21 jan. – 16 mar. 1947 · noem · thermo. −40·2°c
a high-pressure block settled over the north and would not move for seven weeks. the thermometer on the north stair, which had not previously been asked to record a number below minus twenty, was made to write minus forty point two on the morning of the third of february. the keeper added a second mark for the same reading on the next day; he did not trust the first.
the river froze from bank to bank by the sixth day and bore the weight of a horse by the tenth. the snow post in the garden corner measured one hundred and forty centimetres on the seventeenth of february; this was a record never since touched. coal was rationed, then unavailable. people slept three to a bed and burned chair-legs. twelve died of the cold in the parish; six were not found until the thaw.
the market did not open for the whole of february. bread was made from frozen flour, which gave it a particular crumb the bakers later spoke of with reluctance. the cat in the laundry had four kittens in a tea-chest and all survived.
— keeper's log, 3 february: minus forty. the ink will not run unless held over the lamp. a star at the window above the chimney looks as if it had been struck and is not yet over it. the building creaks all night in one note.
see also · frost · snow · snow post · thermometer · river