Can anyone as old as me or even older remember the 1962-1963 big freeze. In North East England it stated snowing on Boxing Day 1962 and the snow didn't thaw until early March 1963. Although the 1947 winter was bad and had much deeper snow. It was shorter in length and the 1962-1963 winter was longer and much colder than the 1947 Winter. The sea froze around the UK even in Southern England. It has been said that in the 1962-1963 winter that half the UK’s bird population didn't survive during that winter. But amazingly in only 5 years the population of the UK’s wild bird population had recovered. If another such winter happened now it is questionable whether some birds would recover and survive another such similar winter. Of course raptors where the most successful at surving that winter. Interestingly because of wild birds having so much difficulty of getting any food in that winter. Some small garden birds started to eat other wild birds that had died that winter in order to survive. So actually small birds started eating other dead birds in order to survive and as far as I know have never since behaved similarly since that winter and behaving like raptors during that winter. I've never posted about this subject before. I've posted a link from Channel 4 which gives some basic information on how bad the 1962-1963 big freeze was. Can anyone else remember the big freeze. And finally January 1963 was the coldest month for 200 years and since as well. The worst winter historically i can find was in 1709 and that winter was called across Europe as the The Big Frost. The link is now working.
https://youtu.be/PziZtxEqkQo
Regards,
Ian.
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
https://youtu.be/658eoX3ERAs For anyone who never saw this one off Winterwatch soecial with Chris Packham which was broadcast in 2013 looking back at the Big Freeze of 1962-1963 and how it affected wildlife particularly wild birds during that winter!. Here iis that one off Winterwatch Special broadcast in 2013, 50 years in 2013 since the big freeze of 1962-1963!
Cin J
I was living in the Cheshire countryside during that winter of 1962/63 and being only 6, going on 7 years old the only thing I remember was lot of snow/ice, The river Dee in Chester froze over I believe and our local pond became an ice rink.
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Regards, Hazel
Loved the YouTube clips, however, at just 3 years old I was a little too young to remember, or even appreciate the winter of 62/63.
But I enjoyed seeing the photos and docus of that winter. Another winter that has all but been cast to the archives was 1947, and so soon after the Second World War, and the country was still trying to get back on its feet post war.
Many thanks Ian for sharing those presentations, it was fascinating to look back at an era I was really too young to recall.
Deep freezes are not a recent phenomenon, and ignoring the two massive global ice ages of many millennia ago, during mans meagre short existence and through our many phases from cave dwellers to the early pre-Victorian heated homes, the UK has seen many harsh winters.
Not many books can grab me, and even less get a second reading, but one book did grab me, my wife bought for me one Christmas a book called the: "The Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Weather Book" by Len Markham, [ISBN 10: 1853062820 ISBN 13: 9781853062827]
A book no longer in print, but a very fascinating book to read, and though it doesn't contain data as in temp in degrees, rainfall in ins or mm, etc, it does have lots of observations, and a truly fascinating insight to our climate over the last few centuries.
The talk of cannibalism among many birds and animals brought something to mind. Back in October 1972, there was a rugby team on a flight over Chile that crashed in the Andes, and help was so very far away and long coming. The surviving passengers had to become cannibals themselves, not by choice, but as a mean of survival. The following link is to the Wikipedia article about the crash and survivors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571
There was a film released some years afterwards though searches only seem to provide more recent films and not the original one.
While not on the scale of 62/3 and 47, Warwickshire did have its own and very much shorter deep freeze, not lasting a week back in early December 1990, where many places were ground to a halt.
Scanned images of some photos taken from my home at the time:
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
After some input from Mrs PR, we found he original film, released in 1993 called Alive.
IMDB Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106246/
https://youtu.be/k7g341KD_U8 This might interest some. A detailed look at the Atlantic Chart from early December 1962 and the build up on the Chart to the start of the big freeze around Christmas Eve-Boxing Day right through to the end of the big freeze and the thaw starting in early March 1963.And this recording lasts 28 minutes long.