The 23rd-26th April 1981 will be remembered for the great wet snowstorm that hit many parts of England and Wales.

Some stats for 23rd-26th April 1981
CET: 3.4
England and Wales rainfall: 42.7mm

Depths of snow
Peak District: ~60cm
Cosby: 20cm
Birmingham Hall Green: 10cm

Maxima
Birmingham
23rd: 7C
24th: 5C
25th: 5C
26th: 2C

Bristol Lulsgate
23rd: 11C
24th: 6C
25th: 8C
26th: 2C

Cardiff Airport
23rd: 10C
24th: 8C
25th: 8C
26th: 3C

Manchester Airport
23rd: 7C
24th: 4C
25th: 5C
26th: 4C

Nottingham/Watnall
23rd: 7C
24th: 3C
25th: 2C
26th: 3C

Here is from the Times of the 25th of April 1981

 

From the 27th of April 1981. Pretty good map.

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Cheers for that, Mr Data.

The other thing I can remember about that year was how a massive hailstorm occurred at Kent in August. It lasted for over an hour with frequent lightning and left hail drifts up to two feet in it's wake, in fact remnants were still seen in shaded areas several days later. The reason why this is quite clear to memory even though I was 14 at the time was where I was in a friend's attic playing with mates and we all cowered under the deafening sound of heavy continuous hail rattling on the skylight. It must have been a very slow moving storm cell for that to happen.

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Cheers for that, Mr Data.

The other thing I can remember about that year was how a massive hailstorm occurred at Kent in August. It lasted for over an hour with frequent lightning and left hail drifts up to two feet in it's wake, in fact remnants were still seen in shaded areas several days later. The reason why this is quite clear to memory even though I was 14 at the time was where I was in a friend's attic playing with mates and we all cowered under the deafening sound of heavy continuous hail rattling on the skylight. It must have been a very slow moving storm cell for that to happen.

Was that the 5th/6th August, or was it the 1st?

There was about a foot lying here, and since it was wet and melting as it came considerably more than that fell.
The oilseed rape fields were in full bloom as there had been some good warm days before, and a lot of it was flattened by the snow but did partly recover later.

Some of the minor roads over the moors were blocked by drifts for 2 or 3 days, and needed full scale tackle like JCBs to re-open - quite freaky for late April.

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Thanks Kevin,

I can't remember a huge amount about this but I do remember our village getting cut off and the fruit frame in my grandparents garden collapsed with the weight of snow.

Here's my historic video on this event, BTW;

http://www.gavsweathervids.com/april1981.html

This has been getting quite a lot of renewed interest recently for obvious reasons. 

 

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One of my first weather memories, this. I was 4 years old and my mum was away leaving my dad (not too experienced in child care!) in charge of me and my sister. We decided we'd go out and play in the snow barefoot 🙂

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Can't recall this one for some reason. The latest I remember seeing meaningful lying snow in York was the first week of May 1979.

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Remember it well. We had about 10cm of snow in York but it was drip drip drip! 

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Remember it well. We had about 10cm of snow in York but it was drip drip drip! 

Still don't remember it, but take your word for it! Ah well, the memories fade and fudge as one gets older...

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I remember it well - I was supposed to drive to Kings Heath to fetch my grandmother over to Redditch to have lunch with us on her birthday - but we were snowed in and I could not set off to get her. On the phone, she told me that in all her long life, she had never known it snow on her birthday (26th April) before.

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Can't recall this one for some reason.

 

Me neither! And I was 9.

 

 

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Still don't remember it, but take your word for it! Ah well, the memories fade and fudge as one gets older...

Remember playing cricket with friends on the council sports field in Huntington on 24 or 25 April. There was a thin covering of snow but it was melting quickly in the sun. The real heavy stuff arrived the next day.

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Was that the 5th/6th August, or was it the 1st?

Sadly that falls in a gap in my record keeping, but it was certainly in the opening weeks of the school summer holiday, so I should imagine it would be at some point in the first week of August.

This satellite image courtesy of Dundee University may provide a clue as it does show what appears to be MCS developments over the UK on the 6th . . .

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The ERA interim with ppn included.

April 1981           http://brunnur.vedur.is/kort/ra/1981/198104/era-i_msl_t850_tp.html

August 1981       http://brunnur.vedur.is/kort/ra/1981/198108/era-i_msl_t850_tp.html

Takes a wee while for them all to load for animation.

Edit to correct the second link - Ta for ponting out Ian.

 

The ERA interim with ppn included.

April 1981           http://brunnur.vedur.is/kort/ra/1981/198104/era-i_msl_t850_tp.html

August 1981       http://brunnur.vedur.is/kort/ra/1981/198104/era-i_msl_t850_tp.html

Takes a wee while for them all to load for animation.

They both seem to be for April, I'd like to see August's.  

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They both seem to be for April, I'd like to see August's.  

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!!

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I was to young to remember this event.

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I wasn't alive to remember this event.

15cm of snow in Leeds in late April though - now that would be exciting. We wouldn't be guaranteed a snowfall that large every winter let alone when it's almost May.

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Sadly that falls in a gap in my record keeping, but it was certainly in the opening weeks of the school summer holiday, so I should imagine it would be at some point in the first week of August.

This satellite image courtesy of Dundee University may provide a clue as it does show what appears to be MCS developments over the UK on the 6th . . .

Thanks Ian. That a very nice satellite pic. I always wanted to know more about the 5/6 August 1981 storms .

Those small bright spots over east Kent looks the type that would have produced a hailstorm, which would just get bigger and bigger as it moves, I think, northwards, due to spreading Cb tops.

But certainly 5/6 August 1981 was the time of severe thunderstorms over central/southern UK, and it was caused by rapid reactivation of the weak cold front, moving erratically SEwards across the weak high pressure into a developing shallow low over northern France, that moved into southern UK. One MCS over central UK produced torrential downpours; 113 mm of rain fell in 24 hours from evening of 5th at Ringway and 132 mm near Tarporley (Cheshire). An another MCS produced severe lightning storms over London area; I think there were flood problems in the underground, and the morning was as dark as very dull rainy day in December and street lights had to be put on.

Yet the rest of August 1981 was generally dry with good deal of warm, sunny weather in the S and E of UK, although rather dull and wet in the far NW (but no thunder). It was very dry in the SW, with only 4.4 mm of rain in Camborne. There was some minor thunder activity in the far south on 1st, and over Wales on 29/30 August.

June and July, however, were quite rubbish summer months; it was largely cool and dull, with July being quite disturbed and thundery in the east, but June was mostly dry.

Going back on topic, I remember late April 1981 being very cold and wet when I was near Lincoln (and it was my 10th birthday), but it was much more of sleet rather than proper snow. It came after a spell of fine weather that dominated early April.

Remember the snow very well a good 4 inches of wet snow in strong winds in coventry...i think it was that year coventry had an inch of rain in ten minutes in the july i think.