the famous snow fall of 1947

nacho libre

I presume it was an unusual weather pattern that caused so much fall to snow and stick. I wonder is there any meteorological records for this time period detailing what occurred.

darkman2

Ah yes 1947. Aye so many stories from that legend year. The year was characterised by almost constant Easterlies from Febuary - May. The cause of this was a huge Greenland block (area of high pressure) which forced depressions much further south then usual. There is no real geographical event on record that can be described as a 'cause'. Some amazing charts thsat year:)



If you can imagine it that Easterly extends to newfoundland!

nacho libre

Thank you for posting the weather map and your explanation of it. I really appreciate it.
I look forward to sharing this information with my father. He is always talking about the 'fall of 1947
Thanks again.

darkman2

http://www.winter1947.co.uk/


This is a good website with everything including maps and info about the Winter:)

Snowbie

Good info DM.
Have you got any maps etc for the snow 1982 here in Ireland?

My father told me that there was still snow on croghan mountain in mid june 1947,there had been so much that the huge drifts stayed up on the mountains for the first part of the summer.

It was like a january 1982 snow storm happened every couple of weeks that winter and sometimes twice a week.

darkman2

Snowbie wrote:

Good info DM.
Have you got any maps etc for the snow 1982 here in Ireland?

Yup, got an exact date???:)

The 8th of january 1982
It might have started on the 7th and snowed untill the 9th or 10th in the East with thunder snow caused by an atlantic system getting caught up in an extremely cold easterly and stalling in the Irish sea.After the blizzard stopped (3 days non stop snow in the East day and night) a cold high pressure system built down from the north leaving temps by day near zero with no thaw for another week.The secondary schools in Arklow were closed for 10 days starting on a thursday and all the following week.
Ditches dissapeared here and the road beside the farm was blocked for about a week before it was cleared.
The drifts in the fields were at least 10ft high and lasted a couple of weeks after the mild weather and rain came.

Snowbie

darkman2 wrote:

Yup, got an exact date???:)

Just as EM said 8th Jan and following week.
Be interestiing to see the charts, temps etc for that week.
Dublin city was a snow desert for almost a week with the liffey completely covered starting from butt bridge right down the river.Shops were empty as no delivery vans could use the roads anywere and even the army were called in to help out.

Drapper

I was 7 and I'll never forget it ! I'd love to see images too! was amazing!

sliding on a kitchen tray in the furrey glen in the park! winter wonderland!

darkman2

8th synoptic chart.




8th 850s isotherm.

The 10th isotherm:



10th synoptic chart:



11th synoptic chart:



11th isotherm:



There after high pressure then moves in. It remains bitterly cold:)

Snowbie

Good one DM,that looks how i remember it.COLD.

Drapper

would love to see phots of that day! 8th of Jan 1982

nacho libre

Earthman wrote:

The 8th of january 1982
It might have started on the 7th and snowed untill the 9th or 10th in the East with thunder snow caused by an atlantic system getting caught up in an extremely cold easterly and stalling in the Irish sea.After the blizzard stopped (3 days non stop snow in the East day and night) a cold high pressure system built down from the north leaving temps by day near zero with no thaw for another week.The secondary schools in Arklow were closed for 10 days starting on a thursday and all the following week.
Ditches dissapeared here and the road beside the farm was blocked for about a week before it was cleared.
The drifts in the fields were at least 10ft high and lasted a couple of weeks after the mild weather and rain came.

you lucky sod. i'd love to see something like that in my lifetime. hopefully this winter:D

Sponge Bob

you could not drive from Dublin to Galway for 5 days after that 1982 snow/freezeover

and all the diesel in the central heating systems turned to jelly, and pipes burst all over and started flooding after the thaw in the second week.

I'd hate to see it again

CrowdedHouse

A few of my own pics from Jan 82.Nothing spectacular but might be
of interest

Taken around Roscrea

BigCon

Is that the convent hill in the last pic?
I wouldn't have liked to be trying to drive up that hill in the snow!:)

CrowdedHouse

BigCon wrote:

Is that the convent hill in the last pic?
I wouldn't have liked to be trying to drive up that hill in the snow!:)

You're dead on BigCon - that's it ok

nice pics of 1982

It looks like only a frost in comparison to what was in the East though.
I'd imagine some of the local papers would have pics of that,I've rarely if ever seen them on line.

Maybe the camera's froze

Arcus Arrow

There are some photos here of the snows of 1947.

My mother is 88 years old and remembers the people in the towns and cities were mobilised to help bring in the harvest to save it from the frost. I've talked to a number of older people who have similar tales.

My mothers remembers a documentary that was show on RTE some years ago and later on TG4 about the winter of '47. She can't remember the name or anything else. Would anyone here have any ideas? She remembers working on a farm as a "stookie" which had something to do with gathering sheaf's of hay.

Captain Havoc

The floods of '47 are infamous here in Kilkenny, here's a quick account with some photos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIceOnpGs_s

squonk

Was there a snow event in 1982 also? I definitely remember the 1981 event. I went to bed one night (I was 6) and was woken up later in the night by my mam telling me to look out ot see the snow. the roads in North Clare were like sheets of ice and I remember some very decent drifts. It was the most impressive snow I have seen in this part of the world.

For 1982 I was in Kildare on holidays with my parents. I remember seeing the weather one evening and being electrified by the weather man talking of snow. Actually, I think this is my first memory of being interested in weather! Things snowballed (ahem) after that! We cut our holiday short and headed for home after a snowfall. The snow in Kildare was great but I remember as we headed west the snow became less and less. Around the midlands, or perhaps tipp, it was practically non existent at that stage. Just some clumps here and there on the roadside. As you can imagine as a 7 year old I wasn't that impressed with my parents for leaving somewhere with heaps of Snow, like Kildare to go to somewhere where there wasn't any. To my delight however, as we headd for Clare the snow started to build up again and the place was white when I reached home. Happy days!

darkdubh

Here's an interesting insight into the freezing Winters following the War.

https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/968810604168470528


https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/969157896159318018