COLDEST FEBRRRY NIGHT IN 74 YEARS
BEAST THREATENS TO BEAT -21C RECORD
IF YOU were shivering in bed last night, blame the Beast from the East II – which brought some of the coldest February weather witnessed in Britain for decades.
Temperatures in the Highlands were forecast to be about minus 20C – and may even have broken the minus 21C February record that was registered 74 years ago in Woburn, Bedfordshire.
The blast of cold air from Ukraine and the Black Sea is heading nowhere fast – with snow and icy gales on the cards for many of us over the next few days.
‘The cold will begin to ebb away but it will be slow and quite erratic and there are still wintry hazards in the forecast,’ said Grahame Madge, of the Met Office.
‘We’ve got potential for some more snow, heavy rain and also freezing rain.’
The temperatures in the early hours of yesterday fell to minus 8.5C in Norfolk.
And in Altnaharra, Sutherland, it was a bone-chilling minus 17.1C – the lowest reading recorded in the UK since 2010.
Weather disruption continued, with rubbish collections suspended and more reports of crashes. An overturned lorry
led to a four-vehicle collision on the A12 near Colchester in Essex.
The road was closed in both directions to allow an air ambulance to land.
NHS England said the vast majority of coronavirus vaccination centres had remained open. But charity Age UK warned pensioners not to risk travelling if conditions were not safe, as jabs would still be available later.
Snow covered much of Scotland and northern and eastern England, with sprinklings in the west. It was more than 8in deep in Andrewsfield, Essex – and reached 15in in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire.