Winter Weather

Winter Weather in Durham UK

Frozen River Wear, December 2010

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November/December 2010 25th Nov   Snow cover at 0900hrs. 2″ in Ferryhill, 5-6″ in Newcastle. 26th Nov   Snow cover continuing. Brighter, with improvement in road conditions 27th Nov.  Snow cover holding. Several further snow showers today 28th Nov.  Some more snow overnight. Hard frost. -17.3C in Llandryndodd Wells in Wales overnight 29th Nov.  4″ more snow overnight. Slight thaw. Frequent showers of hail, sleet and snow. Thunder too! 30th Nov.  Snow cover persisting. Frequent snow showers. Strong E wind. Cold 1st Dec.    More snow overnight. Another 1-2″. -20c at Altnaharra last night 2nd Dec    Frequent snow showers …

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January 2010 Diary – Cold and Snowy in the first half

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December 2009 – January 2010 Really cold weather kicked in around 17th December 2009 and didn’t let up for a month. Some lowland places had over a month of snowcover between mid December 2009 and mid January 2010. There was disruption on the roads as Councils, used to mild winters, had run out of grit. It had to be rationed in some areas. Freezing fog just before Christmas and heavy snow showers from an Easterly feed left widespread snow at Christmas. The cold persisted with more snow after New Year. The months December 2009, January and February 2010 were the …

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January 2008 – Very wet and mild

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January 2008 A very wet, but mild month, with almost twice the normal amount of rainfall. The total ended up just 0.2mm under the 100mm mark. This eclipsed the previous record for January at Ferryhill by some 35mm. The year started with a very wet New Years Day, with 19mm faliing on the 1st. This would have been the ‘wettest day’ in most months here, but it was beaten on the 21st when a new wettest day for January was set. 23mm fell in the 24hrs. There was 4cm of snow cover on the 3rd January, but it soon melted.

January 1987 -Exceptionally cold and wintry Spell

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January 1987. This month saw an exceptional cold spell resulting from an easterly airstream which began in earnest on the 9th, with cold air starting to feed in from the 7th. Before that here was a wet start to the month. Then the maximum at Aviemore was -5C on the 8th and 9th. On the 9th, an anticyclone anchored over Scandinavia forced a depression moved SE over Britain leading to strong NE to E winds across England on the 10th, and bringing exceptionally cold air from an unusually cold Europe. I remember the forecast from the night before very clearly; …

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Ferocious Cold Front brings a Blizzard – 28th Jan 2004

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The cold front eventually arrived, revealing the true power of the Arctic airstream we’d been promised. The temperature fell from +1.5 degC at noon to -2.0 degC at 1pm, with a ferocious blizzard of fine powder snow. This is probably the most impressive cold front passage since the mid 80’s, with additions to the lying snow of last night. I was at work in Aycliffe at the time and we all got stuck in the Canteen.  Not a bad thing, but it was quite unbelievable in ferocity and the drop in temp was something i’ve not experienced for a long …

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December 1981 – The River Wear freezes up

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December 1981 was a phenomenally cold snowy month in Durham (along with the first half of January 1982). Snow lay for most of the month as a result of several heavy falls. There were some brutally low temperatures, double figure negative temperatures. In January 1982 the British Record of -27.2 degC was equalled at Braemar on 10th. The English Record was set at Newport, Shropshire the same day (-26.1 degC). The frozen River Wear at Durham was iced up enough to walk across above the weir, as can be seen here. Photos by Robert Lynn. Trevor Harley’s writeup of December …

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February 1991 – Cold and snowy first half

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February 1991. A very cold first half in the south, but mild second half. Overall temperature: CET average of 1.5. There was a notable ten day cold spell at the beginning, as NE winds brought in some very cold air from north Russia, leading to snow across most of Britain and some very low temperatures, making this the most severe spell of weather since 1987 (and still not bettered, if that’s the right word). The cold air arived from Siberia on the 4th, with temperatures falling on the 5th and 6th, with the 7-9th as the coldest days. Barbourne (Hereford …

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