February 1969

February 1969 was a very cold wintry month with a CET of 1.0

The month started unsttled as a low tracked across Scotland bringing rain but as the low moved into the North Sea, a cold northerly set in bringing with it snow showers to many parts. On the 3rd, many places woke up to a covering but a warm front moving into the NW brought initially snow then rain as milder air moved in. This mild interlude continued until the 6th, when a vigorous cold front plunged southwards reintroducing the cold northerly with snow showers. There were severe frosts at night, Manchester recorded -13C on the 8th, and snow cover over many parts. This lasted until the 10th, when a warm front bought snowfalls followed by a very brief mild interlude before cold NWlies brought snow showers again. The following few days brought the coldest and severest weather of the winter, with low pressure over Europe and high pressure near Iceland pulling down very cold northerlies and north-easterlies across the UK. On the 14th, a polar low brought heavy snowfalls to northern parts of England with depths up to 9". With the deep snow cover, there were very low nighttime minima with temperatures getting as low as -20C in places.
Low pressure was moving into the Brest area of France and this introduced an easterly flow between itself and the high over Scandinavia. Fronts moving up from the the parent low brought snowfalls to central and southern parts. On the 21st, the fronts had made it to northern England and this allowed milder weather into the south with a thaw. Over the next couple of days, fronts moved into the south with rain but they could not introduce the milder weather further north by the blocking Scandinavian high, which by the end of the month had reintoduced the colder weather to the south.

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