The Arctic blast that sent swathes of the UK into a deep freeze has led bookmakers to have January as odds on the coldest ever recorded.
Temperatures have plummeted to as low as -14.5C in Altnaharra in the Highlands today with many regions of of the UK seeing frosty weather overnight, continuing a trend of bitterly cold conditions in many regions of the country. Brits have faced travel chaos with snow and ice warnings being in place from the Met Office as temperatures struggled to tip beyond freezing in most parts of the country.
The frosty conditions have led bookmakers to share their odds on this January being the coldest on record. Currently, the coldest temperature recorded for a January month was in 1982 when the mercury plunged to a bitterly frosty -27.2C in Braemar, in Aberdeenshire.
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Heavy snowfall was recorded across many parts of the UK in the past few days
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Bookmaker Coral has made it odds-on at 1/2 (66.7 per cent) “It’s been one of the coldest starts to the new year in recent memory, and if temperatures continue to plummet at the rate they are doing, we could be set for a record-cold January,” said Coral’s John Hill.
Chilly conditions are expected to remain in much of the UK today where snow and ice yellow weather warnings were in place until 10am and 11am this morning. People were told to be mindful of icy patches on roads and pavements that could cause injury.
Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern said of today’s weather: “A very cold start out there. Widespread frost and watch out for slippery surfaces once again. Icy patches, the main hazard as we begin the day, certainly where we’ve had precipitation falling overnight and then freezing of the ground and the air.”
The UK has been blighted by frosty conditions this January
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He continued: “Minus five Celsius widely, minus double figures for some of the colder parts of northern Britain. Particularly where we have snow cover and some higher ground.”
The Met Office added in its forecast for today that sunny spells should break through the odd wintry shower in the north and east of the UK. But rain, sleet and some hill snow move into the southwest, leading to icy stretches.
“Cloud and patchy rain or hill snow remains in the southwest,” the Met Office said in its forecast for tonight. “Dry with light winds and clear spells elsewhere allowing frost and freezing fog to form. Cold again for most.”
Into the weekend it will remain cloudy with little patchy light rain and hill snow in the west on Saturday while from Sunday into Tuesday, it will be mostly dry and settled in the south and forecasters expect it to be windier in the northwest with some chilly nights.