The Big Freeze 1963

billy the squid

came accross this picture, I have one or two more, where the river shannon froze in Limerick city



will see if i can find other pictures of the '63 freeze

Impressive allright.

The 1947 freeze was longer lasting though and there was more snow.

Both were Easterlies.

Gonzo

^^
oh how I would love to witness a winter event like that in Ireland during my lifetime.

Danno

Class photo! - more please!

tabatha

wow! whenever i see a photo like that now i just think of that film, the day after tomorrow, it makes me feel very cold!!

JackieChan

Wow, what kind of temperatures were recorded that winter?
What kind of temps do you need to freeze the Shannon in Limerick?

At a guess I'd say below minus 10

Gonzo january 8th to the 18th 1982 was that not in your lifetime?

After a 4 day blizzard that dumped maybe 2ft of snow here with drifts up to maybe 15 ft (near the tops of the telephone poles!) there was a week of sub zero and at night plenty of freezing fog.

I dont think it got cold enough to freeze rivers(lakes yes) but it stayed consistently cold for 10 days with no thaw.
There was no electricity for 3 days during the storm as the snow had actually gathered on the lines and frose the width of a mug bringing many of them down with the weight of it.
There was a lot of lightning too- ie thundersnow.

The drifts here on the road into arklow and in the fields didnt fully disappear despite rain and mild southwesterlies for maybe another 10 days after that ie 3 weeks of deep cover on the ditches.

We said it here then-a once in a lifetime event and I havent seen anything as severe since.

A Dub in Glasgo

I remember the 1982 one and as a 12 year old, it was excellent. I seem to remember the shops ran out of bread and milk.

10 years ago this Christmas, I was living in a flat in Glasgow. I went to Dublin for the Christmas period and the big freeze arrived in Scotland. My central heating was not on and the pipes in the flat froze. When I got back on Dec 27th, the minimum temp dropped to -20C. I remember walking across the George the 5th Bridge in Glasgow and seeing the River Clyde frozen over on both sides. I wish I had my camera then.

During the thaw, the pipes burst and flooded my flat

Gonzo

yeah I remember the blizzard of 1982 altho I was only 8 years old, I remember walking on top of cars that were beneath the ground which was made of hard snow! Tho I dont think it was as bad as to freeze the shannon tho. Did the blizzard of 82 effect the whole country or was it just the north and east?

I also remember that winter 10 years ago were parts of scotland got down to over -20, I think we got about -2 here during that time but I dont remember any snow out of that one just very hard frost with sunny sub-zero daytime.

What I would like to see in my lifetime (before I get too old to enjoy it) is a 2 or 3 month freeze like what happened around the 1940s?

Gonzo

Gonzo wrote:

yeah I remember the blizzard of 1982 altho I was only 8 years old, I remember walking on top of cars that were beneath the ground which was made of hard snow! Tho I dont think it was as bad as to freeze the shannon tho. Did the blizzard of 82 effect the whole country or was it just the north and east?

It was a system that moved up from the south and turned to snow when it got caught up in freezing easterlies.It stuck around for 3 or 4 days in the east with strong east gales giving true non stop white out blizzard.
The northwest and north largely escaped as did the extreme south and southwest where it turned to rain.

We had freezing fog by night here for over a week

Danno

WOW! - Ireland of the extremes - eh?

netwhizkid

I remember a few years ago possibly 1997 or 1998 a pool on river just below my house frove over solid, to about a cm thick and my neighbours dog fell through, A ladder and ropes were manourvered to save the poor beast! I read one time in Ireland own, i think that in the 18th century sometime in the 1770's there was massive freeze for nearly three months. And people nearly starved and everything from nettles to goats had to be eaten to survive.

billy the squid

also from 1963 taken by a limerick leader photogropher

billy the squid

Managed to find out some more information on the first picture. It was taken on either 2nd or 3rd of January and the temperature in Limerick was -24 degrees cenegrade. The tempriture recorded in Dublin was -26. I am currently transcribing an article out of a christmas special which was in the Limerick leader which gives loads of information on what conditions were like.

