Big freeze expected to hit the UK

s.b.f —

Icy winds heading for the UK will make temperatures feel "sub zero" as the coldest winter in 13 years continues.

Snowstorms from Russia are expected to hit the eastern part of England on Sunday night.

Night-time temperatures are set to drop to -2C (28F) as a blast of cold air sweeps in from the North Sea.

Bitterly cold easterly winds will cause snow to drift, with forecasters predicting that 5cm to 10cm will fall over many parts of England and Wales.

Snow showers are likely to be less widespread in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

On Saturday, winds began gusting at up to 70mph over the hills of northern Britain and snow could fall as deep as 20cm over high ground in the coming days.

The first wintry showers are expected on Sunday night and they are likely to become much more widespread by Monday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7862378.stm

Forum

Seraphim — Sat, 7 Feb 2009 - 09:48

[quote=wednesday]Can I ask you a question (other than << that one?) ... I take silence as a Yes...

Question: Why do you substitute "y" with either one or two "i"??[/quote]

perhaps to emphasise an accent?

(altho why anyone would want to do that is beyond me).

proud_hijabi — Sat, 7 Feb 2009 - 20:52

[quote=wednesday]Can I ask you a question (other than << that one?) ... I take silence as a Yes...

Question: Why do you substitute "y" with either one or two "i"??[/quote]

its just a habit really
also i just have a really "slight" accent you can just about tell i've got one so its not that

You — Mon, 9 Feb 2009 - 13:06

1709: The year that Europe froze

People across Europe awoke on 6 January 1709 to find the temperature had plummeted. A three-week freeze was followed by a brief thaw - and then the mercury plunged again and stayed there. From Scandinavia in the north to Italy in the south, and from Czechoslovakia in the east to the west coast of France, everything turned to ice. The sea froze. Lakes and rivers froze, and the soil froze to a depth of a metre or more. Livestock died from cold in their barns, chicken's combs froze and fell off, trees exploded and travellers froze to death on the roads. It was the coldest winter in 500 years.

IN ENGLAND they called the winter of 1709 the Great Frost. In France it entered legend as Le Grand Hiver, three months of deadly cold that ushered in a year of famine and food riots. In Scandinavia the Baltic froze so thoroughly that people could walk across the ice as late as April. In Switzerland hungry wolves crept into villages. Venetians skidded across their frozen lagoon, while off Italy's west coast, sailors aboard English men-of-war died from the cold. "I believe the Frost was greater (if not more universal also) than any other within the Memory of Man," wrote William Derham, one of England's most meticulous meteorological observers. He was right...

Read more @ New Scientist.

Exploding trees = cool.