Coldest Winter Ever in UK
The coldest winter in British history is widely regarded as that of 1684. Why? Because average temperatures stayed below zero for two months. Brrrr!
There have been lower temperatures recorded for short spells but 1684’s average of -3C for the month of January was enough for the River Thames to stay frozen for more than two months.
It also froze in 1895 – college barges in Oxfordshire were stuck in their moorings along the south bank of the frozen river.
Courtesy of Viewfinder – English Heritage
Artificial Snow World Record
The Guinness World Record for the largest area over which artificial snow has ever fallen is 12,462.78m, The record is held by Snow Business International for the switching on of the Christmas lights in Bond Street, London on November 23, 2006. The record was achieved by covering the New Bond Street, Bond Street and Old Bond Street areas simultaneously for the ‘Bond Street Association’.
Coldest ever Christmas Day?
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, recorded a temperature of -21.7C on Christmas Day in 1881y. Not only that, but more than 61cm of snow brought Britain to a standstill, when galeforce blizzards & winds battered the whole country.
Smallest Ever Snowman
According to the Daily Mirror online, the smallest ever snowman measured just 0.01mm across – that’s just one fifth the width of a human hair!
The minute snow sculpture was made in 2009 by Britain’s Dr David Cox at the National Physical Laboratory with tools for handling nanoparticles. Tiny deposits of platinum ensured that it stuck together. Not sure it was a miniature carrot he used for the nose, though 😉
Snow train delays
Snow was also responsible for Britain’s worst ever train delay. At 3pm on March 9, 1891, the West Country Express left Paddington, London, for Plymouth. It finally arrived in Plymouth four days later on March 13 after becoming stuck in snow in the outskirts of London. Puts your 10 minute delay this morning in perspective, doesn’t it??
Are the UK Winters getting colder?
Bloomin’ cold up on the gallops with Lidderdale Racing in Lambourne, Berkshire
During last year’s cold snowy snap in the UK, the Saucy Horse video production team were sent to film horses on the morning gallops at Lambourne, Berkshire – it was so cold when we arrived at 7am that the batteries in our video equipment stopped working momentarily as the charge seeped out! Normally this is a problem only experienced by cameramen working on wild life films in the Artic or Antartica – does this mean we need to buy all our crews better thermals as the UK’s winters get colder?? It certainly means we need to warm up our batteries before we start filming on cold mornings!
