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It was the coldest Easter for more than 40 years - and we may not see spring weather until April
Last updated at 15:07pm on 25.03.08The icy Easter weekend was declared the coldest for 44 years yesterday as forecasters warned of more bad weather for the rest of the month.
Snow and sleet storms made it a miserable trip home from the bank holiday break for up to 16million motorists last night.
And the Met Office could not offer any solace to those returning to work this morning after the first white Easter for more than a decade.
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Slow slog: Motorists battle their way through traffic and poor weather on the A1 near Gateshead, Tyne and Wear yesterday
A forecaster warned that it would be as cold as yesterday with temperatures hovering just above zero Celsius in the Midlands, the North and Scotland and a maximum of between 6c(42f) and 9c(48f) in the South.
He said: "Things will get a little milder as the week goes on but, unfortunately, there won't be more settled weather until early April.
"Our forecasts for Spring suggests that, overall, temperatures are more likely to be at or above average across the whole of Europe and the UK, but this won't kick in for a little while."
He said it had been the coldest Easter since 1964, when, like this year, temperatures reached a maximum of 7c(44f) in the South.
"The fact that this Easter has fallen early and coincided with the coldest northerly air stream for the whole of winter means we have had Arctic origin air as cold as anything we have had over this year.
"It has been as bitter as any northerly wind we saw in January. It's just bad luck that it has coincided with the Easter weekend."
This year saw the first snowfall in lowland areas on Easter Sunday since 1995, and the most severe fall since 1983.
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Yesterday there was more snow in many areas of the country, including London, East Anglia and the East Midlands, although very little settled.
Storm force winds ripped off a sail from the 500-year-old Marton Windmill at Blackpool, Lancashire.
The local council has pledged to replace it.
There was some good news, however, as Network Rail said that train services should return to normal today as a massive programme of engineering work was on track to be completed on schedule in the early hours.
Services had been crippled over the weekend as 6,000 workers laid new track, repaired bridges and updated signalling systems in 30 projects around the country.
The company had been under intense pressure to deliver the repairs on time after the Government fined it £14million in January for allowing New Year engineering work to overrun.
The snowy Easter has led to a flurry of punters putting an early bet on a white Christmas.
A Ladbrokes spokesman said: "We offer a price about a white Christmas throughout the year, but generally punters only start backing it towards the end of November and beginning of December.
"That's all changed this year and we've seen more gambled on the festive freeze than ever before at this stage."
The odds on a white Christmas have been dropped from 10/1 to 7/1.
Reader views (2)
Of course it's colder, what do you expect with an ever increasing exponentially growing CO2 level in the atmosphere. Wait a minute, didn't they tell me last week that CO2 causes warming, oh dang, that propaganda really doesn't last like it used to in the olden days. Anybody who believes in Global Warming hasn't looked at the Sun's activity at all. 29 planets that NASA check for temperature have increased in the last 7 years, how many SUV's and lightbulbs are there on Saturn and Mars any ways?
- Richard Dean, Worongary, Gold Coast
No doubt this cold weather, which is what is expected in Winter/Spring, will be blamed on Global Warming (TM).
- Adam, Harrow, UK
