Brrrr!!

It has been a bit chilly today to say the least, and this map from the Met Office shows that there are warnings of severe cold weather in place across much of the country.

The cause of the cold weather is the high pressure system that is currently sitting over northern Russia...





The Year 8 geographers have been looking at air pressure and how it affects the weather, so they should be able to tell you all about what's happening at the moment.


However cold we might think it is here though, we come off pretty lightly... Temperatures in eastern Europe have reached -32oC in places, Hungary is experiencing the lowest temperatures it's seen in 65 years, and more than 70 people have died as a result of the cold temperatures.

There is a fantastic set of photos here of the coast of Romania, where the Black Sea is frozen!!

You think it's cold here?

Some great pictures from Hannah, whose cousin lives in Canada... -25oC there at the moment...

Cold...

You will probably have noticed that it's been a bit chilly of late... Some pictures I took last week at Scar House in Nidderdale:

And it's been pretty cold in Paris too, judging by these fab pictures courtesy of my sister who lives there:

However... the "Arctic blast" has casued huge disruption across Europe, and the cold has been blamed for the deaths of at least twelve people...

The decision by Russia to shut down gas supplies via the Ukraine has affected fifteen countries and left hundreds of thousands of homes without heating.

Closer to home, cold weather payments, issued when temperatures fall to 0oC for seven consecutive days, have caused controversy...

The Big Freeze Round-Up from the Met Office is a good summary of the weather of the first fortnight of 2009 - which is predicted to be one of the five warmest years on record!

What's life like at -46oC?

That's the current temperature in Oymyakon in Russia, which is the coldest inhabited place on earth...


Year 13 have been reading today about geographer Nick Middleton's journey to Oymyakon, which was part of a project to visit the hottest, coldest, wettest and driest places on earth. He's written about his adventures in an excellent book called Going to Extremes.

Whilst I was looking for information about the weather at the moment in Oymyakon, I found this interview with Nick, from the National Geographic...


The Oymyakon Project's website is also an interesting read, with some great pictures... Including this one - of Oymyakon's airport!

How would you fancy living in a climate like this? What problems would you have to overcome? What advantages of living in a (very) cold climate can you think of? Leave a comment...

Wild and Windy Weather!

Violent storms - with winds of upto 80mph - have caused chaos across Britain today (in case you hadn't noticed!).

The red areas on the map show where severe weather warnings were issued by the Met Office. Click on the map to visit their website, where you can check out the latest forecast together with satellite images and pressure charts.

Whilst my hour-long journey home and collapsed garden fence are annoying and inconvenient, I was very lucky compared to many people.

According to the BBC, at least 7 people have been killed, and others injured. Thousands of people have been left without power, ports have been closed and roads blocked -
resulting in traffic chaos. The picture above will take you to the main story on the BBC website, where you can also find other photos and news clips of the weather.

And it's not going to get much better next week, it seems... According to Sian Lloyd, temperatures on Monday will be "bone-bitingly cold"... And we might even see some snow!