For Britain’s birds,the weather in January is absolutely crucial. Cold, tough winters mean death; mild ones greatly increase their chances of survival. To see the inequity in fortunes, or we only need to compare two winters just over a quarter of a century apart: the Big Freeze of 1962-63 and the winter of 1988-89,one of the mildest on record.
Winter 1962-63 has gone down in meteorological history as the winter to halt all winters. From recent Year’s Day until the halt of February snow fell somewhere in Britain every single day, and temperatures remained six degrees below the usual average at a numbing 0C.
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Source: theguardian.com