January 1982

TheMilkyPirate

Just looking for some pics and info regarding the snow of january 1982. Have googled it but too no avail. I'd really like to see some pics of this. Thanks in advance.

Litcagral

baraca wrote:

Just looking for some pics and info regarding the snow of january 1982. Have googled it but too no avail. I'd really like to see some pics of this. Thanks in advance.

As far as I can recall, the snow lasted about three weeks. I was living in Donegal at the time and I recall the postman, milkman, council workers etc. using snow chains to get around. We spent all day on sleighs or going downhill on plastic fertiliser bags. Schools were closed. It was great.

Your local library may have the daily/provincial papers on microfilm.

Snowbie

the east was the worse affected area,includind the dublin area was hit most by over 2.5ft on lying areas in some parts to over 5ft in drifts,i do have some pics in my mothers i should search for and if i get them i will post

TheMilkyPirate

Snowbie wrote:

the east was the worse affected area,includind the dublin area was hit most by over 2.5ft on lying areas in some parts to over 5ft in drifts,i do have some pics in my mothers i should search for and if i get them i will post

Thanks mate!

CrowdedHouse

Probably doesnt look too spectacular but here's one from Roscrea

ninebeanrows

Just thought i'd bump this thread!

Tomorrow will be the 25th year anniversary of the that great event we all wish we had lived through!

Well some of you did i suppose?
Anyone have any nice stories to share about the event?

For me it seems like it was a February 27th 2001 evebt multiplied by 20

I have compiled a short little article on it in my weather blog If anyones interested...

A Dub in Glasgo

I remember it well. I was 11 1/2 and it was great time. We ended up scutting (very dangerous thing to do!!) down Balbutcher Lane on the back of the old 36B routemaster bus sliding on the road.

We were up to our chests in snow in the of the fields and ditches around the 7 pitches. We were off school for weeks and there was no bread and milk for a while. Overall, an unforgettable memory

Snowbie

Well 2001 imo was a good snow event but 1991 was better and 1987 was better than that and 1982 was again better still.Seems like the intensity is diminishing as time goes on.All bar the 2001 event where from easterly directions.

The shopping centre wall across from my mothers is about 4ft in height,the snow came and drifted against this wall,froze and you could walk straight up and over the wall not knowing it was there.
The good thing to note about 1982 snow was that it snowed heavy 3 times over a 10 day(excluding the snow showers drifting in from the sea) spell accumulating to the already froze and compacted snow.
It wasnt your avg snow that you get,like one snow dump and thats it.
This is my comparison between later snowfalls to this and there aint a comparison in sight making 1982 very unique indeed in this country espeicially the east.

LundiMardi

I was in my mammy's belly during this, all snug and warm.

SpitfireIV

LundiMardi wrote:

I was in my mammy's belly during this, all snug and warm.

some had it easy eh! But in saying that I was still well over a year away.

I seen February 2001 mentioned a few times there, maybe my brain is gone mushy, but I cant remember any big snow event back then, anyone have any further details of it? Or maybe its the usual case that Carlow town gets little or no snow :mad: . I think I remember some VERY harsh frosts and freezing fog at that time, lasted for about a week, that was during the foot and mouth, right?....but snow

Ruu_Old

I was born on Jan 10 of '82 (aka the big schnow) and had to be delivered at home (middle o' nowhere, contae na mí). Quite sure there was probably an article about it in the local paper, must do some snooping.

ninebeanrows

CroppyBoy1798 wrote:

some had it easy eh! But in saying that I was still well over a year away.

I seen February 2001 mentioned a few times there, maybe my brain is gone mushy, but I cant remember any big snow event back then, anyone have any further details of it? Or maybe its the usual case that Carlow town gets little or no snow :mad: . I think I remember some VERY harsh frosts and freezing fog at that time, lasted for about a week, that was during the foot and mouth, right?....but snow

I think but im not certain that it really only affected Northern Leinster and my locations seems from talking to other people to have been worst affected. It was the worst snow i've ever experienced. Drifts of 2 feet against the walls but it could of been much more if it wasnt wet snow rather than the dry stuff. I had no electricity for 48 hours and then after it there was a week of cold and ice

arctictree

CroppyBoy1798 wrote:

