The Big Snow of 1982:
Over the years, and certainly within living memory, there have been a number of severe weather events that have etched themselves into the history books and into the memories of the people who lived through them. The “Big Snow” of 1982, certainly falls into that category.
The lead up to the blizzard:
The Weather map on the left shows the weather on the 7th January, 1982. High pressure was located over Scandinavia and Iceland with bitterly cold easterly winds over the UK. The Jet Steam was positioned just below the UK (The black line between the green and the orange) with tight isobars across the country, an indication of high winds.
Low pressure over the Atlantic moved towards the southwest and a front moved north into southern Britain bringing with it lots of snow. The result of this was that the very cold and wet conditions along with strong winds were locked in place by the cold depression over Scandinavia.
The lead up the severe snow storm started in December, when there was a blizzard in London on the 8th which caused heavy disruption to the transport system. The temperature from the 11th – 14th averaged -20°C with winds recorded at 90 mph in the South West. On the 19th of December, during a blizzard and gale force winds of 80 – 90 mph the Penley lifeboat capsized off the coast of Cornwall killing all 16 people on board.
So after a bad start to the month the weather then became milder over Christmas and the New Year with the Jet Stream to the South of the country. On the 6th and 7th of January there was heavy rainfall.
The Big Snow: On the evening of Thursday, the 7th January, at around 9pm it stared snowing in the valley. The snow was very fine and was drifting due to the high winds, and what we didn’t know at the time was that it wouldn’t stop snowing for another 36 hours or more.
The people of Wales woke up on the Friday morning to a scene of two foot of snow and by the Saturday morning, due to the high winds, massive drifts of up to 19 foot (6 metres). The drifts around my house in Craig Nedd were up to the bedroom window, with a small gap close to the wall which enabled us to get out of the house. Such was the depth of the snow (60 cm) laying on the ground and the massive drifts caused by the high winds that cars were nearly completely covered in snow for day’s on end. In some rural communities the military were drafted in to dig out residents and RAF helicopters were used to supply essential food to remote farms and communities.
The rescue helicopters from RAF Anglesey and Brawdy in Pembrokeshire worked non-stop, they took people to hospital and helped farmers who were trying to stop their animals from freezing to death under the snow drifts. The impact of the snow was to last for a number of day’s, with the M4 around Pyle impassable and cars and lorries abandoned at the side of the road. Trains were halted due to the drifts and airports were closed, with many towns and villages in South and Mid Wales cut off, leading to food and fuel shortages over the coming day’s.
School were closed for two weeks
There was severe damage caused by the weight of the snow to the roof of the Sophia Gardens pavilion in Cardiff which had collapsed.
Temperature in Wales fell to – 20°C with a record in December 1981 in Corwen, Denbighshire of -22.7°C. The temperature in Braemer in Scotland reaching a record low temperature of -27.2 °C.
The snow eventually melted over the coming weeks and by the start of February 1982 the winter was behind us.
Local memories of the blizzard:
Thursday evening:
It was a Thursday, the start of the weekend as we used to call it, we had just watched `Top of the Pops` and my friends and myself were enjoying an evening in the Rock public house in Glynneath. We knew that snowy weather was on the way as the weather focast had predicted it, when someone came into the pub at 9pm and said it had started snowing. Like school kids we all went out for a look and I remember to this day looking down the road towards Glynneath and seeing that the snow was very fine and there was quite a strong wind blowing it into drifts. I think we all realised there and then that we were in for a heavy snowfall and probably wouldn’t be going to go to work in the morning.
We left the pub early as the snow was becoming quite deep so we finished the night off by travelling in my car to Mike Hughes’s house where we enjoyed a few hours talking and having a few drinks, as it was quite easy for everyone to walk home from Church Crescent where Mike lived. When it was time to call it a night we were quite suprised by the depth of the snow. My car which was parked up outside Mike’s house, at a bit of an angle, for the night was covered with snow and I made my way home down the steps and under the two bridges with the snow about 6 inches deep.
Friday:
It continued to snow all Thursday night and all of the Friday. When people woke up in the morning and looked out of their window they would have seen that the snow was now about 12 inches deep. As a family we hunckered down in our house for the day to ride out the blizzard, I assume most other people would have done the same. There was no point in clearing the paths as they would have been snowed over quite quickly, as the snow was still coming down heavily and the strong wind was still blowing the snow into drifts, and we had nowhere to go anyway. We spent most of the day looking at the snow accumalating in the garden, 12 inches became 20 inches, then 24 inches by the time we went to bed.
Saturday:
By the Saturday morning the snow was starting to ease off and it finally stopped around 9 am. It must have snowed quite heavily during the night as when I looked out the window the snow was about three feet deep in some places and there was a huge snow drift right up to the bottom of my bedroom window. If my memory serves me correctly the sun began to shine after the snow stopped.
