Proper Winters

[Heather74]

Re: Proper Winters

Looks like these may be making a come back huh?

[Austin Maxi]

Re: Proper Winters

Looks like these may be making a come back huh?

Definitely! I don't think there's anyone in the UK who can say we're not having a proper winter at the moment. It's snowing outside my window as I type this, and the odds are that it will be a white Christmas.

I remember early 1987 when it snowed really heavily and then the winds got up and created massive snowdrifts. I lived in the countryside and I remember going for a walk with a neighbour, and at one stage we were walking on snow which was probably about 7 feet high where it had drifted, we were on a level with the roofs of bungalows.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Proper Winters

The worst snow I remember was around 1985. One morning I tried to wave to my mam from up the street during a blizzard and it was so thick we couldn't see each other. At school we all watched it getting deeper and deeper as the day went on, and it seemed to last for weeks afterwards.

In the years 1980-84 I certainly remember having ample opportunity to go out and play in the snow. There always seemed to be a fair bit of snow each year. The worst part was having to race home (3:45 finish in those days) to get in a session before it got dark.

Going sledging seemed to be very popular then - that is, being pulled along the streets on one. My dad was always taking me out and would take me to the quietest, iciest side streets and push me up the middle of the road at 100mph. Very happy memories

[stockportyears]

Re: Proper Winters

I can remember the winters of 79/80 and 81/82 being particularly cold and snowy.

78-9 was the worst one I remember, but 81-82 was also pretty bad. 78-9 gets a bad rep because the freezing winter was combined with almost every kind of strike you could imagine - bakers, lorry drivers, train drivers, binmen etc etc. Though strangely enough, not power workers, people often get it confused with the winter of all the electricity cuts, but that was much earlier. I remember in 78-9, there was a strike at Kelloggs, so no cereal for breakfast, and also the bread strikes, and then the lorry drivers came out so when my mum went to Tesco, virtually the only things she could buy were marmalade and Kracka-Wheat, and that seemed to be breakfast and tea every night for about 2 weeks! Not great when it's freezing weather and you want a big warm casserole or something... even school struggled to put hot meals on, in the days before mass produced microwaved stuff.

78-9 was the winter of all the football postponments, you'd listen to the football results and 90% of them were 'pools panel result' for weeks on end. At that age, I even got annoyed if City lost a game through the Pools Panel!
Amazingly, for the Midlands always seem to get the worst frosts, Leicester City had a big balloon kind of thing under which they kept the pitch warm and stopped it from freezing, so they were about the only team that could get their matches on most weeks.

[darren]

Re: Proper Winters

Looks like these may be making a come back huh?

i doubt we will see a winter like this again for a long time.

where iam in northern ireland its probably the deepest snow i can remember in my lifetime.
and the whole of northern ireland in completely white.
seen a local programme where a helicopter went over the whole country and its completely white.
although can remember it being this cold about 7 or 7 yrs back.

[Emettman]

Re: Proper Winters

Looks like these may be making a come back huh?

This much snow *this early* is exceptional. It has the potential for being an impressive winter.
And while two days ago I had just the right amount of the right sort of snow...



(The Christmas Mail must get through!)

.. If Wellington tried that today he'd be lost to sight.