The winter of 1968-69 was quite an interesting winter. It featured a mostly cold December and February, sandwiching quite a mild January. I may make a historic video on this winter some time.
December 1968
December 1968 was a chilly month, with a CET of 3.0C. The month began very anticyclonic with overnight frost and fog, followed by nippy days. Thie middle third was then quite cool and wet before the weather turned significantly colder from the 23rd...
Remarkably over the Christmas period there was then a largely unforecasted White Christmas, with heavy snow falling across a large part of the country overnight Christmas Eve and into Christmas morning. A depth of 10cm was recorded in Birmingham, with some rural areas seeing upto 25cm of snow falling on Christmas Day. Beyond Christmas, the weather then remain cold and wintry up until the New Year with snow cover lasting.
January 1969
January for the most part was quite a mild month (CET of 5.5C). The period between the 7th-21st was very mild, before colder weather did return to see out the final days of the month.
February 1969
Cold weather very much returned in February with the winds frequently coming from a northerly or easterly direction. With a CET of 1.0C, it was the coldest month since the winter of 1962-63.
On the 7th, a deep low pressure system swung down the North Sea, bringing an Arctic front accompanied by hurricane-force winds to Scotland. In fact Kirkwall recorded a low level gust of 135mph! Further south there was a notable snow event across the Midlands and the south, with 30cm of snow and some 20 foot drifts recorded in Kent.
There was further heavy snow on Valentine's Day and again on 19th-20th, before the shift of the month then turned towards very low temperatures:
7th: -7C maximum at Eskdalemuir and a minimum of -14C in parts of Kent.
16th: -20C minimum near Penrith.
18th: -20.6C at Grantown-on-Spey, -13C at Manchester and -7C in Central London.
March and April 1969
The severe cold didn't relent going into the spring with March also being a remarkably cold month, with a CET of just 3.3C. On the 12th-14th, there was a major snowstorm across Scotland, which cut off many roads in Angus and Perthshire.
On the 16th-18th, the Midlands was then battered again, only this time by an ice storm! In fact a TV tower at Emley Moor, Huddersfield snapped under the weight of glazed ice on the 19th.
The cold weather lasted through, with little interruption until the end of March. April also began on a chilly note, with snow showers in a northerly flow, before the winter finally lost it's grip from the 7th onwards.