Beginning on 23 January 1947, the UK experienced several cold spells that brought large drifts of snow to the country, blocking roads and railways, which caused problems transporting coal to the electric power stations.

In addition, radio broadcasts were limited, television services were suspended, some magazines were ordered to stop publishing, and newspapers were reduced in size.

These measures, on top of the low temperatures, badly affected public morale and the Minister of Fuel and Power, Emanuel Shinwell, became a scapegoat; he received death threats and had to be placed under police guard.

The effects on the rest of Europe were also severe, with 150 deaths from cold and famine in Berlin, civil disorder in the Netherlands and business closures in the Republic of Ireland.

The coal and electricity industries had been recently nationalised by Clement Attlee's government and placed under the control of the Minister of Fuel and Power, Manny Shinwell.

[4] These reports failed to translate into real production as the government feared to take on the NUM, whose members' absentee rates were 2.5 times those of the pre-war period.

On 20 February the ferry service across the English Channel between Dover and Ostend was suspended due to pack ice off the Belgian coast.

[5] A force of 100,000 British and Polish troops and German prisoners of war were put to work clearing snow from the railways by hand,[5] while desperate attempts were made to get fuel to power stations by coal-carrying ships which risked storms, fog and ice to reach their destinations.

[10] The Royal Navy launched Operation Blackcurrant, which used diesel generators aboard submarines to provide supplementary power to coastal towns and dockyards.

[9] Despite Shinwell's actions the fuel supply remained insufficient and blackouts occurred across large swathes of the country, forcing even the staff at Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and London's Central Electricity Board to work by candlelight.

[11] Supplies of aspirin also ran low as it was then a product of coal-tar, thousands of chickens in poultry farms died of the cold, and public transport services were cut to save fuel.

Shinwell became increasingly unpopular with the general public and received a bomb threat, after which a four-man police guard was stationed at his house in Tooting.

By 27 February sea conditions had improved and more than 100 coal ships had managed to unload their cargoes at the power stations, easing the fuel crisis.

[5] During this period there was a fear that, despite the rationing, food supplies could run out owing to the effects of the cold on vegetables, livestock and delivery vehicles.

[9] Food supplies were again affected by the snow-bound roads and in some places the police requested permission to break into delivery lorries stranded by the snow.

[9] On 10 March milder air of 7–10 °C (45–50 °F) began to move north across the country from the south-west, rapidly thawing the snow lying on low ground.

On 14 March the deepest ever recorded depth of snow lying in an inhabited location of the UK was measured at Forest-in-Teesdale in County Durham at 83 inches (210 cm).

[12] By 16 March winds reached 50 knots (90 km/h) with 90-knot (170 km/h) gusts, causing breaches in dykes in East Anglia that resulted in the flooding of 100 square miles (260 km2) of land,[6][9] and blowing many trees down.

Shinwell never publicly admitted that the crisis had resulted from low coal supplies, instead blaming the climate, the railway system, or capitalism generally.

"[19] The effects of the winter came at a time of heavy government spending with 15 per cent of the GDP being spent on the armed forces and large expenditure on the new National Health Service and post-war reconstruction.

Because of the anticyclone to the north of the United Kingdom, several incoming Atlantic depressions which would otherwise have hit Britain tracked south to the Mediterranean region, resulting in Portugal, Spain, and Southern France having more rain than usual while remaining relatively warm.

[12] The winter caused 150 deaths from the cold and lack of food in Berlin, which was still recovering from its devastation during the final stages of the Second World War.