“Whatever happened to winter?” asked Melanie Reid (Comment, December 10). The British winters of blizzards, biting cold and deep frosts have given way to something more like a long autumn. Even when northerly winds blow down from the Arctic, they are not as cold as previous years.

But there were some notable cold winter outbreaks towards the end of the 20th century. One of the last significant cold spells came in the winter of 1996-97. It began in early December with strong winds and heavy snows across northern and central Britain. A white Christmas followed for many places, although snow was light. But far heavier snows fell on December 27 and 30 across eastern regions, particularly Essex and Kent, and the Channel Islands were blanketed in thick snow on New Year’s Eve.

January continued to be cold, although it was the driest January in England and Wales since 1880. A long, hard frost refused to melt in the first days of the new year, and the Channel Islands were hit by another snowstorm. On January 9 snow fell heavy across much of southern England, and the Thames froze over at Marlow, Buckinghamshire. But the cold ended with a thaw on January 11, and two days later Aberdeen reached a balmy 15C (59F).