Christmas weather nightmare looms

Sustained cold snap could surpass grim depths of the winter of 1962.

CHRISTMAS could be a nightmare, with another blast of sustained wintry weather.

According to risk meteorologists at British Weather Services, a further cold snap is waiting in the wings and is ready to make the run-up to Christmas and the Christmas period itself a living nightmare.

They say the UK is on course for the coldest December since 1890 and possibly one of the snowiest ever.

Although temperatures will rise over the coming days, Arctic weather over snowbound Scandinavia and northern Russia will make inroads back into the north and east of the UK as early as next Tuesday (December 14), intensifying and enveloping the rest of the UK and Ireland from Thursday (16th) onwards.

Jim Dale, a senior risk meteorologist, said: “The heavyweight cold air over northern Europe isn’t going anywhere fast and, as mild weather stretches north to Greenland, the outflow of frigid air from the northeast is set to bring us all back into the deep freezer, possibly for a lengthy period.

“Without wishing to scare people, the deep winter situation we are facing up to will require everyone to be well prepared over Christmas.”

He added: Given what I am seeing right now, and comparing it to charts of other stand-out wintry Decembers, I am 90 per cent sure that we will see a Christmas run-in fraught with harshness and hazards; and the grip of winter could well hold us tight well into the New Year.

“We are in a vicious circle that means the colder it gets across the UK and near continent the harder it is for us to break back into sustained mild.

“We need to see a change in the way the upper air winds are behaving, otherwise we could well be surpassing the grim depths of the winter of 1962-63.”