In this issue of Weather

We begin this month's Weather with a look back at the severe weather of 50 years ago in Major snowstorms across northern England during November 1965 on p. 307. Although November 1965 and the following winter are overshadowed by the prolonged cold and snowfalls of 1962–63, Martin Young clearly describes the serious effect of cold weather and snow over a wide area, including the cities of Newcastle and Durham, beginning with a description of the weather situation that brought about these poor conditions, which were particularly notable this early in the winter half‐year. The regular review of surviving patches of snow in the Scottish Highlands by Iain Cameron, Adam Watson and David Duncan appears on p. 314. Their conclusion that as many as 21 snow patches survived until the winter snowfall of 2014–15 may be thought unexpected, given the very warm conditions of last year, but there was relatively copious snowfall early in the year, topped up on some of the highest ground during the rather cool August of 2014. As suggested by the illustration of fireworks on our cover, Ajit Singh, William Bloss and Francis Pope look at pollution in Remember, remember the 5th of November; gunpowder, particles and smog on p. 320. Their investigation confirms that fireworks and bonfires reduce visibility significantly on and around Guy Fawkes Night, in particular in urban areas, posing a risk to transport. The production of pollutants is also a health risk and the poor visibility is associated with high levels of black carbon, PM 10 and PM 2.5 , although perhaps surprisingly, not with nitrogen dioxide nor sulphur dioxide. But as visibility is often relatively low in the moist weather of late autumn, how can we be sure that the celebrations are the main cause? Well, the deterioration of visibility around Guy Fawkes Night rarely lasts more than a few days and similar values of relative humidity in late autumn do not cause the highly significant visibility reduction typically observed on 5 November. In Föhn winds on South Georgia and their impact on regional climate on p. 324, Daniel Bannister and John King use the observational record and model data to investigate this interesting aspect of the effect of the high ground of the island on the climate of its eastern coast. South Georgia is exposed to the otherwise‐unobstructed westerly winds of the Southern Ocean, so the föhn phenomenon causes a marked temperature and humidity dichotomy between the southwestern and northeastern lowlands of the island.