page_title: Winter of 1962–63 in the United Kingdom
section_title: January 1963
hierarchical_section_title: Winter of 1962–63 in the United Kingdom / January 1963
caption_attribution_description: Winter of 1962–1963 Original description: Ormerod House - cleared snow and resident Early 1963 - viewed from bottom of driveway towards Foxstones Lane across horizon
context_page_description: The winter of 1962–63, known as the Big Freeze of 1963, was one of the coldest winters on record in the United Kingdom. Temperatures plummeted and lakes and rivers began to freeze over.
  In the Central England Temperature record extending back to 1659, only the winters of 1683–84 and 1739–40 were colder than 1962–63.
  The winter of 1962–63 remains the coldest since at least 1895 in all meteorological districts of the United Kingdom except Scotland North, where the two winters of 1978–79 and 2009–10 were colder.
context_section_description: With an average temperature of −2.1 °C (28.2 °F), January 1963 remains the coldest month since January 1814 in Central England, although in Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland February 1947 was colder, and December 2010 was colder in Northern Ireland. Much of England and Wales was covered in snow throughout the month. The country experienced temperatures as low as −19.4 °C (−2.9 °F) at Achany in Sutherland on the 11th. Freezing fog was a hazard for most of the country.
  In January 1963, the sea froze for one mile (1.6 km) from shore at Herne Bay, Kent. The sea froze inshore in many places, removing many British inland waterbirds' usual last resort of finding food in estuaries and shallow sea. The sea froze 4 miles (6 km) out to sea from Dunkirk. The upper reaches of the River Thames froze over, although it did not freeze in Central London, partly due to the hot effluent from two thermal power stations, Battersea and Bankside. The removal of the multi-arched London Bridge, which had obstructed the river's free flow, and the addition of the river embankments kept the river from freezing in London as it had in earlier times (see River Thames frost fairs).
  On 20 January 283 workers had to be rescued by RAF helicopters from Fylingdales, where they had been snowbound for several days. The ice was thick enough in some places that people were skating on it, and on 22 January a car was driven across the frozen Thames at Oxford. Icicles hung from many roof gutterings, some as long as 3 feet (0.9 m).
  On 25 January there was a brief thaw that lasted three days.
caption: Snow in Lancashire, January 1963
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