Tayside and Fife found itself freezing in mid-January 1985 with blizzards and roads like a skating rink.
Snow, sleet and rain caused havoc for drivers.
Many shops were shuttered and some schools were forced to close.
The drop in temperature led to ice forming on the River Tay.
The cold snap arrived at the beginning of January.
Hardly a ball was kicked in anger.
The Dundee derby at Tannadice Park in the Premier Division on January 12 was among the games postponed despite a thaw in the weather.
Dens Park across the road was looking playable.
United manager Jim McLean explained this was because a larger area of Tannadice “was permanently shaded from the sun at this time of year”.
Would the league game be switched to Dens?
No.
But McLean and Dundee manager Archie Knox instead proposed playing an outstanding Forfarshire Cup semi-final between the sides at Dens.
The plan was scuppered when Dens was also deemed unplayable.
United did win the league game but unfortunately it was only thanks to the Pools Panel, which sat to determine the results for the first time in 12 months.
Bad weather also took its toll on games involving Brechin, Forfar, Montrose and Raith Rovers but there was the solace of watching live sport over the weekend.
Grandstand, on BBC 1, was showing Dundee Rockets’ 9-6 victory against Nottingham Panthers in the Heineken Ice Hockey Premier League.
BBC 2 showed Eric Bristow winning the World Darts Championship.
Willie Thorne’s victory in snooker’s Mercantile Credit Classic was on Grampian TV.
Heavy snow prompted travel warning
Widespread blizzards blanketed parts of Tayside and Fife on January 17.
Three men were taken to Dundee Royal Infirmary following a three-vehicle collision in slushy snow at 7.45am on the main Dundee-Forfar Road near Tealing.
Dundee bricklayer David Edwards was detained with a head injury.
Paul Hunter and Maurice Rutherford were treated for bruising and discharged.
They were lucky.
A lorry jack-knifed near the gates of Strathmartine Hospital.
The road was blocked.
A tractor pulled the lorry from the snow at 9.30am.
Snow continued falling during the day.
There was at least four inches on roads in the Angus glens where school buses were given an escort home and even snow ploughs struggled.
The A93 Blairgowrie to Braemar Road was closed due to the weather conditions.
Flooding and snow blocked the Newtyle to Glamis road.
It was miserable.
Gritters were out in the centre of Dundee, although it was the northern parts of the city which were worst affected where buses were moving slowly.
Drivers were advised against travelling on the A929 Dundee-Forfar road, A923 Coupar Angus-Dundee road and A958 Forfar-Carnoustie and Montrose-Forfar routes.
The A94 Scone-Coupar Angus road was another no-go zone.
Snow ploughs on the railway lines kept trains moving.
Forecasters warned worse was to come.
School pupils were rescued by snow plough
Some football was played during the extended cold snap on January 20 and 21.
The Tennent’s Sixes tournament at the Ingliston Showground offered a chance for families to enjoy some indoor entertainment during winter’s worst.
Dundee won £1,500 and some much-needed match practice.
Knox’s men reached the semi-final where they were defeated by winners Hearts.
Blizzards struck with a vengeance on January 22.
High winds and drifting snow made driving almost impossible in Angus and school pupils were escorted by snow plough from Kilry to Kirriemuir.
The RAC said many main roads in the region were blocked by snow or as a result of accidents and described conditions as ideal “for skaters, not for drivers”.
The AA issued patrols in Perth with “blizzard survival kits” including all-weather suits which were devised by Nasa in 1979 for US astronauts.
The Spacecoat SP27 retained heat at temperatures as low as -56C.
In Dundee there was concern at pupils being left out in the cold at break time.
The Courier received numerous complaints from parents across the city about children having to stay outdoors regardless of the weather conditions.
Tayside’s education committee convener Barbara Vaughn said she hoped teachers would help out “on humanitarian grounds, even if not on contractual ones”.
She took the issue to the director of education.
The RSPB appealed to Evening Telegraph readers to put out every spare scrap of food for the birds which were struggling to survive in the frost and snow.
Ice floes played havoc on River Tay in 1985
It wasn’t just the birds who were suffering in the Arctic blast.
Dunfermline East MP Gordon Brown led a push by Scottish Labour to change the “absurd system” with regards exceptionally severe weather payments.
He said £4m was paid out in 1982.
Since 1982 not a single penny was received.
“Quite simply, what the government have done is to redefine what exceptionally severe weather is,” he said.
“According to the government, exceptionally severe weather does not exist in most of the country, even if the temperature is consistently below freezing point every day for a week, or even for a month.
“According to the government, exceptionally severe weather does not exist in northern parts of the country — and Scotland in particular — even if the temperature hovers between zero and -4C or -5C each day for weeks on end.”
The cold weather had a disastrous effect on vessels at Perth Harbour.
The Courier said: “The drop in temperature led to ice forming on the upper reaches of the Tay, and when the ice floes broke loose and drifted away, they, unfortunately, took most of the navigational buoys with them.
“Dundee port officials reckon it will take at least a week to get them all back – which will play havoc with vessels due to come and go.
“Two Perth-bound ships have already been forced to go elsewhere with their cargoes.”
A rescue operation was launched to get back to 24-hour operating.
Captain Norman Lawrence said: With a thaw now set in, we have the task of recovering and repositioning buoys displaced by the ice.
“Because ice-bound buoys have been forced beneath the surface when the tides come in, we have been been operating daytime navigation only.”
A bonspiel at Muirton Park in Perth in 1985
Muirton Park was also suffering with ice.
St Johnstone’s Scottish Cup third round match against Dundee was postponed.
It was like an ice rink.
Literally.
St Johnstone manager Alex Rennie backed up the claim for a photo shoot when he borrowed two curling stones from Perth Rink on Dunkeld Road.
The Courier said he showed he was “no mean hand at the roaring game”.
Meanwhile, police and the AA fought their way through huge snowdrifts to reach 35 vehicles stranded in the Drumochter Pass between Perth and Inverness.
RAF Leuchars recorded a temperature of -6C.
Dundee was -4C.
But not everyone had a bad experience.
There were fun times in the snow for thousands of people.
They headed to Glenshee to take advantage of the ample amounts of snow on the slopes, where Helen Millar from Dundee was a ski instructor.
The weather remained cold and bleak.
Things did get better and it was sunny at the end of February.
It was a notably cold year overall, though, Jack Frost’s lingering presence a reminder of his January wrath.
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