If you can get your hands on the City edition of the Limerick leader, you will find the Christmas Gazette inside the paper which has one or two features and several pictures of the Big Freeze.

easons usually have the leader in their stores.

billy the squid

billy the squid wrote:

Managed to find out some more information on the first picture. It was taken on either 2nd or 3rd of January and the temperature in Limerick was -24 degrees cenegrade. The tempriture recorded in Dublin was -26. I am currently transcribing an article out of a christmas special which was in the Limerick leader which gives loads of information on what conditions were like.

If you can get your hands on the City edition of the Limerick leader, you will find the Christmas Gazette inside the paper which has one or two features and several pictures of the Big Freeze.

easons usually have the leader in their stores.

Thats mad!
I've experienced -24c in Livigno Italy whilst ski-ing.
The hairs on the inside of your nostrils go stiff when you breath in.

I was speaking to a friend of mine who was in college for a while in Kingston Ontario and he told me, thats how they distinguished a really cold day from a milder day.
A milder day would have been sub zero still but they often had the stiff nostril hairs or really cold temps.

By the way theres some interesting signs appearing in fantasy island for the end of december...

Says nothing as I know how unreliable these things are and besides this is the wrong thread
Oh fcek it I'll say it,if we could get pressure to build behind a south diving scandinavia low pressure, we might need our thermals

billy the squid

heres the January 3rd 1963 Liemrick Leader article.

300 Out of work in Limerick Clothing Factory

LIMERICK awoke this morning with the temperature ascending to freezing point after shivering to the coldest night ever with 24 degrees below freezing point.

Parts of the River Shannon in the city and Suburbs were frozen over during the night and today Limerick was a city of burst water pipes and frozen oil heaters. The Limerick Clothing Factory, Edward street, one of the city's oldest establishments, was closed today except for the office staff as the oil in the boilers had frozen. This closure will cost hundreds of pounds.

When the 300 or more employees turned up for work this morning they were told on behalf of the management to go home. If the weather eases, they will return to work tomorrow.

Hundreds of homes throughout the city were without water and plumbers were in great demand. Two water mains were burst by the severity of the frost. These are located in Balinanty Beg and Hogan Avenue, Kileely. A Corporation official said today "We had to cut off the water supply there until repairs are carried out." Thus the frost in its thickest form yet, caused additional hardship for citizens in these areas.

Garages were busy thoughout the early part of the day defrosting cars, and the sales of anti-freeze soared. Some garages were hampered through lack of water, but this was also a complaint of many publicans who had no water supply to wash glasses.

Housewives were badly hit generally, not only were domestic water supplies unobtainable in some districts, but milk delivered in the customary pint bottles were also affected by the big freeze-up.

LEMONADE WAS FROZEN

One shopkeeper found three dozen bottles of lemonade frozen solid when he opened his shop this morning. Some of the bottles had burst.

Dripping water from burst pipes left icicles in some cases as long as twenty feet. Pieces of ice from frozen waters measured four inches thick.

All quarries are frozen solid and children were skating gaily on them in perfect safety.

Hundreds of Limerick people visited Loughmore yesterday and skated for hours. Others played ice hockey there. The lake was packed again in the afternoon mainly with schoolchildren.

UNPRECEDENTED

In Limerick and suburbs the great freeze-up has brought icing conditions which are unprecedented in living memory. The ebb and flow of high tide did not prevent large patches of ice forming on the river below Sarsfield Bridge and Arthurs Quay was completely frozen over.

But the full effects of the protracted cold wave are even more apparant in the upper reaches of the river. At Athlunkard Boat Club, the Abbey river is an ice floe stretching almost half way accross and innundating in its formation where it was built up at different tide levels.

The canal at Guiness' old wharf is a solid ice pack and is possible to walk accross from either side, and the ice, five inches in thickness is littered with boulders which were evidently thrown to test its strength. A heavy iron bar flung from the bank could no more than scratch the surface.

