Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Frozen in time: Past
WINTRY weather has returned to Tayside and Fife in the midst of one of the strangest festive seasons in living memory.
While the recent cold snap hasn’t been on the extreme side, we haven’t always been so lucky in the past.
Down the years locals have endured several brutal winters which have tested the resilience of our communities.
We decided to look back on some of the most famous frozen spells from Tayside and Fife’s recent history.
THIS was one of Britain’s most infamous winters, and Tayside did not escape it.
Easterly winds brought snowstorm after snowstorm to the UK during one of the biggest white-outs since the 19th Century.
January 1947 brought snow and floods. The weather endured until February, with a report stating that roads in Arbroath and Montrose had been “buried” in snow.
A “force” of about 800 men kept the streets of Dundee clear.
However, in Perthshire there were reports of farmers and shepherds hauling provisions on horse-drawn sledges. The Angus Glens were also hit by “severe” conditions.
The worst of the weather hit Tayside in March. It was so bad for some in Glenshee that food supplies had to be airdropped to homes.
On March 13 1947, the “worst traffic block of the winter” was reported in Tayside with only three roads left open.
Scotland as a whole was left “cut off” from England by road and rail.
Miners in Fife were unable to reach their work due to the conditions, resulting in major production losses.
Villages across the area were also isolated from the outside world as a result of the weather.
On March 14, the longest bus journey out of Dundee was to Inchture – just nine miles away. parts of Scotland were stranded in trains with children even left to spend evenings overnight in schools.
On February 8, two helicopters from RAF Leuchars carried out seven rescue missions across Scotland in one day.
During the month, two Stanley men also became the first people to walk across the frozen River Tay since 1898. Alec O’Brien and brother-in-law Ian Smith managed the feat at Burnmouth. They later abandoned an attempt to repeat the daring crossing on bicycles a few days later.
Scotland and brought Arctic conditions.
There was a sustained cold spell between January 8 and February 22. Heavy snow came to Dundee and the surrounding area in early January 1979.
Ice floes formed on the Tay near Dundee during this winter. On January 3 two teenagers were rescued by the Broughty Ferry inshore lifeboat near Kingoodie after they became stuck on a drifting slab of ice.
Lows of -9.4C were recorded in Dundee on January 13. Later the same month, blizzard conditions hit Tayside with about 12in of snow reported in Perth on January 30. The poor conditions continued throughout February.
Later in the year, on March 22, police described scenes of “pandemonium” across Tayside and Fife following blizzards.
HEAVY snowfall battered Tayside again in January 1987, with blizzards affecting roads across Dundee and Angus.
Some locals fell victim to hypothermia during what was described as “appalling” weather conditions from early January.
The blizzards which hit the Forfar and Kirriemuir areas were described as the worst in recent memory, bringing with them a foot of snow.
On January 16, it was reported that Tayside Regional Council had spent £300,000 keeping roads clear in just six days.
STARTING in mid-December 2009, the UK was hit by