By Philip Eden

The winter of 1962-63 is remembered by all of us who were around at the time; it was easily the coldest winter (not the snowiest - that was 1946-47) of the 20th century. However, the white Christmas with which it began in some parts of Britain is rarely m entioned. That is because snow fell on the 25th only in the northern half of the country while London enjoyed a sunny but frosty day.

December 1962 packed more weather into its 31 days than any winter month we have had in the last ten years. It began with a five-day smog episode followed by a brief northerly outbreak which brought snow to much of the country. Mid-month delivered rain, s evere gales, and exceptionally high temperatures, then the prolonged frost finally set in on December 22. Several days of severe frost and bright sunshine gave way to heavy snowfalls from Christmas Day onwards. By the end of the month thousands of village s across southern England, the Midlands and Wales were isolated by deep drifts, and snow covered practically the entire British Isles.

The Christmas Day snowfall was caused by a southward-moving front which marked the boundary between intensely cold continental air which had originated over northern Russia, and not-quite-as-cold Arctic air coming from eastern Greenland. Snow began to fal l ahead of the front in the Central Lowlands of Scotland early on Christmas Eve and continued for about 36 hours, finally turning to rain and petering out on Christmas afternoon when a steady thaw set in. Level snow lay 8cm deep in Glasgow and the souther n outskirts of Edinburgh on Christmas morning, while the A77 Glasgow-Ayr road was blocked by 15-20cm of snow.

The snow belt move southward with almost imperceptible slowness, reaching the English border around dusk on Christmas afternoon, but it then accelerated again and snow was falling across Cumbria, Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, an d much of north Wales by midnight. There were also heavy snow showers in the Channel Islands during the course of Christmas Day, but most parts of England and Wales were sunny in spite of afternoon maximum temperatures between zero and -4C.

It had started snowing in mid-Wales, Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham and Lincoln by dawn on Boxing Day, and in south Wales, Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge and Norwich by midday. The wintry weather finally reached London and points south by nightfall on the 26th by which time clearer skies had spread southwards as far as the Humber and the Mersey. The belt of snow now came to a halt over southern England, and in the southern Home Counties it continued unabated for 48 hours, depositing 30-45cm of the stuff ac ross much of Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire. The wind was very light so on this occasion there was no drifting, but a further snowstorm on the 29th-30th was accompanied by high winds which built up massive drifts. In many places the grass did not reap pear until March 4.

(c) Philip Eden