Corbally baths is closed to hardy annuals. here even in the summer the flow is strong enough to change the pool waters every five minutes. Now it would take hard work with an ice-pick to break the surface.

ARCTIC

The sight from the Mill Road to St. Thomas' Island is truly arctic. For the first time in perhaps a hundred years, the rapids from bank to bank are held fast in ice, and the countryside as far as the eye can see, is blanketed in white frost.

A little further down, dozens of white swans show up in white relief on black stretches of water that have not yet iced over, and occasionally the sky is darkened by thousands of wild duck in flight.

And for the first time in living memory too, a new sound is heard in Corbally. It is the continuous eerie and sharp noise of cracking ice, known well to arctic explorers, and now breaking the winter silence a mile from the city centre.

Shannon Airport's coldest ever night had more trouble when freezing fog began to decend on both the Airport and Limerick around midnight. A freight aircraft which landed before midnight was hemmed in overnight by the fog. Other planes over-flew the airport. Later the temperature began to ascend gradually, but not sufficient to move well beyond freezing.

Part of the river Shannon near Arthurs Quay and Shannon Rowing Club, and again near Harrington's pier were frozen yesterday morning.

The Abbey river from Mathew Bridge to George's Quay was also frozen over, and four seaguls were trapped in the ice opposite Barrington's Hospital. Small boys who went down to free them, found them frozen to death.

MOTIONLESS

The dock at Limerick Port is completely frozen over, and this morning it was an eerie sight to see three large ships held motionless in the thick ice. Usually there is a slight heaving of the ships in the water, but today, the frost covered masses seemed to have been built into their surroundings. Thousands of hungry seaguls waited here and there over the ice and their crying added still more to the setting

The frost however did not hamper the unloading of the three ships, which were the "Londonbrook," the "Dromineer" and the "Sussex Trader."

The dry dock is also frozen over. By contrast, on the opposite side of the shannon there was a beautiful scene. The tall trees seemed to have silvery leaves as the houses nestled amongst them.

IN SCHOOLS

The shivering atmosphere influenced many mothers and fathers too, to keep their children indoors this morning and concequently, the schoolrooms in Limerick were not as full as usual. Burst water pipes kept children home from a school in Galway.

Bantry (Co. Cork) harbour was frozen over this morning - an occourance that had not a precedent for 90 years.

The east coast, liberally covered in snow was again the worst hit part of the country.

Snow fell again in Drumshambo, Co. Leitrim to add to the hazards of travel.

In the afternoon there was a thaw which lessened the severe conditions, but there is no indication that "Jack Frost" is going back home.

billy the squid

these people were pictured standing on the river shannon on January 3rd.

The east coast, liberally covered in snow was again the worst hit part of the country.

I like that bit.If Dublin was down to -26c,I can safely assume the lake effect showers on this easterly were snow

billy the squid

indeed.

most if not all of the stuff I have here on the Big Freeze is from Limerick really. would be interested in seeing some stuff from other parts of ireland other than the big freeze stuff that usually comes up in google.

I also have a book which contains a photograph of St. John's Cathederal during the 1947 winter.

Danno

Great feature Billy! Keep 'em coming

billy the squid

fair enough. (some people can never have enough i guess. )

indeed "jack frost" didnt go home. from the millennium edition of the Leader January 1 2000, a brief summary of the entire freeze.

Coldest spell of the century

WHAT was described in the Leader as the ''coldest night ever'' was Sunday night, January 14, 1963, when temperatures of 24 degrees below freezing (6¡F) were reported.

"Parts of the River Shannon were frozen over and today Limerick is a city of burst water pipes and frozen oil heaters. Several factories and schools closed down due to oil freezing in the boilers.''

This was the real beginning of what was reported as the coldest snap of the century which lasted from the end of December right into March.

