Bits of this are still on the Feb 2012 TWO Weather Forum on the Internet Archive (with some names from the past)

Don't know if this link works here but this is what I was just looking at

https://web.archive.org/web/20120206204133/http://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twocommunity/yaf_postst6313_Snowfall-Event---Sat-4th-and-Sun-5th-Feb-12-Part-II.aspx 

Originally Posted by: lanky 

I see you were still getting up early Darren!  I remember you were doing DEW's job on USW back  then. I would have loved to have seen your analysis that day. Sadly I only have the headers of the posts now not the content The next day we had heavy snow and those first two  weeks of Feb 2012 I ended up with about 20cm and 4 days of falling snow and 9 days of lying snow.

Originally Posted by: fairweather 

Looking at my records it seems the snow here wasn't much to write home about at the time here, especially considering 2009 and 2010. There was a dusting overnight from the 3rd to the 4th, then 5cm of level snow overnight on the 4th into the 5th. There were further snow flurries in the following three days, but the cover dwindled throughout - leaving just a few remnants by the 9th. 

By today's standards it'd be amazing, of course! 

Originally Posted by: Retron 

Yes, I've just got my archive of all of the post headers but I redacted the actual email addresses.  You posted one on the 5th Feb entitled "Deja Vu" if you could locate it and let us know what we were saying on that spell.. we probably hadn't realised just how rare it would become after that! The 1947 Winter is something that George Booth wrote and I met him a couple of times living near and being a friend of Ron Button's. When Ron passed away his wife gave me his large collection of weather books so if anybody wants any let me know because my wife wants me to get rid of them! George is now up in Edinburgh and has still has the Swanson Weather Site that might be of interest to some on here. 

Originally Posted by: fairweather 

Of course, I was always an extreme lark! Probably will always be, too. 😁

Those daily analyses were focused on T+120, as that was when models started to diverge and thus was more interesting to write about - before then we usually (but not always!) knew what was coming. 

Looking at my records it seems the snow here wasn't much to write home about at the time here, especially considering 2009 and 2010. There was a dusting overnight from the 3rd to the 4th, then 5cm of level snow overnight on the 4th into the 5th. There were further snow flurries in the following three days, but the cover dwindled throughout - leaving just a few remnants by the 9th. 

By today's standards it'd be amazing, of course! 

Originally Posted by: Retron 

I remember the phenomenal icicles from the eaves of our house in 1962-3. I think the installation of roof insulation put an end to those. Nowadays while the weather remains freezing the snow on roofs doesn't melt, but only does so when the thaw comes, when of course the water just drips off the eaves rather than freezing. And of course double glazing and central heating between them put an end to the beautiful frost flowers, that you would find on the windows when you pulled back the curtains in the morning. Not that I would want to do without central heating. I remember in 1962-3 the only place you would really feel warm was in the living room facing a blazing coal/log fire. And even then your back was cold! We did also have a one-bar electric fire, which I think we used off and on in the dining room, and a calor gas heater which we used in the bathroom when someone was having a bath.

Originally Posted by: jhall 

1986 was the only one of those I was around for, albeit only 6 years old! It was a very cold month with plenty of snow (the latter as per the norm in the 80s), and the snow hung around for weeks. Although depths were never massive - 6 inches or so at most - it drifted in the winds at times, as it alternated between powder and wet snow. There were icicles, of course, and I remember my dad snapping them off the guttering with my mum's broom, much to my disappointment. He said they would pull the guttering down, and I thought that was a daft thing to worry about! Of course these days I'd do as he did.

My grandpa died in early February and his funeral went from our house later in the month. The hearse got stuck in the snow and I remember everyone leaving the house, grabbing shovels and brooms, clearing a path for the hearse to the end of our road (the main road being gritted, but still snow-covered). From then on my mum loathed February with a passion, and was always glad when the month was over. 

Here's a picture my dad took of the main road in the snow, a few days before the funeral. Of course the following winter saw much greater depths of snow, but in my mind that was the beginning of the big change - the great storm in October, then a gradual disappearance of our snowy easterlies...

Originally Posted by: Retron 

Thanks, great to read. Imagine if we had such a Nationwide event this winter! This was pre-"blizzards to wipe out England" headlines except for Joe ******i! Good to see that young whippersnapper Beast posting. 

Originally Posted by: fairweather 

Wasn't nationwide.

MBY - and most of NW & SW England, W Midlands, Wales (away from high ground) and S coast - got rain.

Here's a satellite showing after the snowfall:

Originally Posted by: Saint Snow 

These are the 10 coldest by CET.

https://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twodata/cet.aspx 

Originally Posted by: Brian Gaze 

How did you prevent burst pipes?  Must have been a big issue in those days.  I assume internal piping was not lagged? Or maybe it was in those days?  

Originally Posted by: The Beast from the East