1st February - Today's News: Snow Affects Southern England

And we have snow cover in Evesham ..... just!   Pretty pleased with my forecast of 1-3cm for the region, falling in the early hours, with maybe a bit more over the Cotswolds, but only a dusting in places.  About 0.5-1cm in Evesham.   But rapidly melting from roads and pavements.  That thousands of workers and schoolchildren at home while millions more slog to the office after coldest night in seven years with -15.4C lows is such a newsworthy event perhaps reflects how rare proper wintry weather has become in the country, with no guarantees of it occurring even once every winter.  Some places in Britain have yet to see snowfall and may go the whole winter snowless.

Meanwhile North America has real cold weather. Niagara Falls partially freezes as deadly polar vortex hits the Northeast after blasting the Midwest with record-breaking -30F temperatures and leaving at least 21 dead

In complete contrast, Australia swelters through its hottest month on record, with January mean temperature exceeding 30C and I have a feeling we could see similar records in parts of the northern hemisphere this summer too.   And perhaps no surprise then that  so far 2019 has set 33 hottest and 0 coldest temperature records.

And how ancient asteroid impacts played a role in creation of Earth's future continents