Why we don't get snow in Hampshire

However, with our present day to day weather becoming more unpredictable due to unfolding climate change, winter snowfall across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight will probably become less frequent. 

If and when it does snow in the future, we may well see freak amounts of the white stuff, however, only time will tell.

Currently long-term average annual days with sleet or snow falling across both counties in any year ranges from zero up to 10 on the Island and southern Hampshire and a little higher elsewhere in the county.

Looking back at past harsh winters across both counties, one that really made its mark in meteorological history was January 1881.

READ MORE: Temperatures could go above 10C in Southampton next week

Over 100 people nationwide perished in the extreme cold accompanied by a cluster of blizzards that targeted our shores.

These produced the worst snowfall on record to hit this area leaving the Central-South region buried under three foot of snow.

Towns and villages were completely cut off, even on the Isle of Wight, which is normally the mildest part of the region in winter.

Railways were paralysed by the deep snow and a train was stranded at Gosport for several days. 

Many buildings in Southampton lost roofs under the weight of the extreme snowfall.

Snow at Mottisfont in 2018 (Image: Andy Simmonds)

Along the Hampshire coastline, the sea froze over at Southampton and this has only happened a couple of times since.

Many winters in Queen Victoria’s reign were extremely cold with widespread snowfall in our neck of the woods.

This included January 1867 when the temperature plummeted to a bone-chilling minus 15C in Southampton.

People in the area made the most of the icy conditions and went skating.

Towards the end of the 1890s there was little or near average snowfall in Hampshire bringing an end to a chain of winters with heavy snowfall, apart from 1899.

White Christmases are a rarity in Hampshire too but there has been a few notable ones.

One in particular was 1962, when snow arrived on Boxing Day, with further falls before the year was out, Hampshire’s landscape took on a new look.

More snow fell in January 1963 and it remained on the ground until early March - even in Southampton.

Generally, Hampshire’s coastline including urban Southampton, and the Isle of Wight, escape the worst of any severe winter weather.

And the reason behind this is simple, in the spring and summer inland areas are much warmer than coastal districts, but in the autumn and winter the reverse happens.

This is because coastal waters like the Solent soak up and store vast volumes of heat when the sun is at its hottest in first two seasons of the year.

This is slowly released in the autumn and winter months when the natural cooling process begins.

READ MORE: New weather warning for ice issued in Southampton

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