UK weather: Arctic blast leaves this month odds on to be coldest January ever recorded
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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.
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.".
