Entire Northen Hemisphere Gripped By Cold

It's brass monkey weather here in North Yorkshire today, but it seems like the whole of the northern hemisphere is being gripped by the same. Media reports suggest that at least 33 and possibly more than 100 people died in India over the weekend, many freezing to death in Uttar Pradesh.

Further east, Beijing received its heaviest daily snowfall in nearly six decades over the weekend, the state Xinhua news agency reports. In the South Korean capital of Seoul, around 26 centimetres (10 inches) of snow fell today, the biggest snowfall since record-keeping began in 1937.

In the US, the mercury is well below zero even as far south as Florida, where temperatures are seen falling as low as 20 F overnight. The Central Plains are set to see their coldest air since February '96 by mid-week. That may provide a threat to winter wheat where snow cover is lacking.

Here in the UK, a bitterly cold week lies ahead, according to Metcheck.com, with temperatures barely rising above freezing for most areas this week, and falling well below at night with some severe frosts expected.

And it doesn't seem like things are a whole lot warmer across much of the rest of Europe either: