The big freeze of 1963
ON December 29 and 30, 1962, a blizzard swept across the whole country.
Snow drifted to over 20ft deep in places, driven on by gale force easterly winds, blocking roads and railways. The snow stranded villagers and brought down power lines.
The near-freezing temperatures meant that the snow cover lasted for over two months in some areas.
Snow lay to six inches deep in Manchester city centre, nine inches in Wythenshawe, and about 18 inches at Keele University in Staffordshire. By the end of the month, there were snow drifts 8ft deep in Kent and 15ft 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 (−2.92 °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 four 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.
Starting on January 25 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 20ft in some areas and there were galeforce winds reaching up to 81mph. On the Isle of Man, wind speeds were recorded at 119mph.
The big thaw finally came in early March 1963 and temperatures rose rapidly to 17C.