I seen February 2001 mentioned a few times there, maybe my brain is gone mushy, but I cant remember any big snow event back then, anyone have any further details of it? Or maybe its the usual case that Carlow town gets little or no snow :mad: . I think I remember some VERY harsh frosts and freezing fog at that time, lasted for about a week, that was during the foot and mouth, right?....but snow

I think this event was 28th Feb/1st Mar '01. I have a photo of me in a 5ft snowdrift - must scan it in. About a mile from me there were 2 lads stuck in a car overnight in a snowdrift. This event was very localised. 6 miles from me in Greystones, there was no snow (just rain). Also I remember the thermometer being down to -6 as it got frosty a few days after the snow. I also have a pic
of me standing on the ice on the reservoir - (kids - dont do that at home!!).

As far as '82 is concerned, I was in school and remember getting about 2 weeks off - funny when it snows, the heating system magically fails! The thing we learned is that the best toboggan is a car bonnet!! Just dont get in the way! I was in Greystones at the time. Amazing to think of that amount of snow there. In Roundwood they had snow for 6 weeks apparently.

A

SpitfireIV

Weathercheck wrote:

I think but im not certain that it really only affected Northern Leinster

Sighhh :rolleyes:

Weathercheck wrote:

It was the worst snow i've ever experienced. Drifts of 2 feet against the walls

Sighhhhhh

artictree wrote:

This event was very localised.

Sighhhhhhhhhhhh:mad: How come I missed out on all the fun, not fair!

arctictree

OK - Guys - prepare to be dazzled!!

This is a pic of me on March 1st 2001 about a mile from my house.

Sure is a different world up here!

Pic is a bit grainy as I took a photo of the photo with my digital camera.

A

Gonzo

I dont remember any snow from 2001 either.. the last decent snow I remember is 1991. Since then we've only had slushy muck where I live, never amounting to more than 2 inchs.

I was 7 during the 1982 storm and I can remember it snowing for what seemed like days. I remember having at least 3 weeks off school and having no milk or bread for 2 weeks.. eventually all the neighbours got together to hire a jcb to clear our road for over a mile so that we cud get down to the shops again.

I remember walkin on hard pact snow but underneath me was cars, the drifts at the road behind our house often reached 10 feet or more. It was quite an experience.

I remember 1987 more tho, wasnt nearly as bad as 1982 but we still had around 10 inchs of snow altho im not sure there were any drifts, I remember most of it came from prolonged snow showers blown in off the Irish sea. Myself and my neighbour built a snow mountain, took us 2 days to do it, it was eventually 7 or 8 feet high and took a month to fully melt after the main lying snow was melted.

SpitfireIV

arctictree wrote:

OK - Guys - prepare to be dazzled!!

This is a pic of me on March 1st 2001 about a mile from my house.

Sure is a different world up here!

Pic is a bit grainy as I took a photo of the photo with my digital camera.

A

Thats some landscape artictree, the red sky and all.....nice!

arctictree

CroppyBoy1798 wrote:

Thats some landscape artictree, the red sky and all.....nice!

Hmmm.....never really analysed the pic before.

The photo is facing southwest (you can see turlough hill in the background).
The snow has drifted on the road on the right hand side. This means that it must have been a northwesterly wind. This concurs with Snowbies comments below that this event was not an easterly.

Snowbie - do you remember the exact date - was your event Feb 28th/Mar 1st?

A

Mothman

Couple previous threads
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=213492

&

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054868078

1982 was awesome. Some lowland roads were closed for couple weeks. 12ft of snow doesn't thaw quickly.

Mothman

arctictree wrote:

Snowbie - do you remember the exact date - was your event Feb 28th/Mar 1st?

A

See links in my previous message.
Feb 27th
75cm level snow measured in Mournes.

mike65

Waterford was under the white stuff for about a week - not that it mattered from a schooling point of view It was just very cold! Sniff.

I do recall the town gas bill for that two month period though - 400 pounds!:eek:

Mike.

arctictree

Mothman wrote:

See links in my previous message.
Feb 27th
75cm level snow measured in Mournes.

Ha - Mothman, Longfield - read your posts on the other threads - that was definitely an event to remember!! I'll have to dig out my other pics!

We were stuck for the whole afternoon/evening in the Roundwood Inn!

