Well with possible Beasts from the eats being mentioned by forecqsters other than James Madden. I thought it might be interesting to go over Kevbrads brilliant list and see what interesting bits could be gleaned from it.
If one puts the 5 days or longer spells into order by lowest temperature the coldest spell of all was in January 1838 with an average daily cet of minus 5.41.
It is also interesting to note that there were there at least 4 spells in the last 90 years that were significantly more severe cold wise tthan any thing on offer in the winters of legend 62/63 and 46/47 and one of them was in the current decade!!
They are the severe spells of
Feb 1929 -4.61
Feb 1956 -4.08
Jan 1982 -4.03
Dec 2010 -3.93
the best 1963 could offer was minus 3.56 and as for 1947 a rather sad minus 2.46 by comparison
The coldest spell of 1963 comes in at 25th in the list of all spells by temperature and the coldest spell of 1947 as low a 69th in the list of all spells since 1772. Indeed taking the colsest spell of winter 1947 as a base there have been 11 colder spells since that winter including all of the subzero spells in the winter of 1981/82! Its seems the longevity of the winters of 46/47 and 62/63 means that the severest cold cannot be kept up through out.
Looking at duration Kev has listed the top 5 but including these there were 48 spells lasting ten days or more on the list with 14 of them occurring between
1917 and 2019. Of the top 5 Kev listed only Jan 1881 breached the minus 4 barrier at minus 4.38.
If we then look at the number of sub freezing days in these sub freezing spells in any calendar year we find that 2010 has 28 days one has to go back to 1963 to find a higher total at 36, 1947 had 41 beyond this only 1814, 1795 and 1784 have a higher number of sub freezing days. pointing up just what an extraordinary year 2010 was in these times of climate change.
There 25 spells which straddled Christmas day.although only seven of these have occured sice the begiining of the 20th century but yet again 2010 appears on the list as well.
The top ten coldest 5 days or longer spells of from 1900 to the present day are as follows
1.Feb 1929 -4.61
2.Feb 1956 -4.08
3.Jan 1982 -4.03
4.Dec 2010-3.93
5.Jan 1963 -3.56
6.Jan 1945 -3.52
7.Dec 1981 -3.51
8.Jan 1940 -3.49
9. Dec 1908-3.12
10 Jan 1987-3.00