850 temp and prep analysis from ERA 40 for noon, Apr 24, 1981.

That particularly depression started innocuously off the west coast of Ireland but deepened considerably as it moved in over the UK, so was quite rare in that regard. 

 

Remember it well...15cm in Leeds but 30cm up on the high ground (Yeadon) where I lived....couldn't get home sadly so had to stay the night in Leeds! All gone in 48hrs!!

I wasn't too far from you at the time, in the Adel area if you know it. I recall about 8 inches there. I remember how wet the snow was and more specifically how the weight of it brought down two large branches that were coming into leaf of an almond tree we had in the front garden and badly damaging it. I remember thinking whether lying snow would last into May and what a novelty that would be but as you say that it all disappeared very quickly and that was never going to happen.

This would certainly rank in my top 5 of most exceptional weather events ever experienced in the UK.

Our school's geography field trip got snowed in at Preston Montfort near Shrewsbury, and had a compulsory extra day of fieldwork before they could get away