Here's hoping for another one this year!

A

Mothman

arctictree wrote:

We were stuck for the whole afternoon/evening in the Roundwood Inn!

A

Can't imagine , you were trying hard to unstick yourselves....:D

Snowbie

artictree wrote:

Snowbie - do you remember the exact date - was your event Feb 28th/Mar 1st?

I always thought it was March 1st,but anyway it was a Polar low from the North that done the damageDonegal got a right hammering up there and followed suit down here the following day.

I remember getting up at 7.00am and visiting the jacks and not a thing outside just cold,so back to the leaba and back up at 8.30am and a full blown blizzard had kicked off.Its always nice to see the first flake falling and accumulating thereafter.I had my little oregon weather staton measuring -0.5c outside and had reached only 0.2c max for that day and 5" fell. 1.5 foot drift against walls.
I actually video taped on my camcorder the "Eagle" giving the weather warning the night before about the PL sweeping SE down through the Northern part of the country.Twas a good event and the last one i have seen to date.

The Hill Billy

I can remember the Great Snow of '82 well myself. Skerries was blocked off for nearly a week. Snowy slopes & fertiliser bags ftw!

Ruu wrote:

I was born on Jan 10 of '82 (aka the big schnow) and had to be delivered at home (middle o' nowhere, contae na mí). Quite sure there was probably an article about it in the local paper, must do some snooping.

Thoughts of that are scaring the living daylights out of me. Mrs Billy is due in early Feb & the idea of being snow bound & having a home birth doesn't exactly appeal to me. I can just picture it: "C'mon love - contractions are lasting 45 seconds & are 10 minutes apart. Time to get on the 10-10-20 bag & head to Holles Street." :eek:

Supercell

I remember it well.
After my dad cleared the driveway of snow I couldn't toboggan down it any more so I had the bright idea to pour water all over it, which worked fantastic. Needless to say the aul lad wan't impressed and sent me out with a tub of salt and told me to clear it..in the end it snowed again and salt wasnt melting the ice anyhow , would absolutely love to see another spell like that again.

dathi1

I have 8mm movie footage of Crumlin south Dublin and surrounding areas. Let me digitize this weekend and I'll youtube some of it.

Vmaxer

Here's a Picture from the Northside of Dublin back in 82. This was taken on the first day of snow and as far as I can remember it got worse(better to an 11 Year old) as Days went on.

SpitfireIV

Hill Billy wrote:

Thoughts of that are scaring the living daylights out of me. Mrs Billy is due in early Feb & the idea of being snow bound & having a home birth doesn't exactly appeal to me. I can just picture it: "C'mon love - contractions are lasting 45 seconds & are 10 minutes apart. Time to get on the 10-10-20 bag & head to Holles Street." :eek:

Hill Billy in the case that you are snow in just get towels and plenty of hot water.........what use they are, I dont know, but it works in the movies!

dathi1 wrote:

I have 8mm movie footage of Crumlin south Dublin and surrounding areas. Let me digitize this weekend and I'll youtube some of it.

That'd be excellent, I'd love to see that. Let us youngin's see what a proper snowfall was like

ninebeanrows

Dubsmax wrote:

Here's a Picture from the Northside of Dublin back in 82. This was taken on the first day of snow and as far as I can remember it got worse(better to an 11 Year old) as Days went on.

Great picture,

I didn't live through it myself but my dad tells me about his 8 mile walk from the city centre that day:eek: in the Blizzards!

Gonzo

Dubsmax wrote:

Here's a Picture from the Northside of Dublin back in 82. This was taken on the first day of snow and as far as I can remember it got worse(better to an 11 Year old) as Days went on.

It got alot worse than that in the end.. whats shown there is only a dusting compared to what happened in the end (at least were i iwas) shame my parents never took any pictures at the time.

Supercell

Great pic there Dubsmax, bring back memories here. Haven't seen snow covering windows etc like that in years and years, was just like that where I grew up too.

Vmaxer

Longfield wrote:

Great pic there Dubsmax, bring back memories here. Haven't seen snow covering windows etc like that in years and years, was just like that where I grew up too.