As usual the community spirit came to the fore, with everyone starting to pull together to help each other out. My father and I started walking up to Glynneath to get milk and bread and on the way we had to help a lady in Godfrey Avenue to get the snow out of her attic. Due to the fine nature of the snow it had blown in under the eaves and formed a small snow drift in the attic. If we had left the snow to melt it would have probably brought the ceiling down.
Some brave souls, as they do in most snowfalls, decided that they needed bread and milk, so they made their way into Cwmgwrach and Glynneath to see what was shops were open. There are a few photos below which show people making their way to the shops to purchase bread and milk.
Sunday morning:
As I mentioned above I had left my car over Mike Hughes house in Church Crescent on the Thursday night and it wasn’t until the Sunday morning, when the snow had started to melt, that my car emerged from under the snow. The photograph below shows me digging it out on the Sunday morning in Church Crescent.
Photos of the snow conditions:
Photographs by my father Billy Bowen and myself of Craig Nedd and the Lamb and Flag in the snow:
You can see from the photographs in the slideshows below the depth of the snow and how it had formed into large drifts.
Snow drifts up to the window, my father and sister at the window.
Photographs of the village by Arthur Krantz, Linda Bowen and Glyn Davies of the snow in the village.
The photos in the slideshow below again show a good impression of the amount of snow that fell over the 36 hours from 9pm on Thursday evening the 7th of January 1982 to 9am on the Saturday morning the 9th of January.
Photo by Linda Bowen of the High Street.
The Big Snow of 1982 memories: (taken from the village Facebook page)
Community Spirit:
Tony Collins
I was up Pontypridd and outlying areas digging out the elderly and farm animals.
Jennifer Bulman
I remember it well. Was working in the Star and Bunner came down with the JCB from the plant to dig out the driveway. Not that we could get the car out but we could walk to the road. Walked in that to work every day and got a lift from the bakers van the first day they got through. Wish I was that fit now.
Angela Bluck
I remember my brothers digging us out.
Julia Maria Yates
I remember it well, mum having to walk down to the bottom of Empire Ave to get supplies from a man in a van who had managed to drive into the village. Then having to pull it back up to the house on a sledge.
Linda Hobbs
Mansel and Rita Hobbs with Linda, Silvano, Matthew, Nathan and Fred the dog. Photo taken in January 1982 , the road had only been cleared up as far as Lewis’, Fforch Coch bungalow. Mansel is stood on the road while the boys are on top of the snow.
Carolyn Edwards
Absolutely. Snowed in for over a week
Andrew Blayney
Top photo car on right orange soda owned by Ian Boyds father. Bottom picture my dad’s milk float outside billiard hall
Allan Exit
Andrew Blayney kept us going through them couple of weeks.
Mal Brake
I shot some super-8 film of this at various locations in the village.
Margaret James
Two boys were born in Cwmgwrach during the heavy snow in January1982. Men, women and children came from all over the village to dig out the street for the ambulance to get through. Community spirit sadly lacks in today’s society but maybe with ‘Cwmgwrach Moving Forward’ it will rejuvenate.
Abigail Penny
My friend Sara, was due and my granny and grandad with some others from the street, dug the road out so that an ambulance could get there should her mum have gone into labour. That was Penderyn so it was probably even more snow!
It wasn’t all hard work and misery though:
Colin Watkins
I remember it well, locked in the Dun and then being ambushed with snow balls outside along with Mark Aveyard and Antony Yarnton, think we were outnumbered lol.
Andrea Godsall
Yep, brilliant fun!! Well, for us kids it was.
Shelley Louise Sanigar
I remember going down Tai Bricks down the hill on ladders and ashbags, me and Nicola and Patrick Horgan, that was a very hard time to see to our horses. I kept mine up the old Chapel and we lived in number 3 Heol y Graig we had 33 steps and my mother was going down to the Star and she fell from the top and slid all the way down to the Star. Good old days.
Gray Day
Zoom in, you can see where the billiard Hall roof collapsed.
Mark ‘Taff’ Lewis
I remember that one! Power cuts the lot, I don’t remember seeing the cars in the street for over a week with the snow coverage! Thank God for coal fires back then! Still had the best times back then! Everyone mucked in!
Anne Watson
I lived in Parish Road in that snow storm – couldn’t get out the front door.
.
References and Resources:
Memories from the village Facebook page.
Various newspaper articles on the Big Snow.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42615172
Photographs by Billy Bowen, Linda Bowen, Arthur Krantz and Glyn Davies.
Weather map © Weatherzentrale