Coldest night for 20 years in parts of southern England

Coldest night for 20 years in parts of southern England

www.guardian.co.uk

The icy blast continues to grip many parts of the UK after some parts of the country shivered through their coldest night for more than 20 years. The coldest place was Benson in Oxfordshire, at -11.8C – the chilliest night there for 11 years.

But last night was even more of a shock to residents of coastal areas in the south-west who normally enjoy a relatively mild climate even at this time of year. At Culdrose, near Helston in south-west Cornwall, the temperature dropped to -7.8C. It was theUp the coast in Plymouth, south Devon, it reached -7C, again the coldest for 21 years. At 10am this morning it was still -3.1C in Plymouth and -2.3C in Yeovilton, Somerset. Within the M25 it was -2C at Kenley, near Croydon, at 10am.

Further north it was warming up a little as a band of cloud slowly made its way down the country. North-west Scotland was enjoying a relatively balmy 7C.

Over the next few days it is likely to stay warmer in the north but remain perishing in many parts of the south. There was a dusting of snow in many places in England today, but the Met Office does not believe there are likely to be heavy falls.

In north Wales a primary school had to stay shut after thieves stole an emergency delivery of heating oil. Tania Armstrong-Owen, headteacher of the 50-pupil Ysgol Rhewl in Ruthin, branded the thieves "callous" and said the primary school could be closed until Friday.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I must have had my head in the clouds over the past week or so because i wasn't aware of this and i live in the UK. I live in the North so i dont think this affects us as much - yet. I have notice a quite a bit of ice but i wouldn't say that is too unusual for this time of year.

Some good news for OAP's and the vulnerable, the government is giving them a £25-a-week heating bill subsidy
This comes into effect when an ares temperature falls to or below 0c for more that 7 days in a row,

The article mentions trafalgar fountain freezing, it made wonder if the thames will ever freeze again,

www.netweather.tv...

With Solar Activity as it is who knows?
www.popularmechanics.com...

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Although specific regions have been hit by lower temperatures than they have in the recent past, my understanding is that this winter is actually not especially harsh compared to others over the last few decades. And in fact, the current cold snap is a sign of "good" weather - that's to say: stable, high-pressure conditions with dry air and clear skies. It's just that the air happens to have drifted over from the Arctic rather than the Atlantic for a change.

-12 sounds bad, but Scotland hit -27 as recently as 1995, and again before that in 1982:

Link here to BBC explanation

As for the Thames freezing, I'm afraid it would have to get a lot colder for that to happen! In the old days the river's flow used to be thwarted by a far greater number of obstructions - ships and boats, industrial equipment, bridges with a higher number of arches (London Bridge wasn't far off damming the river altogether) - so the water tended to be much less mobile, allowing it to freeze more easily. The river in London was much shallower and a fair bit wider than it is today, which also helped. And London generally speaking is a lot warmer than it used to be - you hardly see snow settle for long anymore.

Kind of a shame, but not when you want the trains to function, which I do this evening!

LW

It's that damn global warming again! Sounds like it's time for our so called world leaders to fly their private jets to some conference on how to reduce our carbon footprint.

Originally posted by on_yur_6
It's that damn global warming again!

Sounds like it's time for our so called world leaders to fly their private jets to some conference on how to reduce our carbon footprint.

Actually if global warming theory is correct, the UK would be in line for some seriously bad winters. Currently (no pun intended) we rely on the Gulf Stream to keep us relatively warm - otherwise we'd be roughly akin to Siberia.

In fact there's a place in the Midlands that claims to be the highest point in a direct line with Yakutsk, or somewhere, and not far off the same latitude. I went there once.

It was cold. Which may have been coincidence...

LW

Its cold here...but yeah im in scotland near the coast,so its bound to be,there have been colder winters here though,isnt as bad as some years i can remember.

reply to post by LoneWeasel


The winters not out yet, it has been colder than i remeber last year to be - there will be snow in March maybe april -or is that spring, weather changes so much you can't almost tell.
When i mentioned if the River could freeze, I didn't mean now, i meant say over the next decade. If it ever got that cold, to be honest i dont think Britain would be prepared for it, they dont manage when recent severe weather brought power outages and roads to a stand still.

lol -11C? That's considered cold?

Temperatures are never constant. This one-off event cannot be attibuted to global warming or cooling.

Originally posted by Bl0rg
lol -11C? That's considered cold?

Temperatures are never constant. This one-off event cannot be attibuted to global warming or cooling.

lol I had to double check to make sure I wasn't converting backwards when he said that turns out nope lol

was -30c just the other day here and has been between -30c and -4c here for almost a month one day it got to 6c and that night dropped back to about -22c was pretty disappointed as I thought sweet global warming it's getting warmer now, guess I was wrong no global warming here for the rest of the month. It's about -6c here now which compared with this past month is pretty warm.

Originally posted by Darthorious

Originally posted by Bl0rg
lol -11C? That's considered cold?

Temperatures are never constant. This one-off event cannot be attibuted to global warming or cooling.

lol I had to double check to make sure I wasn't converting backwards when he said that turns out nope lol

was -30c just the other day here and has been between -30c and -4c here for almost a month one day it got to 6c and that night dropped back to about -22c was pretty disappointed as I thought sweet global warming it's getting warmer now, guess I was wrong no global warming here for the rest of the month. It's about -6c here now which compared with this past month is pretty warm.

Congratulations, you both live in colder climates than we baking Brits - however, one can only judge temperature according to the scale of reference one is used to. To us -11 is pretty darn cold!

LW

Yep it's very cold.. My house is very very cold for some reason, I thought it must be haunted sometimes! The only source of heat I have in my bed room is a small electric fan heater and I refuse to have it on when I sleep - it's noisy and I don't trust it... I'm sure if I fall asleep with it on I'll die in a burning inferno in my sleep!

But I'm too cheep and lazy to get off to the shops and get one of those nice safe oil filled electric radiators - and they are quite efficient too, I should really get one of those. Any who, I can take it, just wear layers to sleep, and factor in about an extra 45 mins to pull my self out of bed when I have to get up.

It seems records are being broken every year around the great lakes here on the Canada/US border.

Its always cloudy because of the lake effect but last summer it rained for a solid month (unusual), it wasnt very warm, and then a whole month the sky was blue all day every day, not a damn cloud in the sky, not one.

I think there is so much going on right now in terms of our planet.