Weather’s going totally balmy!
From minus 23C to a spring-like 16C by next weekend...
IT HAS been the bleakest of midwinters but Britain is finally set for a blast of welcome weather – with temperatures set to soar by 39 degrees from the recent low point.
Last week, Britons huddled under bedclothes with thermostats turned to the maximum as the mercury dipped to a record-breaking -23C in Braemar, close to Balmoral Castle, the Royal Family’s holiday home in the Highlands.
Now meteorologists are predicting that temperatures will reach a balmy 16C in southern areas of the UK later this week.
It has been so cold that seagulls were able to skate on the surface of the River Thames at Teddington in South West London yesterday, prompting memories for some of Britain’s big freeze of 1963.
Those wandering through Trafalgar Square in the centre of the capital yesterday also stopped to take photos of its frozen fountains.
In Cambridgeshire, ice skaters flocked to the frozen Fens for the first time since the Beast from the East three years ago. Shallow waters turned the area into an enormous natural rink after three nights of -6C temperatures.
Weather experts are now expecting a 39- degree swing by next weekend thanks to an area of
The Fens turned into an enormous natural ice rink
warmer low pressure that is on course to barrel across Britain.
‘For the past week the UK has been in a very cold airmass with temperatures well below average,’ said the Met Office’s Chief Meteorologist Neil Armstrong. ‘This will change through the weekend as milder air moves in from the Atlantic and pushes that cold air mass out into the North Sea.’
Before the thaw arrives, however, freezing temperatures are expected to linger today. In Scotland and parts of Wales, Northern Ireland and northern England, weather warnings are in place for snow and ice.
Met Office forecaster Luke Miall said: ‘Blizzard conditions will really significantly reduce visibility when driving. We have gusts in the region of 35mph to 40mph on the coast and nearly 30mph inland.’
Public Health England extended its cold weather alert over the weekend, encouraging people to check on vulnerable relatives and neighbours, from a distance.
Dr Owen Landeg, group leader for extreme events and health prot ection at PHE, said t he cold weather can have a ‘serious impact on health, particularly for older people and those with heart and lung problems, as it increases the risks of heart attacks, strokes and chest infections’.
‘Make a call, or socially distanced doorstep visit if they live close by, to remind them to heat their home to at least 18C and to keep up to date with the forecast.’
England hit a record low for February last week, with - 15.3C in Ravensworth, North Yorkshire, overnight on Thursday. The Braemar low last Wednesday was the coldest in the UK for 65 years.
But temperatures may threaten records at the warmer end of the scale next weekend. Britain’s warmest- ever February was in 2019, with 20.6C registered in Trawsgoed, Ceredigion in Wales. Commenting on the ten-day turnaround, Met Office meteorologist Becky Mitchell said: ‘As an island, we are very susceptible to sudden and significant changes in weather system and temperature.
‘What has been unusual though is quite how cold the weather has been over the past week.’