ABSTRACT

THE winter 1962–3, with average temperature o°C for the 3-months period December-February in the English lowlands, has been the coldest since 1740. Such temperatures are normal about Oslofjord, Danzig and Breslau. The weather patterns producing the cold weather by a repetition of northerly and easterly winds have been similar to those which occurred more often in the 18th and early 19th centuries, but rarely since. The winter development appears to have been notably similar to that of 1795. The region of anomalous cold embraced Europe, the European sector of the Arctic and beyond. January 1963, with a monthly mean temperature of −3∙5°C at Bedford (Cardington) and −2 to −3∙5°C widely over central and southern England (6 to 70 below ‘normal’), was the coldest month since the Januarys of 1814 or 1795 and probably in some places the coldest since 1684, a case which it also resembled —the great snowy winter on Exmoor, Somerset described by R. D. Blackmore in Lorna Doone. (A quarter of a century ago public controversy arose over this feature of Blackmore's book and some opinion, now seen to be mistaken, held that such winter conditions were impossible in south-west England.) Comparative temperature figures are now available thanks to the work of Professor Gordon Manley (1959, 1961) on old instrument observations from about 1680 onwards in or near London and a little later in other parts of England including Plymouth and Lancashire. 1962–3 has also been remarkable for the frequent snowfalls and depth and persistence of snow cover—50 to 60 days by the end of February in many areas—probably in this respect also unmatched since 1814 or earlier.