31st December 2003-1st January 2004: Extreme cold followed by gales and blizzards
A deep Atlantic depression
slammed into the UK at the turn of the year bringing blizzards across the Northeast of Scotland and England and very strong
winds which caused the cancellation of many Hogmanay events in Scotland.
The
week before the storm, a cold dry air mass had slipped south into Scotland; this combined with clearing skies at night created
a very cold sink of air, within which some very low minima were recorded, Altnaharra reported a minima of -15.8C on the night of the 30th and the
majority of Scotland and Northern England recorded subzero maxima the day previous to the storm.
Some
other very low minima reported on the night of 30th-31st December:
Station |
Min Temp |
|
Altnaharra,
Scotland |
-15.9C |
|
Loch Glascarnoch,
Scotland |
-14.4C |
|
Aviemore,
Scotland
Shap, Northern England
Aboyne,Scotland
|
-13.8C
-11.4C
-11.3C |
As the milder air came
up against this very cold dry air, rain falling ahead of the warm front quickly turned to snow. This coupled with the gale
force winds which peaked at 94mph at Fair Isle, Scotland, made for blizzard conditions along the East coast from Aberdeen
as far south as Leeds and much of Yorkshire was left without power as several inches of snow fell in a very short space of
time.
News report
of the event : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/3361135.stm
