Big freeze Britain - how farmers are facing up

Latest headlines

• Scottish Government provides relief for snow-hit farmers
• Environment agency relaxes rules on milk and slurry spreading
• Cold snap ‘will not hit food prices’
• Transport rules relaxed to get more feed onto farms
• Cow muck saves farmer from snow death
• Police launch daring air rescue to reach stranded farm
• Farmers forced to break the rules as slurry worries mount
• Benn pays tribute to snow hero farmers
• Snow chaos hits auction marts
• Farmers to the rescue as the big freeze causes chaos
• Heavy snow could affect crop deliveries

Advice

• Stay on the right side of the law when out in the snow

Picture gallery

• In pictures: farmers battle the big freeze

Don’t forget, you can send in your pictures of the big freeze to marcello.garbagnoli@ubm.com

Big freeze facts 

• The mean UK temperature for December was 2.1°C - colder than the long-term average for December of 4.2°C – making it the coldest for 14 years
• Britain suffered its coldest night of the year on January 8 as temperatures sank to -22.1°C (-8°F) in Altnaharra, Sutherland, in the Scottish Highlands
• Current temperature in the South Pole is -22.9°C (-9.22°F) – although it is the height of their summer
• The coldest places in England so far have been Benson in Oxfordshire and Woodford, Manchester – both -17.7°C (0°F)
• This is the coldest winter in Britain since 1981
• Parts of Britain have reported 8 foot snow drifts with some areas receiving 15cm in just a few hours 
• Councils are spreading 30,000 tonnes of rock salt on roads every day to keep traffic flowing
• There has been a 30% rise in the demand for gas to keep households warm
  
  Why the cold weather?
  
• In most winters, and certainly those in the last 20 years or so, our winds have come from the south-west travelling over the relatively warm Atlantic to give mild conditions
• Over the past three weeks the Atlantic air has been ‘blocked’ and cold air has been flowing down from the Arctic or the cold winter landmass of Europe 
  
  What does this mean for climate change?
• December was one of only two months in 2009 which had a below-average mean temperature
• In the UK, 2009 as a whole was the 14th-warmest on record (since 1914)
• The current cold weather in the UK is part of the normal regional variations that take place in the winter season - it doesn’t tell us anything about climate change says the Met Office

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