A Taste of Winter in November
November is not a winter month and yet it has brought some surprisingly wintry weather to the UK in recent decades.
Although we expect it to be dark, damp and pretty dreary generally the whiteness of a sudden snowfall can provide an unexpected reminder that the forthcoming winter may not all be ‘doom’ and ‘gloom’.
Early November can see quite cold air pool up to the east of us over western Russia and it only needs the right set of circumstances to bring the cold pool west, across us. In the early part of November 1980 for example, with high pressure across Scotland, just such a pool of cold continental air pushed west as earlier on the 2nd. It became very cold in the south by the 5th November, giving an exceptionally chilly Bonfire Night. Even the highest temperatures were close to freezing on both the 5th and the 6th. An east wind set in along the Channel and snow fell across the Channel Islands with 6cm of lying snow on Jersey. Further snow then fell across much of SE England on both that and the following day.
November 1985 was yet another very cold month, in fact the coldest November since 1919. There was a notable snowfall in the south on the 19th with the day seeing bitter east winds in the south, temperature close to freezing and a few inches of snow falling across much of Kent and East Sussex. I remember traveling down by rail to visit Canterbury from London, to see around 15cm of snow on the ground. Further west on the Channel Islands, Jersey also reported a cover of 12 cm of snow by the 20th. It stayed cold for the rest of the month after that with snow falling on five days in London; further north however the north-east of Scotland saw as many as 19 days with snow falling.
In 1993 there was yet another cold November as high pressure sat across Scandinavia. There was snowfall and low temperatures from the 20-22nd with 10 cm of snow lying in parts of both East Anglia and Kent during the 22nd, the snow cover lasting for four days in parts of north London, quite a surprise to many residents.
Just three years later in November 1996, after a mild start, there was snowfall across the Midlands and south on the 19th in a very unsettled period as a deep low moved across the south and brought notably cold air in its wake. Snowfall was especially heavy across North Wales and north-west England, with about an inch falling widely and some upland areas cut off. Further north, parts of Scotland stayed beneath freezing from the 19th-23rd, and there was 20cm of snow reported across the hills.
The next cold snowy spell in recent times in November occurred in 2001. It started mild but by the 8th, with high pressure to the west the winds turned into the north north-east and snow fell in the north on the 8th, and as far south as the south-east of England on the 9th, the earliest snowfall in SE England since the example we began with above, during November 1980.
November 2005 also saw a cold wintry spell at the end of the month. On the 24th, as winds turned to the north, arctic air pushed south, with snowfall in some parts. Further snow fell on the 25th and closed schools across Scotland and Wales. Parts of the south west, especially the moors of Cornwall were badly affected with traffic jams due to accidents caused by the bad weather near Bodmin, meaning some people had to abandon cars and seek temporary shelter for the night.
Whether 2006 brings similar weather remains to be seen. We have yet to have a taste of cold weather this season, after the record warmth of the last few months. November snowfall shouldn’t surprise us though as the story of the above years tell, it is much more common that we might expect.
