SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

I had to smile at a slight (!) mistake in a news in 'Snow factfile' feature on page 2 of today's (Feb 27 2018) Yorkshire Evening Post. In the feature it reported that the deepest snow recorded in the UK was 1.65m in Ruthin, North wales, in March 1947. To give a comparison it stated that 161.6m is the "Height of the average woman in UK". That is about 530 feet tall!!! Clearly a misplaced decimal point as it should state 1.616m.

Leodian wrote:I had to smile at a slight (!) mistake in a news in 'Snow factfile' feature on page 2 of today's (Feb 27 2018) Yorkshire Evening Post. In the feature it reported that the deepest snow recorded in the UK was 1.65m in Ruthin, North wales, in March 1947. To give a comparison it stated that 161.6m is the "Height of the average woman in UK". That is about 530 feet tall!!! Clearly a misplaced decimal point as it should state 1.616m.

"The deepest snow recorded in the Uk was 1.65 m" . In winter 1947/48 and 1962/63 snow drifts 5 to 6m deep were recorded across large parts of the UK. So without some further clarification the 1.65m figure is dubious.

Firstly are you sure of 5-6m? That would cover a double decker bus. Secondly I would think 1.65m is the average depth of lying snow. Drifts tend to be above this as lying snow from elsewhere is blown on to existing snow.

Black Prince is quite correct about the depth

Quote from March 1947

On 4–5 March 1947 came heavy snow which left drifts across much of the country with some lying 7 metres (23 ft) deep in the Scottish Highlands. On 5 March 1947 one of the worst British blizzards of the 20th century occurred. Food supplies were again affected by the snow-bound roads and in some places the police requested permission to break into delivery lorries stranded by the snow.

Tyke Bhoy, This is from todays paper and puts these figures into perspective

Britain’s big freezes
The winter of 1947: With snowdrifts measuring up to seven metres, thousands of people were stranded indoors for days. Snow fell every day somewhere in the country for 55 days between January and March. The mean maximum temperature for February was 0.5°C (6.9°C below average).
The winter of 1963: With temperatures falling lower than -20°C, this was the coldest winter in over 200 years. Snowfall measured up to 30cm, resulting in many farmers not being able to get to their livestock and animals starving to death.
The winter of 1981/82: The December of 1981 was the coldest on record since 1890. The worst-hit areas were Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire and Glamorgan, where snow lay 60cm deep with drifts six metres high. On 13 December 1981, snow swamped the south of England and even the Queen was stranded for several hours in a Cotswold pub.
February 2009: Snow gripped London and the south-east of England particularly badly, and would have triggered a red warning under the new alert system. The highest official snow depth was 29cm in Mickleham, Surrey.
The winter of 2010/11: A winter that was even worse than 1981/82, with temperatures reaching as low as -5°C. Across the UK, over 7,000 schools were closed on 2 December due to the snow and ice.

What the 1.65m figure refers to is anybody's guess. I have woken up to find over a meter of snow fallen overnight (on top of my car!) in Switzerland but a 30cm recorded snowfall would be heavy for the UK. The modern measure for a bad winter should be the number of schools closed and trains cancelled
To the best of my recollection, Leeds schools never closed in winter 62/63 and the school bus was never cancelled. We were allowed home early a few times in bad weather and I do remember the school bus skidding sideways coming down Hilltop.

buffaloskinner wrote:Black Prince is quite correct about the depth

Quote from March 1947

On 4–5 March 1947 came heavy snow which left drifts across much of the country with some lying 7 metres (23 ft) deep in the Scottish Highlands. On 5 March 1947 one of the worst British blizzards of the 20th century occurred. Food supplies were again affected by the snow-bound roads and in some places the police requested permission to break into delivery lorries stranded by the snow.

Great picture buffalo! That was a London Bus - imagine what it was like in East Anglia or N Yorks.

My Brother and i went from the Gipton Estate by Tram to the Hope Inn Pub Stop on York Road and then walked along through Richmond Hill to Mount St. Mary's School. Just about every Winter until i left in 1950 we had to negotiate frozen roads, Deep and icy Snow. Most Winters we wore Wellington boots as we mainly only had one pair of shoes and the Snow would ruin them.
The School never closed and the Teachers all managed to get in on time.

Hi Jack and no teacher training days how did we manage i swear we are a different breed .