Missing gran, 89, found dead as temperature plunges to -6C
Scotland’s coldest night of autumn
A GRANDMOTHER was found dead yesterday after going missing in sub-zero conditions.
Helen Maider, 89, had last been seen around 6am in Bishopbriggs, Dunbartonshire.
Temperatures in the Glasgow area had dropped to -5.5C at that time, the Met Office said, and did not rise above freezing until 1pm.
During the frantic search for Mrs Maider, officers said her family were concerned because of the weather and because she had ‘started to have issues with her memory’.
A police statement released just an hour later confirmed a body had been found at the junction of the town’s Balmuildy Road and Stirling Drive.
A spokesman said: ‘Police in East Dunbartonshire can confirm a body has been found in the search for missing
‘A body has been found in the search’
woman Helen Maider in the Bishopbriggs area. Formal identification has yet to be carried out. However, her family has been informed and the death is not being treated as suspicious.’
The tragic discovery came after Scotland experienced its coldest night of the autumn.
Temperatures fell across the country on Monday night, with Braemar, in Aberdeenshire, shivering in a low of -9.9C. Loch Droma, south of Ullapool in Rossshire, has frozen over.
However, thanks to a strengthening but warmer southwesterly winds, the North-East of Scotland could see a 20C rebound in temperatures today, with Aberdeen reaching 10C (50F).
Met Office figures up to the middle of November, published yesterday, show a dramatic variation in the UK’s weather.
While heavy rain in England has led to severe flooding, Shetland has received less than 20 per cent of what it would normally see for the month.
The driest location in the UK has been Lerwick. North-West Scotland, including Oban, Fort William and Skye, also received a fraction of its normal rainfall.
However, eastern Scotland was battered by downpours at the start of the month, with higher than average amounts for Aberdeenshire, Berwickshire, East Lothian, Fife and Kincardineshire. The Met Office said Shetland has also been sunnier than average, with 44.8 hours so far.
As well as being the UK’s driest area, Scotland has also been the coldest, 1.6C below the 5C average, with Sutherland even lower at 2.3C below normal.
Met Office expert Grahame Madge said: ‘As far as temperatures are concerned, remote places like Braemar can always be expected to deliver real lows but, even so, the -10C was quite exceptional for November.
‘As we head to the weekend, we can expect temperatures to come back up. Things become more unsettled and the wind picks up.’