Winter 1947: 'General Inference' and Discussion at 0600 on 30th January 1947

'A depression in the West Channel is moving slowly east. There will be intermittent snow in South Wales, South and South West England spreading slowly across the Midlands and into South-East England. Moderate falls will occur locally especially near the south coast and on high ground. Frequent snow showers will affect North East England, East and South East Scotland giving moderate falls locally. Elsewhere it will be mainly fair but some local light snow will occur. Visibility will be moderate or poor with some fog in the snow. It will be very cold with severe frost in most area except the North-West'

At 0600hrs-clear skies over the near Continent. Temperatures as low as 5°F (-15°C) over N.France and 10°F (-12.2°C) over Netherlands. Variable cloud over Britain, although generally cloudy over South and East. Recent snow along South Coast (and Aberdeen) All of UK mainland is below freezing, except for Wick. Coldest place is Cranfield (Beds) at 16°F (-8.9°C). Of the 79 stations on the DWR all except two, (Stornoway and Wick), report overnight frost. The lowest overnight temperature was 8°F at Defford (7.5miles SSE Worcester) and Carlisle. Maximum temperatures for the previous day remained below freezing over most of England and Wales. Elsewhere coastal locations in Scotland and Ireland were above freezing. The lowest maximum was 21°F (-6.1°C) at Little Rissington (Glos.) and the highest 39°F (3.9°C) at Stornoway and Tiree. Overnight, heavy snow is reported in the South West. Snow cover is reported for most of England and Eastern Scotland. Depths are generally less than 6" but Tangmere, Boxted and Felixstowe report 9", Waddington (Lincs) 6" whilst Croydon, Plymouth and....St Mary's on the Scilly Isles (!) all report 7". (Guernsey also gives the code for >6"-but no depth details)