Despite the weather in England being consistently changeable and frequently gray and wet, we seldom get the real extremes that most parts of the U.S. experience.
Snow seems to be getting rarer here though. The most snowy winter I remember was 77/78. It's somewhat before my time, but people of my parents' generation all recall the winter of '47, and to a slightly lesser degree that of '62/63. I've seen the old newsreel footage and we certainly don't have anything to compare with it these days.
As for the cold, it's rare for it to drop more than a few degrees below freezing, maybe down to the low 20's on a very cold mid-winter night. I'll always remember arriving in Nebraska in January, and feeling just what 5 degrees feels like!
That'll teach me to save a couple of bucks by walking 3 blocks to pick up a car!
