Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Cold weather to continue across Britain - The Guardian

The unseasonable cold weather shows no sign of letting up following the coldest March in more than 50 years.

No significant snowfall is forecast, but temperatures are expected to remain low for the time of year. Forecasters predict that the cold snap could last until mid-April.

Andy Radcliffe, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, said temperatures would reach a maximum of 7C (44.6F) on Monday but in places such as north Wales and Cumbria there would be lows of -4C (24.8F). London was expected to be about -2C (28.4F).

He said: "Throughout this week it's going to remain cold, but not quite as cold as we've recently seen. Tomorrow it could get up to widely around 7 to 8C and it will be similar on Wednesday.

"There might be some light flurries of snow but it won't be anything significant. There is no clear sign of warmer weather at the moment. Next weekend could be milder but there is a lot of uncertainty around it."

The average temperature from 1-26 March was 2.5C (36.5F), three degrees below the long-term average, according to the Met Office. This would make it the coldest March since 1962 and the fourth coldest in the UK since records began in 1910.

Looking at individual countries, the Met Office said March would be the fourth coldest on record for England, joint third coldest for Wales, joint eighth coldest for Scotland and sixth coldest for Northern Ireland.

Sunday was reported to be the coldest Easter day on record, with the mercury falling to -12.5C (9.5F) in Braemar, in the Scottish Highlands.

Temperatures have varied wildly: on 11 March -12.9C (8.8F) was recorded at Kinbrace in the Highlands and Aboyne in Aberdeenshire; on 5 March thermometers reached 17.5C (63.5F) at Trawsgoed in Ceredigion, west Wales.

Average maximum temperatures for the month ranged from 8.3C (46.9F) on the Isles of Scilly to 2.7C (36.9F) in North and West Yorkshire, while minimum temperatures ranged from 5.4C (41.7F) on the Isles of Scilly to -3.4C (25.9F) at Braemar.

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