Return of the extreme cold

-5°C on lotty at 8 a.m.

Just as you thought we were getting an early spring (it has been a very mild winter so far) the weather has turned extremely cold.

There has been record lows in Europe over the last week and we have now got this cold air mass. All of this can be blamed on a low Arctic Oscillation (AO) index. The AO has been very positive for most of the winter (hence warmth till now) but the drop in the AO index around the end of Jan was indicating this would happen.

Overnight lows this week have been down to -7 °C. No record but very cold!

Here is a link to weather records: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/extremes/monthly_temperature_country.html

Here is a link to the AO Index monitoring site:  http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/ao_index.html

We are due some snow this weekend as warm rainy weather moves in from the west, probably this Sat afternoon.

 Will post snow photos if it happens.

On the plus side, the Tomato Alicante seeds I had sown indoors are up!. Just waiting for the Ceyenne Peppers now!

Tomato Alicante