November 1965 is a month I don't hear talked about much. When it comes to November snow, it's nearly always the likes of 1985, 1993 and 2010 mentioned. However, November 1965 was exceptionally snowy by November standards over various parts of the UK.
The Central England Temperature (CET) for November 1965 was 4.5c which is well below average by modern standards but not among the coldest on record, November 1985 was slightly colder for instance at 4.1c whilst November 1919 (which I've done a blog post on before as it too was very snowy and extremely cold) had a CET of 3.3c. It was only the coldest November for the CET and also much of England & Wales since 1952 but for Scotland, it was the coldest November since 1925.
Deep area of low pressure pushed southwards down the North Sea on the 1st November 1965 bringing down a northerly flow of air. This deep low brought a maximum wind gust of 117 mph in Lanarkshire, Scotland. In Scotland and northern England, there were reports of mean wind speeds of 75 mph or more. 85 mph wind gusts causes the collapse of five out of the eight cooling towers of Ferrybridge Power Station in Doncaster on this day. Before this northerly brought down cold air, temperatures were well above average reaching maximum highs up to 15c in the southeast of England. Finningley reached a maximum of 15.5c on this day. Newport recorded the highest maximum of 18.3c (which it later recorded again on the 8th).
As the cold air sank southwards, showers developed in the unstable northerly flow, turning wintry at times. There was some outbreaks of snow over the Highlands of Scotland on the 2nd/3rd but mostly of rain and sleet. It was sunny and fairly chilly otherwise during these first few days of the month with nightime frost.
An anticyclone from the southwest of Ireland ridged into the UK and Ireland built in on the 4th to the 6th with sunny conditions and frosty mornings.
By the 7th, a depression pushed into the south of Ireland and the southwest of the UK bringing rain northwards for a time and ahead from the front drawing up much milder conditions. Up to one inch of rain fell in parts of Hampshire, Isle of Wight and the southwest of Ireland. This rain cleared on the 8th to leave a mild and showery day over the UK and Ireland with variable amounts of sunshine. There was a report of a maximum of 14.8c at Ross-on-Wye on the 8th but as mentioned earlier, the max. reached on the 8th was 18.3c at Newport.
The 9th brought another band of rain across the English Channel which moved northeastwards leading to a cloudy and wet day for most.
Northern blocking established on the 11th November 1965 with high pressure stretching from Greenland all the way to Siberia and centred over the north of Scandinavia. This resulted in an easterly airflow with the source of air coming all the way from Russia. Low pressure anchored itself to the southwest of the UK and kept getting stuck here due to this blocking. It took a few days for the "real cold" air mass to arrive in the UK and Ireland but temperatures readily dropped until the 16th. By the 15th, nightime temperatures were widely below freezing and in the north, even getting below -10c. Snow showers became more frequent each day, especially along eastern districts of the UK and Ireland. Higher ground of northeast England recorded a snow depth of 5 inches on the 15th.
Kew had its lowest daily mean temperatures for so early in the season on November 14th/15th 1965 since 1887. -13.9c was recorded at Braemar early on the 15th whilst freezing fog on the same day led to a maximum of only -2c at Ross-on-Wye.
A large depression reached the south of Ireland on the 16th and continued to ascend northwards over the UK on the 17th. On the 16th, this generally fell first as snow with accumulations reaching 5-10cm for lower levels of central and northern England but for Scotland and the Pennines, accumulations were up to 10-20cm. Gale force southeasterly winds made it feel bitterly cold before the depression brought the milder air. As the milder air pushed northwards later on the 16th and into the 17th, the snow turned to rain. However, due to strong blocking to the north, this low struggled to introduce mild conditions to Scotland so it remained cold there and snowy even into the 18th. In fact, the snow in eastern Scotland lasted throughout the rest of the month. Rainfall totals were between 10-50mm each day over various regions of Ireland and the south of the UK.
Brighton had a daily rainfall of 50.3mm on 20th November 1965. Dublin Airport had a daily rainfall of 44.5mm on 16th November.
As the blocking intensified over Greenland, low pressure was forced southeastwards into Europe after bringing heavy rain to places from the 16th to the 20th November 1965 with flooding being a real concern by that stage. The winds turned into a northeasterly direction with an airstream of arctic origin so the flooding froze in parts and there was increasingly wintry conditions including snow showers even to southern England and south-coast resorts. Scarborough recorded a snow depth of 6 inches on the 22nd. Maximum temperatures were between only -2 to 7c.
A depression from the northwest of the Atlantic turned the winds into the southwest for most of the UK and Ireland on the 23rd bringing much milder conditions here and melting the snow with the risk of more severe flooding. However, the north remained cold in a northerly to northwesterly airflow. The 24th was a showery and sunnier day.
Further rain approached from the Atlantic on the 25th bringing another wet period over the south of the UK and much of Ireland including 39.6mm at Dublin Airport.
Rain gradually turned to snow as the wind veered northerly on the 26th into the 27th. Northern districts had severe blizzards with considerable drifting including in the Durham area where there was reports of 15 foot snow drifts. Roads were blocked and impassable here significantly so. There were 7 foot snow drifts in the Lake District. There was also reports of thunderstorms mixed in with the snow.
One final deep area of low pressure from the Atlantic interacted with the cold air on the 28th/29th November 1965 bringing rain to southern regions of both countries but up north, there was more severe blizzards. Northern England was particularly badly affected. These were their worst snowfalls they had suffered since February 1947 and the fact they occurred in November makes them stand out even more. Snow depths up to 3.6 inches over the north Midlands, 12 inches in Co. Durham and Northumberland and up to 22 inches in the Durham area.
In the end, there was up to 24 days where snow fell in Scotland in November 1965. It was a very wet but sunny month. It was the wettest November over England & Wales since 1940 whilst it was the sunniest November since 1923 generally and at Kew and Manchester, it was the sunniest November on record. November 1965 was certainly a unique month in many regards here and shows just how extreme snowfall can be in November in the UK if the pattern is there.
The 500mb height anomaly reanalysis of November 1965 shows a block of high pressure over Greenland and much of the Arctic with below average heights to the south and east of the UK and Ireland. This forces the wind in from a northeasterly to easterly direction. This tended to bring very cold air into the UK and Ireland during November 1965 but the below average heights meant there was battleground scenarios between mild air attacking from the Atlantic coming up against these cold easterly winds. This is why November 1965 was so snowy but also very wet for southern parts of both the UK and Ireland.
November 1965 was the fifth wettest month on record (up to October 2018) and second wettest November on record at Dublin Airport (records back to 1938).
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