Old weather

[Phoenix]

I want to find out if there was snow in Portsmouth in 1926 or 1928.

If you look at modern weather maps, Portsmouth does not get snow. So... where would I find out?

I can see from historic weather station data that there were one or two cold months then, but it might have rained before it got cold. Nothing to say that precipitation was actually snow.

Portsmouth Evening News would have been full of the white stuff, but it's not on fmp for this period.

Ideas/sites, please!

[Uncle John]

It will have melted by now.

[Punchs Mum]

Have you tried Portsmouth Record Office?

They may be able to help.

Lesley.

[Janet]

Found only this so far. Really fascinating website, though.

The history of British winters (http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=winter-history)

1925-26: Late November saw snow in London, East Anglia, and North East England, Norwich recording 7 inches. There was also notable snow in mid January, and also mid May in the Cotswolds! Snowy.

1927-28: Snow fell mid December in England and Wales, and on Christmas day through Boxing day, a blizzard raged in Southern England, from Kent to Cornwall. 1-2ft of snow fell, with 20ft drifts on Salisbury Plain! Christmas day must have been phenomenal! Snow fell mid March in the East. Very Snowy.

[marquette]

I was looking for information on winter 1860 in West Sussex and found this website: http://www.rmets.org/sites/default/files/hist10.pdf. The dates are not in your range, but it just shows if you look or google with the right keywords, you might find something !

Di

[Phoenix]

Thank you, everyone! It sounds as if it might be 1927. We have a local weather nut. Nobody sensible asks him to speak as he will keep going even while you are switching off the lights and locking up. He mentioned one dramatic Christmas in the twenties but his knowledge is strictly Surrey only.

My father told of snow so bad, they could not open the front door and his father had to leap out of the bedroom window to attack the snow with a shovel.

[Phoenix]

Interestingly, I have found an account of an elderly couple attempting to drive from Bath to Teddington on Christmas Day 1927. The did actually make it, but with drifts everywhere they had to abandon their car and take to the railway.

[Shona]

The Met Office has the historic data for the whole country, but only available to academics. There's a magazine which has data published by the Royal Meteorological Society - might be the Meteorological Magazine.

I did study this at uni, but a long time ago. If memory serves, there was a v long cold spell and the sea froze.

[ElizabethHerts]

I found something not specific to Portsmouth, but should give you a general idea, Phoenix:

1925-26: Late November saw snow in London, East Anglia, and North East England, Norwich recording 7 inches. There was also notable snow in mid January, and also mid May in the Cotswolds! Snowy.

1927-28: Snow fell mid December in England and Wales, and on Christmas day through Boxing day, a blizzard raged in Southern England, from Kent to Cornwall. 1-2ft of snow fell, with 20ft drifts on Salisbury Plain! Christmas day must have been phenomenal! Snow fell mid March in the East. Very Snowy.

1928-29: A lot of snow fell in the West late December, again the West fared best in mid February, with Wales and the West Midlands getting it good! 6ft fell in 15hrs on Dartmoor ( Holne Chase ) mid February. Snowy.

http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=winter-history;sess=

[ElizabethHerts]

This gives similar information:

http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/climate/1900_1949.htm

[Janet]

Okay, here we are. Everything you ever wanted to know--and more!--about the Christmas Day snowstorm of 1927. Amazing what you can find!

Christmas Day snowstorm of 1927 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN605xv33Qs)

[Shona]

Good find, Janet.

Just dipped into a book by the chap who also writes the weather column in The Times (yes, I'm a weather geek) and he recounts that Christmas 1927 has been unusually cold and snowy and when the snows melted in Jan 1928, it co-incided with heavy downpours. The resulting floods left 14 dead and 4,000 homeless in London.

[Phoenix]

And apparently the House of Parliament reeking of rotten fish!

Thank you, Janet! That clip does seem to suggest that even Portsmouth would have caught the snow.