On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 15:19:59 +0100, Martin wrote:

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 13:12:30 +0000, Steve Wolstenholme
wrote:

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 12:13:12 -0000, "'Mike'"
wrote:

"Steve Wolstenholme" wrote in message
...


short term changes based on the last few years.


Short term? When it varies so much over 70 years that I can just about
remember? 1940 Thames frozen 1959 Scorcher of a Summer, but 1951 a very wet
one. 1947 and 1962 Winters terrible but 1976 a scorcher of a Summer followed
by heavy rain.


Yes, I remember the seriously cold winters of my childhood. I'm only
58.

So you remember the winter of 1962-1963?


Yes, very well. We had some discussion about us kids walking across
the frozen lake (Hollingworth) in some other news thread (I forget the
usenet group it was in). More interesting than the frozen lake was the
ice covered houses along the lake bank. I few feet of snow wasn't must
of a problem but a solid layer of ice tended to lock us in for a day
or two. It was dangerous to try to break the ice off the walls because
it weighed a few tons.

Another year I remember was later (in the 1970s) when I was working in
Manchester. The shortcut from my house, across the tops to the
motorway, had no defined road. It was somewhere under the snow. The
snow was hard packed, I think it was an effect of the wind and ice
particles. I tried to drive over the hard snow by following a few
other cars but we all got stuck (including the leading Volvo with snow
chains on the wheels). When I went to dig my car out a few days later
I found it in a field about 20 yds off the road. A snow plough had
cleared the road but not the field

Steve