Tonight:
4°c
Minus 10 - it's colder than the Antarctic
Benedict Moore-Bridger6 Jan 2009
THE big chill today tightened its grip on London and the South-East with temperatures as low as -10C - colder than parts of Greenland and the Antarctic.
The Met Office issued a severe weather warning for the capital. Emergency cold weather payments for 600,000 Londoners were triggered for the first time in a decade and only the second time ever.
Councils deployed fleets of gritters and the AA warned of a rise in the number of breakdowns.
Ice formed on the Serpentine and Grand Union canal and fountains in Trafalgar Square froze up.
The coldest temperature in England early today was -10C recorded at Farnborough in Hampshire, while several other towns recorded -7C.
The Met Office said it expected temperatures to be another degree lower tonight in many areas of the South as an unusually large high pressure system continues to dominate.
The plunge in temperatures is 10C below the norm for this time of year and compares with -4C in the Greenland port of Narsarsuaq. In Narvik, a Norwegian city inside the Arctic circle, overnight temperatures only fell to -5C, while the Icelandic capital Reykjavik saw much higher temperatures at 6C.
Regions of the Antarctic were warmer than London and the South-East, with the Casey Station in the Australian section of the continent recording temperatures of -0.7C.
Brendan Jones, a forecaster at MeteoGroup UK, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "Tomorrow in the South is going to be colder than tonight."
He said snow and sleet showers would be on their way by tomorrow. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has urged people with gardens to help bird life by putting out water with a ping-pong ball in it which prevents it from freezing.
London Minister Tony McNulty announced that pensioners and other vulnerable Londoners will get £25 a week emergency help towards their heating bills. "Cold weather payments are to be triggered in London for only the second time," he said. "Hundreds of thousands of people in the capital will now receive around £15 million."
The payments are only triggered when the average temperature in an area falls to zero or below for seven consecutive days.
It is rare for such conditions in the heart of London, where ambient heat keeps off the worst of the low temperatures.
The last cold snap to trigger the payments was in January 1996, when temperatures fell to -3.4C. But the worst cold snaps on record for London were in 1987, when temperatures in the centre of the city fell to -8.6C on 12 January, and in January 1962, when the temperature at Heathrow was -12.8C.
Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern, said: "With predictions of more snow and freezing temperatures this week we are urging vulnerable older people, who are more susceptible to the cold, to take extra precautions to stay warm and keep active. Many of the poorest pensioners are struggling to afford paying for essentials like food and heating. Yet despite this, up to £5billion in benefits is still going unclaimed."
He said anyone worried about high energy bills should call the charity's free helpline on 0800 009966 for advice.
The cold spell is set to continue until the weekend when milder weather may arrive.
Reader views (20)
How long are people going to put up with this global warming scam, ice cores prove co2 rises after planet warms up due to more evapouration from the sea which releases the co2, it's a tax that's costing us dear.
- Bill Wilkinson, ashford kent, 05/03/2009 21:14
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There is a good reason why it is called global warming.
That would be due to the mean global temperature increasing.
eg. take the average between the UK and Australia right now and you get a nice cozy temperature. Despite it being cold in the UK.
The seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth so when the Northern hemisphere is pointing away from the sun, it gets cold in the north, but it gets hotter in the southern hemisphere because it is pointing towards the sun.
The 'Green' lobby haven't gone quiet, because this is a global issue and not a seasonal local weather issue.
There have been warnings of coral bleaching (in the southern hemisphere) in Jan and Feb this year due to high temperatures and increased acidity caused by CO2.
- Paul, Portsmouth, UK, 10/01/2009 18:52
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Its 16 dec here lovely thank got a got out of the UK
- Michael Francis, Fethiye, 07/01/2009 09:32
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Of course it's warmer in the Antarctic, it's the ruddy summer there. We had -14c in Vancouver for the first time in 50 years so it's all over the northern hemisphere. You'll just have to clean up your flooded basement, like I will have to do mine! Comparisons are odious and I have a lot of sympathy with the crowd that are fed up with the climate change crap.
- Ian, Vancouver, Canada, 07/01/2009 06:52
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Ohh, my godness, i had -15.5C this morning (and this is a warm vinter for us). Just take it easy on the roads and keep distance, make shore that you got freezing stop in the cars coolingradiator. By the way,,, the birds always make it, you dont have to do anything for them.
- Sven Svensson, Stockholm, Sweden, 06/01/2009 23:05
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I want my money back for the light clothing I bought. Where is the global warming I was told about.
- Adynamo, scunthorpe, 06/01/2009 21:08
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Personally, I blame global warming for all this cold weather.(?)
- Rodney Nosnail, Shrewsbury UK, 06/01/2009 19:39
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The global warming hoax is starting to wear a little thin!
- Neil, london uk, Airstrip ONE ., 06/01/2009 17:35
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Look it's cold. I don't really see why we have to question whether it's colder elsewhere - what is point.
- Nick, London, 06/01/2009 14:47
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Oh No!!!!!!! Wintery weather in the winter. Whatever next?
Tomorrow's headline has to be "cold snap in winter paralyses the UK - 1cm of snow"!
- Jackie, surrey, 06/01/2009 14:41
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can someone come round and fix the radiators in my house then please?
- Dingdong, Lodnon, 06/01/2009 14:07
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Well, it is winter after all!
Snow, frost, cold winds...people shouldn't be too surprised by it all. Plus the weather forecasters shouldn't talk to us like we're kids - we know it's cold outside!
- Scott, London, 06/01/2009 14:06
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Don't worry Gordon. All this cold weather will mean more profits for you from the gas and electricity your charity sells, which you can then split up with your chums (as usual).
- C. Nichol, London, 06/01/2009 13:46
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Has anybody noticed the green lobby have gone very quite
about global warming since the temperature dropped just confirms its about more taxes than saving the planet
- Dave, Essex England, 06/01/2009 13:14
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Gordon Brown is scheduled to make a speech later today on current weather conditions. He'll say that "Responsibility for the extreme cold spell began in the USA" and that he's "doing everything he can" to make sure that the weather improves and that he "fully expects temperatures to recover by the middle of 2009!!!!
- Malcolm, London, 06/01/2009 13:13
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The round pond is not in Hyde Park its in Kensington Gardens
- Joanne Roche, london, 06/01/2009 13:09
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Bob, they will be charging £15 to skate on that spillage next week if Southern Rail find out about it.
- Serox, Sutton, 06/01/2009 12:51
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It can't be that cold, there's been a broken water main round the back of Clapham Junction that's been spewing water since yesterday, this morning it had about 8 pigeons bathing in it.
- Bob, Cheam, 06/01/2009 11:28
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"Minus 10 - it's colder than the Antarctic"
That's probably because it's summer in the Antartic, at the moment, what with it being in the Southern Hemisphere, where coastal temperatures can reach 9 degrees celsius...though it only very rarely gets above -30 degrees celsius on the Polar Plateau.
- Md, London, UK, 06/01/2009 10:54
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Of course it's going to be colder than parts of the Antarctic, considering that it's currently summer in the southern hemisphere.
- Richard, Madrid, Spain, 06/01/2009 10:27
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