It is very worrying. I dread to think what will happen next year if
this pattern locks in in December. As Ron Button said - no amount of
global warming can ever rule out these cold spells. Get the wind in the
north east for long enough and everywhere is snowbound.

I wonder how our European cousins in Germany and Holland coped - the
temperatures there really have been severe - and for a far longer
period than we have just seen.