, we benefited
from the wind veering to SE at the end of February. The shorter sea
track meant that the skies cleared, and the sun had enough power by then
to send the maximum temperature rocketing to a dizzy 6C by the start of
March, though there were still very sharp night frosts. Further north,
with the North Sea being so much colder than usual, no doubt grey and
cold conditions lasted somewhat longer. (ISTR Mike Tullett's info shows
Newcastle as being very slow to warm up.) I don't recall any snow that
March in Surrey, apart from one brief shower, and other than those hard
frosts at the start I don't think that there was any notably cold
weather that month in Surrey.

but then they would have no
impact and the snow cover over the deep frozen snow.
It wouldn't have to have been much colder - ask the people on the Kent
coast!

The North Sea is now down to about 5C, I believe. After such prolonged
cold, at the start of March, 1963 it can have been no more than 1 or 2C.
That would have made a big difference.
--
John Hall

"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong."
Oscar Wilde