Winter 1947 in the British Isles

Booth, George H.

doi:10.1002/wea.66

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Most of Britain does not experience sustained periods of lying snow (Dunn et al 2001), and flow regimes in Britain are generally dominated by rainfall rather than snowmelt (Hannaford and Buys 2012). However, snow is a major component of flow for some catchments, particularly in Scotland (Soulsby et al 2002), and individual snow events can affect flows anywhere in the country: snowmelt was a key factor in the major flooding that occurred across much of England in March 1947 (Booth 2007). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An assessment of the possible impacts of climate change on snow and peak river flows across Britain

et al. 2016

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The NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the UK and other countries, and may not be used without the prior written consent of the Trademark owner. 1An assessment of the possible impacts of climate change on snow and peak river flows across Britain AbstractA temperature-based snow module has been coupled with a grid-based distributed hydrological model, to improve simulations of river flows in upland areas of Britain subject to snowfall and snowmelt. The coupled model has been driven with data from an 11-member perturbedparameter climate model ensemble, for two time-slices (1960-1990 and 2069-2099), to investigate the potential impacts of climate change. The analysis indicates large reductions in the ensemble mean of the number of lying snow days across the country. This in turn affects the seasonality of peak river flows in some parts of the country; for northerly regions, annual maxima tend to occur earlier in the water year in future. For more southerly regions the changes are less straightforward, and likely driven by changes in rainfall patterns rather than snow. The modelled percentage changes in peak flows illustrate high spatial variability in hydrological response to projected climate change, and large differences between ensemble members. When changes in projected future peak flows are compared to an estimate of current natural variability, more changes fall outside the range of natural variability in southern Britain than in the north.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An assessment of the possible impacts of climate change on snow and peak river flows across Britain

et al. 2016

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“…The prolonged period of cold weather was the result of a slow-moving area of low pressure near the Channel Islands and high pressure over Scandinavia, Greenland and Iceland, which maintained a very cold, mostly easterly or north-easterly, flow across Europe and into the British Isles; it resulted in one of the coldest winters in recent times (see Table 2), the snowiest winter (Booth 2007;Shellard 1968) and coldest February 1 on record. This led to a nationwide coal crisis, resulting in electricity cuts and reduced industrial production (Burroughs 1997).…”

Section: The Snow Of 1947mentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the social consequences of extreme weather: the outcomes of the 1946/1947 winter in upland Wales, UK

2012

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Extreme forms of weather are predicted to become more frequent experiences in the future. However, the hardest event to mitigate against is the unexpected. In the UK, the occurrence of winter snowfall is difficult to predict, highly variable, both spatially and temporally and predicted to become less common in the future. This paper examines the consequences of the severe winter of 1946/1947 at the local scale through a Welsh case study of Cwm Tywi, a community of upland sheep farms. This community had shown great resilience during the snowiest winter on record in comparison with other, more urban communities, but the inhabitants eventually abandoned their homes because of the emotional distress caused by the loss of a large proportion of the livestock. In addition to the severity of the snow, perceptions of the extreme nature of this event and the community's ability to mitigate as a result of rurality, self-sufficiency and remoteness are investigated through the analysis of interviews, oral histories, and other documentary accounts. This case study provides an insight into the complexity of understanding vulnerability, adaptation and resilience, which are temporally and spatially specific.

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“…Accumulated snow depths locally exceeded 40cm in the winters of 1947 and 1963: for example, 51cm at Cranfield, Bedfordshire, on 6 March 1947 (Booth, 2007) and 45cm at Pershore on 3 January 1963 (Pike, 2002). The heavy snowfall of 8-9 January 1982 gave 30cm at Brize Norton, 34cm at Malvern and over 60cm on high ground near the England/Wales border (the Forest of Dean and the foothills of the Black Mountains) but was spread over 36-40 hours.…”

Section: Historical Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

The heavy snowfall of 18 December 2010 across the English south Midlands

Webb¹

2011

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Winter 1947 in the British Isles

Cited by 10 publications

References 4 publications

An assessment of the possible impacts of climate change on snow and peak river flows across Britain

An assessment of the possible impacts of climate change on snow and peak river flows across Britain

Examining the social consequences of extreme weather: the outcomes of the 1946/1947 winter in upland Wales, UK

The heavy snowfall of 18 December 2010 across the English south Midlands

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