# It's snowing. In England. In October. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 28, 2008, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994 "2008-10-28T20:51:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/41 "2008-10-29T15:53:11Z")
It snowed here as well. Started last night and was still snowing when I came to work, but has stopped now. Probably about 2 inches total. This is not unusual for this area (Ottawa, Canada - world’s second coldest capital city), nor is the fact that it will quickly melt, as the temperature will be back up to 10ºC by Friday. “Real” snow, that falls and sticks around, can be expected anytime from early November to late December (I’ve seen a couple of green Christmases). I just hope it isn’t like last year, which just missed breaking the record for most snow, and for a good part of which my snowblower was out of action. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/42 "2008-10-29T15:54:06Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Yes, I’ve noticed! Back home, autumn consists of a few days of warmish weather followed by some clouds that try to threaten rain (nobody believes them) followed by a few coldish days followed by another warmish stretch. Being here is like the speeded-up version of that. I was wearing shorts 2 1/2 weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![Jennyrosity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/43 "2008-10-29T16:02:12Z")
So were we! Just a couple of weeks ago, I was sat in a pub garden in the sunshine in a vest top, enjoying unseasonable temperatures in the mid 20s. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/44 "2008-10-29T16:12:03Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > It snowed in parts of NSW last week too. Snow in Australia and England at close to the same time. Something’s wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/45 "2008-10-29T16:13:05Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > I just hope it isn’t like last year, which just missed breaking the record for most snow, and for a good part of which my snowblower was out of action. Fix your snowblower. That will make it go away. (No snow in Toronto. Yet.) ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/46 "2008-10-29T16:24:16Z")
No snow here as yet but everywhere early this morning was covered in ice. The trees outside my back door looked beautiful ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/47 "2008-10-29T16:31:32Z")
It’s snowing here. It’s not supposed to snow in October. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/48 "2008-10-29T17:11:47Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > I grew up on the north-east coast - South Shields, to be precise - and I can remember it snowing twice in my lifetime. Clearly, it’s got colder since I’ve been away! Oh, a Sand-dancer? Well, it’s closer to the equator there, of course. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/49 "2008-10-29T17:24:33Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > No, no, no. I don’t want _winter_. I want good old-fashioned English snow - the fluffy harmless stuff that just makes things look pretty. OK, I can roll with you on that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/50 "2008-10-29T17:32:54Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > Well London is pretty big, I live in SW London near Wimbledon which could be a good distance from you. Well, this is true. I work in W3 and live in E2, so quite a long way from you on both counts. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/51 "2008-10-29T17:43:35Z")
My family was posted to a base just outside of Brackley, England, between 1968 and 1972. That’s a bit north of London, sorta kinda midway between Oxford and Cambridge. My memory says we had a fair bit of snow one winter; my dad insists (with some asperity) that we had snow _every_ winter. I don’t remember which months it was in, though. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/52 "2008-10-29T17:55:45Z")
We wrapped up a Washington D.C. vacation yesterday and were amazed at how much things could change and then change back again from day to day. I must say that the fall colors, overcast, often rainy skies and markedly cooler temps were a welcome respite from what we’re used to. Not that we’d still feel that way though were we to have visited too much later. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/53 "2008-10-29T21:20:03Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Snow in Australia and England at close to the same time. > > Something’s wrong. It’s not all that unusual to get a few late flurries of snow in the higher areas of NSW through into spring. The best fall of snow my mother has ever had has actually been in early November. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/54 "2008-10-29T22:53:55Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > We had crazy hail stones at about 5.30 where I am - which is what, 2 miles from you, tops? - but no snow. Weird. It’s almost exactly a mile as the crow flies - given normal meteorological conditions. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/55 "2008-10-30T18:05:39Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > My family was posted to a base just outside of Brackley, England, between 1968 and 1972. That’s a bit north of London, sorta kinda midway between Oxford and Cambridge. > > My memory says we had a fair bit of snow one winter; my dad insists (with some asperity) that we had snow _every_ winter. I don’t remember which months it was in, though. [http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~taharley/1968\_weather.htm](http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~taharley/1968_weather.htm) (and change “1968” to the other years) gives a very meticulous account of the British weather month by month. 1968/69 - white Xmas in many parts, snow in Feb too 1969/70 - heavy snow in March 1970/71 - another white Xmas 1971/72 - doesn’t look like there was much snow but a very cold snap in January. Of course, British winters were generally quite a bit colder in the 1960s. The 1990s and 2000s have mostly been terrible for snow lovers. I’ve noticed a lot of people from outside the UK seem to think we have cold winters (after all even the southern UK is further north than, say, Winnipeg). But we really don’t, despite all the snowy Dickensian scenes on Christmas cards and in BBC period dramas. Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, though, statistics do show that it was much snowier. ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994/56 "2008-10-31T18:37:29Z")
Damn, I missed it. But then that’s because I’m in sunny Florida. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-snowing-in-england-in-october/469994.md?page=2)