We’ve shivered through coldest January in a decade - wintry weather continues this week

The Met Office said January had an average temperature of 2.2C, making it the coldest since 2010 when the average UK January temperature was 0.9C.

It has also been the coldest calendar month since March 2013, which also recorded an average temperature of 2.2C.

The coldest January on record was 1963 with a mean temperature of minus 1.9C.

And temperatures this week are to remain low across Northern Ireland with rain and some snow expected.

Tonight is forecast to be mostly cloudy with showers or longer outbreaks of rain and the possibility of snow in the Antrim Hills and minimum temperatures of 1C.

Tomorrow will continue with cold easterly winds and a maximum temperature of 4C. It will be cloudy with showers or longer spells of rain, with the most persistent rain towards the north coast. Further wintry showers are expected over the Antrim Hills.

Tomorrow to Saturday will remain unsettled with outbreaks of rain and snow, feeling cold in the strong northeasterly winds.

Dr Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre (NCIC), said: “January 2021 has been dominated by colder-than-average weather with only brief milder interludes, but what does this cold winter mean in the context of climate change and a warming planet?

“Well, a winter month as cold or colder than January 2021 used to occur in approximately seven out of 10 winters through the 20th century.

“In more recent decades this has dropped to around three in ten. So although we are still subject to cold weather in winter, these cold spells tend not to be as severe or as frequent as in the past.”

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