BLIZZARDS CAUSE DRIFTS 20 FEET DEEP
BIG FREEZE OF 1963 LASTED FOR OVER TWO MONTHS
ON 29 and 30 December 1962 a blizzard swept across the whole country and Hinckley was hit hard.
Snow drifted to over 20 feet deep in places, driven on by gale force easterly winds, blocking roads and railways. The snow stranded villagers and brought down powerlines.
The near-freezing temperatures meant that the snow cover lasted for over two months in some areas.
Snow lay to 6 inches depth in Manchester city centre, 9 inches in Wythenshawe, and about 18 inches at Keele University in Staffordshire. By the end of the month, there were snow drifts 8 feet deep in Kent and 15 feet deep in the west.
With an average temperature of −2.1 °C, January 1963 remains the coldest month since January 1814 over Central England.
Much of England and Wales was snow-covered throughout the month.
The country started to freeze solid, with temperatures as low as −19.4 °C (−2.9 °F) at Achany in Sutherland on the 11th. Freezing fog was a hazard for most of the country.
In January 1963 the sea froze for a mile out from shore at Herne Bay, Kent.
The sea also froze inshore in many places, removing many British inland waterbirds’ usual last resort of finding food in estuaries and shallow sea. The sea froze 4 miles out to sea from Dunkirk, and BBC Television news expressed a fear that the Strait of Dover would freeze across.
The upper reaches of the River Thames also froze over.
The ice was thick enough in some places that people were skating on it.
In the Hinckley area, a photographer captured an image (main picture) of two men who had been ice skating along the canal.
Starting on 25 January there was a brief thaw but it only lasted three days.
In February 1963, more snow came. It was also stormy with winds reaching Force 8 on the Beaufort scale (gale-force winds).
A 36-hour blizzard caused heavy drifting snow in most parts of the country. Drifts reached 20 foot in some areas and there were gale-force winds reaching up to 81 mph. On the Isle of Man, wind speeds were recorded at 119 mph.
The big thaw finally came in early March 1963 and temperatures rose rapidly to 17 degrees.