Winter of 1894–95 in the United Kingdom

The winter of 1894–95 was severe for the British Isles with a CET of 1.27 °C or 34.3 °F. Many climatologists have come to view this winter as the end of the Little Ice Age and the culmination of a decade of harsh winters in Britain. Whereas the average CET for the ten winters from 1885–86 to 1894–95 was 2.87 °C or 37.2 °F, no winter with a CET under 3.0 °C or 37.4 °F followed for twenty-two years and no month as cold as February or January 1895 until 1940. In contrast, between 1659 and 1894 no spell with every winter CET above 3.0 °C or 37.4 °F had lasted longer than twelve winters.

Although this winter – which featured the lowest North Atlantic Oscillation index between 1882 and 1962 with lower values recorded only in 1880/1881, 1962/1963 and 1968/1969 – affected most of Europe and North America very severely, the difficulties Britain had coping with it vis-à-vis the United States and Germany is seen as marking a beginning in the decline of British hegemony in global affairs. The severe winter led to mass unemployment and severe disruptions to shipping on the River Thames, which froze for the last time on record. Because mass political activism had not yet created the welfare state, most workers were left without sustenance and in industrial centres large soup kitchens were widespread to feed these people.

There were also numerous skating festivals organised to take advantage of the unusually cold and sunny weather, with up to fifty thousand people skating on The Serpentine in London's Hyde Park and speed skating races being widely popular and generating money to be used for relief of the poor, and in some cases to provide them with temporary work as vendors for spectators.

Coal supplies dwindled as transporting coal by river was impossible, whilst many recently introduced exotic plants were killed by the cold.

December 1894 was mild for the most part and the first three weeks were dominated by southwesterly winds, so much so that primroses and daisies were in bloom during the third week. It was not until the last week, when the winds veered to the northwest that colder weather arrived with frosts and snow showers to exposed areas.

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