HARD WINTERS

Evening Star, Issue 19802, 28 February 1928, Page 14

HARD WINTERS

WHEN THE THAMES WAS FROZEN Tito Christmas snowstorms and drifts in England, described as being in some regions tbe worst since the great blizzard of January, 1881, have led to a tracing of records of past rigorous scasons. , , . Although more than three hundred years have passed since tbe invention of the thermometer, it is only within the last century or so that accuracy of construction and observation and uniformity of exposure have been sufficient to'yield records of temperature that are both reliable ami comparable one with another. Ancient chronicles leave no room for doubt that between the third and the eighteenth centuries the British Isles were afflicted' by_ a number of frosts that exceeded in point of duration, if not in intensity,_ the worst efforts of tbe “Crimean’ winter and other notably severe seasons ol comparatively recent times. Wo know, for instance, that navigation of the Thames was interrupted by ice for varying periods on at least jt dozen occasions between the years 250 ami 1750. In 925-21 fho river was fro; for thirteen weclw, ami in 106561 tor fourteen; blockage was complete from below London Bridge fi> Gravesend from November 2-1, 1454, to I'ebruary 10, 1455; and dunim a fro.st that lasted from December, 1685, to I‘ebruary, 1084, wc read that “ forty coaches plied daily on the Thames ns on dry laud ” iver ice that was 11 in thick. “ FROST FAIRS.”

“ Frost lairs,” at which sheep ami cattle were roasted, were held on the frozen Thames on two occasions in the early part of last century, but since construction of tbe embankments and the replacing of tbe old weir-like bridges by their modem successors, the (low of the river lias been _ elerated to such an extent that freezing is now very much lees liable to occur than it was formerly. In February, 1895, however, the stream was greatly impeded by masses of floating ice. ’ On January 20, 1858, the air temperature at Greenwich fell to 4deg below zero, but since then it has never been lower than plus 4 deg (in 1841). During the last fifty years the lowest reading has been plus Sdcg (on February 8, 1895), and since 1900 the thermometer has not once passed below the plus 12dcg (December 30, 1908). Other parte of the country, however, have had far more severe frosts than these on several occasions within memory. The “official records” for cold arc; In Scotland, 17deg below zero, at Braemar, Aberdeen; and in England, ■ll deg below zero, at Buxton, both on February 11, 1895. .These figure's were surpassed “ nnofficially i.c., by thermometers not exposed in a standard screen —in the December of 1879 and in the January of 1881. when tbo minima jat Blackadder, Berwick, were respectively 23deg below zero on the 4th of the former month, and 22dcg below zero on the 17th of the latter. THE GREAT FROST OF 1881.

The frost of January, 1881, con-' side red in terms of intensity x extent x duration, was the worst of the last half-century, and it was accompanied between tho 17th and 21st by a blizzard. of which country folk are not yet. tired of talking. Over a largo part of Southern and Central England the snow lay to an average depth of between Iffc and 3ft, while drifts of 20ft or more were common.

Another long and intense frost was that of 1890-91, hut that was in the main confined to ‘the southern half of Britain. It was followed early in March by a snowstorm which, in the Southwest of England, was still more violent than that of “ Black Tuesday,” 1881 Many trains were snowed up even in Cornwall, while the Great Western Railway’s “Zulu” express stuck fast at Brent, and took four days to roach Plymouth from Paddington. On Dartmoor the drifts resulting-from this blizzard did' not finnllv molt, before the end o! May. A third groat snowstorm, which was perhaps comparable with the recent visitation, swept tin country in February. 1900, causing great dislocation of tea file.

On several occasions during the present. century the temperature lias fallen slightly below zero over.a very limited area, and two or three limes, notably during tho long war-timo frost of 1916 17. this has happened oven in the South of England-