Reports of the big freeze-up in the city and county were regularly reported. For the first time in living memory the Shannon could be crossed dry-footed at Corbally and in the county there were reports that the Brosnan family, living on West Limerick's highest mountain at Clash, Abbeyfeale, were marooned by snow drifts, some reaching to 20 feet, for seven weeks. Neigbours John, Joseph and Patrick O'Connor dug a tunnel of 100 feet in length to bring food to the stricken famly, 87-year-old Matt, 77-year-old Timothy and his wife, Joan.

James Hunt of Killean, Glin, was unable to open the front door of his house with the snow drifts when he returned to his home and he was reported to be in a coma after spending the night outside the house.

Several blizzards occured during the freezing spell and reports from all parts of Co. Limerick graphically described the Arctic conditions.

''Many families marooned and loss of livestock feared due to the conditions'' were the reports from Ballylanders. The Bruff cor., while reporting that workers could not get to work in Shannon, said over 200 people availed of the skating on Lough Gur where the ice was a foot thick.

Dan Mulcahy, reporting from the west of the County, said that while conditions were bad in the towns, for families on the remote hillsides it was disastrous with many of them completely marooned.

It was reported that wildlife were starving all over the place and had become almost tame due to the severity of the conditions.

Older residents of Herbertstown are agreed that the snow, ice and frost are the worst that have been seen since 1873.

In early February it was reported that coal stocks were seriously depleted in the city and some firms had imposed rationing. Hundreds of homes were without water due to frozen pipes and there has been many damaged due to burst pipes. Several tried melting the snow but found it was not suitable for making tea. One enterprising man went around Ballinacurra Weston and sold gallons of water for 1/- a go.

Old Crescent and Bohemians, unable to play since December due to the frozen pitches, went to the strand in Lahinch on February 1st for a game and many locals turned out to see their first game in this code. Old Crescent won by two tries (Seamus Gubbins and Jack Fitzgerald) to one (Gerry Hayes).

just a point to note. the Gazette article states that it was published on January 3. I actually believe that there is a typographical error in that and it was actually published on the 15th.

So the picture of the kids standing on the shannon must have been taken on the 15th. as was the picture of the bridge at the start of the thread.

I found it odd that children would be back to school so early.

CerebralCortex

billy the squid wrote:

these people were pictured standing on the river shannon on January 3rd.

How did they pull off wearing those shorts, where they expecting then sun to come out with some heat???

billy the squid

dunno, guess it was the style to put kids in shorts back then. arctic conditions are not common in these parts, so it stands to reason that they didnt have the appropriate attire.

or they oculd have just been tougher in them days

AFAIK up untill the 1950's boys werent allowed to wear long trousers untill they were 16.

billy the squid

actually it can get alot colder in scotland, and they used to wear kilts :eek:

CerebralCortex

billy the squid wrote:

dunno, guess it was the style to put kids in shorts back then. arctic conditions are not common in these parts, so it stands to reason that they didnt have the appropriate attire.

or they oculd have just been tougher in them days

True its hardly ever cold here and we go around in armoured thermonuclear insulated pluto suits.

hobie

Here's a piccie from 1982 (I think it was 82) .... Gallows hill ..... no 'Diggie cams' in those days ....

I loved that old Jeep ....

JamesM

billy the squid wrote:

dunno, guess it was the style to put kids in shorts back then. arctic conditions are not common in these parts, so it stands to reason that they didnt have the appropriate attire.

or they oculd have just been tougher in them days

They're not Shorts They are Short Pants. I lived in Limerick in the 50s - never wore Long Pants until I moved back to Dublin in '60 - aged 12

is_that_so

I recall a few things about 82, apart from the fact that the country shut down for 5 days.

There was a story of a group of people "trapped" in a pub for three days on the Dublin/Meath border. The respective councils couldn't decide who was responsible for rescuing them. Eventually a farmer with a JCB dug them out.

The lowest temps at that time that I recall were

Dublin -9
Kilkenny -19
and Glasgow -27 !!

As for 1947 v 1963 many people who experienced both say 1947 was much worse and the snow lasted longer.

