Severe Weather Warning

The Met Office has issued a Yellow Weather Warning for tonight (Tuesday 8th) and tomorrow (Wednesday 9th).

Temperatures have been dropping and fell to -5C (23F) on Monday night.  Nationally snow is expected across the Midlands, the North and Scotland, with the highest areas expecting six inches of snow.  Belper is expected to get about 2cm of snow, with heavy frost causing ice on cars.

The weather is expected to gradually move eastwards from 9am Wednesday onwards.

There are hyperbolic headlines about 8 inches of snow (The Mirror) , arctic blasts (The Sun), “colder than Moscow” (The Sun) and polar vortexes bring coldest weather in 35 years (Daily Express) but the storm will hit the South-West of England where there will be no snow and the snow will not be extreme south of Scotland or below 200 metres above sea level (Belper is about 80-90m); these can be taken as examples of modern clickbait.  The Met Office data does not support such fears.

Cold.  2cm of snow.

Chief Veterinary Officer for DEFRA, Nigel Gibbens, has previously urged people to bring their pets indoors at these temperatures, as most pets are at risk of freezing to death.