1st
A North Sea storm in 1999 reveals a circle of wooden timbers in an ancient saltmarsh on the Norfolk coast. Dating to 2050 B.C. it is heralded as the greatest ever Bronze age discovery.
2nd
“Cold weather brings out upon the faces of the people the written marks of their habits, vices, passions, and memories, as warmth brings out on a paper a writing in sympathetic ink”, Thomas Hardy, poet and novelist. 1886.
3rd
When a gale drives Henry Winstanley’s ship, Constant, onto the Eddystone Rock in 1695 it’s the second ship he’s lost to the rock in a year. He decides to erect, at his own expense, a lighthouse. No vessel wrecks on the rock until the Great storm of 1703 when both the lighthouse and Winstanley are washed away. Two days later the rock claims its next ship.
4th
Today in 1817 the brig Resolution is approaching the unfinished harbour of Porthleven in a gale. Deliberately grounded to save the crew she’s almost undamaged. Hundreds of locals board her as the tide recedes taking everything they can carry away, even the hull timbers are are stripped away.
5th
Today in 1941 Amy Johnson takes off in thick fog from Blackpool Airport never to be seen again. The 90 minute flight is a routine delivery of an Airspeed Oxford aeroplane to Kiddington airbase near Oxford. Four and a half hours later the wreckage of her plane is found in the Thames estuary, 100 miles off course. Her body is never found and conspiracy theories abound..........
6th
In 1947 wintry weather divides the nation. In London skiers practise on Hampstead Heath and ice slabs wash ashore in Southend, while in Torquay promenaders enjoy nearly seven hours of sunshine and primroses are being picked in Wales.
7th
In 1748 a light northerley wind assists the attempt of Frenchman Jean-
John Jeffries to cross the Channel by hot air balloon. The journey takes two and a half hours and they arrive
semi-
8th
Colds, flu, respiratory viruses and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease reach an annual peak today, according to
Met Office research. One explanation is that we mix more over the Christmas period, swapping germs.
The weather contributes, as cold air makes people more vulnerable to viral infections and lack of sunshine can cause a vitamin D deficiency.
9th
Heavy rain in 1968 cools so suddenly and dramatically that at 2.58pm Big Ben freezes solid for four hours.
Three snowploughs themselves get stuck on the Berkshire Downs.
10th
It was today in 1979 that a sun-
11th
“People went over and along the the Thames on ice from London Bridge to Westminster.
Some played at the foot-
12th
A gale hurls the H.M.S. York on to the Bell Rock today in 1804, claiming 600 lives. There is such a furore in Parliament that a lighthouse is finally built in 1811 to mark Scotland’s deadliest shipping hazard. It makes the name of its chief engineer, Robert Stevenson, and is the first of ninety seven manned lighthouses that the Stevenson family will design and build.
13th
On this day in 1205”Began a frost which continued till the two and twentieth day of March, so that the ground could not be tilled; whereof it came to pass that, in summer following, a quarter of wheat was sold for a mark of silver”, according to Stowe’s Chronicles. It is thought that this great and fatal frost gave rise to the medieval belief that January 13th, St. Hilary’s Day, is the coldest of the year.
14th
Joseph Conrad wrote a short autobiographical story, Youth, about a storm which envelops a coal ship off the Cornish coast today in 1881. Conrad was the second mate who went on to become a writer.
15th
In 1887, during a very frosty winter, thousands lace up their skates across the country. Tragedy strikes today when the ice breaks on Regent’s Park boating lake and forty drown. The depth of the lake is subsequently lowered to 4 feet.
16th
Heavy snowfalls in 1955 almost halt construction on the Dounreay nuclear power station on the north coast of Scotland. Large areas are without power for weeks and isolated by 30 feet drifts. Operation Snowdrop is launched to drop food, hay and medical supplies by plane and helicopter to remote farms and communities. It is the first ever coordinated airborne relief operation.
17th
A cold snap today in 1987 causes mayhem in the Football League with only ten matches going ahead in England, Scotland and Wales. A debate follows on whether football is really a game better suited to summer.
18th
In 1881 the Great Victorian Blizzard, one of the worst snowstorms on record, brings the south of England to a standstill. Sixteen foot drifts are reported in London, where the snow arrives on a vicious easterly gale.
19th
In snow, mist and squalls today in 1915 Martha Taylor, a pensioner, and Sam Smith,
shoemaker, become victim’s of the world’s first victims of a strategic bombing mission.
A German Zeppelin loses its way and instead of attacking dockyards on the River Humber
is blown miles off-
20th
Alstonfield Parish Register: 1614 “The great snow began to fall, and so continued increasing the most dayes until the 12 of march ”
21st
“What a fantastic transformation within the space of a day! Yesterday morning..............a white world, the snow inches deep..............today...................the worst floods” recorded Lakeland diarist Harry Griffin of today’s dramatic thaw in 1960.
22nd
A great North Sea storm today in 1328 gives rise to the legend of fifty drowned churches of Dunwich. The storm alters the shape of the shingle bank just off the coast, blocking Dunwich harbour and removing the key to the port’s prosperity.
23rd
A ferocious snowstorm hits southern Scotland in 1794 and becomes known as the Gonial Blast. Gonial is an old Scots word meaning a sheep found dead and partly decayed. After the storm subsided, in the mouth of the River Esk and on nearby shores were found “one thousand eight hundred and forty sheep, nine black cattle, three horses, two men, one woman, forty five dogs and one hundred and eighty hares beside a number of meaner animals” according to James Hogg, poet, novelist and shepherd in the Borders.
24th
Today is officially”Gloomsday” according to Dr Cliff Arnall, a psychologist at Cardiff University.The weather, Christmas debts, time until next payday, failed resolutions and a general lack of motivation combine to create a wintry despair.
25th
Top Ten Cold Weather Comfort Foods
Spaghetti Bolognese, Heinz Tomato Soup, Shepherd’s Pie, Toast and Marmite, Roast Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, Apple Crumble,
Bangers and Mash, Beef Stew and Roast Lamb
26th
In 1884 an exceptionally stormy week ends today with the lowest unchallenged pressure
reading ever recorded in the British Isles -
27th
In 1958 the temperature reaches 18.3°C at Aber on the north coast of Wales. Only eight January days in the twentieth century reach or exceed 17°C and, amazingly, seven occur here.
28th
When a warm Atlantic front met continental high pressure over England rain fell on an icy landscape engulfed by freezing air on this day in 1940. On impact the rain turned instantly to ice and birds die in flight when their wings lock solid. Roads are like skating rinks, railway points can’t be changed and the country is paralysed. The ice storm lasted five days when burst pipes start to gush back to life.
29th
In a blizzard in the Scottish Highlands in 1978 a travelling salesman survives for eighty hours by wrapping himself in his stock of women’s tights.
30th
In 1607 a sea surge causes a flood on the River Severn engulfs an area from Barnstaple
to as far north as Cardiganshire -
31st
On this day, on average, the first snowdrops appear.
This day in history