Mothman

(Damn, the table didn't hold it's format.:( I'll try get time to upload it to web and give link, 4 figures provided. mean mnothly temo for Jan, Min jan temp, Min Feb temp and records since year)

Met Eireann did a feature on the early 63 cold spell in their Mar 03 Montly Bulletin, I've typed it out below. I also included the min temps recorded at each station in both Jan & Feb.

The "24 degrees below freezing" would be 24 degrees F below 32F, which is about -13ºC

Forty years ago, Ireland experienced one of the most persistent cold spells since weather measurements began in the country. In common with most of western Europe. Bitterly cold weather set in around the Christmas period of 1962 and persisted with only brief milder periods until early March. During this period easterly winds were directed over Ireland by a large Scandinavian anticyclone, with occasional depressions bringing falls of snow, some of which were heavy. England and Wales recorded their coldest 2-month spell since Jan/Feb of 1740, while at most irish stations, the mean daily temp for Jan 1963 were the lowest recorded for any month before or since. These include the long-term stations at Birr, Valentia and Roche’s Point, where observations began more than a century ago. Other long-term stations came close to their coldest ever months: at Malin Head, only Jan 1941 was colder (with a mean of 2.4ºC), while at Dublin (Phoenix Park) the lowest mean monthly value of –0.5ºC dates back to Jan 1881.

There was a total of between 40 & 50 days with air frost at inland stations during Jan & Feb of 1963, compared with the normal number for the period of around 20, while even at coastal stations there were between 20 & 25 days with air frost compared with the normal range of 5 to 7. Air temps fell below -10ºC in many inland areas on Jan 13th & 14th. Although both months were relatively dry, with the exception of some heavy falls in southern counties during Feb, most of the precipitation which fell during the period was in the form of snow. The first major falls were during the last week of 1962, with particularly heavy falls on the 30th and 31st of Dec. Casement measured a snow depth of 45cm on the morning of the 31st. Another heavy snowfall occurred on Jan 15th and snow lay on the ground in many places until la spell of milder weather in early Feb. Drifts of up to 6 metres (20ft) caused severe disruption to traffic, while the Limerick Leader reported that for the first time in living memory the frozen River Shannon could be crossed on foot near the city. Further east in Europe, the weather was particularly severe. Ice formed on many North Sea and English Channel harbours, with sea ice also reported.

Mean daily temps (ºC) at selected stations for Jan 1963
station Mean Temp Min Temp Jan Min Temp Feb Records since
Belmullet 1.2 -6.4 -6.3 1956
Birr -0.5 -11.6 -8.7 1900
Claremorris -0.7 -9.0 -7.1 1950
Clones -0.2 -9.7 -6.6 1951
Cork Airport 0.7 -6.6 -6.2 1962
Dublin Airport 0.9 -6.7 -4.6 1941
Dublin (Phoenix Park) 0.4 1855
Kilkenny -0.5 -10.6 -11.1 1957
Malin Head 2.5 -5.0 -3.8 1885
Mullingar -0.7 -9.2 -6.4 1950
Roche’s Point 2.3 -4.3 -3.4 1876
Rosslare 1.8 -3.8 -2.7 1956
Shannon Airport -0.4 -11.2 -8.7 1945
Valentia 2.3 -3.9 -4.4 1892
(red print indicates lowest mean monthly temp on record at the station)

Mothman

is_that_so wrote:

I recall a few things about 82, apart from the fact that the country shut down for 5 days.



The lowest temps at that time that I recall were

Dublin -9
Kilkenny -19
and Glasgow -27 !!

While I have the low temps at hand.

Jan 82 low air temps

Belmullet -8.1
Birr -14.6
Valentia -1.6
Casement -12.1
Cork Airport -3.9
Dublin airport -7.2
Kilkenny -13.4
Malin Head -5.6
Mullingar -11.5
Rosslare -1.2
Shannon -8.2

Incidently, quite a few stations recorded lower temps in Jan 1979
Casement -12.4
Cork airport -8.5
Dublin Airport -8.1
Kilkenny -14.1
Malnin Head -6.2
Mullingar -14.9