Frozen till Feb!
Scotland set to endure sub-zero temperatures for 5 WEEKS ... oh and this skater wasn’t in the Arctic yesterday – but a Glasgow park!
SCOTS could be shivering in sub-zero temperatures for another month, forecasters warned last night.
The Christmas cold snap that brought snow and ice to much of the country last week is expected to continue until early February – and the mercury could plummet even further.
A dramatic weather pattern similar to that seen during the Beast from the East snowstorm in 2018, which caused travel chaos across the UK, has been forming high up in the atmosphere.
Sudden stratospheric warming, which occurs when the temperature in the stratosphere soars by 50C (122F), could reverse Britain’s wind pattern from the warm west to Siberia in the east in a fortnight’s time.
The Central Belt is expected to see lows of -4C over the weekend while other parts of Scotland could drop to -7C.
Yesterday, freezing conditions hit the transport network, with drivers urged to make only essential journeys.
Snow gates were closed on the A939 road between Cockbridge in Aberdeeshire and Tomintoul in Moray.
Frozen football pitches meant seven matches were cancelled, i ncluding Arbroath against Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Dunfermline facing off Raith Rovers.
But families made the most of the cold conditions, with sledges – and even ice skates – the order of the day at parks across the country.
At Glenmore, near Aviemore in Inverness-shire, which has had some of the heaviest snowfall, dozens of children wrapped up warm to sledge down hills.
At Glasgow’s Queen’s Park, figure skater Rebecca Gray-Gardner showcased her skills on the frozen boating pond – to the delight of passers-by.
The 18-year-old accountancy student, from nearby Cambuslang, used to skate competitively and spent more than an hour on the ice before police officers attended and warned the ice may not be safe. She said: ‘I’ve never skated at Queen’s Park before but did a bit of research the night before to find a small pond that would have quite thick ice.
‘My parents came with me and we threw some sticks on the pond first to listen for an echo to show the ice was thick enough.
‘It was quite exhilarating to skate outside and it was very different to being on an indoor rink, which is much less bumpy. About 30 people gathered to watch me, which was really nice. I didn’t expect a crowd. I wasn’t scared about the ice breaking but kept it in the back of my mind to be careful.
‘I saw where the police were coming from when they told us to get off, as by that point quite a few people were standing on the ice.’
Meanwhile, around 100 skiers bypassed the locked gates at the Cairngorm Mountain snowsports resort, which has been closed since Christmas Eve to comply with Covid-19 restrictions.
Yesterday morning, temperatures in the area were as low as -6C.
The Met Office’s long-range weather forecast suggests the second week of this month will bring sleet and snow, which will make ‘erratic’ progress south-east across the UK.
While many areas will endure sharp frosts, things are likely to remain bright and sunny throughout the day.
What the Met Office describes as ‘drier and colder’ weather will dominate northern areas for the rest of this month, with ‘a risk of snowfall and other wintry hazards’.
Forecaster John Griffiths said there should be slightly milder conditions tonight before the arrival of high pressure and sharp frosts again on Tuesday and Wednesday.
He added: ‘Cold conditions are likely to persist and our long-range forecast has things staying cold for much of January.’
‘It was quite exhilarating to skate outside’