It's snowing!

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Today I bought a spade. At the weekend, I intend to go clear the ice from Rankeillor Street. I don't live on Rankeillor Street, but not one of the selfish fuckers who does has made any attempt to clear it, and it's my route to the bus stop.

[Wendy]

Blimey what took you so long?  I've been waiting for someone to get a move on and sort that out.

[Wowbagger]

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Some pictures from, allegedly, 1962. The main snowfall occurred on the night of 30th December so I'd venture to suggest that the bulk of those pictures were taken in 1963.

I recall the Grauniad publishing one of someone driving an Austin 7 across the Thames ice but sadly they haven't included that. My 8-year-old's brain recalls it as being in central London but clearly it couldn't have been as it's tidal there. OK - there were ice floes at Herne Bay and Southend but there's no way that the Thames could have frozen over because the water level rises and falls so much in the city.

The ice-covered grass reminds me of a radio programme I listened to a few years ago, about the 1962-63 winter. They had interviewed the wife of a Northumbrian shepherd who had been out looking after his flock. He was much later home than usual, but eventually when he arrived he was close to death, she reckoned: he too had been caught in a heavy rainstorm that preceded the snow and it froze to his oilskins on impact. He was covered head to foot in ice when he arrived back.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Blimey what took you so long?  I've been waiting for someone to get a move on and sort that out.

Homebase were out of spades.

[nicknack]

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Some pictures from, allegedly, 1962. The main snowfall occurred on the night of 30th December so I'd venture to suggest that the bulk of those pictures were taken in 1963.

I remember my Dad driving me down to the seaside to look at the ice on the sea. I guess it was probably Sheerness. Someone must have been clearing the roads then.

[LindaG]

My Grandad commuted the twelve miles to and from work throughout the winter of 1946-47.  The roads were clear because they dispatched POWs to clear them.

There was still snow on the verges in June.

This was in Surrey, riding between Cobham and Leatherhead.

[Wowbagger]

Our road was blocked for about half a mile by snowdrifts the depth of the hedge height (about 4' mostly). There were three cars buries up to their roofs and they stayed there for a good 3 weeks until a snow plough deigned to come along and clear the road.

[Butterfly]

My Dad lived in Caterham on the Hill in Surrey in 1947. He remembers them sending a snowplough along all the roads then taking the snow from the sides and putting on the common. He said the snow took months to melt from the common, by which time it was completely black. He also said they didn't miss a day of school, which is probably the upside (or downside, depending on your point of view!) of teachers living locally.

[Basil]

I remember 62/63 quite well.  I was 13.
I remember the piles of snow where people had cleared paths were still around at easter.
There was one huge one that I would cycle past on my school commute from our village to the town that lasted for ever.  I can't remember exactly how long, but it was at least late april early may.

[Wowbagger]

My Grandad commuted the twelve miles to and from work throughout the winter of 1946-47.  The roads were clear because they dispatched POWs to clear them.

There was still snow on the verges in June.

This was in Surrey, riding between Cobham and Leatherhead.

My dad always maintained that '47 was a harder winter than '62-63.

"Boyo, there was a train stuck at Bargoed for a month!" he would say. The records tell us that '47 was snowier, but 62-63 was the colder by far. The main falls in '47 were in Feb, according to my dad, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_1946–1947_in_the_United_Kingdom says that 5th March 1947 brought one of the most vicious blizzards of the 20th century and the wettest March for 30 years.

Blimey!

[David Martin]

"Boyo, there was a train stuck at Bargoed for a month!"

In 1947 there was a train stuck in a snowdrift at Dronley for a week. When they finally dug it out, the locals had pinched all the coal.

..d

[E.C. Ryder]

I remember the winter of 1962/63 well as I was just a young lad of 13, it started snowing on Boxing Day. But unfortunately after the Christmas holidays we had to go back to school whether the heater was on or not, many a time we had to sit in class with overcoats on!

[Cudzoziemiec]

I forgot to mention earlier how clean the air feels when it's cold and dry. It's lovely.

[Mrs Pingu]

We haz sno again. Bah.

[Bledlow]

I have one or two memories of 62-3. I was very young, & had to be towed around on a sledge because the snow was too deep for me to walk through.

[border-rider]

I was born that winter.  My mother had to be dug out of the house to get to the local nursing home.

The old boys at Newbury RC told me that they cycled down the Kennet & Avon canal to Devizes on one Sunday run that winter.  And not on the towpath 

[Basil]

Been watching it heading this way on Will It Rain?

It's just arrived in Brum.  And it's rain.  Hurrah!  Not even sleety rain.  Just pouring rain. 

That should freeze nicely tonight. 

[Pingu]

We haz sno again. Bah.

We haz horizontal sno. Cycling home might be tricky tonight 

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've just got back from a beautiful forest walk through snow with no other human prints. I am now able to distinguish deer from boar prints.  And the sun is shining for the first time in a week. 

[Wowbagger]

There's a set of really nasty severe weather warnings stretching into the foreseeable future, starting with loads of icy roads this evening and snow over the next few days.

In a week's time, though, the solstice will be a thing of the past and summer will be coming.

[Cudzoziemiec]

#@! me! Wowbagger's just said something cheerful!

[Wowbagger]

#@! me! Wowbagger's just said something cheerful!

It was a lie.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ah, that's better, normal service is resumed! 

[Wowbagger]

Ah, that's better, normal service is resumed!  

Have you watched "Money as Debt" and listened to the Nicole Foss leture by any chance? They're terribly depressing.

Sometimes I think I ought to change my YACF name to Marvin.

[toekneep]

First flakes of snow falling here on the Fylde. (Lancashire coast).