last updated 21st October 05
by 4ecotips.com

But don't hold your breath because it might not happen!

Plunging temperatures forecast for this winter in the UK could put tens of thousands of lives at risk. The UK Met Office is, unusually for them, sticking its neck out and suggesting this winter to be one of the coldest in recent years.

Asked about it on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, meteorologist Ewan McCullen, admitted that it "quite unusual for the met office to talk in terms of long term predictions because there is obviously a lot more uncertainty in the longer term than there is in the short term.

But, he said: "We are getting a fairly good signal from what is called the North Atlantic Oscillation which is basically looking at a map of sea temperatures and actually correlating that with weather patterns.

"What we are seeing is that this correlates at the moment with less westerly airflow than normal. Normally westerlies bring much milder air in from the Atlantic. But at the moment we are looking at a pattern that will probably give us more of a continental type of airflow with weather coming in from the east.

McCullen stressed: "We've got to be careful not to be too dramatic. It's worth saying that in terms of statistics about two thirds come of these predictions are accurate and about one third is not!

"We don't want to get carried away. The important thing is to give an "amber alert" to Government, business and commerce and to the energy industry, to be cautious in their forward planning."