White Christmas

[SO16_Saint]

When was the last white Christmas in Southampton?

 

lived here for nearly 30 years and can't remember one.

[badgerx16]

I seem to remember a couple when I was very young, ( early 60's ).

[bridge too far]

I can remember 1970 (Boxing Day or soon after) mainly because I was heavily pregnant and had worked very hard to produce a feast for my parents (in the days before freezers). Dad couldn't get the car down Lances Hill because it was blocked by buses and cars. So we were stuck with loads of food we couldn't possibly eat just the 3 of us!

[norwaysaint]

Don't even get them here that often. Maybe one out of three or four, although the mountains are all white already. We have had a few snowy days, followed by rain.

[Hamilton Saint]

Winter of 62-63 was very severe. I think it snowed on Boxing Day in Hampshire.

[Halo Stickman]

Winter of 62-63 was very severe. I think it snowed on Boxing Day in Hampshire.

 

Being very young at the time, I only have vague memories of that winter; however, I clearly recall walking up my Isle of Wight lane with the snow up to hedge level and seeing a hole in the snow where someone had dug down to reveal the roof of a car.

 

My mum says that the heavy snow started, as you say, on Boxing Day and that there wasn’t really that much fresh snowfall in subsequent weeks; however, a severe frozen period set in for the next couple of months, which prevented the snow from melting.

 

According to Since Records Began, The Highs and Lows of Britain’s Weather by Paul Simons (I always hoped this little book would come in handy one day!) the ice reached 2.5 miles out to sea at Herne Bay in Kent and there were reports of drifting pack ice in the Mersey, Humber and Solent.

 

One of the interesting legacies of the 62-63 winter was that the electrical supply industry (which had been caught hopelessly under-prepared) made a huge financial investment in extra capacity, which, 22 years later, played a role in defeating the miners’ strike.

 

With regard to White Christmases (again referencing the above book), statistically speaking, many parts of Britain are more likely to see a White Easter; in the last century, snow has fallen in London on Christmas Day on only 11 occasions.

 

Apparently, the idea of White Christmases (over the last 170 years or so) can be largely attributed to Charles Dickens. He was born in 1812, which happened to fall in the coldest decade since the 1690s; he would have seen snow fall on Christmas Day on 6 out of his first 9 years. Later, he referenced these White Christmases in his books – most notably, of course, in A Christmas Carol, written in 1843.

 

The first Christmas cards also appeared in the 1840s; the Victorians, being keen on nostalgia, harked back to the same White Christmases of Dickens’s childhood for the images on these cards, even though, by then, Christmases were more commonly like the ones we usually experience nowadays, i.e. grey and damp.

 

So, the moral of all this: anyone thinking of putting money on a White Christmas might be better advised to put it on Saints beating Everton on Saturday. Or, perhaps not?

Edited 18 December, 2014 by Halo Stickman

[CB Saint]

There was definitely a lot of snow on the ground xmas day in '78 or '79 as I have a photo of me on my first bike (boxer) in the garden - whether it snowed on that day, I couldn't say

[sadoldgit]

Winter of 62-63 was very severe. I think it snowed on Boxing Day in Hampshire.

 

I remember that winter well. There was snow on the ground in London until April from Xmas. I fell over on black ice and broke my are so couldn't go sledging with my mates! There was a stand pipe for water at the end of the road as all the pipes had burst. Bloody nightmare. No central heating in our house in those days either so used to wake up and scrape the ice off the inside of the windows. People nowdays don't know they are born

[Hamilton Saint]

I remember that winter well. There was snow on the ground in London until April from Xmas. I fell over on black ice and broke my are so couldn't go sledging with my mates! There was a stand pipe for water at the end of the road as all the pipes had burst. Bloody nightmare. No central heating in our house in those days either so used to wake up and scrape the ice off the inside of the windows. People nowdays don't know they are born

 

We used a coal fire in the front room; a coal fire (burned in a stove that heated the water) in the kitchen (treated coal that we called 'nubs'); and a paraffin stove in the bathroom on "bath night".

[ecuk268]

The snow did start on Boxing Day. I remember going out with my Dad to take the dog for walk and it was really heavy. For weeks afterwards I can remember finding dead birds that had frozen overnight and fallen out of the trees.

 

I was at Barton Peveril and, when the snow finally melted, there was a huge lake in the middle of the playing field which didn't go until Easter.

[Halo Stickman]

The snow did start on Boxing Day. I remember going out with my Dad to take the dog for walk and it was really heavy. For weeks afterwards I can remember finding dead birds that had frozen overnight and fallen out of the trees.

I was at Barton Peveril and, when the snow finally melted, there was a huge lake in the middle of the playing field which didn't go until Easter.

 

That’s right; UK populations of some bird species, especially smaller birds such as wrens – at greater risk of losing their body heat – were reduced by more than 80 percent during that winter.

[Halo Stickman]

I remember that winter well. There was snow on the ground in London until April from Xmas. I fell over on black ice and broke my are so couldn't go sledging with my mates! There was a stand pipe for water at the end of the road as all the pipes had burst. Bloody nightmare. No central heating in our house in those days either so used to wake up and scrape the ice off the inside of the windows. People nowdays don't know they are born

 

We used a coal fire in the front room; a coal fire (burned in a stove that heated the water) in the kitchen (treated coal that we called 'nubs'); and a paraffin stove in the bathroom on "bath night".

 

At risk of this thread trailing off into a re-enactment of Monty Python’s Four Yorkshiremen sketch …

 

Prior to central heating I remember spending most of the winter sat on the living-room rug in front of the coal-fire – it was the only remotely warm place in the entire bloody house!

[ecuk268]

We used a coal fire in the front room; a coal fire (burned in a stove that heated the water) in the kitchen (treated coal that we called 'nubs'); and a paraffin stove in the bathroom on "bath night".

 

We also relied on coal fires and had ice on the inside of the bedroom windows.

 

Funnily enough, not having ever experienced central heating, I assumed that was normal and I think I built up a resistance to feeling cold. Even many decades later I still find it difficult to sleep in a warm bedroom.