When the snow kept falling
Our weekly look back at days gone by, with Abby Bolter
LENGTHY queues formed on city streets for bread and milk, soldiers were drafted in to dig families out of their homes and helicopters scrambled to transport food to remote farms.
These pictures show how much snow fell on Wales in the early January of 1982, when it snowed solidly for 36 hours, leaving entire front doors submerged, cars buried and livestock decimated.
The snow was 60cm deep, though drifts reportedly reached up to six metres high thanks to the dry, fine snow which was easily blown about.
Pedestrians walked among jack-knifed lorries and traffic jams on the M4, waterfalls were frozen solid and the Australian rugby union team was snowed into their hotel in Porthcawl, accessible only by boat.
One enterprising father even moved his entire family out of their home and into an igloo he built in his back garden.
But despite this, it’s the winter of 1947 which still holds the record for the coldest February ever. Snow fell again and again for three months, wreaking havoc on the roads and railway lines where turbo jet engines were used to try and blast away drifts.
And in 1963 up to 10ft of snow fell at Storey Arms, above Brecon. At Penarth, even the sea froze.
Describing the snowfall of 1982, Philip Eden wrote on WeatherOnline: “Throughout the snowfall, which lasted over 36 hours, temperatures were between -2°C and -4°C so the snow was dry and powdery and drifted freely in the wind. Transport services were completely dislocated over a wide area and millions of commuters failed to get to work in London two days running.
“South Wales was isolated for three days and troops were brought in to deliver essentials and to help clear roads. Worst hit were Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire and Glamorgan, where level snow lay over 60cm deep with drifts six metres high.”
The 1st Battalion Royal Regiment of Wales dug people out of their homes in Ogmore-bySea, near Bridgend, and the RAF was summoned from Brawdy to airlift an elderly couple suffering from hypothermia from their home in Marloes, at the western tip of Pembrokeshire, to Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest.
Queues formed on the streets of Cardiff as people sought to buy milk from delivery lorries, while main thoroughfares like St Mary Street in the capital. In Pontypridd, people waited in long lines to buy bread.
The visiting Australia rugby team’s last match, against the Barbarians at the old National Stadium, was cancelled, with the team reduced to sitting it out in the seafront Seabank Hotel.
One player concisely told a BBC film crew sent down to cover the story the weather was “bloody cold”.