The cold spell of mid-April 1966
The pressure pattern for mid-April 1966 was extraordinary with a
string of lows running from Newfoundland to Turkey and a large expanse of
high pressure from northern Canada across Greenland into northern
Scandinavia and through into the Arctic. Bewteen these pressure systems was
a flow with an easterly component that ran from Scandinavia through the UK
into central Canada. This resulted in one of the coldest spells of weather
for mid-April in recent times.
By the 13th, the easterly flow was becoming colder drawing in
unusually cold Arctic air for the time of year from Scandinavia across the
UK. Snow was reported falling widely and the intensity of the falls
increased on the 15th as the air became increasingly cold and at this stage
the snow was dry with maxima of 0C recorded in many areas and there was snow
cover, the North Downs recorded several inches. Severe frosts were recorded
in parts of Scotland, where minima as low as -10C was recorded.
Although the intensity of the cold lessened after the 16th, it wasn't
until the 22nd that it became noticeably milder as a low pushed up to the
west of Ireland allowing a SWly flow across the UK.

Source: TWO.

My Comments:
Can anyone tell us a bit more about this
one. Sounds interesting and I haven't heard it spoken about. I was only 5
years old at the time, so I cannot make a judgment on it.
Does anyone have any temperatures of this as on the basis of this
it sounds like we had a record low max for April here.


--
************************************************** **********
Gavin Staples.

Horseheath. Cambridge, UK. 93m ASL.
www.gavinstaples.com
site regularly updated

"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between
the disastrous and the unpalatable". ~ John Kenneth Galbraith. American
economist.


All outgoing emails are checked for viruses by Norton Internet Security
2005.
************************************************** **********

Gavin Staples wrote:

Source: TWO.

My Comments:
Can anyone tell us a bit more about this
one. Sounds interesting and I haven't heard it spoken about. I was only 5
years old at the time, so I cannot make a judgment on it.
Does anyone have any temperatures of this as on the basis of
this
it sounds like we had a record low max for April here.


Are TWO actually paying you to post these every few days?


--
Brian Wakem

"Brian Wakem" wrote in message
...
Gavin Staples wrote:

Source: TWO.

My Comments:
Can anyone tell us a bit more about this
one. Sounds interesting and I haven't heard it spoken about. I was only 5
years old at the time, so I cannot make a judgment on it.
Does anyone have any temperatures of this as on the basis of
this
it sounds like we had a record low max for April here.


Are TWO actually paying you to post these every few days?

Jesus.....

Perish the thought we might have some interesting topics to discuss!

Col
--
Bolton, Lancashire.
160m asl.
http://www.reddwarfer.btinternet.co.uk
http://www.reddwarfer.btinternet.co....rPictures.html

"Gavin Staples" wrote in message
. ..
The cold spell of mid-April 1966


My Comments:
Can anyone tell us a bit more about this
one. Sounds interesting and I haven't heard it spoken about. I was only 5
years old at the time, so I cannot make a judgment on it.
Does anyone have any temperatures of this as on the basis of this
it sounds like we had a record low max for April here.

My recollections of this month are a bit hazy, Gavin, what with a very young
family( you must be the same age as my children!)and work commitments at
that time but I'm pretty sure that Ron Button was keeping weather records
then and, hopefully, will respond.
My memories are that the cold weather arrived on the morning of Monday 11
April( I think it was Easter Bank Holiday) and it became dull as the east
wind arrived but I don't remember any rain with the change. On Thursday 14
April, I awoke to hear Bert Foord give the 0655 Forecast on the Home
Service( later Radio 4). He said " I have a forecast of snow today and it's
not for the Scottish Mountains, it's for southern England". Fronts were
coming in from the south-west slowlyagainst the cold air. It snowed for most
of the day and soon gave a snowcover. I think the afternoon temperature was
about 1c and the snow ceased at about 1800. The temperature stayed above
freezing all night so that , by the following morning, most of it had
melted.
I also remember that the summer of 1966 was poor!
Peter Clarke
Ewell
Epsom 55m


--

"Peter Clarke" wrote in message
...

"Gavin Staples" wrote in message
. ..
The cold spell of mid-April 1966


My Comments:
Can anyone tell us a bit more about this
one. Sounds interesting and I haven't heard it spoken about. I was only 5
years old at the time, so I cannot make a judgment on it.
Does anyone have any temperatures of this as on the basis of
this it sounds like we had a record low max for April here.

