There's No Business Like Snow Business

 As 'The Beast from The East' becomes 'The Pest in The West' you might be thinking that this is the worst winter for some time, but the worst British winter of modern times was truly abysmal. It was dubbed "Big Freeze of 1963" and it still remains one of the coldest winters on record in the United Kingdom. Winter 1962-63 saw the coldest weather for two hundred years. At its height a two and a half day and night blizzard of epic proportions produced heavy drifting snow in most of the United Kingdom. Here in the South West snow drifted to over 20 feet deep in places, driven on by gale force easterly winds of up to 119mph, blocking roads and railways. The snow stranded villagers and brought down power lines. The snow cover lasted for over two months in some areas, producing average snow drift heights of 8 to fifteen feet in this area.
As the country started to freeze solid freezing fog swept the land in temperatures as low as minus 19 centigrade and parts of the sea up to 4 miles from shore froze solid. January 1963 still remains the coldest month since 1814. So if Dikes is still open tomorrow for your daily bread and you really don't need to get on an X10 out of the village then put the fire on if you have one,  watch the Beast from your window, and think yourself lucky it's not 1963...