Cold blast of winter reality sweeps in

RIVERS froze over, schools closed and motorists faced perilous driving conditions yesterday as the big chill hit Scotland.

Temperatures fell to -11C in Aboyne in the early hours, making it colder than the Greenland port of Narsarsuaq (-4C) and the Arctic Norwegian city of Narvik (-5C).

The Met Office issued warnings for Grampian and the Highlands, where rain was expected to fall on frozen surfaces, leading to widespread icy stretches on roads and pavements.

Six primary schools and three nurseries in the Highlands remained closed or partially closed yesterday because of burst pipes or heating problems, while the bad weather also closed Kininmonth School in Aberdeenshire.

Freezing conditions were also causing problems south of the Border with disruption on roads and at schools in England and Wales.

The AA and RAC said the situation was the worst since 2004, with more than 40,000 call-outs in 36 hours. The greatest surges of breakdowns were recorded in the Bristol, Bournemouth, London and Birmingham areas.

A leading pensioners' organisation said that nearly 12 elderly people died every hour last winter and the toll could rise further this year.

The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) called on the government to take immediate action to tackle the rising number of cold-related deaths among older people.

Official government figures showed that there were 25,300 extra deaths from December 2007 to the end of February 2008 – a 7 per cent increase on the previous winter's figure of 23,740.

The NPC said the winter fuel allowance paid by the government to the over-sixties should be raised to £500 for every household.

Pensioners can currently apply for payments of between £125 and £400 depending on their age and income.

Joe Harris, the NPC general secretary, said: "Since 1997, we have lost over 260,000 pensioners during the winter months because of cold-related illnesses, yet the government seems incapable of acting.

"No other section of our society is so vulnerable and treated so badly.

"Pensioners see rising fuel bills and are constantly worried about whether or not they can afford to put their heating on."

The Met Office, which is predicting a continuation of overnight frosts and low daytime temperatures, says that millions of people across the UK are likely to receive additional help with fuel bills.

It says it is working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure vulnerable people are given support during the cold snap.

As of Monday, cold weather payments have been triggered at 48 of the country's 76 weather stations.

The payments will be made in London for the first time in a decade. They are triggered when the average temperature in an area falls to zero or below for seven consecutive days.

Meanwhile, bookmaker William Hill has quoted odds of 33/1 that the London Eye fails to turn due to being frozen; 100/1 that Tower Bridge is unable to lift; and has cut the odds of skating on the Serpentine from 33/1 to 4/1.

It is also offering 10/1 that the lowest recorded temperature in England will be beaten (-26.1C in Shropshire on 10 January, 1982) and 16/1 that the lowest temperature in Scotland will be beaten (-27.2C in Aberdeenshire, also on 10 January, 1982).

There are also odds of 100/1 that Big Ben fails to chime due to being frozen solid, or 500/1 that Loch Ness freezes.


Bit of a blow as '194mph gust' fails to make the record books

A GUST of wind that hit the Highlands could have been a record-breaker – if only someone had kept the evidence.

A member of a ski patrol on Cairn Gorm spotted a reading of 194mph on an anemometer positioned at the mouth of the upper mountain railway tunnel, which leads to the Ptarmigan Restaurant, on 19 December.

However, no written record of the wind speed was taken and it has since been deleted from the recording equipment.

Had it been verified, the wind speed would have been the highest ever recorded in the British Isles. It would have beaten the existing record – also held by Cairn Gorm – by some 22mph. An icy gust of 172mph hit the summit on 20 March, 1986.

Tania Alliod, the marketing manager of CairnGorm Mountain Ltd, said: "A gust of 194mph is a really big one.

"The previous record at Cairn Gorm was 172mph, so that is significantly higher.

"We are being cautious about the recording and will be speaking to the Met Office in the future."

But even if evidence of the 194mph gust did survive, it may still not be officially recognised as a record it was not on Met Office equipment.

That organisation keeps the UK's official weather records and the equipment it uses is to an internationally recognised standard overseen by the World Meteorological Organisation.

A spokesman said: "Essentially, it means the equipment around the country and in other parts of the world are all in unison, so there is a level playing field where the information is coming from.

"The Met Office is the UK weather service provider and all equipment we use is standardised.

"Unless we can verify the equipment, we cannot use it for official figures – not just for wind, but for temperatures or for anything else.

"They may well have had that figure (at Cairn Gorm] but we have not had it passed on to us anyway."

The Met Office anemometer – a device used for measuring wind speed – positioned further up Cairn Gorm, recorded a peak wind speed of 138mph – on the same day the 194mph was reported.

It was not even the highest wind speed recorded this winter in Britain. That was the 143mph that was logged on 21 December at Cairnwell in Glenshee, about 20 miles to the south.

However, the UK record – and even the unofficial 194mph wind speed – still falls well short of the world record. That was set on Mount Washington in New Hampshire in the United States on 12 April, 1934 – a wind speed of just over 230mph was recorded.