If you think the wintry weather's bad, just thank goodness it's not like 1947

WE are, as I'm sure you're all well aware, in the grip of the longest spell of freezing weather to hit our shores for nearly 30 years.

Right across the country schools, businesses and transport networks have ground to a halt under a thick blanket of snow. In recent days, airports have closed, train services have been delayed or cancelled and scores of drivers have been left stranded. The only people who seem to be enjoying the prolonged cold snap are the thousands of children whose schools remained shut yesterday for the second day in a row.

It's certainly bleak, but if you think this is bad, spare a thought for those who lived through the bitter winter of 1946-47 that paralysed Britain. Back then, the nation was still reeling from the trauma of war. There were fuel shortages and the lack of food was so severe that even eggs were rationed. Vegetables were hard to come by and those that were available were ravaged by the freezing weather.

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Thousands of people were cut off for days by snowdrifts and supplies had to be flown in by helicopter to many villages, while the armed forces were called in to help clear roads and railways. In Yorkshire, hay bales were thrown from trains for sheep because farmers couldn't reach them. Buses and cars became redundant, especially in more remote areas where horse-drawn sledges were the only way of getting from one farm to another.

Between January and March that year, snow fell every day somewhere in the country for 55 successive days. Much of this settled because temperatures barely crept above freezing on most days. At one point in January that year the Isles of Scilly were lying under 18cms of snow, while elsewhere temperatures plummeted to a chilling –21 degrees Celsius.

February brought no respite from the freezing weather with some parts of the country reporting snow falling on 26 days. If anything, the following month was even worse. On March 6, there were snow drifts five metres deep in the Pennines, while a week later the Scottish Highlands reportedly had drifts more than seven metres deep. It's the memories of those who endured such bitter conditions that make for the most interesting reading.

One woman from Dunnington, near York, said her great aunt, who died at South Wold, had to be taken to Millington on a sledge in order to be buried. She also noted in her diary that the snow didn't melt until the second week of April.

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The winter of 1962-63, though, remains the coldest for more than 200 years. In the Yorkshire Dales it snowed on Christmas Day which, for many, marked the beginning of a big freeze that lasted more than two months. Roads and railways were blocked, telephone lines brought down, and some villages were left cut off for several days. The snow was so deep in some areas that farmers couldn't reach their livestock, and many animals starved to death.

The prolonged cold spell brought with it blizzards, snow drifts, blocks of ice and temperatures plunged below –20 degrees Celsius. Even London found itself under two feet of snow at one point. It became so cold that lakes and rivers froze and sea water in some of England's harbours turned to ice, while ice patches also formed at sea and on beaches. It wasn't until the first week of March when a mild south-westerly front reached the British Isles that winter finally relaxed its icy grip.

Britain's last big period of freezing weather occurred back in 1981. On December 12, 25 cms – more than a foot – of snow fell at Heathrow Airport, the temperature dropped to –25 degrees Celsius in parts of Shropshire, and the Queen had to be dug out of a snow drift in Old Sodbury and revived in a local pub with a glass of Babycham. Since then, and particularly in the past 15 years, our winters have been relatively mild, which perhaps explains the widespread incredulity caused by the current inclement conditions.

BBC Look North weatherman Paul Hudson is an expert on bad weather. He, along with fellow meteorologist Ian McCaskill, compiled the book Frozen in Time, which chronicled some of the worst winters on record.

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He says this winter's extreme weather is the worst for 28 years. "Yorkshire has had the heaviest snowfalls since 1981 and we've

got well in excess of a foot of snow in parts of the Pennines. But we're still nowhere near as bad as 1963 or 1947, although it's still early days."

Back in the late '70s, during the infamous "winter of discontent" the weather conditions mirrored Britain's economic climate. "The winter of '78' and '79 was actually worse than '81," says Hudson. "There were even stories of lorry drivers lighting fires underneath their vehicles to try to defrost the diesel pipes that had frozen because it was so cold."

He says the weather has a lot to do with people's perceptions. "The winter of '63 was the coldest of the last century. There was actually more snow in 1946-47, but in '63 there were very cold nights and that's why statistically 1963 was the coldest.

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"But from a perception point of view, the winter of '47 was worse because it brought much cloudier skies and a lot of snow, so it felt very bleak. Everyone you ask who lived through both winters will say that '46-'47 was the worst, because it followed the war and because it was a lot gloomier. Some of the villages in the Yorkshire Dales, for instance, were cut off for weeks on end."

Our current short-term forecast doesn't look good with north- easterly winds heading our way and the cold weather set to continue until at least the middle of January. But if you want to look on the bright side, then it's worth remembering that the big freeze in 1947 was followed by a beautiful summer which led to a bumper harvest. So our dark winter clouds may yet have a silver lining.