Moments frozen in time allright, heres another one from 82 not a great picture but I'd say the drifts are at least 3 foot in this one

Big Tone

Wow 25 years ago and hardly a decent fall of snow since. I remember Jan '82 well and our park was bustling with us kids "Skeeting" down the footpaths and road using biscuit tin lids left over from Christmas, we sat on them and flew down the road (the cars were buried under snow so no danger from them) the acceleration was fab on them.

I remember the huge snow drifts covering pillars at the front gate of the house and watching the blizzard conditions at night with a howling wind and horizontal snow....brilliant! I have no photos of that time but as long as I and others remeber it then it'll live on.

Innocent days long gone but never forgotten.

tabatha

i remember that there were rations in the supermarkets. you were only allowed something like two pints of milk per customer. bread was also rationed to one loaf per customer. it was crazy! i can recall going to bed the night it started and my grandad calling me to look at it. the next morning was mind blowing. remember the neighbours jumping out there bedroom windows onto it. jcbs were brough in to help clear some of the main roads.

Snowbie

and where are you lads living at the time?

Dr Bob

dathi1 wrote:

I have 8mm movie footage of Crumlin south Dublin and surrounding areas. Let me digitize this weekend and I'll youtube some of it.

Love to see this - I grew up in crumlin (cashel rd) and I remember that winter!( I was about 6-7 at the time) .My little brother had managed to knacker up his foot and my entire family ended up walking to crumlin hospital ("Our Ladys")pulling him on a homemade sleigh!

Big Tone

Snowbie wrote:

and where are you lads living at the time?

Cork city, on a an elevated area north-east of the city centre (a lot of Cork suburbs are up on hills)

nacho libre

When was the last time we had a Polar low in Ireland?

Snowbie

End of Feb 2001.

Trogdor

Not around for this myself but i just found one of my parents photo albums from the eighties including 82 and 87 and the flooding in this house after hurricane charlie. Will scan them up tomorrow night:D

Danno

nacho libre wrote:

When was the last time we had a Polar low in Ireland?

Christmas Day 2004

Snowbie

That wasnt a polar low Danno,that was just an unstable northerly airflow with a lot of wide spread snow showers.

Trogdor

I posted the link to the pictures in the weather pics thread but here it is again http://www.brayweather.com/winter_82.htm

dathi1

Better late than never. Its a bit home Movie-ish but 8mm film was expensive and you only had 7 mins per cartridge hence the fast panning. :rolleyes: well..... I was only a chisler. Note people walking down the main road to avoid deep snow on paths.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afss7QL4wAc

Snowbie

dathi1 wrote:

Better late than never. Its a bit home Movie-ish but 8mm film was expensive and you only had 7 mins per cartridge hence the fast panning. :rolleyes: well..... I was only a chisler. Note people walking down the main road to avoid deep snow on paths.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afss7QL4wAc

Brilliant and great work comes to mind:)
Well that flooded back the memories.

It aint like it use to be.Weathercheck,this will interest you.

SpitfireIV

dathi1 wrote:

Better late than never. Its a bit home Movie-ish but 8mm film was expensive and you only had 7 mins per cartridge hence the fast panning. :rolleyes: well..... I was only a chisler. Note people walking down the main road to avoid deep snow on paths.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afss7QL4wAc

That was an amazing piece of footage Dathi! Enjoyed watching it, I left you a comment too

Ruu_Old

Nice footage there, dathi1. Cheers.

CrowdedHouse

dathi1 wrote:

Better late than never. Its a bit home Movie-ish but 8mm film was expensive and you only had 7 mins per cartridge hence the fast panning. :rolleyes: well..... I was only a chisler. Note people walking down the main road to avoid deep snow on paths.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afss7QL4wAc

Good stuff !!

mickd

Indeed enjoyed the footage, 1982 was a once in a lifetime event. I lived in the Kildare countryside where roads around us were closed with 6ft drifts, a real winter wonderland. I remember how the country was gripped by this and how unprepared we were. The then tainaste Michael O'Leary earned the title of Minister for Snow as services had ground to a halt. There was no snow ploughs in the country. Chaotic but happy days.

Big Tone

Great video there, just gives you an idea of the scale and amount of snow that fell, in the 25 years since there's really been nothing to compare to the snow of Jan 1982. My sister lives in Boston and they get this and more EVERY year....I wish it was like that in Ireland too.