Prof. Hubert Lamb Looks At The Climate Through The Ages

An interview with the Director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia about historical evidence for cold winters in the UK.

During a spell of snowy weather in January 1987, Anglia TV reporter Chris Young visits Professor Hubert Lamb, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, Norfolk. Putting the current weather into historical perspective, Professor Lamb looks at historic prints of a painting and woodcuts of frozen landscapes. The painting from from 1789 shows a frost fair on the River Thames. A print from 1684 records the coldest winter experienced in the UK since the invention of the thermometer when the sea froze off the east coast and in the English Channel. Another image was made in 1740, the second coldest winter recorded. Archive film shows deep snow in 1963 when the sea froze off Hunstanton and snow lay on the ground for over 60 days. Asked how the 1987 winter compares with previous years, Professor Lamb says that will depend on the duration of the cold weather. Scenes of cattle in fields alongside roads with slow moving traffic in the snow. This short video was made to be shown in a news story on Anglia Television early evening news / magazine programme About Anglia.

Keywords

Weather; Climate change; Climate; Climate research; University of East Anglia; Snow; Ice; Winter; Climate research

Additional Description

The Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia was established in 1972 under its first Director, Hubert Lamb from the UK Meteorological Office. Over the years, the CRU has pioneered world-class research across many aspects of climate science. Notable work has included the construction of the global temperature record, the attribution of observed warming to man’s influence, the development of simplified models to guide the development of climate policy and major contributions to all the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).