27th February - Today's News: No, It Probably Will Not Be The Coldest Easter Ever!

Whilst it's not exactly impossible, one thing we're not expecting at the moment is the coldest Easter ever - indeed, it could yet be the warmest (okay, highly unlikely!).  Headlines like this really are completely made up.  Easter isn't until the end of March and there's a lot of weather to come before then, though the first half of March at least doesn't look like being especially warm (though not record breaking cold either!).  That February has been so cold is largely due to the prolonged spell of dull, gloomy weather with low daytime temps but with it not much colder at night: good frosts down here have been as rare as sunny days.  A different story in the Highlands though where it's been both warm, sunny and frosty!   Kinlochewe has been the warmest place in Britain this month with 13.9c on the 17th (it was 13.3c there yesterday) whilst Aviemore saw -10c on the 22nd and yesterday morning it fell to -8.3c in Braemar.   Here the temp has been hovering around 2-4c day and night for the past few days .....

Edit: after posting this, the Daily Mail completely changed their headline (which originally read "Now for the coldest Easter ever: Britain's Arctic weather set to continue as Bank Holiday could be hit by snow", replacing it with one about icicles in Dorset at the weekend and with just a brief mention of it possibly being the coldest Easter ever, further down the article.   The Daily Star however continues to run with now for the coldest Easter on record.

US snowstorm loses steam but still packs a punch from Missouri to Maine. And the blanket of snow from twin storms may fill ponds in the Great Plains, but it won't end drought

In Australia, wild wet weather continues to reign with Cyclone Rusty declared a Category 4 storm as winds lash WA coast

Madagascar cyclone death toll rises to 23

If you have a few minutes to spare, I recommend you watch HS aerial pan of 4 active volcanoes on 360D interactive cam - taken over Kamchatka.   Absolutely stunning images!

According to NASA, climate change thins forests in eastern US

And EU ministers back fish dumping ban - it was, of course, their own crazy policies that led to fish dumping to occur in the first place, and bizarrely they are still allowing exceptions for this grossly wasteful and illogical practice.