My recollections of this month are a bit hazy, Gavin, what with a very
young family( you must be the same age as my children!)and work
commitments at that time but I'm pretty sure that Ron Button was keeping
weather records then and, hopefully, will respond.
My memories are that the cold weather arrived on the morning of Monday 11
April( I think it was Easter Bank Holiday) and it became dull as the east
wind arrived but I don't remember any rain with the change. On Thursday 14
April, I awoke to hear Bert Foord give the 0655 Forecast on the Home
Service( later Radio 4). He said " I have a forecast of snow today and
it's not for the Scottish Mountains, it's for southern England". Fronts
were coming in from the south-west slowlyagainst the cold air. It snowed
for most of the day and soon gave a snowcover. I think the afternoon
temperature was about 1c and the snow ceased at about 1800. The
temperature stayed above freezing all night so that , by the following
morning, most of it had melted.
I also remember that the summer of 1966 was poor!
Peter Clarke
Ewell
Epsom 55m


Thanks Peter:-) I recall that most the summers of the 1960s were very poor.
That I do recall. Just looking at my CET table the summer CETs for 1966 were
15.4, 15.0, 14.7. So that is pretty bad.
For comparison if I take a summer from the 1990s and I don't mean the
likes of 1995, or 1997. I'll take 1994, that was 14.5, 18.0, 16.0.
A poor June is quite common, but is more than compensated by a good July
and August. These days if we don't get at least a CET of 17C in a summer
month, it almost a human rights violation.
It shows how much better summers are these days and long may it
continue.

Gavin.

Sorry Gavin, was newly married and living in a flat,lousy for temperature
records !

Ron Button
"Peter Clarke" wrote in message
...

"Gavin Staples" wrote in message
. ..
The cold spell of mid-April 1966


My Comments:
Can anyone tell us a bit more about this
one. Sounds interesting and I haven't heard it spoken about. I was only 5
years old at the time, so I cannot make a judgment on it.
Does anyone have any temperatures of this as on the basis of
this it sounds like we had a record low max for April here.

My recollections of this month are a bit hazy, Gavin, what with a very
young family( you must be the same age as my children!)and work
commitments at that time but I'm pretty sure that Ron Button was keeping
weather records then and, hopefully, will respond.
My memories are that the cold weather arrived on the morning of Monday 11
April( I think it was Easter Bank Holiday) and it became dull as the east
wind arrived but I don't remember any rain with the change. On Thursday 14
April, I awoke to hear Bert Foord give the 0655 Forecast on the Home
Service( later Radio 4). He said " I have a forecast of snow today and
it's not for the Scottish Mountains, it's for southern England". Fronts
were coming in from the south-west slowlyagainst the cold air. It snowed
for most of the day and soon gave a snowcover. I think the afternoon
temperature was about 1c and the snow ceased at about 1800. The
temperature stayed above freezing all night so that , by the following
morning, most of it had melted.
I also remember that the summer of 1966 was poor!
Peter Clarke
Ewell
Epsom 55m


--

Sorry Gavin was living in a flat then...and babies !

Ron
"Peter Clarke" wrote in message
...

"Gavin Staples" wrote in message
. ..
The cold spell of mid-April 1966


My Comments:
Can anyone tell us a bit more about this
one. Sounds interesting and I haven't heard it spoken about. I was only 5
years old at the time, so I cannot make a judgment on it.
Does anyone have any temperatures of this as on the basis of
this it sounds like we had a record low max for April here.

My recollections of this month are a bit hazy, Gavin, what with a very
young family( you must be the same age as my children!)and work
commitments at that time but I'm pretty sure that Ron Button was keeping
weather records then and, hopefully, will respond.
My memories are that the cold weather arrived on the morning of Monday 11
April( I think it was Easter Bank Holiday) and it became dull as the east
wind arrived but I don't remember any rain with the change. On Thursday 14
April, I awoke to hear Bert Foord give the 0655 Forecast on the Home
Service( later Radio 4). He said " I have a forecast of snow today and
it's not for the Scottish Mountains, it's for southern England". Fronts
were coming in from the south-west slowlyagainst the cold air. It snowed
for most of the day and soon gave a snowcover. I think the afternoon
temperature was about 1c and the snow ceased at about 1800. The
temperature stayed above freezing all night so that , by the following
morning, most of it had melted.
I also remember that the summer of 1966 was poor!
Peter Clarke
Ewell
Epsom 55m


--

"Ron Button" wrote in message
...
Sorry Gavin was living in a flat then...and babies !

Ron

I can imagine your concerns were on other things then:-)

Gavin.

In message , Peter Clarke
writes
On Thursday 14
April, I awoke to hear Bert Foord give the 0655 Forecast on the Home
Service( later Radio 4). He said " I have a forecast of snow today and it's
not for the Scottish Mountains, it's for southern England". Fronts were
coming in from the south-west slowlyagainst the cold air. It snowed for most
of the day and soon gave a snowcover. I think the afternoon temperature was
about 1c and the snow ceased at about 1800. The temperature stayed above
freezing all night so that , by the following morning, most of it had
melted.

This was obviously confined to the south of the UK - only rain was
recorded up here on 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st - quite a
lot of by the looks of it - 1.53 inches in that week = 38.8mm.

Out of interest, how do you remember so much detail from so far back?
--
Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry
www.nelink.co.uk/users/bws

I think that was the year that John Hillaby walked from Land's End to
John O'Groats (the book was published 1968, so it could have been, or
could have been 1967). I remember he reported near incessant rain for
the full three months, and he started in April, so whenever it was, it
must have been one of the worst spring/early summers of the last
century.

Nick