From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

Extreme weather battered Britain throughout January 1951, with barely any let up from start to finish.

Heavy snow, heavy rain, storms, floods and gales.

Gale force winds of up to 85 mph occurred somewhere in the country on seventeen days; even Manchester had winds of 73 mph. Particularly rain between the 10th and 12th led to flooding on the Thames and in Yorkshire.

The first week of the month alone had two days of heavy snowfalls and gales, followed by another three days of heavy rain and more gales.

As a footnote, according to the Henley Standard, it had been such a wet winter that the Thames was still flooded in April: